by James Collins
Wow… It’s hard to describe what an incredible experience this was. I was honestly blown away. For some reason, I had pictured the National Workshop as a rather serious affair with lots of practicing and note-taking and all that sort of thing. Though there was certainly a lot of hard work and an incredible amount of dedication on the part of the participants, it was, more than anything, a week of fun, friendship and creativity for everyone involved. This was one of the most inspiring and invigorating things I’ve seen in a long time.
I’ve put together two videos in an attempt to cover one week of nonstop activity in a mere ten minutes. The first one covers the introductory events we held for the students at the beginning of the workshop, while the second covers the rehearsals and day-to-day activities of the rest of the week. The final shot in the second video is from a run-through performance we held at the end of the week to show off what everyone had learned.
For a little background, seventy-two students attended the workshop. The average age of the participants was about seventeen, though there was at least one forty-year-old and one twelve-year-old. I am always amazed by how little everyone in the field bands seems to care about age. While Americans tend to make big distinctions between freshmen and seniors and elders and juniors, from my experience, South Africans are much looser about age. If you can play, you can play.
Daily activities at the workshop ran from 7:45AM till 9:00PM, with a few breaks in between for meals and a couple of trips to the beach. The students were selected from around the country, representing the up-and-coming talent and future leadership of the Field Band Foundation. The top sixty from the group will be selected to attend a tour in Norway occurring this June. I plan on tagging along and will certainly have more to report on that in the coming months.
Part I: Introductions
Part II: Hard Work
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The views and information presented are the Fulbright grantee’s own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.
