Dream Big: Violin and Surfing

Everyone has a dream.  Some have more than one but I think everyone has, at least, one Big Dream that always quite distant and somehow impossible. But dreaming makes us move, keeps us going through time hope to get to the desired destination one day.

Many people imagine musicians as creative but a bit nerdy people who spend hours at their work desks or exercise rooms full head in the sheet music. It is a fact that music requires concentration and full focus on the matter, whether you are composing or playing a piece. And I think you will rarely find a musician who’s performing a concert tonight, and tomorrow is skydiving from 4000m. Seems to be a rare combination, doesn’t it.

But the story of Nuno Santos proves that people like this exist. Nuno is a teacher of violin who lives in Portugal. And Portugal is the place that has Nazare. And Nazare is one of the world’s most famous surfing spots. Moreover, it’s not Just some spot for surfing, but it’s a place for really bold people – big wave surfers. During the biggest storm waves can be as tall as 30m here.
As a person living by the ocean, Nuno loved surfing. But he loves his violin too. So one day he decided he would like to combine these two incompatible passions. That became his dream. In 2015, right on Christmas, Nuno Santos’ dream came true. He took his violin on top of the wave at Nazare. Jingle Bells was picked as the glorious melody, so perfect for the Christmas occasion. It was not a really long ride but it surely was inspiring. I can only envy people who set a goal as impossible as this one and who see their dreams go live!

Constanze Mozart, Woman Behind the Genius

As the saying goes, ‘behind every successful man there is always a woman’. No, Mozart’s wife Constanze was not the one who pushed him and made a great composer out of what he was from scratch. Not at all. But she was the woman who drove his inspiration and encouraged him for experimenting. And simply, she was his Love, the kind of Love that is real and has the power of creating beautiful things.

Constanze Mozart

(from Mozart’s love letter to his wife)
“… I get all excited like a child when I think about being with you again — If people could see into my heart I should almost feel ashamed. Everything is cold to me — ice-cold. — If you were here with me, maybe I would find the courtesies people are showing me more enjoyable, — but as it is, it’s all so empty — adieu — my dear — I am Forever your Mozart who loves you with his entire soul.”

Although their marriage did not start as smoothly as other ‘big marriages’ of the time, the couple still managed to make it happen officially after acquiring all the necessary consents, including the one from Mozart’s father Leopold.

Constanze was a very well-educated woman who besides all was a musician herself. She loved music and therefore could be her husband’s best music critic and advisor. Mozart dedicated some works purely to Constanze, like Sonata for Violin and Piano No.30 in C Major, K.403. Many of them, however, remained uncompleted. Other works had parts for his wife; for example, in the well-known Grand Mass in C minor there is a soprano specially for Constanze who performed it at the premiere in 1783.

Constanze Mozart was also the one who talked her husband into writing Fantasy and Fugue, K. 394, being a lover of Baroque style counterpoint. It happened after Mozart got to study the manuscripts of Handel and Bach and got very excited about the materials.

After Wolfgang’s death his wife put a lot of effort into publishing his works and organizing memorial concerts. Besides commemorating her husband it eventually made her wealthy, which was quite an achievement taking into account all the debts Mozart left her with after death.

There are a lot of women that influenced positively the creative work of their husbands, themselves being left in the shadow. But for their driving force, we would have probably missed some of the greatest masterpieces.