Asbra

My new favorite word to use on a daily basis is 'asbra'. It just means 'very good', and isn't that exciting to Swedes, but it is fun to say with an American accent!

Although silly, it has been useful lately because life has been pretty darn 'asbra'. My concert last week went really well…although there were plenty of mistakes, and I wasn’t 100% happy with my playing, I was pleased with the overall product. I set out to share my art in a creative way with those that are not very familiar with percussion music, and the response tells me that I was successful!

We started setting up the Black Box theatre at around 2pm. Rasmus and Lindie did the lighting, Sebastian took care of the sound (both live and recording), Johannes and a few other friends helped with he equipment, Anna and Lou took care of the little things (feeding me an orange, and finding me a black carpet so the drumset wouldn’t slide around!), and I was surprisingly calm and not stressed! It was truly a group effort, and I am eternally grateful to everyone. Of course, we had fun with everything, and I think that we will all be working together a lot in the future…the final product was too unique not to do something similar again soon!

The stage looked amazing thanks to Rasmus and Lindie’s idea to remove the back curtain and collect all the floor based lamps in the school and use them for backlighting. So, along with the colored lights from above, the lights behind me gave it a very ‘warehouse/basement’ feel. Then, instead of trying to organize all the instruments that weren’t being used, we scattered them around. It looked avant-garde, but intimate and trendie…what I had hoped for, but better than I could have imagined!

My program was:

A Minute of News (1990) by Eugene Novotney (1960)

Juxtaposed
  Solfeggietto (1770) by CPE Bach (1714-1788)
  Variation No. 1 (2010) by Maria Finkelmeier (1985)

Dance and Drive (2002) by Anders Åstrand (1961)
  Dancing in the Parking Lot
  Driving Down the Highway

-pause-

unknown expectations (2010) Maria Finkelmeier (1985)

Ten Years to Alma-q (2009) Ulf Blomqvist (1983)
  Markus Sundquist: Piano
  Mathias Lundkvist: Flute

The Ragtime Robin (1928) G.H.Green (1893-1970)
  Markus Sundquist: Piano
  Robin Jonsson: Bass

The first half was completely solo, while the second half included other musicians. For my piece, Denis and Daniel were set-up behind the audience and improvised to create an ambiance as they came back in after the pause. Then, Markus and Mathias joined me to play Ulf’s piece (we played it on a concert a few weeks ago. Ulf is great, and I really liked the piece and wanted to play it again. Plus it counted as the ‘contemporary’ and ‘chamber’ piece for the program). Everyone loved the ragtime tune at the end, and I think we are going to try and get in the studio sometime soon to record it.

The only negative aspect of organizing a concert on my own is that I have to take care of every detail. Luckily I have great, talented friends, but some minor details still get overlooked. Lou was awesome and took some photos during the sound check, but I didn’t have a chance to ask anyone to take pictures during the show. Plus, the video is ok, but the rag is cut off, which would have been a great representation of my playing. I still need to ask Sebastian to dub the good sound recording over it (I am going to use it for my Doctorate application), and sometimes I feel so bad always having to ask for so much help!

After the concert, a group of us went out to Challenge to hang out. We had a blast, and I wish that people hung out like that more often! During the week it’s hard to get into town, especially when the weather is bad…but now that Spring is on its way (kind of) and I’m becoming closer to some people, I think I’ll have to organize more relaxed outings like this one!

A few photos from the day:

Starting to set-up!

Rasmus and Lindie taking a well-deserved break

Sebastian making me sound good

We suspended the Spiral Crash Cymbal!! it looked incredible!

Starting to sound check...talking and playing...so talented. haha!

Intense!!

Happy!

Corny! 

Thanks for taking some pictures, Lou!

I'll upload the video from the rest of the concert as soon as I can! 

After concert fun...

I bribe/thank the people that help me with cookies!

With Lou and Venla at Challenge enjoyed some drinks and the wonderful company!

Ulf and I shared a burger. I ate it like an American. He ate it like a Swede. My way was MUCH better!

 Funny group of people!

Sebastian is the very first student I met here! super nice and good sound guy!

my favorite picture of Anna and I ever! Lucky to have a friend like her!

time to go home...Markus decided to take a nap in the snow. haha!

Beautiful flowers from Anna and Lou in my kitchen. Also displaying the beautiful weather that we had this weekend. The snow will be around until May, but the sun was shining, and Spring is in the air!

Now it's time to focus on what is next. This week is production week for SMASK, so it will be consuming most of my time. I have some ideas for the next solo/chamber concert I'd like to do, and I have to start planning it. I get quite lazy if I don't have a goal to work towards! Also, next week I'll be filling out and sending in the Doctorate application, playing with Anders and Rolf in Stockholm on Saturday, and then leaving for Germany/Austria with Anders for the Zildjian tour on Sunday. So, I guess I have a lot to look forward to, but it's hard to focus on practicing right now! Oh, well...I guess a little break never hurt anyone!