Photo David Am Assif by Nigel A. JAMES
In from the Fringe
Taking the straight
road through life is easy provided there is only one you! But, when you are three, the direct way ahead
has to take the diversions as a matter of course. And, one such person who is
three in one - and not one in one - is David Am Assif of Israel!
He is a linguist, a musician and a teacher, and
accommodating all three at the same time and in the same city is much harder
than tuning an orchestra. The right place doesn’t only mean adequate university
space for teaching and high level linguistic research, it also means the right
background for his baritone voice as it wanders amongst the fine baroque
classics of those days. And finding the
right place has been an ongoing search until now.
In fact, David’s post study life has been a
series of zig-zags that have taken him and his wife from their home in Israel to Germany,
then back again to Israel,
and then, out once again, but this time to Vienna to where they are now! Life, he says, is better in the centre than
out on the fringe; and, in this sense, Vienna
has been good to them! It has given them
that which they wanted! It has opened up
Europe and shown them the way!
And the right way isn’t taking them far. They’re going to Frankfurt in Germany. David has accepted a post at Frankfurt
university which promises to provide just the right balance for all that he
loves, and, of course the expansion of his other musical interests, too. He is
also a pianist, a harpist, and a conductor, too. And there is another dimension as well.
With his talents, traveling could easily become part
of where he’s eventually heading, and, maybe, where he’s been going has always
been where he was at. We can, after all, only be there where we presently are!
David, I’m sure has still a long way to
go!
nj.
