How Music Changed my Life is my first Manifesto. [pdf]
I was born in Puerto Rico, a country where many people surprisingly believe we live in some kind of Amazonia environment where natives have no clothes and live in huts.
Yeah well, that was Avatar not P.R. That said, I spent most of my teenage years in the island doing all kinds things.
That’s where the love for travel began.
Everything you can do in P.R. I’ve done it a few times—snorkeling, cave exploring, surfing, hiking, etc. But it was not until I traveled internationally that became evident to me the treasure I had. Caribbean beauty is not to be taken for granted.
On the other hand, the first time I traveled to a music-related event was to the United States. First time alone—it felt like a miracle, loved every second. I was out of my country with a mission; to be a better violinist. And when I got back home, I was so excited that I started planning what to do next summer. I wanted to apply to as many festivals as possible so that my options of traveling increased.
I kept going to the states for several years and in 2009 I got accepted to the Orchestra of the Americas and the World Orchestra. That year we toured the east coast of the United States and Canada followed by another tour with the other orchestra to Spain.
I felt so lucky to be able to represent Puerto Rico in a multi-nationality orchestra. Returning from those tours, I got a job back in P.R. with a small orchestra. I thought that visiting Europe, Canada and U.S. were the highlight of my life. I needed to do something like that again. Deciding to save like crazy for another kickass experience was not at all hard. In December of that same year and with enough money in the bank and prizes low enough (2007), I bought a ticket to visit someone very special in the Washington D.C. area and from there off to Germany where my best friend lived.
Germany was another world. In Spain they speak Spanish and perhaps that made it easier to adapt, but Germany was like going to another planet. Three weeks in Germany made me realized various things about life. People’s behaviors and personal attitudes were completely different from what I knew. Discipline and lifestyle—it was just like visiting Pandora but modern. For the first time I was in a country where I didn’t speak the language.
During my time there, I also went to France and visited the Louvre Museum and of course, the Eiffel Tower. I was told not to speak in English for some reason, so I didn’t. Asking for juice in Spanish and surprisingly being understood was shocking to me. After a day or two I was back with my best friend and decided to go on a road trip to Austria and spend New Year’s Eve there. While in Salzburg I also got to visit Mozart’s house. I took the tour and learned where he was born, saw real manuscripts and everything music, you know, I was in heaven.
After a really, really long drive we were back in my friend’s apartment. At this time money was not a problem because I stayed in his house and he fed me most of the time. Although I didn’t play my violin there, I did go to some concerts and experienced classical music the German way.
Traveling was soon becoming something I had to do. I actually stood in front of the Eiffel tower and saw the Mona Lisa within 5 feet distance. What’s not to love about that? I had to keep doing it. Even if I eat crackers for a month back home, I needed to save money and see the world.
Fortunately, I got in once again to the Orchestra of the Americas. This summer they went on tour to four different countries; Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. Again, the language was not a problem. Now my Facebook account was building up rapidly. My network of musicians was growing from last year to this year. At least 50 new people were added each music festival I attended. By now, counting all the music festival I have gone, I knew someone from each continent. That is something I thought it was cool.
Since the orchestra pays for everything I could save my money to go somewhere else.
In Ecuador we got to visit the famous line where the hemispheres divide. In Peru we got Lacoste polos for $7 and in Brazil we visited the Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro. The food in Colombia was the best and the coffee—another level.
Playing with the best orchestra I’ve played was amazing and getting to know new people and different lifestyles was even better. But having been to all these places was the adventure of a lifetime.
I returned back to school and spend a semester organizing my studies and trying to stay under a good amount of discipline. Of course still saving for what was coming next. Then, the World Orchestra sent an invitation for the whole Christmas vacations. The bad thing about this orchestra is that you have to pay the plane ticket, everything else is free. A month full of adventures with roof and food for the costs of a plane ticket was completely worth it in my opinion.
The ticket to China was around $1,000. Not bad for a whole month. I’ve saved my money for something like this and went for it without any hesitation.
If I thought that Germany was a different world I was completely wrong. China was really beyond my expectations. From the way bathroom are constructed to the food they serve you, everything is different as I knew it. Being from the Caribbean, I’ve never anticipated that kind of food—the taste is nothing like I ever tried before. In some places there were no toilets only a hole and the capital was really impressive.
Everybody knows that being in China and not going to the Great Wall is like going to Puerto Rico and not going to the beach. I went—and it was exactly as I thought it will be, just incredible. From that moment on, I realized that I was living the dream. I mean, common I was in China, who’s in China? How do I get from the Caribbean to China? The answer is—with a lot of money, which I didn’t have. Not that much anyway.
And, because I was doing the impossible, I decided to add a special trait to my trips. From now on I was going to experience certain “cliché moments”.
Knowing that I was heading toward the Great Wall, I imagined myself standing on top of those little houses in the middle of the walls and screaming with my arms up.
I did it.
It felt like mission accomplished, I was so proud. Now I wanted to go to France again and drink coffee in front of the Eiffel tower and go back to Washington D.C. and sit down in the staircase in front of the Lincoln monument and look at the water like in the movie National Treasure. I went back to Washington and did it but I still need to do the Coffee in France.
I have to admit that luck played a big role when it came to me going to these countries. I believe in luck, but I believe more in the power of hard work and planning. When you want something badly and work for it, it will eventually come. Even if it’s years from now.
Everything I have lived so far impacted my music-making immensely. I learned from teachers with different backgrounds, I heard soloists from literally everywhere in the world and share intense moments with colleagues. I also attended master-classes and lectures from world-class musicians, teachers from the Boston, Chicago and Cleveland symphonies. One of these summers I took coaching sessions from the ex-concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Leon Spierer. What else could I have asked for? That’s it! That was all I wanted to consider my summer—just amazing.
First of all I had a beast teaching me violin, a world-class faculty lecturing me and many crazy adventures that I will remember for years to come.
With that on my shoulders I decided to continue my music education and apply to get a master’s degree. I got in with a scholarship in New Mexico. The teacher was good and I get to play principal of the orchestra and with the school’s quartet. With a job and surrounded by fun things to do, you can imagine what was about to happen.
More travel.
But before I keep going on with my fantasy adventures, I want to let one thing clear here. I had fun but I also worked my ass off. This story focuses on telling you my adventures, not my failures, frustrations and hard moments. Please have that clear. I also had bad violin lessons, felt like I was nobody and thought of quitting at certain times. I ate crackers and cheese or similar in order to have fun in other ways. That was the life I choose and what worked for me. It is not all pink and beautiful in real life, but when you travel you won’t remember what you had to go through to get it, you just have fun.
That out of the way, I spent three years in New Mexico. Eating chili and living under a 10% humidity. Having lived all my life in P.R. (+90% humidity) I felt like a fish without water. But Arizona was around, and also Colorado, Texas, Nevada and Utah. All within driving distance. Yes, I went to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, El Paso, Denver and the 4 corners. Spring breaks and weekends were designated half and half—practice and hang out. I should’ve practice more in my opinion but now it’s too late ;).
Sometime in the spring semester the Orchestra of the Americas invited us once again for a week in the Dominican Republic. I was already there a couple of years back with my high school class. Instead of doing a prom night we saved money to stay in D.R. for 4 days. There is a cruise the goes from P.R.to D.R. in 12 hours.
With the orchestra we stayed in a 5 star hotel for the week. And for the first time in my life I got a first class airplane ticket. Apparently the orchestra made a mistake or something, but I didn’t really care. I can now explain the difference between a first class ticket and coach—is huuuuuuge. It’s like lying down on your bed and then on the floor—that drastic.
In D.R I met with some of the musicians I already knew and catch up with our musical lives. Coming back to New Mexico was also a good ride. They gave me first class once again and my face could not look happier.
Three months passed and it was that time of the year again—summer. I got in for a third time. The Orchestra of the Americas went on tour to Mexico. Again, Spanish was a good thing, chili I had in New Mexico. It was more of the same. We Latin Americans are very similar in the way we have fun, live and work. There are certain unique attributes and history facts that others may not have, but in the end it’s all the same kind of people. Another month and Facebook was getting loaded with acquaintances.
Back in New Mexico I then met the love of my life, a beautiful German girl that happened to be a pianist—great for accompaniment purposes. If I traveled a lot before, now I had the perfect excuse to do so—to take her here and there. You know, she is my girlfriend; I have to go to the Grand Canyon again. She could not miss that.
We did and it was fun indeed. Not like the-first-time-you-see-something fun but it was traveling. After a couple of months it was Christmas break and we wanted to spend it together. Ok, do we go to Puerto Rico or to Germany?
For some reason girls always decide the place we will end up—we went to Germany. Anyway, she lives near the border where the Netherlands and Belgium meet. Belgium fries are delicious and we also went cave exploring. In the Netherlands we visited some old friends of my girlfriend and bought cheese.
I already knew the German system but living in a German family was again, a scandal. But good. I tried food and things I never had before. We stayed for 3 weeks.
One more semester to go in New Mexico and a crazy weekend awaited me. I did some gigs here and there but there is one in particular I could never forget. Me and my roommate had this gig in Colorado the whole weekend (Thursday-Sunday). We decided to expand the weekend 2 more days (leaving on Tuesday) to add to the weekend an extra flavor.
The deal was to drive 15 hours straight to South Dakota to experience Mount Rushmore and get back to Colorado in time for the rehearsal on Thursday. I’ve always wanted to go but it was in the middle of nothing. Paying a plane ticket just for that seemed like a waste of money. But if we used the money from the gig, we could take the small adventure and wonderful memories with us.
Driving from 6pm until 9am non-stop was funny, tiring, horrible, awesome, extra-curricular, cool, bad and weird. I felt all those things in a single trip more than once. With a cooler in the back full of red bulls and snacks we made it alive.
I am pretty safe when it comes to driving and only once in my life I had to stop because sleep was beating me. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my buddy next to me—he looked like a zombie by 6 am, but he promised to stay awake and keep me company, whatever that meant. The last 2 hours were completely in silence.
Once there, we were really impressed. Sleep was not a problem anymore and adrenaline took care of the rest. We took pictures and enjoyed a short hike around the president’s faces. What a cool day. After a million pictures, a good time and a dream come true, sleep began to slap us in the face. We rented a motel and slept from 11 am to 11pm.
I felt like new.
We decided it was time to go back to Colorado. Once in the car and everything ready, the GPS told us with its wonderful lady voice, we were 14:30 hours away.
We had to laugh. Are we nuts or what?
After 3 hours, ca. 3 am, we stopped. We both got tired again and slept in the car for 3 hours. At 6am we had breakfast and at 7am we started our 11 hour journey once again. Not bad but also not so great either. We got to the gig on time and life kept going as usual. To this day, I will never forget that trip.
I heard once from a personal development expert; “Don’t spend your money on anything material. The joy on that will last very little. Now, when you spend your money on experiences, those memories will last forever.”
I guess if I tell that guy what I did he’ll be impressed. I probably took an extreme approach but what the hell? It’s really the best value for my money.
For the fourth time, I got in to the Orchestra of the America. This time we were heading to Chile. We had the opportunity to party with Sarah Chang and tour across los Andes Mountains. July is winter for them so it was chilly. We visited most big towns in Chile and traveled across the whole country.
Chile was the last country I’ve ever visited. After a month there and my master’s degree already finished, I’m off to a new beginning.
This is a new chapter in my life that will bring good and bad things, many surprises, failures and hopefully some success. Up until now, life as a student was tough but I’m pretty sure it will get tougher as I enter the working scenario.
I feel privileged to have traveled around more countries that I expected when I was a kid. And there are so many more stories I can’t cover here; like that time I slept in the car with my best friend in front of the Grand Canyon under a snow storm because we couldn’t afford a hotel. But it gave me life experience and I learned a lot. Everything crazy does give you experience I think.
I’ve learned from different teachers, soloists, friends, strangers, cute girls, ugly girls, cultures, languages, behaviors, discipline, food, religions, points of view, attitudes, good things, bad things, addictive stuff, boring stuff, serious people, funny people, musicians, non-musicians, priests, mundane people, symphonic music, non-symphonic, and much more.
It all contributed to the person I’ve become. At this moment, I don’t focus on the things I learned when I was a kid, better yet, I compare what I learned with that believes of the people I met and then come to a conclusion of my own. I decide then what’s right or wrong.
Over the years I’ve been coached by some of the best violinists in the world. If it was not while touring with orchestras, I would pay for lessons. While studying, I would fly somewhere and take a lesson with a renowned teacher. I always did my research though; if I could stay with a friend then I saved the hotel money. Sometimes lessons were free but other times my savings would drop considerably. You know how expensive a lesson with a celebrity could cost!
But every one of those lessons gave me something special—a different perspective.
I felt I needed to be constantly moving around and finding new ways of learning, new teachers, new ideas. I don’t regret anything at all. Did I spend money? Yes, but it was not on a nice bike or a cool car. I spent it on myself. I worked long hours in order to make money and spend it on Cesar.
I may or may not be a role model but I do know one thing. If you work hard, are constantly trying to be involved in what you love the most, and you are willing to make sacrifices so that the investment is 100% for your self-growth, then eventually you will be considered among the top of your field. Try saving for a specific place you always wanted to visit. When you are there and look back, all the sacrifice and hard work to get there will feel like a breeze.
Beware: It can be addictive.
CESAR AVILES