YIP Children's Choir
Two of my passions (I have several) are travel and music and I love to combine them.
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| at Guy Bovet organ concert in St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn |
Tallinn
seems to be joining many other and better known venues for summer
music festivals (think Saltzburg, Austria, Glyndebourne, United
Kingdom just to mention a couple). Although we have a few operas
lined up elsewhere, we thought it would be fun to try some other
types of music while here in Tallinn and we were not disappointed. We
attended several different concerts, each one a different genre.
Tane
Mahuta
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| St. Catherine's Church, Tallinn |
This
program was held in what's left of the 14th
Century St. Catherine's Church. The name of the group is Tane Mahuta
named after a Maori guy who is the group's organizer and guiding
light. According to the band's website: “Tane
Mahuta is the Lord of the Forest according to a Maori legend and
joins musicians from Estonia and Finland. [There
was also a guest player from India.]
They perform fairish
folk music based
on Scandinavian
chants,
Celtic prayers, shamanic
songs from
the Amazon rainforests, Indian bhajans,
rainbow songs and traditional
songs from Estonia.
Most of the songs are hundreds or more years old and aimed at
elevating the human soul and to connect the listeners with the forces
of nature. This
urban-folk has blended prayers, chants, Arabic & Celtic rhythms,
throat singing and beatbox paving
a path for urbanized people to reconnect with Mother Nature and so
also awaken to their own true nature.”
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| inside St. Catherine's during Tane Mahuta show |
Looking
at the audience and getting a feel for the ambience in the old
stone-floored church reminded me of the late 60s on university
campuses and in coffee houses. It was all peace and love and long
hugs among the followers of the group. And the music was just a lot
of fun and created a lively and happy mood among the audience, many
of whom got up to dance. At the top is a sample that I recorded live
during the performance.
YIP's
Children's Choir
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| ornate doorway to Blackheads' Guild Hall |
This
amazing group of young performers from Hong Kong was simply thrilling
. . . and it didn't cost a Euro, a completely FREE (no strings
attached) two-hour concert of music and dance and color that just
blew us away. The performance was held in the Guild Hall of the
Brotherhood of the Blackheads, a one time militaristic and social
organization. The choir is a non-profit organization founded by Dr.
YIP Wai-Hong, a highly revered expert in the field of children's
music education. Not unlike the Tane Mahuta philosophy, Dr. YIP
states: “Children's music education is not about producing
musicians. Rather, it's about the educational goal of [achieving] a
'whole person'. If one has the 'misfortune' to become a 'musician',
it is purely by accident.”
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| YIP kids performing a Chinese folk dance |
Hmm.
Yes, well the “whole person” is an admirable goal of course, but,
I felt that these kids were superbly talented performers and
musicians. This is an excellent way to spread the cultural heritage
of an increasingly great and ancient power like China's to a global
audience in a non-threatening way. The audience absolutely loved
these kids. The live recording I made during this remarkable
performance will give you a very good example of how good these kids
are.
Guy
Bovet
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| St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn |
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| interior of St. Nicholas and the pipe organ |
Mr.
Bovet is a Swiss organist and composer. His performance last night at
the St. Nicholas church was part of an organ festival this week here
in Tallinn. I always thought of organ music as a large massive sound
heard in church services and mostly playing the liturgy of the
ceremonies. Think of Mozart's Requiem
but scored and adapted
for the organ.
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| the pipe organ of St. Nicholas Church |
But
this was another eye-opening performance by this virtuoso organist.
Of course, he sits high up in isolated splendor, far removed from the
madding crowd below. However, a computer hookup was in place which
featured a large screen that was focused on the organist so that you
could see his every move. The pipe organ is a very complex instrument
that is played with the whole body, full of keys and pedals and
buttons that can achieve an amazing range and subtlety of sounds that
I had never heard before. Unfortunately, I was not able to record
during this performance. You'll just have to take my word for it,
although the pipe organ is not my favorite instrument I thoroughly
enjoyed Mr. Bovet's very versatile performance.
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| Guy Bovet at the St. Nicholas pipe organ |
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