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Oh. Long day. I just realized I was looking at the "registered" dates instead of the post dates. I'm so glad it's Friday!

First, check your ego at the door. The audience is there already to hear YOU. Everything that is done BEFORE a concert ever takes place (which is more than most think) was done because YOU were going to be playing. Even if you suck...and unless you suck terribly...there will be applause and people will seek you out afterward. Anddd there will be a paycheck waiting for you. Need more thanks?
Secondly, it is not at all disrespectful to anyone with any view, whether in the audience or behind the scenes. People need to get over this kind of thing already for God's sake. It's not as if they're trying to force their beliefs on anyone. Pray to your own god, or sit there silently and kick yourself for not practicing more, but just get over it. I just have had it with those with the whole "philosopher/theist" blah blah who are so "certain" with their "logical" b........ You can't prove God DOESN'T exist anymore than a believer can prove that God DOES exist. Maybe you should just stay home, since after all the concert is taking place on enemy ground.

By the way, I've been to several concerts at Calvin, and have performed there myself twice.

What's unclear to me is whether the Gilmore festival is a religious one, or is put on by a religious group.

I think your "check your ego at the door" line of argument is a reasonable one.

However I should say I've not seen anyone in this thread express "certainty" about the kind of things you're implying, and I don't advocate quite such an absolute position, but certainty based on logic would still be hugely preferable to certainty based on blind faith. In any case, since you bring it up, a non-believer doesn't HAVE to prove anything, any more than they have to prove the non-existence of invisible dragons. The burden of proof lies with the ones making the positive claim.

Also, I don't think there's much to "get over", as no one has indicated any particularly strong emotions over this, nor has anyone said anything which suggests, whatever their personal beliefs, that they could consider a venue such as this "enemy ground". Atheists are not like Damien from The Omen suffering a fit while being driven towards a church.

1) Why are you preaching at me?
2) " You can't prove God DOESN'T exist anymore than a believer can prove that God DOES exist." You say this as if you think I am an atheist, which I am not. I am a theist. There's a difference..
3) You appear to have a problem with me. What is it?

As far as I can tell, the Festival is not put on by a religious group. It takes place at a variety of venues throughout Western Michigan, with the home base being Kalamazoo. The following article refers specifically to the Grand Rapids events - but there is a link to the main Festival page.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/...2/04/2012_gilmore_keyboard_festival.html

Perhaps he was simply reacting to your post - not YOU personally. There's a difference. Let it go.......

lolololol

The Gilmore Keyboard Festival is in NO way religious.


I hope that if you perform at Calvin again, Stores, you will PM me as I would love to hear you perform. Calvin College is just a few blocks from my home.

Yes, it was the first time that I had attended a musical event at Calvin. I wasn't shocked by the prayer (heck, our symphony begins each season with the national anthem....that is a little strange to me too). The acoustics of the hall were very nice indeed. I would gladly attend another there. I teach at a large state university and (believe it or not) prayers are said at major gatherings (graduation, faculty awards ceremonies). We even have a beautiful Carillon tower with biblical verses sculpted into its foundation (I am not sure how this could happen, but it has). We actually have a "church" on campus. We don't call it that because it is a state university, but trust me, it looks like a church, is used by people as a church (people marry one another there etc.). It is also the place where many wonderful music performances occur. I have colleagues who refuse to enter because they are "offended" by its resemblance to a church, but they are missing out on quite a few remarkable performances, in my opinion.

Thanks to those of you who addressed the question that genuinely peaked my curiosity.

+1

Then, you should come to tomorrow's event as well Christine. This one will be in the same building, CFAC but, in the larger auditorium.

The entire building was completely redone a couple of years ago and was in fact, completely closed for 18 months while they completed the hmmm, I forget, but, I want to say 18 million dollar(?) renovation. Something like that. All paid for... They did a wonderful job too. Check out tomorrow's venue.

Pianist Ingrid Fliter and the Gilmore Festival Chamber Orchestra

May 5 in Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College

Pianist Ingrid Fliter, the 2006 Gilmore Artist, performs Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos along with Venezuelan-born pianist Vanessa Perez and the Gilmore Festival Chamber Orchestra, comprised of musicians from both the Grand Rapids Symphony and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, under their respective music directors, David Lockington and Raymond Harvey. Fliter and Perez also will perform individually in works for piano by Chopin and for piano and orchestra by Haydn.

Tickets available from the Calvin College box office are $35. Call the box office at 616-526-6282.

I met both of these women. Very sweet, funny, full of life and love to laugh! I had them both giggling and they had me laughing! That's the best part of this job sometimes.

Doors open at 7:30 as soon as I'm finished touching the two pianos up. Concert starts at 8 PM.

I knew it. Really. I did. Intuitively. Well, maybe not entirely intuitively. But still, I knew it.

So, Mark... What did you learn from this experience?

As soon as the prayer finished Tao should have asserted "Allah be praised" for all to hear.

Allah means God in a different language, wouldn't be offensive at all :P

Even though I'm not religious, and I feel uncomfortable when people pray and stuff around me, having people pray for me before a concert would be a huge compliment! Shows that they really appreciate the occasion.

I am going to get very personal here, and hope that this thread does not get locked before I get to give an even better answer to the OP!

I was married to my dear wife under a glass geodesic dome at SIU-Edwardsville, a Buckminster Fuller dome that filtered sunlight through a picture of the Earth/globe that was painted on it with a blue sea and clear continents, a dome, the building of which, was named, "The Ecumenical Center." It was a Christian marriage, officiated by my dear childhood pastor (a hardy Minnesota farmer) who preached "The Good News of Jesus the Christ!" with abandon every Sunday (emphasis always on Good News!!!). After reading some of the comments in this thread, I can't help but wonder if we didn't mis-use the dome?

[sarcasm] Yep, it is just that simple. [/sarcasm]

It is that simple, although strong anti-Arab/Middle-East sentiment makes certain people think otherwise.

Here it is in poetry:

I was married
To my dear wife under
A glass geodesic dome
At SIU-Edwardsville, a Buckminster Fuller
Dome
That filtered sunlight through a picture of the
Earth/globe
That had painted on it
A blue sea
And clear continents,
A Dome,
The Building of which was named,
"The Ecumenical Center."

It was a Christian marriage,
Officiated
By my dear childhood pastor
(A hardy Minnesota farmer)
Who preached "The Good News of Jesus the Christ!" with abandon
Every Sunday
(Emphasis always on Good News!!!)

Beliefs of any kind make me uncomfortable, because I'm never content with axiomatic answers. I'd be more uncomfortable because I'm sensitive to what I would perceive as axiomatic thinking--sensitive to the notion that those around me might be reluctant probe the foundation of their beliefs. I say this even though those present probably have a lot in common with me. Too many deep philosophical and religious discussions with what I determine are relatively superficial believers (both religious and non-religious). It sounds like Christine is similarly sensitive to those feelings, and this prompted her inquiry.

But my reflection has traveled far beyond the situation Christine described. This was just a prayer. That itself seems like spiritual nourishment, something nearly anyone should respect. If I heard that the effect of the prayer was that I had been claimed to belong to something held dear to others, I would be flattered. Unless that something held dear was morally repugnant, of course. It sure doesn't sound like that. All religions have their mortal strays, so I'd assume that what the prayer sought, what the dearly-held beliefs aimed at, was a beautiful ideal--and I was associated with that. Not something I need to worry about anytime soon.

Really, I'd probably be humbled more than anything, mainly because it means that people want to hear me play. It is a gift when someone really wants to hear your music. A gift I'm not likely to ever know--definitely not like Tao knows.

Nothing that I didn't know before, particularly that I can be wrong.

Actually, as I said in the earlier post, I learned a lot about the emergency-broken-string thing.