June Wrap Up

Its one hour into July out here. I graduated less than a week ago. I just played my debut in the Mechelen summer series, the original carillon summer series that inspired them all. Tomorrow morning my sister arrives from the US, and when she leaves a few days later, so do I -- first to the Netherlands for bell camp, then to Israel, on a US concert tour, and a stopover at NHC. That will carry me deep into August. When I return to Belgium, I'll have a couple of weeks to prepare for the biggest musical competition I've ever contemplated entering, do what I can to get my klavier ready, pack up, and head out.

This feels like the moment of transition. BZH I will be back, but today is the day that I prepare to depart. And though the part of me that likes to be on top of things is bemoaning all these travels whilst my klavier lays undone and my competition repertoire yet unpolished... I think the rest of me is good and ready for a break.

The last blog entry was something of a finish-line snapshot, but I want to go back and take a look at the month leading up to it. A lot happened during that month, I think. Much of it was long hard hours, but there were some adventures to be had in the spaces between... And so I present: June Wrap Up -- a look at the more interesting bits and pieces of this past month.

Kunst in het Groot Begininhof - A great day of rest



I needed a day off. It was shabbes and it was day 1 of Kunst in de Groot Begininhof -- which means, Art in the Groot Begininhof.

Beginin's were like nuns who didn't have to take a vow of poverty, and it was a really popular lifestyle in Belgium back in the day. The Begininhof is where they all lived, something like an enclosed neighborhood within a city, with windy narrow cobblestone streets and pretty buildings. There are no Beginin's left, but their neighborhoods are always the most picturesque parts of town, and I happen to live right in the middle of the Begininhof in Mechelen.

So, every year they have this event -- Art in the Big Beginin-hood. They invite international artists, pair them up with begininhof residents, who let the artists transform their homes into a gallery for their art, then everybody comes and walks from house to house, seeing what there is to see. A lot of the beauty of the Begininhof is behind closed doors, in the little courtyards and walled off yards, so it was great to just waltz into people's houses, walk through their gardens and take it all in. The weather was beautiful, the neighborhood was gorgeous, and the art was inspiring. I took some guilty photos, since I needed to share at least some of it with you all. Check out the flickr section to see some of the sights:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59706944@N00/sets/72157605909878861/



Overnight in Brussels, followed by...:
A couple of weeks ago I went to the orientation luncheon for the Belgian students travelling to the US through the organization that placed me in Belgium. This was great to get to hear all of their different projects and get caught up in the excitement (and hassle, can anyone say student visas?) of the beginning of the trip. A friend had a party the night before so I stayed over in Brussels and made a day of it.


Toru and Kasia in Mechelen, Leuven, Gent - plus Shavuot
The day after the Brussels overnight, I got a visit from two other up-and-coming carillonneurs. I took them up the tower in Mechelen, then instead of prudently sleeping for our early wakeup to go to Gent, we wound up at a third up-and-coming carillonneur's graduation party in Leuven. We got home at around 3am, and woke up maybe around 8am to go to Gent. Did I mention I went into this sleep deprived from my klavier work? Did I mention the next night was Shavuot?
We didn't play our best in Gent the next day, but we got to walk around and take a boat tour through the city. Pics on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59706944@N00/sets/72157605905062930/


There was a certain swing-of-extremes to this period -- most of the week I was working day and night and speaking to nobody. Then for a couple days I was doing nothing but travel, and socialness.

Toru and Kasia ended up staying that night rather than heading back to Amersfoort that day, which is lucky, because it was Shavuot and had not found myself anyone to celebrate with. Renaat from downstairs joined us for beer, frites, and "teaching each other things", the first of which was "why are we teaching each other things and what's this whole Shavuot deal?" Toru and Kasia passed out at around 1am. I had had a nap and Renaat stayed up with me until about 3am. I figured I had made it this far and should go for the whole night. The whole night, at this latitude, is only till about 5am or so. So I went out for a long walk. Mechelen gets really quiet and deserted that late. When I went to sleep the world was just waking up, but I got up for real, the sun was about as bright as I've ever seen it here.


Antwerp Fill-in:
Geert was in the US and asked me to fill in for him on the carillon in Antwerp. I called an Antwerp friend on the way and talked her into ditching work for a bit to come up with me. She's on a fellowship as well, so she sold it as her needing to meet with another fellow.

When I got to Antwerp, I found out that there was a big protest over the minimum wage. The entire square below the tower was filled with people chanting and blowing airhorns. They even had a stage and a band playing on the stage. So, I gave a concert for two on the 350-year old historic instrument instrument of Antwerp, and played along with the band during the gaps.



Baroque Chamber Music:

Speaking of concerts, this one was really cool! One of the other students here on the BAEF fellowship is here to study Baroque violin. It took actually going to one of her concerts to get what its all about. Theres this really vivid baroque historical performance chamber music scene going on in Brussels, and they're great! Makes me want to start playing in small ensembles. I saw some great musicians playing lots of instruments that really aren't supposed to be played anymore. Traverso, gamba and harpsichord? Seen it.
Unfortunately I didn't take any video, so you'll have to take my word that it was cool. Another perk, was going out for drinks afterwards and not being "the person who plays the weird instrument that nobody has heard of". Just one of many "people" who do so.


Amersfoort Utrecht Niewegein, Amsterdam, Football shenanigans:
One weekend after the prior carillon adventure, I returned the visit and headed up north to the Netherlands to stay with Toru and Kasia. Toru happens to live across the street from some barnyard animals. I'm still not sure quite why.

I visited the carillon in Niewegein, a trip which involved striking tram workers, and a long cab ride out to the suburbs of Utrecht which started with the usual bargaining over the fare and ended with me being called "A Liar and a Thief" (I've since checked it out with my Dutch friends and bargaining for long cab rides is totally normal, even in the Netherlands. Apparently I just got a crazy cabbie). It was worth the trip though, because the carillon at Niewegein is played by the only other Jewish carillonneur in Europe, or so I'm told. Moshe Lewkowitz. Here he is playing bei mir bist du schoen on the carillon there:



The next day it was off to Utrecht proper, to visit the most famous of the large Hemony carillons in the Dom Tower. It was football season and the Dutch team had just defeated the second of the top two teams in the competition. They lost the next game to the Russians, but before that happened, spirits were high and all carillon players were required to play the Dutch fight song (Hup Holland Hup) under threat of popular mob violence. Here's Arie Abbenes doing his rendition, once again on bells that were around long before my country was even conceived:



Another perk of visiting during the good times of Dutch football was seeing great random displays of spirit, for example -- this boa-rollerblade parade (Not LGBT related at all, though admittedly quite fabulous):



After Utrecht, we stopped off in Amsterdam to visit Gideon (who also gave a rendition of Hup Holland Hup). At that point, over-imbibed and well-underslept, I decided to cancel the next morning's trip to the smaller carillon of Utrecht, and opted for a quiet day of practice at the Dutch school.




Brussels, Laren, Venlo, Mechelen
I began summer touring! This past week, amidst finals and graduation craziness, I've played 4 concerts. They're either right in my neighborhood, or a big 3-hour train journey away. Three hours is FAR in these countries, and I've forgotten how close that is in US terms. But I've gotten to see some nice towns. Venlo in particular, right on the Dutch-German border, was great. Lots of good street music and festivities. Apparently it was just an ordinary Saturday to them, but they had one of the best accordian-clarinet duos I've seen in a while.





Well, that's about it, or at least that's all I can remember. There were lots of other good things I'm sure, but that's what I get for postponing writing all of this down.

And now, you're moment of Zen: If football is the official sport of the Dutch, eating raw fish is the unofficial one. Here's Richard digging into one during a break from the klavier werkdag. I treat my helpers well - raw fish for everyone!

The Graduate

I am now a graduate, with great distinction, of the oldest and most prestigious carillon school in the world. Huzzah!

Some of the adventure leading up: I'd been working VERY hard at my practice carillon - 8hrs per day, with frequent overtime. But even that wasn't enough. In order to actually have something to show for my thesis work on the day of my defense, I needed to call in the reserves. The Saturday before my presentation, I had 4 carillon students come to the workshop to spend half a day helping with the building. Two came back to help the day before my final exam, performance, and thesis defense. Many thanks to those students! One of the students made a movie of the first work day -- you can see that at the bottom.

On the day before my exam and defense, the plan was to assemble the thing, get it to the presentation room, and be done by 3pm to leave for a concert I was playing in the Netherlands that evening, 3 hours away. When 3pm came, almost all the parts were ready, but none of the assembly had taken place. I had to board the train north, and one very dedicated guy (the camera clown in the movie below) stayed after I left to do the assembly -- all-in-all, pulling a 10 hour day on a project that wasn't even his. Many MANY thanks to Richard!

I played my concert in the Netherlands, which was a nice break from all the stress, and a nice warm up for getting back into the performing mindset. The trains didn't run late enough to get me back to Belgium, So I slept over in Amersfoort with Toru, a student at the Dutch school. Toru will be giving me a run for my money in the upcoming competitions, but for now he's the guy I drink tea with way too early in the morning.
At 5:55am I was awake, then jogging to the train station, then on a 3hr train ride back to Belgium. Back in Mechelen, I went straight to the workshop and spent the two hours before my thesis defense adjusting and smoothing out the action of the manuals key-by-key. I got about 20 of them done. Enough for a demo. 10 minutes after the scheduled start of my defense I walked through the door carrying half a practice carillon. The results were very positive.
I ran home, charged some recording equipment, burned some CDs of my written thesis to hand in, and climbed the tower to warm up for my final exam concert. I played on less than 6 hours of sleep, and though it wasn't perfect, I think it was quite good and I'm pleased with it as a step forward in learning to perform on high pressure occasions. Here's a clip: The carillon's automatic play mechanism decided to join in for a bit, but if you ignore that, it was probably the best piece of the exam.




Now I crash for a bit. There's still a lot of work to be done -- the second half of the practice carillon; perfecting the first half; preparing for 2 big competitions. But... I get a day off. And if I get my way, I'm not going to do things with as much crazy as this past month has been.

So For now, enjoy this video, made by one of the students at the school, of my practice carillon in the making. We were doing a lot more work than it portrays, but I guess you don't really film too much of the working parts: