Weeks 14 and 15: from Geneva to Weimar (a healthy rest, then an exhausting music fest!)
I'm part way into my second week at the Yiddish Summer Weimar, and have finally found a moment to catch up on my blog.
So I dragged myself away from the boat eventually
(it was hard, this was the view on the last day)
and got to Geneva about 36 hours later (two buses, a train and another bus in Sardinia, then an overnight ferry, a morning stop-off in Marseille, and the luxury of a direct train Marseille to Geneva).
The inland journey in Sardinia from Cannigione to Olbia was absolutely GORGEOUS - I didn't have my phone to take pix on the journey (I'm now the proud owner of a new-to-me second hand iphone 6 btw) but you can see a pic of the pretty impressive rocks at San Pantaleo (for example) here. We'd seen them from the boat but seeing them up close was fantastic.
In Marseille I had morning coffee and lunch at a lovely independent coffee shop: the Cafe L'Ecomotive. It's just down the steps from the main St Charles station, so no need to waste your money at the station franchises - drop in here for lovely vibe, great soundtrack (soft jazz), friendly staff, vegan and veggie food, free wifi, plugs. And you can buy a 'suspended coffee' (or even have one if you're down on your uppers (as I wrote on facebook at the time).
From whence, a wonderful restful week with my friends of many years standing, Jo and Kate. Jo lives in Geneva and has a bilingual French/English life, and Kate lives in Santander and has a bilingual Spanish/English life, and we worked out that I first met them in Lancaster in the early 1980s where they were sharing a house and studying and I was visiting with my then boyfriend Keith, who'd taught them both morris dancing. We've had very involved lives over the last nearly 40 years: I think it goes like this..... (go on to the next paragraph if you can't be bothered with intrigue):
- I was living and working in Oxford with Keith, then Jo came and got a job there ... and then I got a year-long job in Geneva, and while I was there I met a Spanish piper called Alfonso who was from Santander but living with a Swiss melodeon player, Sylvie.... Then Jo got a job in Geneva, we both hung out with Alfonso and Sylvie for the year having lots of fun and music, then I went home ... Jo stayed on, and later married another piper .... the following year, I think it was, Kate and I met up with Alfonso and lots of other Santander-based musicians at St-Chartiers music festival in central France. Kate ended up moving to Santander and marrying one of those musicians (another piper). And to finish it off I moved back up north from Oxford, first to Preston (where I got married - to a cricketer, rather than a piper), and then to Lancaster, where it all started, and where I still am now. (None of the marriages have lasted, but our friendship has managed to stand the test of nearly 40 years, three countries, children, disability, divorces, and various other crises along the way).
We had a very healthy week in Geneva, cycling, eating lots of fruit and veg. ...and swimming in the lake several times.I lived in Geneva for 15 months and don’t think I ever swam in the lake - this time I think there was only one day when we didn’t swim in either Lake Leman, the big lake with the ‘jet d’eau’ or another lake near Jo’s house.
That was on 1st August, the Swiss National Day, when we were treated to a group of three Swiss choirs and three local brass bands playing the national anthem and other Swiss favourites - and a group of dancers with bells (so far, so English morris Dancing, except when you see the size of the bells!
These are apparently worn by cows going into the fields at certain seasons , they have their horns done up with ribbons too allegedly). A fab evening with brilliant fireworks, a bonfire, lovely buffet, followed by free cheese and wine.
A great return to Switzerland .
After a week, my health restored, (3 weeks on the boat drinking desalinated water had taken its toll but a week of healthy drinks, organic fruit and veg - recommendations from Janey Todd of Firelighthouse.co.uk, and lots of rest sorted that) it was time to move on to Weimar to the ‘Yiddish Summer Weinar’. (YSW). I was going to be volunteering for the first week, the main festival week, which meant I could go to all the concerts but didn’t have to pay for the festival AND got free accommodation and lunches. I also signed up ta do Hebrew and Yiddish language courses in the mornings . So with the washing up, cleaning, laundry, coffee-making, and cooking shifts in the afternoons, and concerts followed by late night cabarets each night, I ended the week pretty exhausted!
The music was fab. I’ve made lots of recordings that I hope to turn into a podcast or two next week when things get quieter. The YSW is hosted during August by the ‘other music academy’ (OMA) which was set up to bring together all kinds of musical influences - not just Klezmer. I was very happy that Alan Bern who founded OMA did a long interview with me yesterday about his ideas for OMA and the influences in his life which have led to this point - watch this space for the podcast! He is very against what’s been called the ‘festivalisation’ of culture - rather than something to ‘consume’ he’s very aware that culture is something that’s transmitted, passed on - through the generations and from person to person. So the work of OMA goes on all year round. OMA means grandmother in German as well as being an abbreviation - so it’s meant to be like coming into your grandmother’s house where you would feel at hone straight away. They have an old building, a former school , which needs quite a bit of restoration and isn’t fully wired or plumbed, but feels really homely and welcoming and is full of weird art objects, like an enormous horse’s head in the entrance hall, murals up the walls - and there’s a library of free books outside to welcome visitors.
In the vein of ‘other music’, as well as Klezmer music (of which my highlight was a fabulous concert by the Beigale orchestra from France) and an end-of-workshop concert by the Yiddish singing class, there was also a Middle Eastern music ensemble workshop, gorgeous Egyptian singing at the late night cabaret (again, coming soon on the podcast), a wild Bucharest group, a group of young classical musicians from Weimar playing Klezmer, Arab, jazz and classical arrangements along with a group of young musicians from Tel Aviv as part of an ongoing exchange project which had seen rehearsals in Germany and Israel .... and more !
There was an Israel/Palestine based project doing presentations during the Festival week, ‘Roots’, which brings together Jewish settlers and local Palestinians to listen to each other’s points of view in a non confrontational setting. Last Friday evening I got together with one of the other Jewish women here and we held a Shabbat candle lighting ceremony and dinner. As usual I invited everyone else who was hanging around to join in. There were eight of us in the garden of the OMA that night who hadn't gone to the concert, sharing wine and food. We were very happy to be joined by Noor Awad, the Palestinian speaker from Roots. We were all spellbound listening to him talking about his views on the conflict and what he thought could potentially shift when people from both sides came together to listen to each other. Another example of the ‘Other Music Academy’ providing an opportunity for spontaneously bringing people together.
This week I’m doing a dance class, which is not just Klezmer but also Yemeni, Syrian and contemporary dance - the latter three rather beyond my comfort zone but quite fun. I’ve had to buy a knee support and will hopefully get through the week ok - we’ll see! Also going on at the same time is a ‘playing for dancing’ workshop and we meet up regularly to share what we’re doing and so we can dance to their playing. Meanwhile at the OMA there’s intensive Advanced Yiddish and probably a host of other spontaneous things going on that I don’t know about.
There’s a Klezmer jam session, with dancing, in a different venue each night this week - the first night was in the absolutely beautiful Climate Pavilion. As I wrote on my Facebook page:
"Imagine if, say, there was a North West Regional Assembly, and it had a regional environmental responsibility , and it decided to build a movable pavilion, fill it with info panels about climate change and new initiatives taking place in the region , and a beautiful hanging mobile representing elements in the atmosphere , and take it round from town to town - well that’s what you have this year in Weimar, next year in another town in the region. They encourage different groups (like our Klezmer jam session) to use it, and therefore to learn about environmental issues ...."
I have done some local tourism, in Weimar and in Erfurt - a BEAUTIFUL neighbouring town. Wikipedia says "Erfurt's bridge is one of the few remaining bridges in the world that have inhabited buildings. It has been continuously inhabited for over 500 years, longer than any other bridge in Europe".... I'm planning to stay on for a week next week after the festival, to explore the area - I've got the loan of a bike and the scenery is gorgeous.... (Thanks btw to the © Cosmic Coincidence Control people, the very day that I had to take my hired bike back to the tourist info people, one of the volunteers said i could borrow hers for a couple of weeks!).
Current plan is another week here and then a few days in Prague. Things are rolling down now, I'll be around in Lancashire and Glasgow in September getting the #HannahFrank110 art exhibition set up. It would have been my aunt, Glasgow artist Hannah Frank's 110th birthday this Thursday 23rd August, and we have a big exhibition to commemorate the occasion starting on 15th October (launch on 14th October 1730, all welcome). . More on that next time.
I'm well on the way to the end of month 4 of my six months travelling adventure. It's been wonderful, I'm still having the time of my life. Today's dance workshop was particularly fab, and I'm off out to the jam session. Watch this space, I hope to get some podcasts out by the end of next week.
thanks for being interested
lots of love
Fiona in Weimar, former East Germany.
More next week
Love Fiona
So I dragged myself away from the boat eventually
(it was hard, this was the view on the last day)
and got to Geneva about 36 hours later (two buses, a train and another bus in Sardinia, then an overnight ferry, a morning stop-off in Marseille, and the luxury of a direct train Marseille to Geneva).
The inland journey in Sardinia from Cannigione to Olbia was absolutely GORGEOUS - I didn't have my phone to take pix on the journey (I'm now the proud owner of a new-to-me second hand iphone 6 btw) but you can see a pic of the pretty impressive rocks at San Pantaleo (for example) here. We'd seen them from the boat but seeing them up close was fantastic.
In Marseille I had morning coffee and lunch at a lovely independent coffee shop: the Cafe L'Ecomotive. It's just down the steps from the main St Charles station, so no need to waste your money at the station franchises - drop in here for lovely vibe, great soundtrack (soft jazz), friendly staff, vegan and veggie food, free wifi, plugs. And you can buy a 'suspended coffee' (or even have one if you're down on your uppers (as I wrote on facebook at the time).
From whence, a wonderful restful week with my friends of many years standing, Jo and Kate. Jo lives in Geneva and has a bilingual French/English life, and Kate lives in Santander and has a bilingual Spanish/English life, and we worked out that I first met them in Lancaster in the early 1980s where they were sharing a house and studying and I was visiting with my then boyfriend Keith, who'd taught them both morris dancing. We've had very involved lives over the last nearly 40 years: I think it goes like this..... (go on to the next paragraph if you can't be bothered with intrigue):- I was living and working in Oxford with Keith, then Jo came and got a job there ... and then I got a year-long job in Geneva, and while I was there I met a Spanish piper called Alfonso who was from Santander but living with a Swiss melodeon player, Sylvie.... Then Jo got a job in Geneva, we both hung out with Alfonso and Sylvie for the year having lots of fun and music, then I went home ... Jo stayed on, and later married another piper .... the following year, I think it was, Kate and I met up with Alfonso and lots of other Santander-based musicians at St-Chartiers music festival in central France. Kate ended up moving to Santander and marrying one of those musicians (another piper). And to finish it off I moved back up north from Oxford, first to Preston (where I got married - to a cricketer, rather than a piper), and then to Lancaster, where it all started, and where I still am now. (None of the marriages have lasted, but our friendship has managed to stand the test of nearly 40 years, three countries, children, disability, divorces, and various other crises along the way).
We had a very healthy week in Geneva, cycling, eating lots of fruit and veg. ...and swimming in the lake several times.I lived in Geneva for 15 months and don’t think I ever swam in the lake - this time I think there was only one day when we didn’t swim in either Lake Leman, the big lake with the ‘jet d’eau’ or another lake near Jo’s house.
That was on 1st August, the Swiss National Day, when we were treated to a group of three Swiss choirs and three local brass bands playing the national anthem and other Swiss favourites - and a group of dancers with bells (so far, so English morris Dancing, except when you see the size of the bells!
A great return to Switzerland .
After a week, my health restored, (3 weeks on the boat drinking desalinated water had taken its toll but a week of healthy drinks, organic fruit and veg - recommendations from Janey Todd of Firelighthouse.co.uk, and lots of rest sorted that) it was time to move on to Weimar to the ‘Yiddish Summer Weinar’. (YSW). I was going to be volunteering for the first week, the main festival week, which meant I could go to all the concerts but didn’t have to pay for the festival AND got free accommodation and lunches. I also signed up ta do Hebrew and Yiddish language courses in the mornings . So with the washing up, cleaning, laundry, coffee-making, and cooking shifts in the afternoons, and concerts followed by late night cabarets each night, I ended the week pretty exhausted!
The music was fab. I’ve made lots of recordings that I hope to turn into a podcast or two next week when things get quieter. The YSW is hosted during August by the ‘other music academy’ (OMA) which was set up to bring together all kinds of musical influences - not just Klezmer. I was very happy that Alan Bern who founded OMA did a long interview with me yesterday about his ideas for OMA and the influences in his life which have led to this point - watch this space for the podcast! He is very against what’s been called the ‘festivalisation’ of culture - rather than something to ‘consume’ he’s very aware that culture is something that’s transmitted, passed on - through the generations and from person to person. So the work of OMA goes on all year round. OMA means grandmother in German as well as being an abbreviation - so it’s meant to be like coming into your grandmother’s house where you would feel at hone straight away. They have an old building, a former school , which needs quite a bit of restoration and isn’t fully wired or plumbed, but feels really homely and welcoming and is full of weird art objects, like an enormous horse’s head in the entrance hall, murals up the walls - and there’s a library of free books outside to welcome visitors.
In the vein of ‘other music’, as well as Klezmer music (of which my highlight was a fabulous concert by the Beigale orchestra from France) and an end-of-workshop concert by the Yiddish singing class, there was also a Middle Eastern music ensemble workshop, gorgeous Egyptian singing at the late night cabaret (again, coming soon on the podcast), a wild Bucharest group, a group of young classical musicians from Weimar playing Klezmer, Arab, jazz and classical arrangements along with a group of young musicians from Tel Aviv as part of an ongoing exchange project which had seen rehearsals in Germany and Israel .... and more !
There was an Israel/Palestine based project doing presentations during the Festival week, ‘Roots’, which brings together Jewish settlers and local Palestinians to listen to each other’s points of view in a non confrontational setting. Last Friday evening I got together with one of the other Jewish women here and we held a Shabbat candle lighting ceremony and dinner. As usual I invited everyone else who was hanging around to join in. There were eight of us in the garden of the OMA that night who hadn't gone to the concert, sharing wine and food. We were very happy to be joined by Noor Awad, the Palestinian speaker from Roots. We were all spellbound listening to him talking about his views on the conflict and what he thought could potentially shift when people from both sides came together to listen to each other. Another example of the ‘Other Music Academy’ providing an opportunity for spontaneously bringing people together.
This week I’m doing a dance class, which is not just Klezmer but also Yemeni, Syrian and contemporary dance - the latter three rather beyond my comfort zone but quite fun. I’ve had to buy a knee support and will hopefully get through the week ok - we’ll see! Also going on at the same time is a ‘playing for dancing’ workshop and we meet up regularly to share what we’re doing and so we can dance to their playing. Meanwhile at the OMA there’s intensive Advanced Yiddish and probably a host of other spontaneous things going on that I don’t know about.
There’s a Klezmer jam session, with dancing, in a different venue each night this week - the first night was in the absolutely beautiful Climate Pavilion. As I wrote on my Facebook page:
"Imagine if, say, there was a North West Regional Assembly, and it had a regional environmental responsibility , and it decided to build a movable pavilion, fill it with info panels about climate change and new initiatives taking place in the region , and a beautiful hanging mobile representing elements in the atmosphere , and take it round from town to town - well that’s what you have this year in Weimar, next year in another town in the region. They encourage different groups (like our Klezmer jam session) to use it, and therefore to learn about environmental issues ...."
I have done some local tourism, in Weimar and in Erfurt - a BEAUTIFUL neighbouring town. Wikipedia says "Erfurt's bridge is one of the few remaining bridges in the world that have inhabited buildings. It has been continuously inhabited for over 500 years, longer than any other bridge in Europe".... I'm planning to stay on for a week next week after the festival, to explore the area - I've got the loan of a bike and the scenery is gorgeous.... (Thanks btw to the © Cosmic Coincidence Control people, the very day that I had to take my hired bike back to the tourist info people, one of the volunteers said i could borrow hers for a couple of weeks!). Current plan is another week here and then a few days in Prague. Things are rolling down now, I'll be around in Lancashire and Glasgow in September getting the #HannahFrank110 art exhibition set up. It would have been my aunt, Glasgow artist Hannah Frank's 110th birthday this Thursday 23rd August, and we have a big exhibition to commemorate the occasion starting on 15th October (launch on 14th October 1730, all welcome). . More on that next time.
I'm well on the way to the end of month 4 of my six months travelling adventure. It's been wonderful, I'm still having the time of my life. Today's dance workshop was particularly fab, and I'm off out to the jam session. Watch this space, I hope to get some podcasts out by the end of next week.
thanks for being interested
lots of love
Fiona in Weimar, former East Germany.
Love Fiona
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