[CS-FSLUG] A Christian at Carnegie Hall - Full Article

[davidm at hisfeet.net]

Thanks, Fred. That was good, and I wouldn't have read it if I had to join
their site to read it.


> On 07/29/2010 08:42 PM, Ed Hurst wrote:
>> Fred A. Miller wrote:
>>
>>> http://townhall.com/columnists/MarvinOlasky/2010/07/29/a_christian_at_carnegie_hall/page/full
>>>
>> I couldn't read it. There was an evil flash popup blocking the page.
>> Whatever it is they had to say must not have been important if they had
>> to pull that stunt.
>>
>
> Here ya go...................
>
> Fred
> ______________
>
> Marvin Olasky
> A Christian at Carnegie Hall
>
> "Religious Views: Christian." An unusually bold declaration on Facebook
> from a musician playing Carnegie Hall in New York City, one of classical
> music's sacred spots.
>
> It's the end of June, and Leonardo Le San---a 32-year-old pianist and
> composer who immigrated from Colombia 18 years ago---is preparing for
> his Carnegie debut. As a teenager he had thought about playing Carnegie,
> but "I never thought I'd have the chance."
>
> His path to Carnegie was winding, geographically and spiritually. No one
> owned a piano in the tiny, mountainous town in Colombia where he spent
> his first 14 years. He had training as a tenor and a guitar player, but
> not until he came to the United States did he learn English and study
> piano, eventually becoming a music major at the University of Delaware.
>
> What Le San had, he says, was "a terrible temper. Very aggressive.
> Driven. Insensitive to people. Running over whoever got in my way." His
> family was Roman Catholic but Le San went his own way. Determination
> helped to make him a rising star: "I was the first person at the music
> school in the morning and the last to leave." Determination also made
> him "difficult to love."
>
> At the University of Delaware "I was getting to know college girls. They
> were far from their parents and had no restraint." Then he met one who
> "was different, a Christian. I was impressed with her character and her
> ethics. She encouraged me to come to church." He went and kept going for
> three months.
>
> Then Le San met Will Metzger, who has now been an InterVarsity Christian
> Fellowship college minister at the University of Delaware for 45 (count
> 'em) years. Metzger counseled and challenged him: Do not toy with God so
> as to win favor from a young woman. Le San went to a park for several
> hours, went over the Bible passages Metzger emphasized, prayed, repented.
>
> He changed. He joined Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Wilmington and is
> now a member of a PCA church in Philadelphia. He is now married
> (although not to the young woman who originally brought him to church)
> and has a 1-year-old. Some musicians are haughty, but Le San has
> sacrificed for his family, until recently working as a courier to put
> bread on the table, and working for his brother's moving company when he
> was short of workers. Some composers ignore those who helped them, but
> Le San calls and writes Metzger regularly.
>
> Some "high culture" artists look down at popular music, but Le San
> brings it into his compositions. Some proud musicians resent performing
> except in polished halls, but Le San performs two or three times each
> month in many kinds of venues, both for financial and ministry reasons:
> "I love to play for kids at schools. I love to play in retirement
> communities: They hug me and give me inspiration."
>
> Nevertheless, Carnegie Hall is special: Just days before the concert, he
> told me, "I need to be in the best shape of my life." And then, on the
> last Saturday in June, dressed in the pianist's classic tailcoat, Le San
> strode onto a stage with a Steinway grand under a vaulted ceiling. He
> fluently opened with Beethoven and closed with Liszt. In between he
> played Chopin and Rachmaninoff, noting their emigrations: Chopin left
> Poland (Russian oppression was severe) and Rachmaninoff left Russia in
> 1917 when Communists seized power.
>
> Le San also played two of his own compositions. His Noctazia emphasizes
> the vibrating particles in a universe created like a musical
> composition---and the vibrations could be felt in the fifth row. His
> world premiere piece, The Voices of My Town, incorporated music from
> Colombian culture, tango tunes, and elements of jazz and blues (see the
> Bill Edgar interview on p. 28). The audience loved it. "I was happy," Le
> San said later: "The audience was great."
>
> The musician who was once driven and insensitive now wants to share his
> gift with all kinds of people. He has a humble confidence that perhaps
> comes with the favorite quotation he lists on his Facebook page in
> reference to God: "If I am for you who can be against you?"
>
> --
> "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
> Thomas Jefferson
>
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