Keith Jarrett and the Beauty that can come from Chaos

Have you ever heard of Keith Jarrett, successful jazz and classical pianist, and the story of his Kohn Concert?

It was 1975. Keith arrives at a concert hall in Kohn, Germany to play for a crowd of 1600 in a few hours. Going on stage to check out the piano, he finds that the piano is the Wrong One! The rental truck Has Gone! They can’t get Another One in time. And it is not going to provide the volume needed for the size of the concert hall, and (the way I heard it), the piano was out of tune, with broken keys, some missing from the high register.

What a Mess! The youngest ever concert promoter in Germany, 17-year-old Vera Brandes, was in charge, and she asked Keith to play anyway. He looked at her, at the piano, and again at her. Then he said, Yes.

He proceeded to play one of his most famous, possibly his most famous, concerts ever!

Here’s what happened behind the scenes: they managed to get the piano tuned up, and Keith decided to play standing up to get more volume out of the piano. He rearranged the chosen pieces as he played, avoiding the broken keys and staying out of the high register all together. None of easy, but he managed it, and a beautiful piece of music was born.

Why tell you this story? I love this story! And… We have big change coming, as we pack up and move out of the building that has been home to Fellowship community for more than ten years, stay in community while the renovations take place, and then return to newly designed space.

What an Adventure! What a Time of … Chaos! Yep, and we can make beautiful things come out of this, even though right now, I don’t know what that will look like. But we will know it when we see it, and when we experience it.

Best wishes for great beauty in your life,
Carol Pranschke, office manager