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| Advanced Suzuki violins |
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| Everyone participates, even the youngest violinists! |
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| Umoja Ensemble: "Ninapenda kula..." |
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| Umoja Ensemble |
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| My drumming debut! |
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| Danielle conducting Mungu Ibariki Africa |
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Concert pictures!
December 10 Umoja End of Term Concert:
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
A Musical Celebration
This past Saturday afternoon was Umoja's end-of-term concert. It was a great success!
The eclectic program included:
A "Suzuki play-down" with all 30+ violin students on stage at the same time
Piano, violin and guitar group class presentations
Umoja Ensemble singing traditional music and a newly-composed song by Danielle!
A jazz ensemble
A movement of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto performed by several advanced students
Danielle's arrangement of Mungu Ibariki Afrika (Tanzania's national anthem) for pianos, flutes, violins, guitars, and singers
A lot of work and preparation went into this epic performance, from organizing the program to making stage set-up charts to rehearsing with students to publicity to catering... and of course, all the students practiced and prepared and really rose to the occasion in the performance.
It was great to have everyone involved in Umoja together in one place: international school students, outreach students, Umoja Ensemble kids, all the teachers, and of course everyone's families! Not to mention a sizeable audience from the Arusha community.
Several personal highlights: leading the big group of violins, getting to play for Danielle's Umoja Ensemble song, making my public debut on a drum (!), participating in the national anthem ensemble (it is such a beautiful song -- look it up on youtube), and being hugged after the concert by my youngest student, a little Tanzanian boy who until recently has been very shy around me and often looked sad. But after the concert he not only gave me a hug but he had a big grin on his face! A wonderful moment.
And now: countdown to Canada! I will be home for a visit from Dec.21 - Jan.8. Really looking forward to it.
The eclectic program included:
A "Suzuki play-down" with all 30+ violin students on stage at the same time
Piano, violin and guitar group class presentations
Umoja Ensemble singing traditional music and a newly-composed song by Danielle!
A jazz ensemble
A movement of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto performed by several advanced students
Danielle's arrangement of Mungu Ibariki Afrika (Tanzania's national anthem) for pianos, flutes, violins, guitars, and singers
A lot of work and preparation went into this epic performance, from organizing the program to making stage set-up charts to rehearsing with students to publicity to catering... and of course, all the students practiced and prepared and really rose to the occasion in the performance.
It was great to have everyone involved in Umoja together in one place: international school students, outreach students, Umoja Ensemble kids, all the teachers, and of course everyone's families! Not to mention a sizeable audience from the Arusha community.
Several personal highlights: leading the big group of violins, getting to play for Danielle's Umoja Ensemble song, making my public debut on a drum (!), participating in the national anthem ensemble (it is such a beautiful song -- look it up on youtube), and being hugged after the concert by my youngest student, a little Tanzanian boy who until recently has been very shy around me and often looked sad. But after the concert he not only gave me a hug but he had a big grin on his face! A wonderful moment.
And now: countdown to Canada! I will be home for a visit from Dec.21 - Jan.8. Really looking forward to it.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Party kwenye nyumba yetu!
Danielle's mother has been visiting for a few days. What better reason to host a party at our little house? Saturday night was a wonderful gathering of friends. Lots of laughter and music-making.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
Up, up and away...
This weekend I got to fulfill a lifelong dream: a hot-air balloon ride! Six of us headed out from Arusha before sunrise on Sunday morning to the balloon launch site about an hour and a half away, near Lake Manyara. When we arrived the balloon was inflated and ready for us. We met our captain Jesus (pronounced "Hesus") and ground crew and the four other people who would be sharing our trip. Then with great excitement we climbed into the basket! The balloon quickly rose into the air -- it was astonishing to see how fast we gained altitude as we looked down at the ground crew waving to us. For the next hour we soared over the planes toward Lake Manyara, cruising at a low altitude in order to move in the right direction. As our captain explained, the only steering possible in a balloon is up or down. The altitude determines the wind current it will travel on. We had to fly low in order not to end up in the lake. The view was spectacular: wide expanses of open space dotted with trees, Maasai bomas where cows scattered in alarm and people came out to wave at us, zebras and impala running from the shadow cast by the balloon on the ground, light from the rising sun shining on the mountains ahead of us. As we approached the lake we were told to prepare for landing, which meant bending our knees and keeping our arms inside the basket. When the basked touched down it tipped over, resulting in a truly hilarious exit! We were met by two transport vehicles who took us to a spot where a wonderful breakfast was waiting, complete with champaigne. While we ate we listened to our captain's stories about flight adventures all over the world. Then it was time to board the shuttle to ride back to our launch site, and then the van back to Arusha. All this and it was only 11am!
Friday, 11 November 2011
Making music all day
Today my wonderful colleagues and I spent the whole day making music:
What a great life!
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| at home |
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| at Blue Heron |
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| and even in a taxi! |
What a great life!
Monday, 7 November 2011
New clothes!
One really fun thing to do here is to buy fabric and have clothes made. There are so many beautiful fabrics to choose from, and both fabric and tailoring are amazingly inexpensive. We even have a tailor shop across the street! Here are a few recent examples:
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