Postcards from Salzburg, the Birthplace of Mozart

In the summer of 2011 I spent over a month accompanying opera students in Salzburg Austria. I was one of two pianists among all opera singers, and I found myself surrounded by a new breed of humans that burst into song at unexpected moments of the day, and could turn even an ordinary yawn into a beautiful vocal strain.

We rehearsed and performed in centuries old stone houses and cathedrals, fueled by German beer and the beauty we found around every corner of this enchanting city.

But we were far from being the only musicians in Salzburg making good music that summer: The streets were full of buskers; all the churches had magnificent choirs; and it was not unusual to hear opera flowing from open windows.

With exquisite strains and ordinary life so seamlessly woven together, Salzburg seemed more than deserving of its status as the birthplace of Mozart and the site of Maria von Trapp twirling to the “Hills are Alive”.

Our program allowed for a lot of free time, and I used it all to explore. Between rehearsals I’d wander aimlessly around Salzburg, enthralled by a city whose streets wound their way with the most enchanting discoveries.

I distinctly remember a moment following an afternoon coffee stop: I happened to take a back door exit of the cafe, and found myself staring at the tombstones of Mozart’s family, laying just outside the doors that made Salzburg residents their daily espresso.

For someone both directionally challenged and a lover of winding paths, the city could not have been more accommodating.

Always, around the next corner of a winding stone path or peeping over a window flower box, you could catch a glimpse of either the mountains, the river, or the castle on the hill, and you’d know exactly where you were in the city’s delightful labyrinth.

On our final day of the opera program, we celebrated by performing opera arias to a full house of program participants and Salzburg residents at the Augustiner Brau - an old monastery turned beer garden.

Beer and music flowed far into the night, and I felt all at once close to the people sitting at the table beside me and to the Swiss Alps that watched over the city.

In Salzburg I experienced first hand the possibility of high caliber art and ordinary life fused together in a life-giving affirmation that beauty belongs to everyone, everywhere, in every station and every chapter of life.

It is my mission to make beautiful music part of the fabric that binds all lives together, reminding us of our identity as infinitely worthy pieces of the infinite beauty for which we long and to which we belong.