It's a mixed blessing living in a small city that is home to world class University. Every fall a couple of thousand hormone addled, away from home, and without adult supervision for the first time, teenagers descend and wreck havoc from just after Labour Day until mid October when the reality of mid-term's hit. It's amazing how much they can do to offset all the positives in such a short time.
But not even a few self indulgent children of privilege can ruin having a teaching hospital with research facilities that are able to match up favourably with most American private universities, being home to one of the best Cancer Care facilities in Eastern Canada, and attracting world class events that other wise would have passed us by. Even better because they are a university and home to academics, they bring in obscure events with world-class participants.
For example, for three days in mid November, the 16th –18th, The Queens School Of Music presented the Plucked String Festival with an emphasis on the potential for incorporating stringed instruments into primary and secondary school curriculums as a means of creative expression. Over the course of the three days, seminars on music in education were intermingled with practical workshops and a concert series.
I had happened to glance at a flyer for the event in a downtown window, and discovered a reason for something that would have normally been of passing interest to me, becoming very exciting. One of the guest performers in attendance was going to be Erdem Helvacıoğlu from Turkey, whose CD, Altered Realities I'd reviewed just this past spring. As soon as I saw his name on the poster, I remembered him saying in an email last spring that he would be attending a conference here in November.
I think I've talked to somebody from every continent in the world by email, and reviewed music by people from countries I hadn't heard of before listening to their music. I've made close friends with somebody in India and the chances of us ever meeting are slim. The opportunity to not only meet one of these far flung people, but to hear him perform in person was too good to be true. I emailed Erdem and arranged to meet up with him at the workshop he would be giving on the Saturday and we'd take it from there.
For Erdem's workshop and concert the following day, he had been given the use of a large, open studio with the ambient sound deadened by more acoustic tile in one place then I'd ever seen before. In other words, the ideal situation for the creation of unique sounds and music that needed to be heard as distinct entities.
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