Ascona, magical Ascona

End of April, ‘07
Sitting on the airplane on the tarmac for 2 ½ hours before we find there are engine problems and all 315 of us will need to redefine our plans and leave the next day instead. Oh well, modern speedy/wait in line life. Arriving in Milan, driving up into the Italian Alps to the Lago Maggiore and our first work in Ascona, Switzerland, just over the border.
Wow, the students, Wow, the nature, Wow, the music. It will be really something to top this experience which is so high and intensive. Our host and fellow improviser extraordinaire, Oskar Boldre, has brought together 60 students who work with the three of us, Joey, David and Rhiannon: gospel, mouth rhythms, improvisation and Voicestra-style circle singing. We work all together and in small groups which allows intimacy and helps our newly formed village music life to evolve and unfurl in these few days together.
We teach and perform in the Teatro dellGatto just off the lake. It becomes our home for these 4 days. Martin is the bright light of the theater staff, making everything wonderful for us. He takes us for exploring trips to other small villages nearby to see the old architecture, have wonderful local food and walk in the forest of this Alpine area. There is a sweet café next door run by Katia and Michele where we have coffee and prosecco during breaks in training. We all work hard and take deep steps into the music.
No way to describe how each student touches me. Some of them I knew from last year, and there are many new faces as well. We find ways to speak about the philosophy and practice of improvisation across language. Here they speak Italian, German, French, old Swiss and English. During our last improvisation session, I am so moved by the 3 Face Front exercise, actually 4 Face Front in this case, that I can barely give feedback. I sense that we are making positive change in the world as we sing and invent together.
I am so grateful to be here with Joey and David because the skills and passion they bring, make a whole picture with the work I am doing. I love singing with them in our concert on the first evening where we lead and follow one another through a music maze that comes of all these years together, but also I love to step into their classes and see the way they infuse the group with knowledge and love. After knowing one another for 25 years and talking about this idea for so long, we are finally doing it and it is working! Blessings on long friendship and the endurance to find the fruition of a beautiful idea.
Janne, my partner, is here as well, taking photos and shooting video so we can document classes and performance. How great to have her here to share her talents.
I feel the danger of trying to say all, remember all names, not exclude anyone, but it is impossible. I will just try to use stream of consciousness and let the images roll. The photos will tell much as well. We plan for future gatherings in Europe and each of us say how changed we are by this work together. I think about my gratitude to Bobby McFerrin who brought Voicestra together and introduced Joey, David and I to one another. He is in Italy just now on another gig, but there is no chance to meet. I’m feeling you Bobby!
We change Swiss Francs for Euros and head off to Italy for a few days of rest and integration.

Here we are in Gubbio in the Umbria countryside. This medieval town is magic rest for us. We got here by train, bus and Mercedes. Let me explain. We are carrying cds for the whole trip and audio gear so bags are heavy and we wonder how it will be to catch the right at the right time moving from track to track. First we see several students at the train station and are waved off as we leave in that great European way. Then Lorenzo is on our train and offers to help with bags at each change, wonderful 17 year old Lorenzo who shines like a beacon of light. In Florence we are waiting to understand which track our next train will leave from when another student from the workshop, Linda, calls my name out in the crowded station. Amazing to hear my name like that. She appears like an angel and gets us onboard. In Perugia she guides us to a taxi and talks him into getting us quickly to the bus station which is in the Centro during traffic. We arrive just in time to find the next bus leaves in 2 minutes. She orchestrates in Italian and poof we are onboard with our heavy bags safely stowed under. Hurtling up and down windy, narrow roads in late afternoon light across this amazing landscape of farms, vineyards and olive orchards. We arrive in Gubbio with no way to tote our heavy bags through the cobblestone streets to our house. Poof appears a lovely Italian lawyer from NYC here to visit his father. He sweeps us into his rented Mercedes and we find the house in amongst the ancient streets with hidden names. Off he goes into the night with a traveler’s promise to meet us again the next day at a favorite restaurant of his. We go there the next day and don’t find him, but they know him and treat us royally. Who knows what all happens to traveler promises, but the restaurant is a mighty gift, and I thank him in absentia. Lunch there is just wonderful for all the senses. Janne photographs each course and we eat every bite.
Now it is evening. Blog you more later.
Rhiannon for We Be 3