Marimba Lesson 3

Today I played Zivkovic's ILIJAS for Mrs Abe. I had a memory lapse in the last page, and was very disappointed in myself. However, Mrs Abe was truly lovely, and encouraged me with her kind words. She asked me if I wanted to be a soloist, and said that she would set aside some time for me so we could have a chat about being a solo artist. This is really wonderful news. At the end of the 5 hours of masterclass lessons, some of the Toho students had learnt the marimba ensemble version of Tambourin Paraphrase, to celebrate Mrs Abe's Birthday. She claims to have forgotten how old she is! She seemed very touched by the surprise performance, the flowers and chocolates! It was such an adorable gesture from the Toho students :)

After this, we had an hour of improvisation class. I was second to play with Mrs Abe, and asked if I could play Vibraphone with her. It was a first experience for me to do this free improvisation on Vibes. Mrs Abe has a most incredible energy, and I think we both enjoyed what happened. We will improvise again together next week and see what develops!