The Double Bass Kaleidoscope
 

Tomorrow I'm off to Germany to eventually visit the www.kontrabass-kaleidoskop.de course that will take place next week. Out in the middle of nowhere, for some reason; I can't bring my own double bass out into the frontier just like that, and now I realize i have forgotten to ask them about the possibilities of borrowing an instrument. Oh well. They have brought together a nice bunch of teachers this year anyway. Rabbath, Furtok, Tom Martin, teachers from Vienna and Mozarteum and whatnot. But most importantly, I might run into Anselm there! I'll say hi on behalf of all of you.

sorry, i don´t find the time to go there
but please say hallo to Maria-Teresa Molina from me

Sorry E. Joel but I can't make it either. Say hello to Thomas Martin for me. He won't have a clue who I am but, hey, it's nice to be friendly.

There's a kid at school named Thomas Martin. I always ask him how the bass playing is going and he gives me a funny look.

Too bad you guys didn't show up. It was a great week, lots of nice teachers and players and a nice atmosphere. Made me realize I have to study in Germany or Austria someday. Hopefully already next season. We'll see. Found a new bow, a stunning piece of snakewood sculpted by F. Günter Hoyer. Five minutes after agreeing on the deal Stephan Petzold, teacher at the Hanns Eisler school in Berlin, offered me €3600 and ten lessons - a good thousand more than my price, the normal price of about €100 per hour for a lesson with a university professor not included - so it was probably a good buy. Now I only have to learn to play it...

All was fine until the trip home, when my Visa card didn't work in the ATMs, which kept telling me that I was out of money. I decided to take the risk of getting on a train, asked some German if this particular one that looked exactly as the one I had taken from the airport, and had the same desination, really went to the airport, which in the end it didn't, and I missed the flight. Some €650 in new tickets later - of course I didn't have a travel insurance, I'm a poor student! - (at which point it was at least made clear that I still had about as much money as I had hoped to and that those German money machines are to be trusted to about the same extent as the people's waypointing) I found myself having to stay for the night at the Oslo airport, which is only so much fun. My life was made a lot easier by a very kind hostess, who gave me all the food I could eat, and a very nice fellow bass player with a great moustache who happened to be in the seat next to me, who made sure I got both his and his wife's sandwiches. There is hope for humanity.

And, it was really a very nice course. :)

Talk to Anselm. He should be able to get something done about those German money machines.