{
impromptu
Laura Farmer
Marcia Kämper
Flute
For this player, it’ s all about the next trip.
BSO flute Marcia Kämper has taken some pretty fabulous vacations. One of her favorites was her honeymoon in Venice with her husband, Dolf. The newlyweds were tireless tourists, traipsing through the pedestrian-friendly city, relishing the ancient town’ s history and beauty. Yet even with such diligent sight-seeing, upon their last night in Venice, the pair realized that there was still much more they wanted to see.“ We didn’ t want to miss a thing, so we spent the entire night walking around looking for specific churches or statues in the dark,” explains Kämper.
That trip was nearly 10 years ago. In the intervening years, the Kämpers have enjoyed more vacations, such as trips to Dolf’ s native Germany, or traveling to Marcia’ s performance gigs in places like Spain, Italy, Austria and Slovenia.
They have also added some new traveling companions: their young sons, Heiro, 7, and Hannes, 5.
“ My sons share my enthusiasm for visiting new places,” says the doting mom.“ Since both boys are now in a French immersion elementary school, many new French-speaking countries are on the travel list!”
Kämper’ s most recent journey last August, however, was a solo one.
“ I had the experience of a lifetime attending a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Auckland, New Zealand,” says Kämper, who has been passionate about the benefits of meditation since first introduced to it nearly 10 years ago.
Yet even a meditation devotee like Kämper was intimidated by the rigor of the 10-day meditation retreat.
“ If somebody had told me that getting up at 4 am, sitting for over 10 hours a day meditating, eating only two meals a day, and not talking at all would lead me to great insight, I would not have believed them. But it’ s true. This trip was truly an amazing journey for me in every way,” says Kämper.
Mitro Hood
48 Overture | bsomusic. org