The Stressful Life of Professional Musicians

Mao performed flawlessly on three hours' sleep

It's a tough life being a professional musician who travels around the world performing. Not only do you have to learn lots of pieces by memory, but also play them flawlessly despite jetlag and not enough sleep.

That was the case of Mao Fujita, 27, who was in Vancouver this past weekend.

He was supposed to fly direct from San Diego and arrive Saturday at 9pm to perform the next day at 3pm at the Vancouver Playhouse.

However, he texted the organiser of the Vancouver Recital Society, to say his flight was delayed until midnight.

Then he phoned a few minutes later to say he would have to cancel the concert because his flight was cancelled!

She told him to tell Air Canada he had a contractual obligation to perform the next day and he had to get on the flight.

He managed to get the last seat on the plane Sunday morning at 6am -- but that meant leaving his wife behind to get the next flight to Vancouver.

Mao arrived at 11.30am and went straight to the venue to practice despite having only three hours' sleep.

A few hours later he performed in front of an almost sold-out show, playing works by Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Berg.

I sat in the fourth row on the left side to watch Mao's fingers dance on the keys, and during intermission, the couple on my left switched seats with another. 

The new couple told me they had been sitting on the other side where they could see the expression on the pianist's face. They observed that it was as if he was in a trance, or another world as he played.

Needless to say many in the audience jumped up to give him a standing ovation and Mao treated us to an encore by Rachmaninoff, How Fair This Spot, Op. 21, No. 7 that he himself transcribed for the piano.

After the concert, Mao's wife Haruki arrived and the concert sponsors treated them to dinner and he was so excited to eat! He hadn't eaten pretty much all day!

The Chinese dinner included poached geoduck, stir-fried beef with eggplant, choy sum with braised tofu, spare ribs, Chiu Chow braised duck, soup with tofu, mustard greens and more geoduck, and dessert of taro with sago.

With a filled stomach, Mao and his wife went back to the airport to catch their next flight to Seattle where he performed last night, and then took the next flight to New York. He plays Carnegie Hall tomorrow!

Mao performs 70-75 concerts per year on top of his studies, which he will complete this year. 

We sure hope he makes time in his busy schedule to come back to Vancouver again soon!