By Saturday, the 40 festival guests had become a little family. Everyone was walking around like they had known each other for years! Since there was no one else at the school, there was a special and secretive atmosphere to the festival. It was nice, and great to start the day with everyone making some music (even if we were all a bit sleepy!
The schedule:
9.00 – 10.30 Improvisation Session 3
11.00 – 12.30: Percussion and Media with Charles Martin and Chi-Hsia Lai (Lisa)
12.30 – 13.30: Lunch
14.00 – 14.45: Trevor Saint – Solo Glockenspiel session
14.45 – 15.30: Solo piece Session with Shaun Gallant and Evan Dabbs
16.00 – 17.00: Morris Palter - How to Memorize multi set-ups
19.00: CONCERT: Smörgasbord of International Percussionist featuring all festival participants
After the improvisation rehearsals, the whole group went to the student union where we provided coffee and some snacks to make sure everyone was alert for the interactive media session. We were the only people in the student house, so we put our feet up and enjoyed our "fika" (Swedish word for coffee break!)
Charles' and Lisa's media session was really cool! I knew that Charles had a big interest in computer music, but it was so great to see him present his past projects and ideas! He worked with Lisa back in Australia, and now she lives in Helsinki, Finland, so it was a perfect opportunity for them to get together again!
check out Strike on Stage!!
Lunch was not really a break for the whole group...those who could go out, did...but many of us stayed to rehearse for the closing concert. Daniel and I needed to run through a duo, and other groups spread out to touch up their pieces. We had some sandwiches and snacks left over from the night before, so it was actually a cozy environment of rehearsing and munching!
The afternoon was much more self-propelled than the rest of the festival. I put these individual sessions at the end because they involved the least amount of people and assistance. Since everyone would be involved in the evening concert, we thought it would be best to have an afternoon that was low stress....it was great!
First, Trevor presented more solo glock pieces! this one for glock and amplified snow! very cool!
Then, Shaun Gallant played Garage Drummer by Jim Campbell and talked about his Mourning Dove Sonet (Christopher Deane) performance on the soloist concert. Evan Dabbs also presented a piece for quartet that he wrote just for this festival. It was a great platform for him present a composition and get feedback.
Morris Palter gave a great clinic on memorizing multi set-ups! Here he is working with Evan Dabbs from Fort Worth, Texas.
Morris working with Sami, from Tampere, Finland
The sessions had concluded, and now it was time for the real fun! The whole festival would be summed up by the closing concert. First, I made sure that the performers were fed and happy. With the money the Kommun donated, I had pizza delivered (well, actually Arvid picked it up and delivered it!) Free pizza makes everyone happy! :)
After the quick dinner we rearranged the Black Box Theatre. We wanted to create a cool "Pub Night" feel. We hired the restaurant to bring their portable bar in the theatre to sell drinks, and set up couches instead of the regular stadium seating. My favorite lighting girl, Linda, put up some colored LEDs and the stage looked great! We had 4 improv groups, and 5 other pieces to perform. Instead of setting an order, I asked the audience what they wanted to hear after each piece! The night was a BLAST!!!!!! I can't express how much fun everyone had! We had a ton of non-percussionists there too‚ which added another exciting element!
Casey started the show with a bang!
I had a great time chatting with the audience!
The Improv Groups were awesome!!!
Jake, Shaun and Fiona tearing it up on a cajon trio!
Had a great time playing with Daniel on his piece The Legacy
Found Instruments improv
Ended with a mass improv! It was amazing to see everyone involved!
"great job, everyone! Now...let's clean up!!!"
We couldn't have asked for a more successful festival! Jake, Charles and I were so happy that night! After cleaning everything, the Finnish groups hopped back in their vans and drove home (so crazy!), and the rest of us headed to the bar!! Wouldn't be a percussion event without a few drinks!
I was overwhelmed by the positive feedback from everyone in attendance. The students admitted they never knew that percussion music could be so exciting and diverse, and the teachers said they hadn't been to a more unique or well-organized event. I was overjoyed, and still am! We're collecting quotes from the attendees and will post them on our website once we have all of the evaluation forms.
The next morning, many of us headed to Stockholm at 6:30 in the morning to give another concert. There wasn't much time to bask in the festival success, but if you're going to do something...do it big! More about the Stockholm trip later. I've just written 5 blog entries after weeks and weeks of blog hiatus...time to take a break!
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