"The Eagle"

November 24 – Ditë Arti

Ekspo-Art

Koncert Muzikor

 

 This year, Albania celebrated 100 Vjet Pavarësi – 100 Years of Independence.  The leadership of the school decided that this would be a great opportunity to reach out to the community.  The idea began to come together to put on an Art Expo and Concert and to make it a community event. 

Part of the upstairs art exhibit

 For a few weeks, the school was transformed into a beehive of activity – art supplies made themselves at home; paints and paper, drills, saws and sawdust sprawled wherever they pleased like they owned the place!  The church keyboard took up residence in Caleb’s room for a few days; Fiona’s camera kept a keen eye out for opportunities to capture the unique beauty of this place and its people.

 

My flute and my pan, meanwhile, were spoiled rotten!  So was I, I should say!  It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to devote so much time to practicing.  The day was to consist of an art exhibit with student, staff, and guest art, and three short musical concerts.  I opened each of them with a couple of solo pieces on pan.  Following that, I had the extreme pleasure of performing some duet pieces with Ilia Lulu.  Ilo is a professional Albanian flautist who has performed in many different situations and with many different groups, including several years with an Italian orchestra.  For years, he was the best flautist in Albania.

Ilo and I

Ilo is from a city nearby, but he often travels to Ersekë for the weekend and plays in church here.  A few weeks before the concert, he left a duet book with me, though we made no plans about which ones we would play!  Ilo arrived from Korçë the night before the concert, and we had a few hours to read through, select, and rehearse four pieces (mostly multi-movement)!  The following morning, we had a brief chance to run through each piece before it was concert time!  All things considered, the concert went great!  Thanks to Fiona Lahmeyer for the awesome concert pictures!  The Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by Felix Mendelssohn) was recorded and is on my facebook timeline – you can check it out if you’d like to get a more complete experience of the day!

The best news is yet to come: Ilo and I have been approved to do a concert together in Korçë!  We are waiting for the budget to be approved before we can select a date and make some rehearsal times, but we’re both very excited!

I love Fiona's eye for photography!

Greatest Lesson:

We can change the world.  God’s plan for every believer is for them to be the light and the salt of the world.  God has empowered us with all that we need to be fruitful witnesses.  We should not live for any reason smaller than this.  We can change the world with Jesus in us, but the only way we can change the world is to change individuals.

With the eagle sign

Fun fact about Albania:

Why “The Eagle”?  Well, the eagle is the national symbol of Albania.  In fact, the Albanian name for their country – Shqipëri – comes from the word for eagle – shqiponjë.  The Albanian flag is red with a black two-headed eagle.  As for the significance of the two-headed eagle, I’ll let you ask an Albanian, as I’ve gotten as many very passionate responses as people that I have asked!  On November 28, the google doodle was in honor of 100 Vjet Pavarësi and was based on the Albanian flag!