Yesterday was our gamelan performance for this semester. It was supposed to be an evening concert...but then the School of Music discovered that the BYU football game, a home game, was taking place at 8 pm, right during our concert. It used to be, when BYU football was a part of a conference, that the schedule was known far ahead of time. Now that BYU football follows the whims of ESPN, some things are unknown--like the TIME of the game. You would think that none of this should matter for a concert in the School of Music...until you realize that ours is a percussion concert (percussion ensemble, gamelan, steel band)...and many percussionists are also in the drum line or marching band, both of which are enormously important at football games. And just like BYU football gets some sweet advertising by being televised, so too do the BYU music ensembles, so actually the football game does matter to the School of Music.
Therefore, our concert was moved to 4 pm. Which meant that our rehearsal time also got moved ahead. For Josie and I, this meant a really busy day, moving and setting up instruments at noon, then rehearsing for gamelan. And we are also preparing the Tari Saman for performance at Kingsbury Hall in SLC for next week on the 15th, and have been rehearsing for that every Saturday afternoon, so that rehearsal was next for us, then back to the HFAC to get into costume and then the performance, followed by striking the set. So noon to 6:30 of mostly unrelieved action.
We finished gamelan rehearsal at 2 pm; we had a half hour free, and Josie wanted to go and get a burrito to eat because she had skipped breakfast in favor of sleeping awhile longer. We asked Tanielle if she wanted to come with us, but she said she needed to run over to her building and get something from her office, so she would meet us at 2:30 for our Tari Saman rehearsal. Josie and I went to the cougar eat, got our food, and ran into Dirk and Michael from the gamelan, who also had food trays. (Dirk is a linguistics professor who started playing in the gamelan this semester. He is a friend of my gamelan friend Ed Luna, who is a linguistics guy, too. So Dirk met Jeremy through Ed, and decided after several years of being in the audience at our shows that he would like to play, too. Michael is his son who is in high school, but starting gamelan early like Josie did.)
So, the four of us sat down to eat together. We were just idly chatting when Josie said, "Mom, look, I think there is something wrong with Egha." I looked at her, and then there was a sound, like a crash and thud, and I didn't see anything, and then Josie pointed out that Egha was down on the floor, just a ways away from our table. (Egha is another gamelan friend. He is from Indonesia, but had never played in a gamelan before coming to BYU. He and his wife Nadia are friends of Tanielle's. Egha joined gamelan at Tanielle's suggestion--but he is a percussionist, here at BYU for his master's in percussion performance. And Nadia is one of our Tari Saman dancers.)
I got up to see how Egha was--a few people were coming to his aid. But Josie was the only person to have seen what happened. She saw Egha coming towards the garbage can, and she at first did not notice it was him; she only noticed that the person was walking strangely, lurching and running into things. Then he started walking towards us but before he got there, he fainted, and hit a couple of things on his way down. When I got to him, he was awake but disoriented. He tried to get up, but then I saw actually a lot of blood and wasn't sure where it was coming from, so I told him to please just lay down. A lady nearby got some ice from one of the vendors and brought it to put on his wound. Her husband called 911. I tried to call Tanielle, because I knew she would be with all our Indonesian friends, but it was just time for us to be meeting her in the library, where cell phone reception is bad. So I also called Jeremy to let him know what happened.
As the only eye-witness, Josie had to give a report of the incident to the BYU paramedices dispatcher. She and Dirk and Michael stayed with Egha while I ran to the library to tell our Indonesian friends why we were delayed, and also to get some language assistance. Egha's English is great, but when you are stressed, it is always nice to speak in your native language--it is just easier. I also wanted to somehow let Nadia know what was going on with her husband.
Usually, Josie and I are the first ones there for practice--I have to let everyone into the room we use to practice in--but yesterday, everyone was waiting for us. I told them what happened, and then we all hurried over to the Cougar Eat. The paramedics were there working on Egha. His blood pressure was really low, and the wound in his chin was still bleeding. They wanted him to go to emergency, but he refused because of the performance at four. They wanted him to go and get stitches, and he refused that, too. But they told him if it was still bleeding, he could still go in and get it taken care of later.
One of our friends, Sara, got in touch with Nadia, who was not coming to Tari Saman practice today because she was one of the organizers of a baby shower. Nadia and Egha share a phone, and Egha had it, so Sara called someone else who was at the baby shower to get in touch with Nadia. Egha was still really shaky--the paramedics had him try standing, but that wasn't really working, so they put him in a chair. Jeremy was there by then--he asked me to keep in touch with him by cell phone so that he and Ron, the director of the steel band (which Egha is also in) would know how he was, and whether he would be able to play at the concert.
At Josie's suggestion, I bought Egha a bottle of juice to drink. (Josie has fainted several times. Once, when she was twelve, and I had taken her to get a bunch of shots before she went to India, she fainted while standing at the counter at the clinic. She went down fast and hard, and was lucky she didn't injure herself. Another time, again at a clinic, this time when she had just had blood taken for a blood test. Both times, the medical staff had given her juice to drink, since the sugar in the juice gets to the blood stream quickly.) The juice seemed to help to perk him up a bit. Someone--Sara, I think--went and got Egha's food, which he had left sitting on a table over by the windows. I think he had tried to tell us English speakers about it before, but let's just say it was nice when he could speak Indonesian. Understanding was just so much faster once the Indonesian speakers were there.
Egha had not eaten breakfast--probably favoring sleep over food like Josie had done. Then, he had gone to the HFAC and moved steel drum equipment, then practiced with that group, then moved gamelan instruments, then practiced with that group. So he was pretty worn out before he went to get food at 2 pm. Dirk remembered that Egha had been really cold during rehearsal, which is odd, because playing usually warms you right up. Also, the sound of the cowbell -- the higher pitched kempli-- was really bothering him, he had commented to Dirk. Josie had noticed that he was really pale.
Despite the medical responders thinking he should go home if not to the hospital, Egha was determined to play at the concert. His shirt was all bloody, but Nadia was going to bring him a clean shirt. Even though his wound was still bleeding and he was still a bit woozy, we headed over to the HFAC just after 3:30. Anggi said, "There are five of us girls! We can just surround him as he walks, and be ready to catch him!"
So...he played. When it was the steel band's turn, Egha had a most amazingly good solo part. No wonder he insisted on going to the concert and playing! We might have been able to cover for him in the gamelan, but his absence in the steel band would have left a whopping big hole in the sound. So, all is well that ends well! He made it through the afternoon! And so did we--though we never did get that Tari Saman practice in...
Therefore, our concert was moved to 4 pm. Which meant that our rehearsal time also got moved ahead. For Josie and I, this meant a really busy day, moving and setting up instruments at noon, then rehearsing for gamelan. And we are also preparing the Tari Saman for performance at Kingsbury Hall in SLC for next week on the 15th, and have been rehearsing for that every Saturday afternoon, so that rehearsal was next for us, then back to the HFAC to get into costume and then the performance, followed by striking the set. So noon to 6:30 of mostly unrelieved action.
We finished gamelan rehearsal at 2 pm; we had a half hour free, and Josie wanted to go and get a burrito to eat because she had skipped breakfast in favor of sleeping awhile longer. We asked Tanielle if she wanted to come with us, but she said she needed to run over to her building and get something from her office, so she would meet us at 2:30 for our Tari Saman rehearsal. Josie and I went to the cougar eat, got our food, and ran into Dirk and Michael from the gamelan, who also had food trays. (Dirk is a linguistics professor who started playing in the gamelan this semester. He is a friend of my gamelan friend Ed Luna, who is a linguistics guy, too. So Dirk met Jeremy through Ed, and decided after several years of being in the audience at our shows that he would like to play, too. Michael is his son who is in high school, but starting gamelan early like Josie did.)
So, the four of us sat down to eat together. We were just idly chatting when Josie said, "Mom, look, I think there is something wrong with Egha." I looked at her, and then there was a sound, like a crash and thud, and I didn't see anything, and then Josie pointed out that Egha was down on the floor, just a ways away from our table. (Egha is another gamelan friend. He is from Indonesia, but had never played in a gamelan before coming to BYU. He and his wife Nadia are friends of Tanielle's. Egha joined gamelan at Tanielle's suggestion--but he is a percussionist, here at BYU for his master's in percussion performance. And Nadia is one of our Tari Saman dancers.)
I got up to see how Egha was--a few people were coming to his aid. But Josie was the only person to have seen what happened. She saw Egha coming towards the garbage can, and she at first did not notice it was him; she only noticed that the person was walking strangely, lurching and running into things. Then he started walking towards us but before he got there, he fainted, and hit a couple of things on his way down. When I got to him, he was awake but disoriented. He tried to get up, but then I saw actually a lot of blood and wasn't sure where it was coming from, so I told him to please just lay down. A lady nearby got some ice from one of the vendors and brought it to put on his wound. Her husband called 911. I tried to call Tanielle, because I knew she would be with all our Indonesian friends, but it was just time for us to be meeting her in the library, where cell phone reception is bad. So I also called Jeremy to let him know what happened.
As the only eye-witness, Josie had to give a report of the incident to the BYU paramedices dispatcher. She and Dirk and Michael stayed with Egha while I ran to the library to tell our Indonesian friends why we were delayed, and also to get some language assistance. Egha's English is great, but when you are stressed, it is always nice to speak in your native language--it is just easier. I also wanted to somehow let Nadia know what was going on with her husband.
Usually, Josie and I are the first ones there for practice--I have to let everyone into the room we use to practice in--but yesterday, everyone was waiting for us. I told them what happened, and then we all hurried over to the Cougar Eat. The paramedics were there working on Egha. His blood pressure was really low, and the wound in his chin was still bleeding. They wanted him to go to emergency, but he refused because of the performance at four. They wanted him to go and get stitches, and he refused that, too. But they told him if it was still bleeding, he could still go in and get it taken care of later.
One of our friends, Sara, got in touch with Nadia, who was not coming to Tari Saman practice today because she was one of the organizers of a baby shower. Nadia and Egha share a phone, and Egha had it, so Sara called someone else who was at the baby shower to get in touch with Nadia. Egha was still really shaky--the paramedics had him try standing, but that wasn't really working, so they put him in a chair. Jeremy was there by then--he asked me to keep in touch with him by cell phone so that he and Ron, the director of the steel band (which Egha is also in) would know how he was, and whether he would be able to play at the concert.
At Josie's suggestion, I bought Egha a bottle of juice to drink. (Josie has fainted several times. Once, when she was twelve, and I had taken her to get a bunch of shots before she went to India, she fainted while standing at the counter at the clinic. She went down fast and hard, and was lucky she didn't injure herself. Another time, again at a clinic, this time when she had just had blood taken for a blood test. Both times, the medical staff had given her juice to drink, since the sugar in the juice gets to the blood stream quickly.) The juice seemed to help to perk him up a bit. Someone--Sara, I think--went and got Egha's food, which he had left sitting on a table over by the windows. I think he had tried to tell us English speakers about it before, but let's just say it was nice when he could speak Indonesian. Understanding was just so much faster once the Indonesian speakers were there.
Egha had not eaten breakfast--probably favoring sleep over food like Josie had done. Then, he had gone to the HFAC and moved steel drum equipment, then practiced with that group, then moved gamelan instruments, then practiced with that group. So he was pretty worn out before he went to get food at 2 pm. Dirk remembered that Egha had been really cold during rehearsal, which is odd, because playing usually warms you right up. Also, the sound of the cowbell -- the higher pitched kempli-- was really bothering him, he had commented to Dirk. Josie had noticed that he was really pale.
Despite the medical responders thinking he should go home if not to the hospital, Egha was determined to play at the concert. His shirt was all bloody, but Nadia was going to bring him a clean shirt. Even though his wound was still bleeding and he was still a bit woozy, we headed over to the HFAC just after 3:30. Anggi said, "There are five of us girls! We can just surround him as he walks, and be ready to catch him!"
So...he played. When it was the steel band's turn, Egha had a most amazingly good solo part. No wonder he insisted on going to the concert and playing! We might have been able to cover for him in the gamelan, but his absence in the steel band would have left a whopping big hole in the sound. So, all is well that ends well! He made it through the afternoon! And so did we--though we never did get that Tari Saman practice in...
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| All smiling and happy after Egha made it through the concert. Back row: Anggi, Keola (a friend of Nadia's), Egha with the huge bandage on his chin. Front row: Sara, Nadia and Tanielle. Gamelan instruments with steel pans in front. |
1 comment:
Wow! What a crazy day! I hope he's alright!
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