Thursday (12/15) on NOLA.com, Ann Christian writes about conductor Glenn Langdon, who “is spending a month back in his adopted hometown as a guest conductor for a series of concerts with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). It’s the first lengthy stay in the Crescent City for Langdon since Hurricane Katrina, when he and his wife, New Orleans native Laurie Volny Langdon, lost their Broadmoor home to floodwaters.” The flood was not the only recent challenge Langdon has had to face, however. In 2007 he underwent surgery to remove a cyst from his right hand and woke up with no feeling in his hand or arm. “ ‘Six weeks later it was confirmed that I had suffered severe nerve damage.’ … Langdon says he had no choice but to start from the beginning, taking baby steps in order to move his fingers and his arm. … Pure determination, willpower and 100 percent acceptance of his condition have gotten Langdon where he is today—back on the conductor’s podium. … ‘I have had to accept to the fact that when I play the piano, I can’t feel half of the keys; when I hold the conductors baton, I see it in my hand, but I don’t necessarily feel it. If there is one thing I have learned from this experience is that the act of music-making comes from a place far distant from the physical act of making music.’ ”
Posted December 16, 2011
