Towards Freedom

Kyron is completing his bachelor's of music at UVIC in a few weeks. part of the requirement was to do the grad recital which took place march 20th.

I know some of you may have been planning to attend, but were unable to for various reasons like

• you were never told about his recital
• you live in another, far off part of the world (like Winnipeg)
• you put down the wrong date
• you were working
• you have no idea who Kyron is (note: he is the offspring of myself and Ranjana, the individual I have been married to for such a long, long, long time)

Here are the links to:

• the program
• the texts and translations

The video of his recital was done on a sony a99 with built in audio. In this embedded video, you will see not only his performance with some very fine musicians (his piano accompanist, Czinszka, is remarkable!), but also the segment of the stage manager clearing music stands and chairs (with the considerate assistance of Claire the cellist!) as well as said manager's preparation of the piano for the second part of the recital for which he was generously applauded by an appreciative audience!

What you won't see is the superb post performance reception fare that Ranjana prepared. of course, it was 100% vegan and very well received by the 50+ attendees. They were surprised that there was actually healthy food being served at such a function and some even commented on it!

Here is the video:

Greetings!

The video embedded below is for Kyron's recital-lecture which was performed as a requirement for his masters degree in music. (Here is the link to his thesis: Phonetic Journey: Sound in Singable Translations.)

A few of you may have already received an earlier notice. That is because Ranjana (the person who has marred me) sent the link out without waiting for Kyron to edit the video. I waited, but Kyron only looked at editing it this week and decided it wasn't necessary. The reasons it took him so long to get to was because he was busy for a while:

• recording performances of his colleagues who could not perform their final examinations due to the UVIC shutdowns as a result of the covid virus
• working on his own thesis and assignments
• settling in back home from his apartment in Victoria

In this presentation, Kyron took what was a very esoteric topic (how sound and translation relate in Lieder song) offering massive boredom potential, and had the audience engaged and at times hooting with laughter. His ability to play intricate classical accompaniment on the piano and simultaneously sing astonished a lot of people. Ranjana let me know what others such as his teachers, classmates and colleagues (from organizations he performs in) said to her. The head of music theory at the university told her that

"It was the most brilliant thing I have heard on that stage for a long time."

As it was 2 years ago, at the reception, Ranjana's vegan spread was a magnificent success! (Many of you know, Ranjana is not only a vegan chef of the highest order, but is about to complete her doctorate "Linking Animals, Social Justice and Social Work".)

Special thanks to Neil (from the Christ Church contingent), Angel and her husband Matthew for the invaluable help they provided Ranjana both before and especially after the food was eaten - which is when it really counts!

We hope you enjoy Kyron's contribution, perhaps reflecting on this paraphrasing of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"It's not the destination, it's the phonetic journey!" ;)

Here are the recital supplement (which is what you should look at first) and the lecture notes, both of which complement the video performance: