Post Mexico Letter

I spent 2 weeks in Mexico with Cultures in Harmony, an American organization dedicated to bettering U.S. relations with the post 9/11 world. These two weeks were simply magical :) Here's the letter I sent to William, the director of CiH, after returning from Mexico. It is a report detailing what we did during the second week of the project. I spent 5 days in New York after the Mexico trip and have considered a move there. It is, without a doubt, the most artistically charged city in the U.S., and I would love to live there for some time. However, I'm not about to change anything just yet. We'll see where it all goes. Dear William, How are you? I hope you've been having a wonderful time in Papua New Guinea. I have been home in Chicago for a few days now and thought to update you regarding how the rest of the CiH Mexico trip went. I discussed this letter with Amelia, Ben, Ryan, and Andrew, so this letter is a group summarization/response from all of us. Amelia, Andrew, Ben, Ryan, Karl, and I had an incredible experience in Michoacan and cannot wait to return. We arrived in Morelia and met Itzia, and then met Marypaz from CREFAL at the bus stop. She took us to the CREFAL campus (you were right - it is very beautiful) where we met Karl and settled ourselves in the dorms. The project began early morning on Monday, August 4th, with half of us working with the orphans from Casa Hogar, and the other half working with the "abuelitos", or senior citizens, from Nuestros Años Felices. There were some apprehensions after that first day because the orphans proved to be a somewhat challenging group at first - they were difficult to engage and had some defensive barriers that we had to work through. After three days, however, the boys opened their hearts to us and we were able to form strong emotional connections with them. We figured out that the orphans group required more help/manpower simply to control, so from 10-1, Amelia, Andrew, Ryan, and Ben worked with the orphans while Karl and I worked with the abuelitos. It was a pity that the other four did not get to work with the abuelitos, and I would recommend that it be better worked out in the future - everyone should get to work with both the abuelitos and the orphans. Our work with the abuelitos was relatively simple in that we would engage in dialogue with them, always ending in singing their songs and learning their various traditional dances. They even brought in their traditional dresses and suits, and explained what the clothing represented. I played a bit of Indian music on my violin and we had a discussion about the purpose of music in various cultures. Karl performed a portion of one of his own compositions and encouraged the abuelitos to talk about their music - many of them spoke of experiences in the church or of tunes they had heard while growing up. From 4-6 PM, all 6 of us would journey to Casa Hogar and led the boys through different musical activities, from a jam session on Cuban tunes provided by Andrew to playing 'Name That Tune'. We realized that the best sort of composition to aim for with the boys would be in a form of creative storytelling with leitmotifs. Andrew, Amelia, Ben, and Ryan helped the boys to write a story together, pick out key phrases, and set them to a particular leitmotif that was sung by the boys and played by one of us. The boys would say whether they wanted something on a certain string or in a particular rhythm - it was up to them (with our aid) to create the musical characters and the story. The Wednesday, August 6th concert in Patzcuaro consisted of performances by the abuelitos, orphans, and ourselves. The abuelitos sang a beautiful regional folk song entitled, "Que Lindo es Michoacan" and danced two dances to songs that we've now also grown attached to. Karl and I learned the songs on our violins and performed the dances with the abuelitos - they even brought traditional outfits for the two of us and helped us wear the clothes, so we were "Michoacan Mexicans" for the evening. The boys danced out onto the stage to some of the Cuban tunes and then performed their story + leitmotifs; the effect was a semi-theatrical piece. A few boys read the story to the audience while Ben & Amelia played the motives, and Andrew and Ryan helped lead the boys in action. The boys were split into two groups: "osos" and "lobos" and the story was about the interaction and sometimes dramatic/confrontational dialogue of the osos and lobos as they both hunted for food. The boys' performance was very well received by the audience; they performed the piece twice that evening. I believe that this concert was a great success for everyone involved. It was great fun to put together and served as a reminder for me that the best musical performances are not given by only trained musicians. I think that the concert was a milestone for the boys particularly- it was something that they created and could call their own. They were proud of their piece. We spent Thursday in Comachuen and Paracho, and were thrilled with our experiences in both places. We first spent time in Paracho where we toured a guitar workshop and met a group of guitar makers. They showed us the small workrooms they had and their tools and methods used for the delicate handiwork of making a guitar. Three of us purchased guitars in Paracho and we all enjoyed walking around the beautiful main plaza area. An international guitar festival was going on at that time so the village was full of tourists and there was a bustling artisan market underway. In Comachuen, we met the director of the brass bands of the village. He eloquently explained that there are 7-9 brass bands in the village, all performing only the indigenous Purepecha music of the area. Many of the musicians lack formal training but are incredibly talented. We listened to a band, and then played some of our repertoire until a Catholic processional started to take foot near us. We discovered that there is a yearly Festival of the Virgin Mary and before it begins, the brass bands + townspeople parade through the town for 9 days, inviting other neighboring villages to come attend. We were invited to walk in the processional and so we took our place with the band and learned their songs as we walked throughout the entire village. A group of women carried an elaborately decorated idol of the Virgin Mary and when the processional came to a pause in the middle of the route, we were literally showered with colorful paper confetti, some of which remained inside my violin until only a few days ago. Participating in the processional was one of the most ecstatic experiences of my life. The six of us just kept looking at each other with speechless wide smiles, not knowing what to think or how to react beyond utter excitement at what we were experiencing. We understood that we'd been bestowed with an honor, and felt humbled by it. The processional eventually ended up back at the village cathedral and then nearly the entire little village sat and watched as we engaged in a sort of "musical exchange." The brass bands played a piece, and then we would respond with something of ours - Bach, Handel, anything that we were prepared to play. We left shortly after this exchange in order to get back to Patzcuaro, but not without speaking with the director of the Comachuen bands. He told us that he is yearning to get his bands out and more exposed to the public eye, and that if we knew of any opportunities or people who can aid him in his search, it would be a great help. He also said that they have a small music school currently undergoing renovation, and would love if some of us can come and give master classes for a few days. I told him that I'd be sure to discuss this idea with you. The experience in Comachuen was both surreal and spiritual, and it would be wonderful to return with even more to offer. On Friday, we spent the whole morning with the orphans at Casa Hogar, playing with them and preparing to say goodbye. Amelia led the "handprint project" with them, and had the great idea of tracing all of our hands onto sheets of paper with our names, and giving one sheet to each boy as a parting gift. Perhaps it was just a sensation of maternal instincts, but I feel as though we built incredibly strong connections with these boys, and so saying goodbye was not easy. We became friends with the ladies who help run the orphanage, and they conversed with us about some of the basic things that are lacking for the boys, such as proper clothing and shoes. It was also suggested that a possible crash-course in computers would be great - apparently one of the older boys overheard a conversation about "sending an email" and asked, amazed, "You can send mail through the computer?" While I realize that a basic computer course isn't exactly musical in nature (although it could be), it is an idea of what we can help them with in coming projects, and also of what they need. We left Casa Hogar for a sightseeing trip to the island of Janitzio and then returned to CREFAL to wrap things up with Marypaz, who was an amazing help through out the week. She asked Ben and me to help her with a translation project for CREFAL, and we tackled a good deal of it together in New York after returning from Mexico. I hope we continue to work with Marypaz and CREFAL in the future. We left for Morelia on the next morning (Saturday), where after finally relaxing for a bit of time, we met up with Karl at CMMAS. The facilities there are beautiful! After our evening concert there, we were able to get to know Carlos and Itzia + her husband a bit better. They are also very nice people with many ideas about future work. We returned back to Mexico City relatively problem-free and flew back to New York/Los Angeles. The entire CiH project in Mexico was an incredible experience, and I cannot thank you enough for including me. We were lucky to have had the group we did in Patzcuaro because not only did we get along great, but we also worked well together. I can't say more about the positivity and enthusiasm of Amelia, Ben, Ryan, and Andrew - it was truly a pleasure. You'll hear more from me soon enough - there is a lot more to report in terms of work/project proposals from people we met along the way in Michoacan, but I wanted to wait until you're settled and recovering in the United States. I wish you the best of luck with Steve and Tiffany in Papua New Guinea, and a safe journey home. Take care, Geeta

Finances

As many of you already know, I keep a very careful record of what I spend and earn. I had started doing this in Boston but wasn't so thorough, and after a heated discussion with my mother during our drive to Chicago when I moved from Boston, I decided to take matters into my own hands. She brought up the fact that I shouldn't be keeping track of expenses just because money came from parents and therefore wasn't my hard-earned salary (most of the time, although I did bring in a considerable sum through part-time work, etc.), but rather as a way of learning to manage my own life. After seeing one of my roommates and his financial woes, I now see the value in what my mother told me. She's a smart lady. Knowing that I would be in Europe for at least two years also forced me to keep careful accounts. Starting in autumn 2006, I would be braced up against a steeped euro that would continue to pulverize the American dollar. I knew I had to economize and budget wisely, so I started tracking every penny I would spend, classifying it into one of six categories: food eaten out, food bought for the house (groceries), travel, music expenses, rent & apartment costs, and miscellaneous things (cleaning products, gifts, etc.). I also kept track of the money that came in via gigs, teaching, and other jobs. After doing this for a while, I've had a clear idea of what my monthly expenses are and what the biggest taxations on my budget seem to be: traveling and food. I would just like to say, though, that money = DIFFICULT! It is spent SO easily, you have to work hard to earn it, and then even harder to manage it. Mom always told me to not curse money, but to learn to work with it. I'm getting better as each monthly expense amount is recorded, but it's still a challenge, and probably always will be for the rest of my life. Friends, if I can encourage one thing, it's to parent the way my mother did, and teach your children about managing money at an early age, and continue to help them improve their skills.

Saintes, JOA, Lille and the journey

I returned yesterday evening after being in France and coincidentally Brussels for two weeks. The coincidence occurred because I took a train from Lille, a northern French city, to Brussels and was supposed to change trains to one going to Cologne. The train to Lille came late from Marseilles and so we arrived 20 minutes late to Brussels and I'd already missed the connection. They put me on a 5:30 PM train but I had the feeling that I'd not have a connection to Detmold, so I called Frederika (my Belgian cellist friend who lives in Brussels with her Italian boyfriend, Alessandro), but she was unreachable due to a master class at the conservatory. Thankfully, I had the number of Alessandro and phoned him; normally he is working in Ghent during the day, but he happened to be home and in front of the internet, so he looked at all the connections, informed me that I'd have 3 minutes to catch the train in Cologne = not happening, and invited me to stay the night at their place. Frederika arrived home a few hours later, surprised (pleasantly, I think!), and invited Mathilde and Benoit (my other Belgian cellist friend from my first year in Detmold, and her boyfriend) for dinner. It ended up being a great night - just goes to show that everything really does happen for a reason. I spent the first week in France in Saintes, a beautifully coastal city about 4 hours southwest of Paris. I was playing in a classical period orchestral festival with a French conductor (he is actually half-American) named Marc Minkowsky. The orchestra was called Jeune Orchestre Atlantique (Atlantic Youth Orchestra), or JOA, and it's part of a year-long series of courses in early music. Phillippe Herreweghe, a celebrated Flemish conductor, is the artistic overseer of the whole organization (called Stages), and conducts during Saintes' summer festival (Festival Saintes) in July. That was originally the course that I'd hoped to do because it's during the heart of this great festival, but with Ajay Bhaiya's wedding and all, I knew it wouldn't work out, so I chose to do this Stages program instead. We stayed in a beautiful old monastery where we also rehearsed and ate, and enjoyed 2 days out of 4 there with nearly 70 F (20 C) temperatures! These four days were crazy with nearly 7-8 hours of rehearsing daily. Yoga saved my back, I must say. The last three days consisted of concerts in Saintes itself (in the beautiful large Gothic church of the monastery), Chatelaillon (about 1 hour from Saintes and right on the beach, so I collected oyster shells during our break), and Paris (Salle Gaveau - they also put us up in a very expensive hotel on the Seine River for 1 night after the concert). We played Mozart's Haffner Serenade, the Concerto for Flute & Harp, and Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, all with gut strings, classical bows, and 430 tuning. Gut strings are literally made from the insides of an animal as opposed to what we use today (steel or synthetic strings), so they are much more difficult to control/stay in tune. The classical bow is an early predecessor to the modern one, but with different balancing properties, so it is also much harder to control simply because you have to feel it a bit differently. 430 tuning is basically a 1/2 step lower than the normal pitch (generally between 440-443), and musicians' highly trained and 440+ accustomed ears have a hard time with it at first. After the festival, I restored my quasi-period instrument back to its normal state with modern strings and played with my modern bow, and it took me a good hour to get used to 440 pitch again. All in all the experience was positive - some of our mentors weren't my favorite people, but I did learn a lot and the people in the orchestra were lovely. Mostly French, but there was also a large number of Spaniards and a few Dutch, English, American, and Swedish people. I made some good friends there, and in fact will see the two Dutch girls in Utrecht in a few weeks! After the concerts, I headed to Lille to see Cristina (my Spanish violist roommate) and Pierre Emmanuel (her French bassist boyfriend who plays in the orchestra in Lille). We spent a fun & relaxing three days together, and I enjoyed seeing Lille again. Some of you may recall that I was already there last spring during our semester break, but I enjoyed Lille more this time - probably because during the first time, I was only there for a day. All in all, the travels were interesting (photos to come: www.geetaabad.shutterfly.com - also Bremen, London, China, and India - I have A LOT of uploading to do) and my comprehension of the French language great improved (rehearsals were about 60% in French). I'm here in Detmold for my birthday (this Friday the 7th) and then visiting my cousin Shashwati for 5 days until the 13th...and then it's off to Utrecht, Holland and then TURKEY!

Happy New Year (a bit late) from Paris

Sorry for not saying that earlier. I know I haven't written much but I can explain why. First of all, China: 9 concerts in 10 days left me with basically no time to write anything between sickness and nonstop traveling. Secondly, it's not as though I could have EASILY found an internet cafe because no one in China understands the word "internet." Thirdly, we were practically dead by the end of the tour. China is one crazy place. We traveled in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenyang, Anshin, Beijing, and five cities in the northern Jilin Province where it was -25 C (so about 2-5 F) and snowing constantly. Food was very difficult, as vegetarian seems to qualify that one heartily eats fish, too. Half the orchestra was racked with sickness from flu to you name it, and three people even went home early. However, the last four days were spent in Beijing (we were in China for 14 days total, and I flew home on January 9) and were wonderful. It's a very nice city, and Chinese people are friendly - they try to help despite language barriers. After I came back from China, I had to quickly recover from jetlag and illness and gave two concerts on January 12 and 13 and then started to rigorously rehearse with my trio for the Diplomexam of our pianist, Joanna. We performed the Brahms C Major and Mendelssohn d minor trios on February 8, and she earned a good score from the jury. I've started teaching, too, at a private music school called Musikschule Allegro in Leopoldshoehe, about 20 minutes from Detmold. So far, I'm up to 10 students every Friday afternoon. Most are individual 1/2 hour lessons, but a few are two in a group lesson. It was so exhausting afterwards because while my German is fluent, I never taught in it, and had to figure out how to just make the language work, connect with the kids, and above all, keep them engaged. Friends gave me violin method books, and I had to quickly school myself on how to teach a 5 year old how to play the violin. It isn't easy, but I enjoy the challenge, and it's official work (not under the table like so many other friends of mine) with a work permit in my passport, and I am thankful for a bit of steady income. I'm now in Paris, having arrived after a bad 2.5 hour plane delay from Cologne yesterday. I stayed with my friends Liat and Bryan in their beautiful flat near the Eiffel Tower. They left for Rome with their kids early this morning but were kind to let me stay for as long as I want. I am going to catch a train in 1.5 hours to Saintes on the southwest coast in between Bordeaux and Limoges because I'm playing in a classical period orchestral festival for a week. We have concerts on Tues, Wed, and Thurs of next week in Saintes itself, Chatelaillon (have no idea where it is) and Paris after which I'll go to visit Cristina, my Spanish roommate, in Lille where she resides with her boyfriend Pierre Emannuell during our school vacations. I really will try to update as I go along. Really, I'm serious! xo

Merry Christmas

I'm listening to the Christmas playlist I made on my ipod while eating breakfast with two Spaniards and Sebastian, my Chilean roommate. We're getting ready to catch a train at 9:20 AM for Frankfurt, where we'll take a plane at 5 PM to Shanghai. I'll be in China for two weeks, giving 9 concerts with the Vinorosso Ensemble, a world music/Balkan music group. We'll travel nearly 2,000 miles in 14 days through the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Zhejian, Shandong, Shenyang, Beijing, and the Jilin Province and through temperatures ranging from 50 degrees in southern Shanghai to -10 degrees F in the north. It'll be tiring, I'm sure, but a lot of fun too. Regardless of where you are in the world or what your holiday plans/lack thereof are, spend this time in peace and hopefully with people you love. Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll try to update as we go along in China!

Ridiculousness & London

For those of you who don't know, I love to write poetry. I used to write more frequently and would like to believe that it was better during this time period, but hey, who I am kidding? Most of it's pretty crap. I take no offense to this, though, as I enjoy writing it nevertheless. Here's a good one that summarizes my journey today on the Deutsche Bahn from Bremen via Osnabrück and Herford to Detmold: on the train listening to the JT Mix and Radiohead scattered raindrops on windowpanes the whir of the engine coughing and then sputtering and then no more. sigh. "es tut mir sehr leid, aber gibt's verspätung jetzt..." right, stay calm. the guy across the way from me is pretty darn cute. makes it all a bit better. After a lovely four days spent in London with Sara and her quartet buddies, I trucked my to London Stansted Airport to fly back to Bremen. The amount of ridiculousness I dealt with from Ryanair, a supposedly reputable low-cost airline, was, well, ridiculous. Not only did I receive the rudest treatment I've ever seen in the airline industry, but I would have missed my flight had it not been for a Random Act of Kindness from a completely German stranger. Basically, after having to pay a host of ridiculous fees for baggage check-in (I know I'm overusing the word ridiculous, but I'm sorry - there's just no other fitting word), I got caught up in a line at the currency exchange and also in the Ryanair fees payment line, and still didn't have enough pounds to cover my expenses. This wonderful lady who was also paying fees and on my Bremen flight leaned over and said in German, "These people are complete jerks. Don't worry, hun, I'll pay your fee with my credit card and you can pay me back once we're in Germany." I could have kissed her. It was a sheer moment of holiday guardian angel-ness. Afterwards, we zipped through security - well, I was ridiculously (there I go again) held up for 5 minutes until another holiday guardian angel security guard came over, asked, "What's the matter, love? You look like you're going to cry there" and then checked my bag, muttering about the incompetency of her colleague, and sent me off - and barely made the flight. In Germany, I endured 2.5 hours of ridiculous verspätung (sounds like some weird Spam-like meat, huh? It actually just means "delay"), came home with five minutes before a rehearsal, and so ran out again, only to eventually eat "dinner" (cold pasta + strawberry yogurt...no, not mixed together...I do still have some culinary refinement, thank you very much)at around 11:30 PM. Hmph. Could have been, worse, I suppose. Anyways, back to London. What a fabulous city during the holidays! We went for walks, ice-skated, watched lots of Family Guy and Sex & The City, and just chilllled out. It was exactly what I needed. Seeing Sara can clear out months of agitation and uneasiness like no other. Although the workload starts the second my foots hits German soil, I do feel refreshed. If you want to see pictures, check out my photo website some time next week.

And I'm back.

I had a stark realization yesterday. It occurred while I attempted to write essays for this incredible summer project I'm applying for called Cultures in Harmony (check it out, seriously: www.musicforthepeople.org). I have lost touch with writing and communicating my thoughts in English! It's been months since I last wrote anything here, and this livejournal was the one way I kept up my writing skills and maintained a personal voice preserved on paper (er, electronic paper...). I found that while writing the essays, words were coming to me first in German and Spanish, and while on one hand that's a good sign because it means these foreign languages are starting to become a part of me, it also means that my mother tongue is starting to fade. It would be a real pity to lose the gracious literary teachings which were imparted to me by Ms. Scholz and the GBN English Department, and so I am going to try to get back into writing regularly on here. Let's see, where were we? Oh yeah...I played a million concerts in places like Münster, Potsdam, Paris, Lage, Paderborn, and various other cities in the region. I have had many lessons, and am playing two pieces with my piano trio - Brahms C Major Trio from last year and the Mendelssohn d minor Trio. I've developed a sheer love for the baroque violin and baroque music/art in general, and also fell in love with Sevcik Opus 3 exercises for bow technique once again (thank you, Andy Mark, for freshman Orchestra Rep class). I lost hours of sleep, ate too much chocolate, smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much beer, and still managed to cook some amazing Indian meals. I lived out of a suitcase for a while, and will again this weekend when I go to London for a mini-break and to visit my dear friend, Sara. I've been enjoying the new experience of playing viola in a string quartet (Beethoven Op. 18 no. 5 in A Major) with three wonderful other musicians, and we just finished playing for the Tokyo String Quartet in a master class yesterday. They gave one of the most genuine performances tonight, and we ended up dining and sharing drinks with them for a few hours afterwards, which was, suffice it to say, an unbelievable treat. I love my roommates (Cristina from Spain, Sebastian from Chile), and my Spanish is getting to a level of fluency that is continually more comfortable and authentic. I met another American here, Nathan. He comes from Virginia and is a very mature 18-year-old who took a gap year by deferring admission to UPenn for a year...he's a smart and sweet guy. Iris, a Spanish cellist, has become a very good friend as of late, and I'm starting to practice yoga with my roommate, Cristina. My health has been quite poor lately because I've neglected it for so long (note: DO NOT try to live off of dark chocolate, black tea + coffee + hot cocoa, pasta, bread, and vitamins...you will eventually crash), but I'm learning that the basics in life are the most important things to keep in order, and that we do have more control over them than we think. I'm sorry to those of you (ahem, parents) whom I've not had regular contact with. I'll try to improve, but do bear with me because the next few weeks are really tough. Lots of love to everyone...take care of yourselves!