Mind-bending genius

I am transfixed by the skill and mastery of Kevin John Edusei. As Sue said to me as we watched him conducting the Oregon Symphony today, his hands and face are so expressive, he conducts an orchestra as if he’s making love to it. (She sneaked a phone photo of him during the concert and just blipped it.) We were sitting in the third row, so we could see every little eyebrow movement. He looks seven feet tall, and he uses precise gestures, beaming smiles, and graceful dancing on the podium to seduce the music out of the orchestra, but he can also wring agony and great thundering crescendos out of them. He’s a revelation. There’s a seven-minute interview in German with English subtitles that sort of shows something about his character, but if you ever get a chance to see him conduct, don’t miss it. Did I mention his elegant long-fingered hands?

As he says in the interview, he is often expected to conduct Gershwin (as he did today), maybe because someone assumes a Black man can relate to jazz, I don’t know, but he did it so well, I completely forgot all the other versions that I’ve heard since I was ten years old. He also conducted three other new or obscure pieces, and they were all intense, each completely different from the others, each jaw-dropping and powerful. The pianist was Makoto Ozone, who grew up in Kobe, Japan, the son of a jazz pianist father. The two of them had a wild time, and so did the audience. Both Edusei and Ozone perform all over the world, so don’t miss them if you ever have a chance to hear either or both.

In other news, Sue’s son Shawn rode in the worldwide Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride for men’s physical and mental health. I saw a few blips of people riding in the same event in the UK this morning. One of Sue’s siblings made the photo in the extra just before Shawn roared off to join the other Gentlemen and Sue’s California family headed back to California.