Day 8

Concert!!!

Its day 8 of the amazing Glomus camp and even though tiredness is catching up, I can see from all the participants that they are really looking forward to the days activities. Indeed today is going to be fun as we prepare for our first concert later in the evening.

We were supposed to be listening to the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, Dr. Ahmed Naser Samast, but due to reasons which are given in the previous blog (day 3) he is not here with us. However, Dr. Samast sent us a video message. He is indeed doing a great work in Afghanistan and I personally think it was unfortunate we couldn't meet this amazing man in person. In short he is a complete gentleman who understands what music can do. He stressed on the fact that music should be a platform for sharing, collaborating and inclusion which of course has been the emphasis on Glomus camp 2015. The students who were supposed to join Dr. Samast here also made a video recording of the music they had prepared to share with us here and we were privileged to listen those wonderful students. 

In the general assembly, kind of open forum, the future of the Glomus networked was discussed. It was great for the organizers to create the platform to hear from almost each participant their thoughts and experiences of the camp and for future camps. 

Since we came here we have been working with various small groups and one hardly gets to know what each group is doing or working at but this evening we had the chance to listen to all the groups and it was extremely mind blowing. There were about 8 different groups working with diverse people with diverse cultural and musical backgrounds. In all we listened to music with Arabic, Africa and Asian influences. I should say that the level of improvisation was highly displayed. The most fascinating experience was with the Gamelan group nicely displaying with the Gamelan.

We were humbled with the performance from the local kids. Yeah, we had Nathan Riki Thomson leading and collaborating with the local kids and as we listened to their performance, all one could think about is the unity in diversity. We were surely educated by these kids and this will forever remain in our memories. Vilma Timonen, a teacher from the Sibelius Academy, Finland, couldn't keep this emotional experience to herself and shed tears of joy. Indeed it was an emotional experience with the kids singing songs of peace and tolerance. What then are we doing as reasonable beings and adults for that matter? I hope we ponder on these and many other things that will bring peace to humanity.