Old Town School – On The Road

Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.

To Helsinki…Eventually

On Sunday, our flight from Newcastle to Heathrow was cancelled due to weather conditions, and we ended up taking a train into London. But we were late for our flight, and ended up in London for the night and following morning. We arrived in Helsinki, Finland on Monday evening. Joe, Maria, Boogie and I bounced around downtown Helsinki until around 2:00 a.m., and wound up at a club called D.T.M. It stands for Don’t Tell Mama. We won’t.

Tuesday morning, and we arrive at the Sibelius Academy, finally! It turns out that our host for the trip, Riita-Liisa Joutenlahti, is sick and in the hospital and it takes the faculty a while to figure out what to do with us. I’m happy that everything turned out all right, and that all of our teachers had a chance to work with students. Boogie taught a popping lesson and then a Hip-Hop group class. Joe found the academy’s harmonica students and worked with them for a while. Maria and Steve got to jam with some of the ensembles, and then Maria, Steve and Bau accompanied Barbie’s clogging class.

A word about the ensembles here. These groups of students work with old, traditional (mostly fiddle) folk tunes from Finland, and then find ways to orchestrate and elaborate on the original during the course of a session. The result, from what I’ve observed, is incredibly exciting. It seems to be a terrific way of preserving the traditions of the past, while encouraging students to take ownership of the material. I took some video and I’ll post it here.

Most of all, I’m thrilled for the teachers. They really had a chance to do what they do best.

Filed under: Finland,Notes from Robert by Robert | April 8, 2008 | Comments (1)


1 Comment so far

  1. Krissy Kirlin on April 9, 2008 3:43 pm

    Robert, I love your writings. Keep it up — we’re all wondering what you’re up to over there.

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