Internatial SWISS PANFLUTE Seminar
The Panflute students have fun together playing their favorite music in a friendly and familiar atmosphere. Learn from Masters like Damian Luca, Simion Radu, Vasile Iovu or Cornel Pana.
VII. international SWISS Panflute Seminar
Pan-ic in Winkel near Zurich
The organisors of the panflute weekend Dan Herford from Holland and Michael Dinner spent more than two hours at the airport in Zurich and tried to meet the moldovan panflute virtuoso Stefan Negura. But he was not on the flight!
Over the course of the weekend we found out that he had troubles leaving the country ant that he could not come to Switzerland (for the second time).Since Dan Herford is toughend with experience as organisor of the Fanica Luca - festivals he immediately developed a slighly adjusted agenda.
About the special guest - Ion TanaseIon Tanase from Moldova lives and makes music in Holland. He is an excellent clarinet and accordeon player. He says about himself that both instrument are hin main instruments. He owns a incredible repertoire and pretends righly that he has a small musical library in his head.With his brother Cristinel, who plays violin, he did and does several concerts series.
Something for the connoisseur – Master classDan Herford and Michael Dinner came up with the idea of something special for the seventh semiar. They did a master class about indepth information about romanian folk music.What is the difference between the different regions of Romania and what instruments are played how in what region? To be able to talk competently talk about romanian folk music it is important to have a romanian background and being familiar and grown up with the culture. Because Dan Herford is a native Romanian and on top of that also owns a sound standing classical education he was able to explain the differences very comprehensibly for non romanians. The very interesting lesson came to and end when the seminar was supposed to begin. Building Groups on Friday NightIt was a pleasure to see that again new panflute enthusiats decided to join the weekend and spend a few days with music!
The semiar started decently and after a few initiatory words the music playing started. Apart from pure fun it was also about building groups or classes for the lessons of Saturday and Sunday. Though some think it is a torture to play in public it is not about to compromise anyone, it is more about that everyone plays a few notes. Michael and Dan then try to build groups based on many criterias to guarantee fun and also benefits for every attendee.
After playing a few songs together everyone played a „solo“ and it was over more quickly than thought.It was great that Georg Conradin joined who just came from recording a album in Romania with romanian music. He played a few songs of his CD that Dan Herford produced. After tha we enjoyed a delicious dinner and music till midnight. Ion Tanase and Dan Herford, like all romanians can hardly stop to play music. There is only one way to stop it – take away their instruments …Let’s practice on Saturday Every attendee did get the repertoire of the course in advance for practice. This year a playback-CD was, for the first time, included to support the practice. On Saturday the different pieced were explained, practiced and intensively played. Ion accompanied with his accordeon, Michael with his guitar and Dan with the piano. Of course a lot of helpfull advice on panflute technique in between.At lunch in the restaurant a guest asked the team if someone could play a piece for him since he had his birthday. Daniel spontaneously started to play „Happy Birthday“ on his flute. Just enough time for Ion Tanase to pick up his accordeon and support Daniel for another few songs. The birthday child did enjoy this spontaneous serenade!
After the rest of the lessons and a healthy dinner the host of the restaurant Breiti was asked whether he would mind if a few songs were played. After his approval for a few songs a more than two hour entertainment of different musical styles started. The involuntary audience was entertained with panflute, vocals, guitar and accordeon and visibly liked it!I begin to play the flute on a SundayOn Sunday morning another couple of lessons were held and also the choir rehearsal started.
At the rehearsal the incident happend that Dan’s old flut fell of the piano and broke into two pieces. Every instrumentalist knows about the relationship between human being and instrument and that the value of an instrument is much higher than just the “bamboo”. But no one could reverse the mishap! Dan was very professional though very moved about this incident. After a coffee in the garden of the restaurant the first guests for the concert at 6pm arrived. Like alway the concert was very dynamic and a little bit improvised. This is the only way to create that lively interaction between audience, instrumentalists and music that belongs to the romanian music.Dan as multiinstrumentalist and versed choir conductor lead competently through the concert and accompanied with piano, guitar and introduced new ideas and changes to the arrangments on the fly. A very special climax was Michael Dinner’s interpretation of J.S. Bach’s „Air“ and Vivaldi’s „Winter“. He played these pieces very expressively and technically extremely accurate and with a wonderfull sound. The audience asked for more and more.
Dinner, Herford; Higaki; Tanase (v.l.n.r)
Everything comes to an end The clarinet was not used much by Ion Tanase and it was a great pleasure to hear Ion play some very tender and sweet songs on this instrument. After the “last supper” and much music the seventh semiar ended, once again too early …Summary - 7 reasons to joine the 8th seminar in 2008!
- Being focussed on music for three days and learn much about music playing!
- Feel the lively romanian music
- Rehearse and appear on a concert
- the company of nice people
- very competent teachers
- Deepen friedship to your flute
- ... of course much fun and joiy!
last update 1. November 2008