Travel Diaries

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016: POMONA COLLEGE, CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

Raj Bhimani

Mar 20, 2016 — 3 min read

I was invited by my alma mater, Pomona College, to take part in a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the gorgeous concert hall on campus, Bridges Hall of Music, affectionately known as Little Bridges. Here’s a photo of me outside the hall the afternoon before the concert:

And here’s what the inside looks like:

There were eight of us invited to play and the organiser wanted to represent the widest range of music possible on the program. Here’s the lineup:

Hopefully you can see that the solo piece I offered was the 6th Barcarolle by Fauré. Here’s a shot of me during the performance:

After that I played the Sonatine by Dutilleux with Katharine Rawdon, a flutist who graduated the same year as me and now lives in Portugal. She’s the principal player in the national symphony and opera orchestra there. She and I are making plans to come to India in November with the third member of our trio:

At the end of the program I played Rossini’s Adieux à la vie with the wonderful soprano Lucy Shelton. That was a big thrill for me. She’s premiered over 100 new works, including 60 that were written for her by the most important composers in the world. She’s really terrific. Here’s a shot of the two of us together:

And here’s the final bow with all the performers:

My most cherished professor came to the concert. He’s now 89 years old and has been retired for quite a while. But he’s in amazing shape. His name is Karl Kohn and he’s a wonderful composer who introduced all of us to the oldest and also the newest western music. I was so thrilled to be able to play for him after all this time.

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