(unedited)
“For me it’s very important, not the almost 3,000 people who sit here, but it is important to have a receiver. Many times, if I know that somebody that I respect or I admire is sitting in the public I’m also using him or her as a receiver. That person doesn’t know I’m doing it, and I wouldn’t even say it, but a receiver is very important. That you play to somebody. So, there are 3,000 people but sometimes you specifically [play to] one person… In Los Angeles it was always my father, he was listening to all the aspects as a musician, so I played to him.” (Zubin Mehta1)
Zubin Mehta is the conductor of the Israeli Philharmonic and highly respected in music spheres. His comment above struck me the first time I heard it in the documentary by Ori Sivan, then it stayed with me weeks after watching. A receiver is not unique to Zubin Mehta, many artists have communicated they write, paint, dance, etc. for “a receiver”. One may also call this receiver a “muse”.
Muses were originally from Greek mythology as a form of inspiration and divine guidance within the arts. The Muses are the nine daughters of Zeus and Memory, which seems apt when speaking about art. Art is an expression of memory, both memories past and the creation of memories. These memories create hope within individuals by the challenge of making the invisible, visible. Artists are given the calling to work out abstract thoughts/feelings into visible expressions. “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.“2
We, as humans and creators, need one another to rise to higher forms of ourselves. While the Muses hold different fields of divine inspiration, they teach us that inspiration, art, and expression is reliant on a community of people rather than pure isolation. Kurt Vonnegut writes, “The arts… are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.”3 There is something within each of us that was made to create and share what we have created – our very souls crave it. To be the receiver or the giver are both opportunities to rise to our heavenly calling.
Zubin Mehta conducts many individual musicians to work together and create something beautiful that requires each person doing their part with excellence. His receiver may be his father, but each person is playing with divine inspiration to their own “receiver”. Ultimately, the Philharmonic becomes an act of worship as each artist reflects back and projects forward to create something never before realized.
In light of all of these reflections, today I realize I am often a “receiver” when I try to create something. Before I can give my art to another, God shares something with me that I get to witness firsthand. The Creator of the world wants to co-create with little me, and there-in lies the beauty of the arts to me. Just at Kurt Vonnegut said, “Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.“
Hannah Rachelle 
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