Sunday, June 20, 2010

Brazil Praise Orchestra Trip

From June 1 through June 12 Walt had the privilege of joining a group of some two dozen American Musicians on a trip to Brazil to give concerts and hold Masters Classes for the Brazilians. So this is Walt's personal blog on that trip.

First of all I feel honored and privileged to have joined this group of what I consider professional musicians under the able leadership of Camp Kirkland. Most of us met for the first time in Atlanta, GA for the final flight to Sao Paulo. Then, depending on where and when a concert was, Brazilian musicians would join us. I believe the largest orchestra may have been as large as 50 or 60 players and a couple of times we accompanied large choirs. So it was a real thrill, especially given that we don't have orchestras like that where we live.

We gave thirteen concerts, I believe (I actually lost count), in the nine days we were in Brazil and we toured the very last day. So all in all it was an excellent experience. Here are some photos beginning with our first rehearsal, first concert and going on through almost every concert. At the very first concert at a gated apartment complex my bass did something it never had done in all the years that I have played - it never kept its tune during the first two songs. I loved Nancy's response "The devil was in your bass so great things are going to happen." She was absolutely right as the trip was a total success for many reasons. To hear what we sound like here are some videos of concerts. This was "Jericho" at our first concert in Sao Paulo. Here is "Days of Elijah" in Brasilia and here is "Jericho" in Brasilia. You may want to use earphones or good speakers. My laptop speakers didn't do the songs justice (i.e., you couldn't hear the bass ;-)). You can hear that the Brazilians absolutely loved to join in singing.

One of the reasons the trip was successful is meeting new friends. This includes both people from the orchestra and Brazilians that we met. I was somewhat apprehensive at the thought of leading the rhythm class as we had no idea who or what to expect but we came prepared as much as possible. To me the greatest blessing that I received was a whole new set of rhythm player friends. Yes, I know, we are a strange lot! I am still receiving e-mails from the Brazilians thanking us for the pointers we gave. Here are photos of all my new friends.

However, not only did I teach Master's Classes in Rhythm, the Brazilians taught me to play some "interesting" rhythms. They actually allowed me to play in one of their worship sets. I mentioned this to Nancy as well and loved here response again, "So you are getting more out of this trip than you expected again?" Absolutely! Here is a video of just one of the worship songs they did. My new buddy Marcos is playing the bass in this particular song and my long time Brazilian buddy, CG, is playing drums.

One of the lesser reasons (right!) I enjoy going on these trips with Camp Kirkland is that he likes to eat like I do. I think we both might eat a little more than we ought to just by egging each other on. But it was well worth it. I only took a few photos of our eating sessions because I was more interested in eating then photographing. Here are the photos I took. For those of you who don't know what churrascaria is, you need to find out. They continue bringing different cuts of meat, mostly beef, on skewers or swords until you turn the little green tag to red. It always took me a long time to turn it red. Then I believe we had Brazilian pizza who knows how many times. The chief characteristics of Brazilian pizza are they use little, if any, sauce but substitute the sauce with "large" amounts of cheese. Also, when you have had your fill of pizza they bring dessert pizza - a delicacy to die for.

Our trip to Brazil this time included half the time in Sao Paulo and the other half in Brasilia. The only real touring we had a chance for in Sao Paulo was a special treat to the concert hall to hear Brazil's best symphony orchestra. That definitely was a highlight for all of us. Here are some of the pictures of Sao Paulo. Brasilia was a city planned in the 1950's to be the new capital of Brazil. The main part of Brasilia is very thoughtfully laid out. However, 50 years plus a large migration of people gravitating to the capital have changed the original main concepts, especially in the many towns now surrounding the main part of Brasilia. If you go to Google Earth, you will see that the plan form of the main part of Brasilia is an airplane. Here are photos of some of the highlights of this city.

One highlight while in Brasilia was to attend and observe a rehearsal of the Brazil National Symphony Orchestra. As musicians we really enjoyed this treat. Here are photos of that rehearsal.

As with all these trips, they too soon come to an end. Here are some photos of our departure back home. A video of one of the songs that the group did for us can be found here.

This is not the end yet of a rewarding trip of this nature. Nancy is going to join me in October as we do this in Israel again. This will be her first time and I know she will receive more out of it than she is expecting. For that trip we both would appreciate your prayers. Also at this point I need an additional $1,500 and Nancy needs and additional $2,000 as well. If you feel led to help go to this link.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

California Visit

At the end of May we visited San Diego for a few days. Adam, Cindy, Isaac and Anica came to CA to attend Cindy's sisters wedding so we felt it an excellent opportunity to see them and especially our new grand daughter who we had not seen in person yet as well as spend Kirstin's birthday with her. For the Thai and Mexico Heine's the temperature was quite cool.

We managed to do quite a bit while in San Diego. Here are some photos of Adam and Cindy reporting back to their church, Coast Vineyard, and of some of the fun we had relaxing at Kirsty and Will's house and at the park and some time we were able to have with Adam and Cindy's friends, the Wyatts, from Napa CA. We loved meeting and spending time with our new grand daughter, Anica. Here are some photos of her. Then we went to the beach with everyone. Isaac had already been at the beach in Thailand but probably too young to remember it. It was fun watching his and the dogs' reactions to the waves coming in. Here are photos of that day. Here is a video of Isaac challenging the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Fortunately our visit with Kirsty and Will coincided with Kirsty's birthday. Here are a couple of photos of her babies and the time we spent with them. The visit was entirely too short, but Nancy had already been away from home for over 2 weeks prior, visiting parents in Oregon and kids and friends in the Bay area....and Walt had a trip to Brazil in just a few days...More about that in the next blog.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Final Shore Excursion - Barcelona and Montserrat

After twelve wonderful days we returned to Barcelona. Our ship arrived at 5:30 in the morning and our flight was not until 11 pm that night. So we decided we would take a different tour in the Barcelona area to use up most of the day. Still, we ended up spending nine hours in the airport. One thing we forgot to mention on our first stop in Barcelona was the fact that we felt, since have learned Spanish in Mexico, that we could converse with the locals. We soon discovered that all stores and restaurants were using a different language. Then we learned that Barcelona is in Catalonia and the language is Catalan, Spanish is second. And even that Spanish was noticeably different than Mexican Spanish. But we had no trouble with the cab driver - she spoke very little English and we carried on a conversation in Spanish and learned quite a bit about Barcelona.

Since this was a quick bus tour, for the most part, this blog will be shorter than the others. The main part of the tour consisted of visiting Montserrat, a mountain top monastery built more than a thousand years ago. It still is being used as a spiritual retreat for priests but more so as a retreat for young people involved in studying music, including a boys' choir.

The first set of photos are some more generic views of Barcelona. Since we were on our way to Montserrat we were driving through the suburbs of Barcelona, which are distinctly different than the old part that we visited at the beginning of our trip. The photos of some of the outskirts are shown here.

Most of the photos are of Montserrat. The surrounding area is very reminiscent of Yosemite because of the large granite cliffs, a favorite of rock climbers. The monastery is perched way up at almost a 4,000 foot elevation. The photos of the monastery and surrounding areas, including the drive up and down are shown here. A video of a service taking place in the main church is shown here.

We were overwhelmed by the size of the airport in Barcelona. So while we were killing time we took a couple of photos. These are shown here.

Hopefully you enjoyed our little travelogue. If nothing else, when we sit out on our terraza in 20 years we can bring out our computers and reminisce about an extremely enjoyable time in our lives together.