Nikolaj Znaider-"Music is Ephemeral"

Recently I had such rare opportunity to meet one of the most widely performed successful violinists in the world today, Nikolaj Znaider, thanks to our wonderful music critic Andrew Druckenbrod.

Nikolaj is very down-to-earth. He stays calm and logic all the time, and observe, think and speak. I like his character. It's not like he wants to show off all the time.

Meanwhile, he does have precious perspectives on music. One thing that he mentioned about music touched me : he always says that music is ephemeral. Music is abstract and does not exist in matter. More importantly, he said music starts from nothing and ends in nothing--silence. If a musician is going to play a piece, he is going to play it differently every time and once he is done with a particular performance, this music will never exist in the same way any more.

Saying music is ephemeral really captures my heart because i always feel that these good times in life are ephemeral. Everything has an end. And even the whole world came into existence and vanishes, it wouldn't matter or even noticeable in the universe in time and space. This is the deepest sorrow of human being that I ever experienced.