CODY ENGLANDER
Staff Writer
To José Ramón Méndez, music is a cornerstone of the uneven world in which people reside.
“It’s so important that we keep [the arts] going,” Méndez said. “I think in a world where we’re seeing so much uncertainty and war and conflict, the arts are more important than ever before. It’s basically what keeps us human and what makes life worth living.”
At 4 p.m. today in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Méndez will return to Chautauqua Institution to grace the performance venue with sounds of Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn and Nikolai Medtner.
He has previously performed with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and the Nittany Valley Symphony, with various solos and chamber music performances spanning the United States, Europe and Asia. Today, he plans to perform pieces by Haydn then two pieces by the Russian composer Medtner, culminating in a performance about the human experience.
“The whole program is trying to depict something very human,” Méndez said. “… The idea of the program is to go from an invocation to God through the tragic moments of human existence, [to] a sense of relief and peace at the end.”
Méndez has gone through his own spiritual journey, especially as his piano-playing career has progressed, and he noted that the experience has made him more humble and appreciative of everything that has come his way.
“When I was much younger, I was slightly self-centered and slightly preoccupied with the practical aspects of the career and with the practical aspects of making a living in music,” Méndez said. “Then there were moments in my life that opened my eyes to seeing that, at the end of the day, I am not that relevant, that all these practicalities are important to a point, but music is a lot more important than that. From that moment, I realized that what I was trying to do personally was to communicate with people and glorify God.”
Much of the program is based around the idea of what it means to be human and the exploration of the human experience, which Méndez has found increasingly more relevant to his own life.
“Basically, this program is pretty much based on the idea that the whole phenomenon of music cannot be truly explained as just simply a collection of pitches and frequencies, but there is something inherently human about making music,” Méndez said. “Fundamentally, music has always played that role in human evolution. You think about the use of chant in rituals and religious experiences, that is something connected to human emotions and the human understanding of the transcendental that I don’t think [artificial intelligence] will ever get to capture.”
