Children, Singing and Playing

A truly important part of the conference experience is the opportunity to attend performances of children's ensembles.  Choirs, Orff ensembles, movement and dance ensembles, from  every level of education have been part of conferences past.  This year there were fewer concerts, but the groups were spectacular and because of some serious schedule shifting, audiences were very large.

The Grace Christian School Recorder ensemble played in the conference theater to a standing room only crowd with folks standing outside the door.  The ensemble of middle and high school students performed for 30 minutes.  Most notably, they were joined by their school superintendent on the final song.

The rest of the children's performances that I caught at least parts of were three marimba band/orff ensembles.  Strangely enough there were no children's choirs this year.  I ran into Shirley McRae in the lobby of the DoubleTree and she pointed it to my attention.  Sadly, the cost of bringing an ensemble to the conference has diminished the number of groups that actually apply to attend and perform. Choirs are generally large and therefore expensive if they have to travel very far.   One point might well be that in all but two of the groups, singers were part of the ensemble.  This reflects a truer presentation of the Schulwerk perhaps, but leaves out a very special commodity and area of interest for the conference attendees.  I hope we'll see some choirs in Pittsburgh next year!

Brent with Director, Anita Edwards

The highlight performance for me from the children was the fantastic program presented by the Fremont H. Teed Elementary 6th Grade Orff Percussion Ensemble from Kuna, Idaho, directed by Anita Edwards.  They combined speech, orff instruments and singing in sparkling and fresh arrangements of Orff classics as well as newly composed tunes from composers currently publishing.  (Disclaimer: They performed six pieces written by yours truly.  I was delighted and thoroughly surprised!)

Their arrangements were student/teacher collaborations in the truest sense of Orff Schulwerk.  The orchestrations  were bubbly, and sparkled with the energy and enthusiasm of children led by a teacher in love with their music making, enjoying it thoroughly with spontaneous wonderment and joy.  This truly showed the essence of Orff Schulwerk.

The Fremont H. Teed Orff Ensemble

Serendipity

AOSA conferences are filled with a spirit of serendipity.  Spontaneous meetings with friends, unexpected amazing moments, new discoveries in the cities where the conferences are held, and lots and lots of hugs.

A highlight of this conference was a purely-by-chance meeting with Tom, Rosie, and Bonnie.  Tom plays Irish whistle and bohdran, and Rosie and Bonnie play fiddle.  Tom and Rosie met at the Paul Winter session and began to share tunes.

I immediately found them and borrowed a guitar from Jeffry, a workshop participant.  We moved outside into the hallway where Bonnie found us.  We sat and played for a few minutes until we had to leave for our sessions.  We all traded emails and phone numbers and promised to meet in the same hallway the next day for a longer session.

We eventually were able to have two more sessions of tunes during the rest of the conference.  It was a fun display of spontaneous music making that was appreciated by the folk passing by.  For us it was a lot of fun to have folks stop and listen.  We had a couple of folks stop by and do some Irish dancing!  Very cool.

We've named ourselves "Celtorf" and have promised each other to meet up in Pittsburgh next year.  If any one wants to join us just leave a comment on the blog or email me directly at brentholl@mac.com.

Paul Winter at AOSA in Spokane

For me it has turned into the Paul Winter Conference.  One of the most important principles of Orff-Schulwerk is improvisation and Mr. Winter has made a career of it.  My double session on Thursday was as beautiful a process as I've ever seen as he slowly built our confidence and technique helping us each find our own voices

"Honor the uniqueness of your own voice. There is no competition."

The session began with four participants, in chairs sitting in a square formation.  This began the warm-up.  (The warm-up actually lasted until the final activity more that 2 hours later!)  The lights were dimmed and they were invited to play a long tone on the instruments available.  We had a cello, a recorder, a clarinet and Paul on soprano saxophone.  The four tones were played and a chord was created spontaneously.  At that point and after every stage of the process Mr. Winter would stop, give us his observations and allow the participants to share theirs as well. Some examples from Mr. Winter:

"Your silence is a gift to the ensemble."

"Relax into the space."

"Don't get hung up on semantics, you are simply learning to 'noodle.'"

"Minimize the visual, focus on the aural. It's the listening that brings empowerment.  It's the darkness that brings us into a presence."

The process was thoughtful, introspective, and meditative, touching each of us in our own creative spirit. The process continued with short tones, loud tones, and quiet tones. All of us were invited to participate in this process and we all shared our four person improvisations.

As the session neared the end of the warm-up, he invited us to participate in a group improvisation.  The entire event lasted approximately 10 minutes and encompassed a wide range of human interaction. There were the loud voices, the soft voices, the impatient voices, the persistent voices, the patient voices and finally, the community voice.

Mr. Winter's final comment: "Each of you is right with how you want it to be."

Truer words were never spoken.

At Last, The Conference

Children's Art Decorates the Hallways

The official part of the conference for us usually begins on Wednesday evening with the opening display of exhibits and a reception, followed by dinner with a group of friends that we meet up with at this session.  This year's conference is a little different because the exhibits are not going to be open until Thursday evening.  The AOSA scheduled two group sessions on Wednesday evening that were designed to get folks together and do some mixers and group activities.  Jim Solomon led a Drum Jam and the Amidon's lead some group singing and dancing to close the evening.

We had our usual dinner with friends and attended the late session.  This of course was after our tour of Grand Coulee so we suffered a bit of travel fatigue.  I like the Wednesday group sessions idea and in my observations, they were very well attended.

Thursday included sessions all day which for me, starting with learning about the Promethean whiteboard system, moving on to interesting and creative ways to adapt modal pieces from the Orff volumes, and two sessions with the improvisation master, Paul Winter.

The whiteboard session was interesting because of the prevalence of these learning tools in classrooms around the country.  Beatin' Path Publications has released several books including ready-made visuals specifically for whiteboards.  According to feedback in the session this is a great idea and folks appreciate having ready made flip charts that they can feed directly into the white board software.

Paul Winter's sessions were worth the price of admission, definitely the highlight of the conference for me.  The three hour session took us from the very beginnings of improvisation to a full-fledged group improvisation session at the end, with the final experience a vocal improv based on the drone and the major scale.  Amazing!

Paul Winter and his Consort will be doing the Friday evening concert.

More Pictures of the Conference can by found at my Mobile Me Conference Gallery.

AOSA 2010 - Grand Coulee Dam

Sage Brush Seeds.  This plant was common
along the roads and across the prairie.

Today we rose a little later after a good night's sleep and drove 88 miles through the countryside to The Grand Coulee Dam.  What an amazing, technological wonder.  The dam was built in the 30's  as a way to help farmers irrigate their land.  It has been a major success as the Columbia River system now provides a huge percentage of the nation's farm products.

The Fog Covered River

The sights began shortly after we left Spokane. The roads were so straight, the dotted yellow line in the middle turned into a solid yellow ribbon. The fields of grain along the side of the road were yellow with last year's crop and, at the same time green with next year's.  The purple mountains in the near distance faded into snow capped peaks in the far away distance. We passed  a fog covered river, the thick cloud blanket completely obscured the water below.  The sky was wide, clear, and vibrant blue the weather once again was our friend.

Grant Lake behind Coulee Dam

As we approached the Dam, we began to see glimpses of Lake Roosevelt.  We finally drove up to the dam and went into the Visitor Center.  I signed the guest book and left a comment, "This is a techological marvel and a worthy stimulus project."

The Spillway

Michael Looks Down on the Spillway

We were able to get a tour of the Dam.  We visited the huge room with 6 humming generators of immense size.  Our guide filled us in on the magnificent power of the water that turns them converting the water's energy into electricity.  We finished our tour by driving along the top of the dam, stopping to view the spillway.

We finished our tour with a recommendation for lunch from Sean, our tour guide.  We ate at a little Pizzeria in the town of Grand Coulee.

The Town of Grand Coulee and the Bridge 

We're back in Spokane now, we've returned our rental car and we are ready for a great AOSA conference.  The next installments of the blog will be news and pics of the conference as they happen.

You can find more pictures of the Grand Coulee excursion on my Spokane Gallery, Grand Coulee

AOSA 2010 - The Columbia Gorge

Wind Farms

Combine the most beautiful scenery with some good company and an absolutely perfect day of weather and you have the makings of a very successful road trip.  The Columbia River Gorge is one of the most scenic places on earth and our weather was the rarest of the best on the this second day of November, 2010. Sunny and warm with only a hint of a breeze.  The windmills on the ridges around the edges of the gorge were barely moving.

Ritzville Main Street

The sun shone warm our faces as we drove the three hours from Spokane to the town of Pasco near the beginning of the gorge.  We stopped first in a little town called Ritzville just an hour out of town.  We found the historic downtown section and a nice little grocery store where we were able to buy some supplies for the day.  It was the only place open on the whole street. 

The town was established by nurseryman and florist, Philip Ritz.  We found his statue on Frontier Square.  After a nice walk around town, we headed down route 395 for Pasco, one of the Tri-Cities at the bend in the Columbia River.

First View of the Columbia River

Just outside of town on Route 12, we got our first glimpse of the Columbia River.  We all thought it was quite majestic and beautiful as we stopped and snapped our first batch of pictures.  I have been through the gorge once before and I told my travel companions, Michael Nichols, Judy Burnett, and Gretchen Jensen that it would only get better, more majestic and rugged, and more beautiful as we would make our way west.

Colors on the River

As we travelled farther west my prediction proved true.  We traveled on Highway 14 on the Washington side of the gorge.  This was the "high" side and the scenery was magnificent.  Around each bend and over each hill the views simply took our breath away.  The joke of the day was "Stop the car! There's another photo op!"  The Columbia River itself is a deep blue, matching the cloudless sky.  The mountains, rocks and ridges added contrasting colors, while the leaves on the grapevines, and islands of trees add some magnificent fall colors to the scenes.

After a quick lunch at Paterson's Diner, we were back on the road for The Dalles.  This was our turning point.

Our destination for the day.

We started out at 8:00 this morning and arrived here at around 2:45.  We crossed the river and drove home to a fine dinner at Shenanigan's Irish Pub.  Another great day!

Tomorrow we'll head northwest to the Grand Coulee Dam and surrounding area.  We'll see what we can find!

More pictures can be found on my Spokane Gallery - Columbia Gorge.

Michael, Gretchen and Judy.

Day 1 in Spokane

Red Lion River Inn

Sleeping in is a rare privilege.  After finally turning in at 3:57 AM body time, (12:57 PM PST) I felt like it was worth it to sleep till about 9:30.  My body has adjusted to the time lag and hooray!  We're ready to go see the town of Spokane.

After a good breakfast buffet at the Red Lion River Inn, we set out to walk to the Visitor Center to find some things to do.  Michael and I have often used this strategy when we travel.  The folks we find there are always helpful and pretty soon we have a full itinerary.  Our helper this time, found us some maps and made some great suggestions.

We've decided to rent a car and head southwest tomorrow morning to the great Columbia River Gorge.  We'll leave as early as we can get the car and return when we're tired of driving. On Wednesday we'll take the car northwest to the Grand Coulee Dam to see the sights and take a tour.  Wednesday evening the conference will begin, so we'll be back in time to return the car and attend the opening group sessions.

After leaving the Visitor Center, Michael and I made for the Post Office to pick up a few flat rate boxes and postage.  We'll ship any items we buy that we can't fit in our luggage for the trip home. We headed for Riverside Park just as it began to rain.

Riverside Park

I had forgotten my umbrella, so off we went on an umbrella hunt.  We wanted to walk through the park and look at the sights.  We found a sweet little game store called, Uncles Games.  I walked in and asked if they had any umbrellas for sale.  They had a costume umbrella that looked like a sword for 30 bucks so I passed.  Then to my amazement the young clerk went to a corner of the store and brought me a battered and worn golf umbrella and said, "Here you go.  Take mine."  I was a little dumfounded but I took the umbrella and gave him a 10 dollar bill, and walked away with a smile.  I'm pretty sure I'll return the umbrella before Sunday when I leave.

We walked to Riverside Park.  The colors were beautiful and Michael and I enjoyed walking and taking pictures.  The most famous sculpture in the park is the famous "Red Wagon."

We walked through the park and met up with friends, Gretchen Jensen and Judy Burnett at the very nice pub, Shenanigans.  We had a nice lunch and planned our Tuesday and Wednesday itinerary.  They agreed to join us on the trip and we're happy to split the cost of the rental car four ways.  It will be a very nice way to see the lay of the land.

Off to Spokane

Trips to conference are sometimes pretty interesting and sometimes uneventful.  In 2005, the year of  Katrina, the conference was in Birmingham, Alabama.  I drove from Bridgewater to New Orleans to visit my daughter just two months after the storm. Driving across the old Route 11 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain past houses, autos, and buildings that had been swept off their foundations and covered with debris and driving through the city to the garden district was one of the most poignant and emotion-filled journeys of my life. After a visit of a day and a half, I collected my daugher Jessica and we attended the conference together.

The trip home from that conference was one of the most beautiful drives I can remember.  In the South, the leaves had just reached full color and the mountains of Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia were incredible that year.

This year's trip was of the uneventful nature.  Because we're here near the West Coast (on the sunny side of the state), the trip took  about 15 hours from the time I left Bridgewater until I arrived at my hotel in Spokane.  I drove to Dulles, stopped over in Denver and then on to Spokane.  My good friend from the Virginia Highlands Chapter, Gretchen Jensen, had already arrived and texted me at Dulles before the plane left.  I'm sure we'll meet up at the conference along with many old and new friends.  Early birding, is what I've been doing for years and Gretchen has caught the bug too.  We'll spend 3 days exploring the town before conference starts.

I'm rooming again with my travel mate and good friend, Michael Nichols.  We'll sleep in tomorrow morning and then go out on the city and see what we can find.  One interesting new twist to the trip this year.... I flew paperless. I used my iPhone as a boarding pass.  United sent a bar coded boarding pass via email that I was able to scan in at the airport to get through security and to board the plane at the gate.