"When life throws you lemons, you have to make lemonade", or so they say. So when I dragged my poor husband to yet another work event that I had to attend, on a Friday night I must add, he wasn't to impressed at the idea. But, being the fully supportive man that he is, he kindly obliged and we made a date of it.
A little stressed by the rugby traffic near Newlands we raised through a back route and made it in time to the Baxter theater to watch the amaAmbush Marimba festival. Thankfully we were treated to a selection of great performances from a variety of schools. The music was good and entertaining, but the best part was seeing how much fun the learners were having while performing the music. We were also introduced to Touch Wood The Band, which you need to check out for yourself. (Follow the link given- and see future blog :-)
Attending this concert made me think about a few things. Firstly it made me realise how clever Ross Johnson was to start the project, amaAmbush 13 years ago. No one else has had such success with planting and running Marimba bands in various schools in and around Cape Town. Not only is it a niche, but he has successfully managed to provide entertainment and skills for anybody who wants. In terms of education, you do not have to be able to read music or have any background knowledge in order to learn to play the instrument. This allows for more people to be able to learn the instrument and feel that they too can participate in performing in a group. Yet, while you can have one kid just banging a bass note the whole time, the marimba can also be quite a complicated instrument to play and thus it also allows for the more advanced student to be challenged. Thus marimbas are the perfect instruments to teach inclusive music education.
The second thing that I was made aware of was that the crowd started wailing at their friends/family from the audience. Now call me old school, but initially I was a little put off, especially when the learners had only just walked on the stage, and had not played anything yet, but people started yelling and whooing. So my first thoughts were, "Hello, this is the BAXTER for crying in a bucket! That is just not theater etiquette!" Then the question that came to mind was "is it the venue or the performance that requires a certain etiquette?" So is there a difference in audience 'etiquette' if someone is performing a piano concerto in a concert hall as opposed to in an open air theater? So should we expect people to sit quietly while watching energetic musicians playing Marimbas in a theater, and then allow them to go wild for the same performance when it's at a festival?
And lastly, will the Marimba festival ever be as popular as the Cape Town Big Band Jazz Festival?
No comments:
Post a Comment