I just finished my first week working here with NEOJIBÁ. I arrived on Tuesday at 6:15 am after only sleeping for one hour on the plane, but I was so excited to be here that I was wide-awake. The ride from the airport was pretty interesting. I was waiting at the airport with my suitcase and my horn and stuff and there were random people around waiting for their family members or whatever. I didn’t see anyone with a sign so I figured I should just hang out and wait for the person to show up. After waiting for about 20 minutes (and starting to freak out because I had no way of contacting anyone!) this guy standing next to me started to make a phone call. Then I saw the piece of paper he had in his hand said my name on it! So I greeted him and he took me to the car. It turned out that I could understand less Portuguese than I expected that I would be able to, and he didn’t understand me when I spoke Spanish. We got to the apartment after an awkwardly silent car ride through the sketchy parts of the city and then I had to wait in the lobby for one of my roommates, Sarah, to come down and get me. After what felt like an eternity, I finally got to see where I’m living during this week-and-a-half.
The apartment is located in one of the old towns of Salvador. It’s a short walk to the rehearsal hall and apparently also to the beach, though I haven’t been there yet myself. There are three bedrooms for us three coaches, two bathrooms, a kitchen (but no refrigerator!), and the most wonderful view I have ever experienced. Directly outside our windows is the bay that Salvador is on. Imagine clear warm water and waves breaking on a rocky beach. We have no air conditioning, but that’s no problem because with the windows open we get the wonderful breeze from the ocean, which is just a few minutes away by car.
So far I haven’t been able to go to the beach yet, because I’ve been too busy working during the day, and it’s not safe to go there at night. My job is basically to make the horn section of the orchestra sound better in any way possible. So far I have only had one sectional with them alone; most of the time I watch the full orchestra rehearse and correct small things that I can discuss with individual members of the section quietly between parts of the rehearsal (like intonation and balance). Things I can’t correct quickly (like how to play unison passages in tune, and how to support other members of your section) are much bigger jobs, and thus I haven’t really worked on those with them yet. On Monday and Tuesday I will have a lot more time with them to go over these things.
I was actually surprised by the orchestra when I came. I expected there to be a lot of technical problems, but almost all of them can play their parts well. My main job falls into the second category (things that are impossible to teach within a rehearsal setting) because none of them have experience playing in a great youth orchestra, where you can hear if you’re out of tune, and really feel if the section isn’t together. A few of them mentioned to me that they want to study in the United States and I think just being around other students who have had that orchestra experience would make them automatically adjust their own playing within the section. My job is here, though, and it is certainly a challenge. I tell the principals to lead more and the people playing other parts to make sure to watch and feel the music with the principal, but some of them seem to feel that this kind of work is too abstract to matter much. I hope in our sectionals that we can change this feeling and really start to create a section mentality. This is actually the same problem that is present in the rest of the orchestra as well. There is so much musical talent here, but there aren’t good teachers in this area for a number of instruments so the students are self-taught and often develop bad habits. Also, because they are used to practicing on their own and they don’t have regular coaches for sectionals, many of them have the attitude that if they play their part with the conductor it will be correct. While this would be right in theory, the truth is that in orchestral playing, you follow the principal of your section (and thus the conductor, but indirectly) in order to create a homogenous group sound. I’ve discussed this with members of different sections and I hope that I can make a difference in this way. Because the students within the orchestra generally coach their own sectionals, I think a lot of times the students don’t pay attention to what is being said by their peers. But because I’m a teacher from outside Salvador, some people are more apt to believe what I’m telling them to do rather than what their friends are telling them to do. I was really careful when I first arrived to create a type of relationship with the horn players that is like we’re friends, but at the same time I’m the teacher. I wanted to be on a friend level with them before doing any teaching at all because I want them to realize that I’m actually a student of the horn just like they are. I want them to realize from this the difference in levels between here in Salvador and other places in the world. This city is a bit isolated from the music world and many of the students don’t have good musical role models.
My actual teaching (and communication with my new friends) takes place in a mixture of Spanish and English. The people who speak only Portuguese can understand me when I speak Spanish, and if they speak Portuguese slowly I can usually figure out what they mean. Sometimes I have to speak English and have someone translate for me, though, because the more complex thoughts that I want to describe are beyond my Spanish vocabulary. However, more than one of the Brazilians told me that my level of Spanish pleasantly surprised them. One said, “North Americans always come here and say they can speak Spanish, but they can’t communicate at all!” I’m really glad that I did work on my Spanish before coming, because a definite majority of the orchestra speaks no English at all, but we can communicate in what we call Portañol, a combination of Portuguese and Spanish. I’ve also learned some phrases in Portuguese. For example, Não falo português means I don’t speak Portuguese and Estou com fome means I’m hungry.
Even though I work all day every day and haven’t been to the beach yet doesn’t mean that I’m not having fun too. Everyone here is so friendly and inviting, even more than I had expected! Because there is not refrigerator in the apartment where I’m staying, I eat out for every meal. When we have rehearsal in both the morning and the afternoon, the orchestra provides us with lunch. Most evenings I practice a bit, and then I go out with the other coach from the United States and some friends from the orchestra. Sometimes I watch movies with other people on my computer and just hang out at my apartment. Last night was the birthday of one of my roommates so we went out onto the town to celebrate.
Salvador is such a nice place. I swear that it’s heaven on earth. The people are so friendly and the weather is perfect (about 25º C - and it’s winter right now!). I could seriously live here forever. When I was scheduling my trip here it looked like I would be here for a while on the calendar, but now I’m here and time is moving far too quickly. It isn’t possible to believe that I have so few days remaining in my time here! I’m hoping they will invite me back next summer to help again, and maybe next time I can stay for longer. By staying for a longer amount of time, I would get to see more of the city and area and meet more people, but also I would have more time to really help the orchestra.
While I’m here I’m also preparing for YOA since I have an audition on the first day I arrive there. As you can read, I’m really busy here but having a great time. I got a Brazilian cell phone and it’s free for me to receive international calls. If you want to call me, let me know and I’ll email you my phone number. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to put up my first blog post but I’ve been so busy and we don’t have internet in the apartment so I have to find a time when I can use the wi-fi in the concert hall. Anyways, I’ll write again as soon as I have a chance.
