Today is Saturday and after three days of rehearsing five hours each day, I was ready for some rest and relaxation. I slept in until 9am and Arley picked me up at the hotel around 10:30. Beatrice was with him today as his wife Christina was in a class all day. She is working on her masters degree in teaching.
We drove about 20 minutes to the Croco Beach just to the south of downtown Fortaleza. It was a beautiful ocean side beach that is very popular in the area. We swam in the ocean (only my fourth time to be in an ocean), had a very nice lunch, and just sat and watched the waves and people for almost 3 1/2 hours. Arley and I just talked about stuff and sometimes we just sat quietly and enjoyed the beauty around us.
For lunch, in the pictures you will see steak, fried bananas, mandioca (kind of like a fried potato), a rice and sausage dish very similar to jambalaya but not spicy, and of course, cerveja. It was all very good.
the ocean was quite fun. Beatrice and I went out and played in the water for awhile, jumping into waves and body surfing on the big ones. While we could not speak each other's language, it was clear that we were having fun together by the way we smiled at each other and laughed when a big wave hit us. I wish she and Kelsey could get to know each other as they would get along wonderfully.
I am now back at the hotel and Arley will pick me up at 6pm to go the Pindoretama for our first wind orchestra concert. It begins at 830 or whenever the mass is done outside the church. I am really looking forward to it. We have decided that since the mass is outside the church right where we were supposed to set up, we are just going to do our concert inside the church. It should help with acoustics and we won't have the lighting problem. I actually think it will work better.
Arley and I also made plans for a future trip in June where I would bring a teacher with me, 9 total, for each instrument in his wind orchestra. We would fly down together, stay in this hotel for a week, and teach lessons, do master classes, play a recital/concert, do band rehearsals, and end with a finale concert. Band students from all over this part of Brazil would be invited to attend. We would also invite other conductors and while my friends are teaching, I would be giving lectures to the conductors on how to rehearse bands, etc.
Arley is excited and thinks he can get the funding put in place for this to happen in June of 2011. I am hopeful. I will contact some of my former students and current students who I think would do well in this environment and start talking to them about this possibility to see if they are interested. I bet they will be.
I am also planning on bringing Arley to Pittsburg this February when our PSU wind ensemble plays at KMEA. David Maslanka is going to come to Pittsburg that week so he would get to meet him, attend some of our classes at PSU, we would do a tour day to Kansas City, and then he would go with me to KMEA and see the convention. This would be a huge opportunity for him for sure.
Lots of brainstorming right now, but wonderful possibilities to dream about.
Going to lay down for awhile before the concert. I will blog tomorrow morning to let you know how things went.
Take Care
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