Yet another great day at ISME! The first session I attended was the keynote address given by a panel of four Brazilians involved in different aspects of education. They each presented a great deal of information about the history and current state of affairs in Brazilian education and music education. This time around, I had a headset through which I could listen to a translation in English. I learned a great deal and took many notes about the challenges and charges facing education in Brazil.
I had to leave the keynote a bit early in order to set up for our Space Genetics set. Our performance was to take place in the main lobby of the central room of the conference--a 'high traffic' area, where people stopped to listen on a daily basis to the variety of ensembles who performed there. As in the night before, our setup was easy thanks to the great sound technicians provided by ISME. The sound was great, and the large space was very reverberant and well-suited to our music. The group who performed before us was from the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. An outstanding brass ensemble performed first, followed by a spirited performance by an ensemble playing traditional Scottish music on guitar, fiddles, flute, and pipes. Both were outstanding groups and really had the crowd into it.
We started our Space Genetics set shortly after. We played a 40 minute set of 5 compositions/improvisations. It was surely quite a contrast to go from traditional Scottish music to experimental music from the US, but the crowd was quite receptive, and several people stayed for the duration of our set. I met some great people afterward who had many nice things to say, particularly about some of their endeavors in experimental or electronic music in their countries/schools. We did record our performance, and I'm looking forward to listening back.
After tearing down our gear, I went to a session given by Norwegian Roy Waade with whom I met and had dinner earlier in the week. He gave an engaging presentation about the value of improvisation and the rationale for teaching improvisation in schools. Roy is committed, as am I, to the serious study of improvisation in music education. It may be possible to have Roy come to Pingree in September in order to observe music classes and to share some of his expertise. We are going to work out some details connected to his upcoming visit to the US. Later, I attended a session that focused on a "problem-creating" approach to teaching composition given by Dr. Eddy Chong from Nayang Technological University in Singapore.
Unfortunately, the weather continued to be pretty awful, raining and cold all day. We opted to stay at the hotel for dinner.
I had to leave the keynote a bit early in order to set up for our Space Genetics set. Our performance was to take place in the main lobby of the central room of the conference--a 'high traffic' area, where people stopped to listen on a daily basis to the variety of ensembles who performed there. As in the night before, our setup was easy thanks to the great sound technicians provided by ISME. The sound was great, and the large space was very reverberant and well-suited to our music. The group who performed before us was from the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. An outstanding brass ensemble performed first, followed by a spirited performance by an ensemble playing traditional Scottish music on guitar, fiddles, flute, and pipes. Both were outstanding groups and really had the crowd into it.
We started our Space Genetics set shortly after. We played a 40 minute set of 5 compositions/improvisations. It was surely quite a contrast to go from traditional Scottish music to experimental music from the US, but the crowd was quite receptive, and several people stayed for the duration of our set. I met some great people afterward who had many nice things to say, particularly about some of their endeavors in experimental or electronic music in their countries/schools. We did record our performance, and I'm looking forward to listening back.
After tearing down our gear, I went to a session given by Norwegian Roy Waade with whom I met and had dinner earlier in the week. He gave an engaging presentation about the value of improvisation and the rationale for teaching improvisation in schools. Roy is committed, as am I, to the serious study of improvisation in music education. It may be possible to have Roy come to Pingree in September in order to observe music classes and to share some of his expertise. We are going to work out some details connected to his upcoming visit to the US. Later, I attended a session that focused on a "problem-creating" approach to teaching composition given by Dr. Eddy Chong from Nayang Technological University in Singapore.
Unfortunately, the weather continued to be pretty awful, raining and cold all day. We opted to stay at the hotel for dinner.
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