This summer I am getting ready for my doctorate studies. I have packed quite a lot of my stuff, I also got a silly summer job which an IMAX cinema is also located at, and we get to watch stuff here and there. I am also getting some videos recorded and put on Youtube. I still need to get more composing and writing done, but I feel good. I am feeling that I am being more optimistic about what is going to happen in Minneapolis.

In the last 24 hours I have quite an interesting journey on screen. My internet service provided me a free HBO trial for 3 days, and I noticed that it included Elvis Presley: The Searcher. Expecting it to be a 2-hour thing in total, instead, I had to stay up to watch the 4-hour thing.

I have never been an Elvis fan, nor did I feel affiliated to the Rock-n’-Roll tradition at all. However, the documentary made me think about how much heritage Elvis has reflected and developed on, and how crazy his time was. Think about that, in the mid-twentieth century, so many things have happened in the world. However, it might be the first time in America that we see people who are pursuing some ideals are being chased after and hate still exists in many places. Elvis, in the midst of everything, is mixed with his uniqueness, excitements, and sentiments. I am now really interested in visiting Graceland and learn more about this tragic figure. Also, it really inspires me to look at musical figures in that era much more carefully, and understand how they come to who there were.

Very surprisingly this morning at work I got to watch the American Musical Journey. I can’t say I like this film at all. The use of IMAX technology is basically pointless. The story of the musical heritage of jazz, blues, pop, and rock is almost like completely fragments that do not make much sense. It was not educational at all. However, as a travel movie, it worked. It definitely reminded me of how Chicago felt, and it successfully made me consider visiting some of the cities as I travel from Florida to Minnesota. It is, however, a pure coincident though. I was already planning the trip the night before.

In a month I will be doing a grand tour. It has been under revision forever and I am still working on it. It looks like that the 5-day trip will be Tallahassee->NOLA->Memphis->Little Rock->Lawrence and Kansas City->Des Moines->Minneapolis. I will be seeing a lot of the musical styles that I have not really exposed to much, as well as some part of the civil rights movements that I have always wanted to know more. I am very looking forward to seeing and hearing new sounds, and once again, be filled with wonder.

It has been a little while since the festival, since right before the festival I was in the process of moving out, and right after I went back to Lawrence and loaded all my belongings in a car that had wiring problems, and drove two days to Tallahassee, FL. Now I have settled in Tally for a week and I can finally typed something here about the festival.

I think it is my first participation in a festival. Last year I was at the Global Musician Workshop, but that’s really more like a one-week intensive of world music that does not involve many guests artists or is loaded with tonnes of performances. Wintergreen is located in the mountains with some really interesting history, in many ways it surprised me, by the scale as well as the organization, but more inspiring than the concerts were the people I met here and the scenery.

 

In terms of composition, I must say it was more because of me being lazy, as well as not willing to start a big project in this transition process, that I didn’t do too much in these two weeks. (and we weren’t assigned anything during the festival) But I spend so much time talking with fellow composers, about life, really intimate parts of life, as well as our views on music. It really made me think how introspective I am as a person, I listen to others a lot, I hear a lot of stories, I ask myself why they matter, I ask how I could do something, either through music or my own actions. At the same time, I really need to listen to a lot more music.

I was assigned to work with the Trillium quartet, 3 of the members were still in high school and one is a freshman to-be. I knew I wrote a simple piece. However, it turned out that for the kids, they didn’t found it that simple (while they worked on Beach’s string quartet in one movement which is, to be honest, a million times harder), and they progressed fast. In the unexpected dress rehearsal, things went really well, but in the real performance, they probably suffered from both anxiety and fatigues, that the performance/recording was not as satisfactory. Nonetheless,  I had a great time seeing the kids working hard and asked intelligent questions, and really tried to make things sound good. They are all so gifted and I hope to see them shine on big stages soon.

 

The composers also had a chance to write a movie score collaboratively. The more-than-a-thousand-measure monster of music was executed in a very nice manner. I heard some words about the project, but it was a great experience for u s. There are a lot of funny moments in the movie that was illustrated through the score effectively.

I also volunteered to help the chef Giustino in preparing dinner once, and I think I learned how to use the deep fryer perfectly after frying two big boxes of tofu and 3 packs of dumplings. It is veryinteresting to hear his perspective as a chef and an observer of the festival, and his participating in a salsa band.

The most impressive and inspiring thing during my stay is definitely everything about Joseph Conyers. Not just because he presented a ridiculously wonderful bass concert, but his absolutely passionate and useful masterclass that addresses so much performance issues, his absolutely selfless sharing on his musical journey and his project 440. I really would ask, how can one has such a big heart, such musicality, and such entrepreneurship? Maybe having a big heart itself is the answer.

I really miss the nights when my housemates and a friend hanged out in a 70s-styled house in the woods, but in many ways, I am glad that I am back to the modern world and I am using a modern stove.