Internationales SWISS Panflötenseminar
Für alle Panflötenspieler die Freude am musizieren haben und immer offen für Neues sind. In familiärer Atmosphäre mit Gleichgesinnten Panflötespielen. Sowohl Anfänger als auch versierte Spieler können von Virtuosen profitieren.
Impressionen vom Panflötenseminar 2008:
VI. internationales SWISS Panflöten Seminar
Oktober 2006 mit dem Meister der Panflöte Simion Radu , mit Dan Herford und Michael Dinner
Ein Bericht von Famke (eine Teilnehmerin aus Luxemburg)
A wonderful course in Winkel
This year I went again to the panflute course of Michael Dinner and Dan Herford. For the third time already! This time the course was held in Landgasthof “Breitti” in Winkel, between Kloten und Bülach, not far from Zürich. A very nice place!
You know that there always is a guest teacher. This time it was intended that it would be Stefan Negura from Moldova. However, he could not get a visa. Michael and Dan then managed to engage no one less than Radu Simion to replace him! Do you remember that he was a teacher at our course two years ago as well? It was nice to see Simion again! He was clearly touched by the way he was received by the people who already knew him.
Simion explained us that he was very tired. The evening before, the restaurant in Bucarest where he usually plays had reopened after 7 months of renovation work. They had organized a huge party, to which the mayor of Bucarest and many other officials had been invited. Simion had played the whole evening, till midnight. However, he had to rise at 4 o'clock in the morning, because his plane left early. So there had not been much sleep for him!
On Friday afternoon, the others participants arrived. As usual, everybody had to play something. This helps the teachers to decide in which group you should be placed.
O.k. Dan, you were quite right in saying that I should not have chosen the piece I played (which was too difficult for me), but playing solo is not really my thing anyway. I was so nervous that I would probably have ruined any piece. But newcomer, don't worry, they won't send you home, even if you make a mess of it!
After this, we had dinner together. During the evening we sat together and made music. I think most of us had thought that Radu Simion would spare himself a bit, because he was so tired. However, he could not wait to start teaching us. Already now, he was doing his best to get music into our heads. We used no partitions that evening, but since it was an informal thing, it did not matter if you did not manage too well. Later, when other people started playing, he could not resist the temptation to join them. He was playing the whole evening. By the way, did you know that he has a lovely little granddaughter? He told some of us about her. Apparently, he is a very proud granddaddy.
On Saturday my group started with Dan as a teacher. This is always hard work, but you learn a lot. As usual, we had an extensive warming-up. After that, we played some nice Romanian folklore tunes. In between, Michael came in, took pictures and gave some help where necessary. The poor fellow was quite worried, when he saw how tired I got. Let’s say if you have to cure out Lyme disease (thank heaven diagnosed and treated in an early stage) that is tiring in itself. But I managed more or less. It was great fun, nevertheless.
After lunch it was Radu Simion’s turn to teach us. This time we played with partitions. Here too, we learned a lot and, besides, had good fun.
After the lessons we all had a nice drink together. We talked about “false friends” in languages; words that mean something different in another language. Radu Simion told us something he had seen during a tour with his orchestra and dance group in Japan. At a certain moment, he counted: One, two, three, four,Five! In Romanian of course. When he said : “Five!” the audience laughed. A bit later he introduced the musicians. Of one of them he said that he played on his cimpoi, which is a kind of bagpipe. The people laughed again. During the break Simion asked the interpreter what he had said. The interpreter explained laughing himself that in Japanese cengo ( Dan, do I say it correctly?) means “trousers” and cimpoi means “tail”. So they heard that the man played on his tail!
On Sunday my group started with two hours of rehearsal for the concert. You know that these courses always end with a concert of the teachers and the students together. Of course, Radu Simion was the star here.
The piece “Fröhliche Musikanten” (Merry musicians) was in 4 voices. It had, of course, to be decided who would play which voice. Another piece was “Barbu Lautaru”. Michael helped us finding our way.
In the meantime, we got a little demonstration of how a panflute can be repaired. One of the tubes of Dan's instrument had cracked. He showed us how, in this case, it was not necessary to replace the tube. Michael glued it, using a little wadded stick. Then he taped it for a while. After about 20 minutes he removed the tape and let the tube sing again. Michael, please correct me when I am not quite correct about this event!
After lunch we had a rehearsal with all the groups together. Kiyomi Higaki, the organist who often plays with Michael, joined us to participate in the concert. Dan is the director in the concert and therefore he also leads this rehearsal. Of course, everybody is a bit nervous. It may well happen that arrangements or accompaniments are changed at this moment. But don't worry, it always works in the end. And If like me, you often get lost while playing in a concert, you can stop and join in again later. There are enough good musicians to cover you.
At the concert itself we played for about 70 persons. It was quite full. Of course, a lot of them are also panflutists or family members of participants of the course. However there are other music lovers as well. In the first half, all of us (teachers, organist and students) played together.
In the second half Radu Simion played together with Michael Dinner, both on the panflute, Dan Herford on the guitar and Kiyomi Higaki on the piano. That was absolutely super! Arlette, I suppose your parents liked the panflute before this concert, but anyway they certainly liked it afterwards! And so did all the others.
It was also nice to meet Willi and Francesco of the Arosa Seminar again. And Yven I think it was worth it to come all the way from Tessin, wasn't it? Of course they were invited to the meal afterwards.
Helen, your nonsense-tales were hilarious! I cannot repeat them here. People should hear it for themselves.
On Monday morning, Michael brought Dan and me to Kloten Airport. Dan went to get his plane and I went to the train station, on my way to Zurich and Luxembourg. There, I was amazed to hear a panflute again. Did you know that Octavio Rocabado from Bolivia often plays at Kloten, when he is in Switzerland? There he was! He was one of the teachers in the Dajoeri course at Arosa this year (teaching Bolivian folklore music).
We had a nice talk and he asked me whether he could try my flute. Octavio played some beautiful melodies on it.
Did you know that Octavio has an ecological farm in Bolivia? With his music he earns the money he needs for expanding his farm. So, if you want to support ecological farming in Bolivia, here is a simple way to do it!
Do we see you at the Seminar next year?
Michael and Dan, thank you very much for organizing this super event!
Musical greetings
Famke
last update 1. November 2008