Ships in Uummannaq Harbor

Two big events happened  in  Uummannaq today.  The first, Pajuttaat, a big ship (the size of a small iceberg) entered the Uummannaq harbor.  And the second, our children saw for the very first time an actual symphony orchestra conducted by Joel Spiegelman, listened to recordings of music by Lera Auerbach and master concert pianist Elena Kuschnerova.

These two events happened pretty much simultaneously - soon after darkness fell on Uummannaq.  Two different breaking news  on two different channels, but you can only watch  one  – that’s how it felt. There  was much confusion in the air and much excitement as well.

The importance of the arrival of the big ship can not underestimated.  In the long and glorious history of Uummannaq this never happened before. A ship of this size never arrived in Uummannaq during the winter months because the harbor was always frozen. This year due to  record high temperatures, the water did not freeze; it’s the middle of March and  winter has not yet arrived  in Uummannaq.

The importance of seeing and hearing a real full scale symphony orchestra  be it on video can not be underestimated either;  it too happened in the history of Uummanaq for the first time. Lera Auerbach, composer, Lena Kuschnerova,  pianist, and Joel Spiegelman,  conductor,  – each of them alone was no smaller than Pajuttaat, the big ship that entered Uummannaq harbor this evening.