On to Mannheim!

May 14—Mannheim
We get to sleep late in Mannheim and we all need it after the big week-end in Munich. Johanna Seiler is traveling with us for the rest of the tour so we are now a tribe of five. She arranged all our travel in exchange for music sessions. We have many good conversations on the trains about teaching, writing music and life in general. I am so very fond of her and grateful to have her good energy with us. She did a wonderful job on the travel arrangements.
Tobias Wollerman meets us at the Pop Akademie where we teach in the afternoon.
The students are mostly singer/songwriters with one mouth percussionist and a whole lot of enthusiasm about musical life. I feel mightily encouraged with their devotion to music. We have two great sessions with them so we get to hear each voice and try some Voicestras and small ensemble improvisations.
Very soon after our last session we do a closing concert just for the students. It is full of energy on their part and on our part a reminder that we want to give them our best because they are so great. The day has been invigorating, but doing these concerts at the end of a long day is clearly not optimal. It is soooo important to be an empty vessel in order to improvise, and even more so, to improvise with others. Afterwards we talk about our promise to one another that we will remember that we need a day to clear our heads and hearts before concerts. I am learning so much from this tour about how to proceed. Seems clear we should proceed and do this again. It is a powerful musical form and we love working together.
After the concert Tobias and Udo, the head of the school, take us all to a splendid dinner where we get a chance to talk about music and learn more about this unique music program, the only Pop Akademie in Germany with many schools around the world wanting to partner with them. Tobias and Udo are genuine, smart, devoted music lovers. We wish them the best with their terrific students and plans to take music everywhere.
Sleepy, sleepy again and then off to Holland with a nice long train ride on the ICE.
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