X. International SWISS Panflöten Seminar in Winkel bei Zürich
A Panflutey Weekend in Winkel
From 1 till 3 October there was the Panflute Seminar of Michael Dinner and Dan Herford In Winkel near Zürich. It was already for the 10th time! I was there for the 7th time. So you could already speak of a tradition!
The guest teacher was Vasile Iovu, again . Since almost everybody comes back after the first time, he is well known (and liked) by all the students. For the people who do not know him yet: he is the panflute teacher of the Music Highschool in Chisinau in Moldavia. In Moldavia he is quite as well known as Zamfir who by the way has taught him a lot. If you want a superb player of doinas, he is your man!
As a surprise for the 10th anniversary, Dan had invited a cymbalist. Maybe you know that in traditional Romanian taraf (a Romanian folklore orchestra) there is sure to be a cymbal.
For most of the students the Seminar started with the welcome apéro on Friday evening. However,for whoever wanted something extra, there was also the possibilty to take a private lesson with Dan. Bert, Daniel and I happily made use of that. Dan makes you work hard, but you learn a lot.
After the welcome drink we all eat together. And then the festival starts. Lots of music , with at times the whole group playing together. Don’t worry if you really don’t want, you are not forced to do so! However, even I participated, and playing in public is not really my thing.
For my group the lessons started with Michael. This means that we had a relatively quiet time. As far as that is possible when you are supposed to study a lot of tunes for the concert the day after. But don’t worry; if you do not feel at ease with a melody, you don’t have to play it on the concert. Better leave it to the better players.
After lunch it was Dan’s turn to train us. As I said, that means hard work, especially as he tends to be optimistic about the amount of music we can study at home. Unfortunately, we do have a lot of other things that must be done. Very few of the participants of the seminar are professional musicians. But all can learn from the profis!! And enjoy themselves at the same time!!
The last one to teach us on Saturday was Vasile Iovu. In Moldavia he is as well known as Zamfir. However, he does not have star manners. In fact, he told us, that the practicing of tone scales reminded him of his youth. He had not done that for so long. As a student he often played in the cellar of the building where he lived, in order to avoid bothering the other inhabitants. In spite of this precaution he was sometimes threatened with expulsion. Luckily, he always had protectors.
So, if you are having problems with neighbours because of your music, you are in good company! He had it too. Virginia clearly had a good time too, interpreting all he said from Rumanian into German. I bet it is a nice change with the kind of things she usually has to translate. Although that might be interesting as well, but rather sad at times I guess. As a matter of fact, she often interprets for criminals.
In the evening we ate together and had fun. Of course there was a lot of music with panflutes, cymbal and guitar and piano.
Sunday is always a busy day. To begin with, there are more lessons. The first hour we had Vasile Iovu entertaining us again. Then we got two hours with Constantin Raducanu. This was an interesting experience too. We practiced the pieces for the concert with our small group. After lunch we had choir practice with all the groups together. This of course was the final rehearsal for the concert. Here Dan was our director. Dear Dan, I hope we did not disappoint you too much with the fact that we had not managed to study all the pieces you would have liked us to play in this jubliee concert. We do our best, but we students are generally no profis. We have to fit in our music study between the other things we must do. Anyway, thank heaven , there are some good players among us who support the weaker ones (like me). And in the second half of the concert it is the turn of the soloists. They always do a super job! Yes you do! The reaction of the audience was accordingly enthousiatic! If you would like to hear what was played, look at fotos. Then you can see a lot of pictures and hear the music.
It was a superb seminar again. Thanks a lot Michael, Dan, Maestro Iovu and Virginia!
See you again in autumn!
Famke
last update 26. Oktober 2010