Festival Reflections Part 3

Thursday, March 17 was the first full day of the festival. I arrived at school at 8am to make sure that everything was organized for the day. The session schedule was: 


9.00 – 10.00: Ensemble Performance by Ensemble 64.8

10.15 – 11.00: Casey Cangelosi – Performance Techniques 

11.15 – 12.30: Anders Åstrand and Global Percussion Network – Tools in improvisation 

12.30 – 13.30 lunch

14.00 – 15.00 Improvisation Session 1

15.30 – 17.00: Casey Cangelosi and Ensemble Evolution with Musichögskolan composition department

19.00: CONCERT:  Sweden’s “Slagverk” Stars with Global Percussion Network and Rhythm Art Duo

Along with simply making sure that every session started and ended ontime, I also was awaiting the arrival of two groups from Finland. They left at 9pm on Wednesday and drove through the night to get to the festival! The worried mom in me couldn't wait for them to arrive, just so my nerves could calm down! The first two sessions were great, and the Finnish groups arrived in time to have a 30 minute nap and catch the Global Percussion Network session at 11:15am. 

Ensemble 64.8 started the sessions with a bang! It was great to hear their approach to contemporary works and their more about their relationship with JLA. Unfortunately I was fielding phone calls from the Finnish groups and our team of helpers (worried mother!) Good thing we recorded everything!  

I hadn't met Casey before this festival. He's so great! Jake worked hard to get him here, and I'm so glad that it worked out. In this session Casey talked about his approach to music interpretation in general and our sustainability as musicians. 

It is ALWAYS great to see Anders, Rolf and Daniel perform! It was even greater to see them work will these diverse students and talk about improvisation. This really jump-started something great in week! 

Anders is one of the best presenters I know!!! 

After the full morning, I sent the group of 40 participants to the concert hall restuarant for a free lunch by one of our sponsors. The convenience of the lunch really helped the flow of the festival, and kept everyone in the same place! I don't think I ate, though...I really didn't eat much the whole time (best diet ever!!) Everytime I would walk in one direction with a purpose, I would be bombarded with 3 more questions and get sidetracked. It's all part of the gig though, and I hope I answered each question with a smile! 

After lunch, we broke all of the students in the festival (about 32) up into 4 improvisation groups, with the goal that they will come together, create a new piece of music, and perform it on the final concert. The concept was one of the first ideas we had to make this festival unique, and I was praying that it would work out alright. We planned to have Anders' session just before breaking into groups, and it was a plan well executed...all of the students were so excited to improvise, even though most of them had never done anything like it before! We even had a flutist and a pianist involved. Some of the students were really young, but everyone worked together beautifully! Check out the photos from the last concert that I will post in a later blog entry :) 

During this hour and a half of improv groups, Anders and I were interviewed by the local newspaper. The writer presented a fabulous article the next day that expressed the need for international relations, and the unique atmosphere that Piteå has to offer. We were all really pleased with the review! Go here to see: Piteå newspaper article, photos, and TV report! 

After lunch, I had to put my "performing hat" back on. Whew, exhausting! This session was with the composition department at Piteå. We asked students to write 1-2 minute ideas for percussion trio. We gave them 2 set-ups, one for mallets and one for 3 multi set-ups, and set no other limits. We sent the scores to Casey to prepare, and we sight read the parts during the session. This idea was also one whose success was uncertain (especially since we were sight-reading! there was just no time to rehearse!) I was so happy by the end of the session, the composers and the attendees were really motivated! Casey gave some fantastic advice about notation and clarity, and it was actually good that we sight read the parts to show the composers exactly what we understood from their music. 

We projected the scores on the screen while we read the music. Then Casey offered advice and comments, while asking our opinions as well as the audiences' 

The dinner break was a bit hectic. Luckily, Rhythm Art Duo (Daniel Berg and Fredrik Duvling) and Global Percussion Network (Anders, Rolf Landberg, and Daniel Saur) had been preparing and sound-checking in the concert hall during the afternoon sessions. I didn't have to help them, but we did have to feed the guests, print programs, and prepare the space. Small tasks are still time consuming! 

The evening concert was called "Sweden's Slagverk Stars!" (Slagverk is percussion in Swedish!) And it truly was a representation of Sweden's finest percussionists! The groups were very different, but high-class through and through! It was nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy some great music! 

This was the first time I had met or heard Daniel and Fredrik play. They are really great people and performers. I feel so grateful that they wanted to come to the festival. They inspired and encouraged me to continue in music, and I know they did the same for many of the students that were here!

What is there to say about GPN!? Amazing group...and I've thought so since they came to Ohio State when I was there back in the day (haha!) Now that I've gotten to know them each so much the past 2 years, it's even more uplifting to watch them play. 

Charles, Jake, and I also took on the responsibility of filming and streaming all of the concerts and events online. We were disappointed that we could not get any of the TV production students or teachers to help (that's a whole other story), but felt very passionate about recording and archiving the events. It was a whole new level of responsibility, but I'm so glad we did it. This concert was fantastic, and you can watch the streamed version at anytime here -  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ensemble-evolution. The video is not great, but the sound is very good. We are now trying to edit the 30+ hours of HD video, and will post the completed clips on our website as soon as we can!