The Times They Are A Changin'

Ok... Here's a confession for all of you... In high school, I was not the best Social Studies/History student in the world. I was OK. I did my homework, did well on tests and such, but was much more interested in my music classes.

Go figure.

So now, here I am a music teacher with the opportunity to share these incredible international experiences with students. I've made music and worked with our students in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, and France. And each and everytime, as cliche as it may sound, those old high school history books come to life. The bus and walking tours are taking us through all those imporant places that we've read about and learned about in school, that for me at least are kind of still in my brain but the details are a bit foggy.

I remember taking those history courses and thinking, "wow, this stuff happened SO long ago." Now, a bit older and a bit wiser (hopefully?) I'm figuring out that things like the Second World War and the Cold War happened pretty recently, all things considered. What's more, I grew up during some really important events in our world history.

To see Dresden coming back to life so gracefully and beautfully - Using the most modern of technology to reconstruct some of the oldest and most ornate buildings I've ever seen. Conciously constructing new buildings in an old style to maintain the integrity of thier historic community. And most of this work has happened in the last 10 years!

To drive through Berlin and see only remenants of the Berlin wall, and again seeing renewal and growth everywhere we go. And in Berlin, just as in Dresden, modern architecture and art is married to the past with incredible results.

The last World War did not simply end and get put away in the history books. We are ALL still living with the results of that tragic and often horrific conflict. The good news is that there are incredible stories of rebirth to be shared world wide! And we can all still be a part of it. Being a part of something like the re-opening of a theater in Wittenberg or encouraging the development of an arts program at the English School in Prague seem small and insignificant right now, but where will those two programs be in five, ten, twenty years and beyond? How many lives will be touched by the simple gesture of sharing our love of music?

I have the pleasure of teaching a popular music history course at North. I've found myself teaching them that the most important thing to learn is not all the specific song titles, artists, dates, and so on. What's much more important is what does it all mean? How does this all connect? How does this affect our music today? And then I realize that I missed the main idea back in those history classes!

Our tour experiences have encouraged me to go back to the library to fill in the gaps in my mental "history" file cabinet. I want all these things to make more sense to me the next time I come back, so I can continue to offer some more insights to our students... and because I'm simply facinated by the the wonderful people and places we've experienced on this journey!

To our families and our students' teachers and North and South - Our students "get it". They asked the right kinds of questions, paid attention to what was around them and always conducted themselves with class and pride in representing themselves, the District 99 community, our state and our nation. Thanks for sharing them with us the last two weeks!

My first post for the blog was sent five minutes before midnight on the day we left. We're getting up in two hours now for our journey home. At least I'm consistent!

Thanks for keeping up with the blog. Looking forward to seeing many of you upon our return in not-too-many hours...

Oh yeah... more pics and video when we get home... and I take a nap. :)

Ah, Kids...

Yesterday was Fathers Day. Maybe one of the hardest days of the trip for me, actually... We're having a great time, of course, but being away from my daughter for over a week is the longest I've ever been away from her. Not being able to video conference with her as I was in Bi-Bi made it frustrating, taking 10 minutes to figure out how to make my calling card work in the Old Town section of Prague just about put me over the edge... At least I could hear her voice for a minute or two! (Look at me taking technology for granted... not so many years ago a phone call wasn't even a sure thing!)

Today I'm blogging to you from the English International School of Prague. I peered into the gymnasium and saw a little blonde girl with pig-tails doing the shuttle run. That's probably exactly what my daughter will look like in just a few more years. Then, during lunch we noticed the art projects based on the book, The Rainbow Fish, one of the favorites in her library. Even though I can't be with Sydney, this trip keeps sending me reminders (like I need to be reminded)!

Lesson learned? Kids are kids. They have the same joy for life, same imagination, same energy, same love to share... all over the world. Parents are parents. I've seen parents here and in Germany dealing with the same joys and challenges we do at home (although some of their strollers are MUCH cooler than our...)

So... Parents of our band students - Your students DO miss you too. They talk about home and you in the middle of all the other "oos" and "ahs". (They won't admit it, but they do). I also imagine I'll feel just like you when I send my future student(s) off on a trip without me...

Ok, off to do our concert for the students. We're playing our "lighter" stuff... except for Godzilla... Hope that doesn't scare the little ones. It's a little tougher than The Rainbow Fish.

Many Thoughts From the Past Few Days...

Hello friends! Sorry for the not-so-creative title. We've been very busy, and thus I've been unable to post for awhile. This also has created a jumble of thoughts to write about...

First - Students continue to be great in all aspects of the tour. I've really enjoyed continuing to work with the North High students of course, and have been really really excited to get to know my new South High students for this tour! As I wrote that last sentence I realized something else - I very rarely think of them as North or South students... they have bonded to become one very talented, very funny (see end of post), very wonderful group of students. It's like they've been together for years!!

Second - Our concert the other night - Because of the technical demands of Godzilla, and the needs of setting up an 80+ piece concert band on a stage, I had the opportunity to work with Peter, the Auditorium Master of the concert hall. I serve as the Auditorium Manager at North High, a position that I enjoy very much (although I really want to go for a title change now!). I like having the opportunity to create a great performance space for the many school, community and professional groups that use the Auditorium at North. I also have been known to be a little sensitive when a group requests something out of the ordinary (like a projector for a Godzilla presentation). Add to that the stress of such a large group getting set up on stage, rolling in cases and equipment, and, oh yeah, we would REALLY like to have the grand piano please and not the small digital piano you set up already... well, you get the idea.

But here's the great thing... While Peter was initially a bit nervous and short about the whole thing, all it took was taking the opportunity to reach out to him a bit. Taking an interest in what he does, showing appreciation for what he was doing for us, being careful to follow his instructions. He soon started going out of his way to make sure EVERYTHING was perfect. And Peter - It was! It was a pleasure working with him - an Aud. Master/Manager bonding moment. And like so many other moments on the trip, it showed that while we have many differences between Germany and US, we have MANY MANY more similarities!

(additional note on the above) Aud. Crew Tech. Friends - Peter was very very proud of his new light board. the ETC Ion console. It just came out last year from the same people who brought us the Congo Jr. It looks very similiar but uses a different philosophy of lighting design. Both boards are really really great. This one just works differently than ours (think Mac vs. Windows). Peter has now had the board for 26 days. He's been counting! :)

Third - Our students (and staff) were very moved by the resounding applause and appreciation shown at our concert. My hope is that our students permanently record that moment in their brains and remember it as they continue their lives as consumers of music. I hope they go home and go out to live music concerts of all kinds and show that same kind of appreciation for music (and for all art, for that matter). That is definitely something we can learn from our German friends!

Fourth - The blending and appreciation of old and new. Throughout our tour we have had the pleasure to see very very old archtecture and artwork (the castles, the old town section of Bietigheim-Bissingen) as well as very new (the Mercedes-Benz Museum) and a great combination of the two. The picture below is of the horse sculpture found just down the street from the Musikschule in B-B (the one that is in a 700 year old(ish) castle!)

Finally - Oh yeah, the humor... The video at the bottom of this post is courtesy of several students who put on a multi-act performance for us in the second bus, doing all sort of fun choreography, syncronized dances, "whack-a-mole" impressions, and so on... This is an oldie but a goodie... Mr. Turkey!

We're Going To Have a Good Time

As the Beatles wrote:

"They say it's your birthday... you're going to have a good time!"

And I did! It was wonderful to celebrate my birthday with a couple other birthday students, and an anniversary couple in beautiful Germany. Our trip today was fantatic. A great adventure to a very pictureque destination. My very part, however, continues to be the connections that we make with the wonderful families here. Arriving at the Gehlen family's house was truly like coming home. The entire plane ride over I was thinking, "when I get home I'm going to..." Bernd, Elke (his wife), Paul and Christina (their children) were definitely a sight for sore eyes. It has been great to catch up with them and of course to watch at least the first half of what was ultimately a German victory in their first EuroCup match (I fell asleep for the second half)!

So, in short... students are doing great, chaperones are doing great, host families and wonderful!

Looking forward to sharing our music in our first concert of the tour tomorrow. Our students are really going to "wow" the audience I'm sure. I hope they understand the Godzilla thing... :)

Last Minute Thoughts (from this side of the ocean, anyway...)

So I keep hearing Mr. Teague's voice in my head. That happens a lot, actually, but this time it's saying... "Now go to bed early. Get plenty of rest, tomorrow's going to be a long day. And you need to at least act wide awake when you get to your host family's house on Sunday morning.

Well, my suitcase, carry-on bag, 3/4ths of my closet and a big pile of... technology are all over the family room. It's not Saturday yet. Not for... five minutes or so...

So rather than pack and go to bed, I'd like to share a few thoughts that are swimming through my head currently...

1) Ben's previous entry brought to mind something I think I said during rehearsals. One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is experiencing this trip through the eyes of our students (and some of our staff members!). I've been blessed to make this voyage to Germany three times now. I know how absolutely amazing the people are, how beautiful the cities are, how exciting it is to perform for those audiences. I'm much more excited about seeing how our students react to all of that for the first time. It's like Christmas morning as a parent, but different!

2) The band has really come together this week. The first sounds we made as the Honor's band... hmm... It was obvious that most minds were on the fact that school just ended. By the end of that rehearsal, however, things were already starting to come together. By the end of today's run-thru? Spectacular! Let's take this thing on the road!

3) Technology. One of the reasons I'm late in getting my stuff together is the detour I made to my parents' house tonight to teach them how to use a webcam and Skype so my wife and I can video conference with them and our two year old daughter while we're in Germany. And despite the fact that it took a little longer than I expected to my them feel comfortable with it, the truth is it's SO EASY to keep in touch and to share experiences we're going to have on this trip. A big thumbs up and HUGE kudos to Mr. Teague for setting up a student blogging team. We did something similar on our last trip to Europe in 2005 but it included lots of late nights of wandering around the Austrian Alps looking for unsecured wireless access. Students had to email reflections or pictures to Mr. Teague who then had to edit a website. Now, all the staff and our student bloggers can be posting non-stop from their cellphones, host family computers, Internet cafes, and who knows what else. My only suggestion... Take the time to just enjoy the trip. Look at the beautiful countryside without a camera view finder or cellphone held up against your face. Our friends and family want to know what we're doing, but they also want us to expereince this great trip!

Ok, enough for now... now it IS Saturday. Let me end with this... I'm really proud of the work we've done this week to come together as the District 99 Honors Band. I'm proud to be part of the team and honored to be sharing all of this music with these incredible young people!