Musical Bridges’ 5th International Music Festival was truly an international endeavor! Guest artists from 28 countries participated in one-of-a-kind programs including six gold medalists of the former San Antonio International Piano Competition playing together – 60 golden fingers at the same time. The Russian dancing ensemble from New York, Barynya, crowned the excitement at the Grand Finale! We were honored with the presence of the Mayor Nirenberg, Tim Quigley of Sister Cities International from Washington DC, City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Carlos Contreras, President for the Tricentennial Committee and many other dignitaries during the festival. After all of the concerts, all of the parties were over, and all of the dignitaries and international artists went home, we – the “glamorous” leadership of Musical Bridges Around the World did not fly to Cancun for a week or so as it would be expected after such undertaking…
This is how we spend the Monday aftermath of the glamorous 5th International Music Festival: at 9 am, Suhail and I dressed in a gym clothing, met by the back door of the Empire Theater and spent 2 hours loading our cars with plates, tablecloths, dishes, silverware and wine glasses left there during the festival. Then we drove it to my house where we unloaded it for our devoted Nora to gradually wash, clean, and organize for the next event. Needless to say my house has an unmistakable look of a catering warehouse, 900 wine glasses alone take enough room to appear as furniture after a while. Green commercial crates of dishes when placed next to each other replace a lounging couch to fit seven with no struggle for space and buckets of forks and serving utensils remotely reminding vases with flowers. By now, neither Rob nor I notice the presence of large alien objects in our entryway.
