A Dose o’ AOSA

I had the good fortune to spend last week in Pittsburgh at the annual conference of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. It’s a BIG conference, and it was in a BIG venue – a seven-acre conference center right on one of the three rivers that come together in the middle of downtown. I won’t try to do the event justice – but here are a few memories and impressions, old and recent . . .

Xylophones. And glockenspiels . . . I’ve never seen so many! The exhibit hall is full of vendors selling them in all sizes, beautiful woods, gleaming metals . . . and just about every conference room you go into has a full complement of them set up on the floor. I’m used to seeing one or two in a school music room – if it’s a lucky school – only a couple of kids being able to play them at once. This is the wealth of a dragon’s hoard! Adding to the wealth, the exhibit hall is also filled with crafts, books, teaching aids, software, and instruments of every kind . . . including more kinds of drums than you can imagine.

Drums. I’m presenting every day at the conference, so I don’t get to many of the other offerings. But I do manage to enter Mary Knysh’s world on Saturday morning at 8 AM . . . a drum circle like you’ve never experienced before! I am wary of drum circles – I like nothing better than those African rhythms, but I usually find the decibel level overwhelming. But Mary has a way of gently translating those rhythms from drums to other instruments to voice to movement . . . we end with a world tour, taking the bars off some of those ubiquitous xylophones and glocks to create international and ethnic scales. There was a mystical gamelan from Bali, an cheery amadinda from Africa, a melancholic ensemble from Japan . . . I choose to join the group of “movers” and dance my way across the earth!

Studios. I also get to Sue Snyder’s “studio” on Thursday morning . . . Sue has been working to interbreed arts and academics across school curriculums, and has come up with some fantastic and practical ways to make what happens in music class to transfer easily over to the rest of the school day. Part of this involves creating “studios,” these large tri-fold display boards that give children both a curriculum and ways to practice and perform it. The simplicity and organization is elegant, and the transport feature is amazing – just fold it up after music class and bring it back to homeroom, and do the same things every day! My group creates a really fun vocal/movement piece that I won’t even try to describe, but the two words we choose from our list of possibilities are “Tickle” and “Me” (I leave the movement up to your imagination  . . .)

Performances.  I sadly didn’t make it to them all . . . but I am transported on Friday night by Nina Stern’s recorders and ancient clarinet, activated by the virtuoso hand percussion of Peter Maund. I buy a CD, and it has been playing in my car ever since. It is odd that a sound so ethereal can be so grounding!

For an experience that could not have been more different, Das Collectif perform next. Six young women manage to create all the music for their gyrating dance, Stomping La Luna, on the spot, mostly by tapping on the floor and singing, while doing unbelievably complex movements, speaking in English and German, and changing costumes several times onstage . . . it is beautiful to see!

Babies. My favorite of my own presentations is Babies in Movement, given during the last possible slot of the conference. I have spent the last few days stopping everyone I see with stroller or Baby Bjorn. and ainviting to come visit my class . . . and now I have about a half dozen little children, between the ages of two months and two and a half years old. It’s quite magical, because these babies demonstrate. We adults become quiet, and then the babies show us how they like to be, when they are safe and happy and stimulated by lots of people and toys to interact with . . . we do infant reflex movements, cranial holds, and experiment with living in rhythm (every sentence, word, note, movement organized by steady beat) . . . I leave the session with a sense of rejuvenation that lasts for days.

Celebrate.  But my little journal would not be complete without talking about the Saturday night banquet dance . . . an excellent band – there must be eight musicians onstage! Horns, percussion, vocals - and the conference attendees know how to boogie! Almost everybody dances, and everybody dances differently – I don’t know whether to jump in or just watch.

Thanks to the many many people who made this wonderful event possible . . . and I hope I make it to next year’s AOSA conference in St. Louis. Meet me at the fair . . .