Brenda Hopkins Miranda

I have to say that there is something incredibly special about being able to share your music for a good cause. Jackson Pollock said it well: “Love is friendship set to music.” So when I was asked by my good friends to perform at “Bohemia por Celia” of course the answer was YES. Our friend Celia, who lives in Madrid and stayed up (connected on Skype) the whole night living, laughing, crying and feeling the experience despite the 5 hour difference, needs an operation to make her heart healthy again and we all got together to help make this operation possible.

I felt so grateful to be surrounded by all that friendship, love and solidarity = the recipe for a miracle in the making. The energy of some many good people in one room is all the fuel an artist needs to be able to share an inspired and passionate performance. I personally had a very powerful and meaningful experience. As it can sometimes happen at social gatherings, many people were talking loudly while other musicians were playing their hearts out.

My plan was to play two piano solo songs for Celia and I started to worry about the noise. I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I thought awaited me and yet another miracle of love surprised me. As I started to play the soft and tender introduction to my arrangement of Lamento borincano all of the sudden the whole room became completely silent.

I didn’t have to do or say anything. I just started to play and there it was, the best applause a musician could ever ask for: SILENCE. You could literally hear people’s breath and sighs. We were all connected for a few minutes, living and feeling the same thing, and as always, music was the conduit that made it possible.