On 11.11.11 I checked out the happening across from the Ferry Building at the Occupy San Francisco camp.  Some musicians from Classical Revolution were going to be playing, and my friend Hannah Addario-Berry invited me to go down there.  Charith Premawardhana organized the classical musicians’ involvement in the event.  We started at 11AM, and a bunch of other bands were scheduled to play later.

Hannah played some of the First Suite for Solo Cello by J. S. Bach – a calm meditation, joyful and timeless, a beautiful way to start the day.  (Click on thumbnails to see full images.)

Meeranai Shim, flutist, played a very cool solo piece which included singing into the flute and overblowing effects.

Matthew Szemela and Charith did a couple of fun improvs.  Then I joined in with everyone for a Mozart flute quartet and a movement of Beethoven C minor quartet.

It was interesting to check out Occupy SF: a collection of sincere people who are fed up with the system.  I am disgusted, too… but I’m not sure the Occupy movement has a clear focus or method to achieve the desired results.  It ends up feeling to me like people are framing themselves as victims.  I would like to see people taking positive action to create alternatives: imagining a new system and acting as if it already exists.  This is much easier to say than do, and I am working on that re-imagining task myself.  Anyway, I think music can bring people hope and lift their spirits to believe that change is possible – and that’s why we played there on Friday.