One of my favorite moments every day has been sitting in the audience waiting for the competition to start. I have taken to observing Ron Debi, our wonderful Master of Ceremonies. He greets everyone as they enter the concert hall, in a surprising variety of languages. I have watched him fluently begin conversations in Hebrew, English, Italian, Spanish, French... I'm sure he must know German, though this I have yet to confirm. When everyone is settled in their seats, he very obediently, after getting the go-ahead from Judith Liber (the Jury Chairperson), gives the opening announcement (the same one each time...) in Hebrew and in English. Then, with perfect poise and diction, he dutifully announces each contestant and the program to be played. As the contestants play their hearts out, one can observe Mr Debi quietly sitting behind his podium on stage, eager to assist if the need should arise (bring over music stand, give nasty look to person making noise while coming in late...).
During the first stage, I noticed that he was always writing something in a notebook while everyone was playing, and I assumed that he must be taking notes. Only recently did we all discover that it was nothing as remotely boring as that... he was drawing each harpist! Here are just a few of the drawings that I was able to collect from fellow contestants (click on them for a bigger version):
1 comment:
How cool is THAT??! Brilliant! He is quite good! Do you find that you (and other harpists) were comfortable with someone sitting on stage while you played your programme? Or is it distracting? How did you get him to relenquish his drawings? :) Has he been the master of ceremonies for many years, or do they switch MC's each time? And how long has he been drawing harpists at competitions? I could see an interesting printed book in the future... The History of Harp Competitions: A Collection Of Perspective Drawings. haha
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