This letter to the Editor of the Winnipeg Free Press was published but only the first three paragraphs made it into print. Left out were key points that disability in an artist may not only add to the quality of the work but is often the muse that gives it life.
L to R: Susan Lamberd – Chair ADNM, artist Nobuyuki Tsujii and Marie Bouchard of The Winnipeg Foundation
Editor, Winnipeg Free Press
I didn’t get around to reading Gwenda Nemerofsky’s review of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks concert in Saturday January 26th Winnipeg Free Press until Sunday afternoon and I am happy about that as I was able to relive the glory of the concert that I attended on Saturday evening.
Gwenda’s descriptive prose of the performance was beyond journalism and into art, especially that part of her review that witnessed the young master of the piano Nobuyuki Tsujii. I saw through her words his hands moving at such lightning speed that I was left breathless for a second time.
However, there is a point of clarification that I think needs to be made and that is in regard to the paragraph “He was led on to the stage by conductor Alexander Mickelthwate because he has been blind since he was born, but that was the extent that his disability affected his performance and ability to captivate an audience.”
I and a number of other of the supporters of the Arts and Disability Network Manitoba (ADMN) collaborated with Virtuosi Concerts and the WSO and were at the concert representing local artists with disabilities whose works were on display in the foyer. Like Nobu these artists have had to overcome some social and physical limiting factors in their lives to achieve goals; our purpose as a network is to support artists with disabilities through providing resources, education and opportunities.
It is our opinion artists such as Nobu and many others are not ‘affected’ by their disability but in most cases are ‘effected’ by the limitation they may have. We would suggest that to a large measure Nobu’s genius at the keyboard may have come from the fact that being blind he had to rely on his acute sense of sound rather than be distracted by sight, motion and lighting. Micklethwate in his pre-concert dialogue discussed the special relationship that he and the soloist had to develop because there was no visual communication.
The relative numbers of persons with disabilities in society is changing somewhat dramatically as medical science is allowing us to live longer and make greater on-going contributions to the economy and to the arts world. Artists such as Christine Sun Kim who is totally deaf but uses sound to create art and who will be in Winnipeg at the ADNM Fair in October, disability advocate Geoff McMurchy confined to a wheelchair expresses his artistic abilities through dance routines and at last year’s ADNM Winnipeg City Councillor Ross Eadie spoke eloquently about how he as a blind person could appreciate visual art.
Cultural and artistic expression is in a constant state of change as it should be and great art doesn’t need to transcend disability, it is embraced, informed and enriched by it.
Hi, from California!
I am one of the biggest fans around of Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, and I am very happy that he seems to have made quite an impression in Winnipeg.
I read this letter of Mr. Harry Paine with great interest. Its topic is one that has been on my mind ever since I became entranced by Nobu. I was not even aware that Nobu was blind when I was first captivated by his performances at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. Since then, I have followed his career with great interest, and his music and his remarkable accomplishments have rewarded me richly.
I think Nobu and his mother (Mrs. Istuko Tsujii) would agree with Mr. Paine’s thesis, which is that disability can be embraced for artistic and cultural achievements such as that attained by Nobu. In Japan, Mrs. Tsujii gives lectures to parents. In her talks, she does not speak about how to overcome the handicap of one’s child, but instead how to “stretch” his talents.
Nobu was brought up without thinking that he is handicapped. His mother took little Nobu to all kinds of experiences, including visits to museums, attending kabuki, and “seeing” fireworks. As a result, Nobu never considers himself handicapped. Doing what’s natural to him, Nobu has made the utmost of the senses that he does possess.
People all over the world are now astonished by Nobu’s music and his story. Even so, the inescapable label of “blind” or “handicapped” is affecting Nobu adversely in an insidious way. Soon after Nobu was awarded a gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, there was an outcry that sympathy for his handicap was a factor in the jury’s decision. This preconception may have affected some music critics who are less objective than Ms. Gwenda Nemerofsky of the Winnipeg Free Press, and some of these critics have written about Nobu’s music less admiringly. There are also people — such as one Winnipeg blogger — who opined that Nobu gets his standing ovations only because he is blind.
I wish those critics would carefully read this letter of Mr. Paine, especially the last sentence: “great art doesn’t need to transcend disability, it is embraced, informed and enriched by it.”