Linz International Marimba Festival

After a HIDEOUS flight from Adelaide to Sydney, Sydney to Tokyo, Tokyo to Moscow, Moscow to Vienna, a train from Vienna to Linz, not forgetting 9 hours in Transit, I'm safe in Linz, Austria. (Insert scream here.) Now, the marimba festival has begun! Linz is a beautiful city. Small, but just lovely. It's surrounded by mountains, and every day I walk over the River Danube to get to The Anton Bruckner Private University where the Marimba Festival is held.

Saturday was registration day, so I did 2 hours practice (that's all I was allowed because of the 100 entrants!), and I met some other participants. So far I have met LOTS of Japanese and Taiwanese players, who make up the majority of the attendants. I have also met some lovely people from the U.S, Colombia, Italy, The Netherlands, and Switzerland. How wonderful to meet my peers from all over the world! I was delighted to see Professor Van Sice. We had an illegal 5 minute conversation, just to catch up. (The jury and the entrants are forbidden to talk to one another, but it isn't a very well policed rule....) Besides which, we weren't discussing a strategy for the competition, it was just great to see him in person again, and tell him how much I was looking forward to studying with him in Baltimore.

So, I have already felt priveleged. The jury are remarkable players, and a great honour to know I will be meeting them after the competition. The Jury President is Reinhart Von Gutzeit - from Austria, and the Director of the Anton Bruckner Private University. He is the "non-marimbist" of the panel. The rest, are the world's best marimbists. Bogdan Bacanu, Katarzyna Mycka, Peter Sadlo, Momoko Kamiya, Robert Van Sice, Emmanuel Sejourne, and Gordon Stout. I've also met the maker of the wonderful ABC Mallets, Mr Cernocky who is delightful, and the man behind 'marimba one', Ron Samuels. It's great to be here in amongst so much talent and artistry, and across such different fields.... Established Performers, Marimba makers, Mallet makers, and the next generation of percussionists...

Now, the playing. Today I played at 12:00 for the 1st round of the marimba festival. Things went fairly smoothly. I had a rough spot in Wind in the Bamboo Grove towards the end, but recovered, and Ilijas was fairly smooth. I think it was well received. There are some MAGNIFICENT players here though, so maybe I won't go through to the next round. We find out on Tuesday. If I am successful to the second round, I will be thrilled, but this will be a real challenge. I feel very nervous about the set piece... It just struck me that this is my first international competition, and a really great experience.

Tomorrow, I will go and listen to 50 entrants... and maybe 40 different versions of Ilijas. It is very tiring listening to one after the other, I honestly don't know how the judges are coping.