First day on the Global Musician Workshop, run by Mike Block and the Silk Road Ensemble, was epic!
When I left my dorm for breakfast at 8am with my cello, I wasn’t too sure when I would make it back. I actually fell back into my room at midnight, after a jam-packed day, with the jam sessions that I had just left, still going strong…
After orientation, my day went from band rehearsal with Sarah Jarosz, to faculty presentations with Sandeep Das and Edward Perez, to a workshop with Sandeep Das… These were all incredible, eye-opening events, where we discovered, not only the calibre of our Silk Road faculty, but also of the participants, who have come from all corners of the world. The mix of cultures and instruments is wonderful, and provides a unique buzz.
We ended the official day at 8:30pm after a wonderful and inspiring question and answer session with Yo Yo Ma.
Yo Yo exudes a sense of fun, self-deprecation, and honesty, and his words resonated very strongly with me. I was delighted, when asked about how music could help people with disabilities, he covered some of the sound vibration territory that I had been learning about with Pedro in Paris recently.
He spoke of giving ourselves permission to be vulnerable, or to fail, in the quest to learn and open ourselves to discovery. Also, that music is the perfect vehicle to allow ourselves to inhabit any area of our personalities and lives.
Afterwards we all piled across the road for an official jam session, which was curtailed around 11pm by the threat of yet another tornado approaching! (Last night we had another tornado…the sky was lit up with lightning, which I found thrilling in my jet lagged state!)
This tornado didn’t stop us from continuing our jam sessions back in the dormitory block, where I lasted only another hour before collapsing into bed, my ears still ringing with new sounds, and with a huge smile across my face!
