We had the opportunity to go to a concert at Carnegie Hall last night. My friend (and visiting teaching companion!) Jihea happens to be a concert pianist and is part of the Ardelia Trio. She was nice enough to get us tickets for her performance at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall last night, as well as an invitation to a fancy pre-concert reception at the famous Russian Tea Room restaurant next to Carnegie Hall.

We arrived at the Russian Tea Room and were directed into an elevator which took us to a gorgeous upstairs room filled with well-dressed people sipping wine and nibbling hors d’oeuvres. It was all very fancy. Klane had to hold me back so I wouldn’t whip out my giant camera and start snapping pictures of everything (something about this being an inappropriate time for obvious photography…?), but that didn’t stop be from trying to discreetly capture it all on my phone.

This sculpture had live fish swimming inside of it.

After about 15 minutes of sipping sodas, trying all the hors d-voeuvres (the bacon-wrapped scallops = YES), and trying to guess what all these high-class people were schmoozing about, we decided we’d had our fill and made our way over to the concert hall.

This was my first time inside historic Carnegie Hall. The concert was in a smaller recital hall, but it was still beautiful with its chandeliers and draperies. The young women’s group from our ward was there too, so we found seats together.

The concert was amazing! It was so neat to see Jihea perform. I always knew she was talented (to make a career as a concert pianist in NYC you’d have to be!) but I had never seen her play, and it was impressive. The trio played pieces by a composer named Sophia Serghi, who introduced each piece and explained when and why she wrote it, the inspiration behind it, or the story she was trying to tell with each one. That was great, because I got so much more out of it and could really feel what she was trying to portray. The music was beautiful and complex, and I was amazed at how music can convey feelings or tell stories so effectively without using words.

(The cutest part was after the performance when Jihea’s 4-year-old son Aaron came up and brought her roses on stage. Adorable!)

We are not very cultured, but it was fun to get dressed up and pretend for a night. :) We really enjoyed the evening!