Traveling Teacher Heads to Maine for Continuation of Successful Program

Report submitted by Dorothy Beeuwkes
Mercer, ME

 All of the participants looked forward to the Traveling Teacher Program workshop in May, to be coached by Larry Zukof, and as always it was enormously enjoyable.
 
The dates had been agreed upon by the participants and one person had coordinated the food contributions. The workshop started bright and early on Friday morning at 9:15 in the lobby of our Community Center in Mercer.  There were nine of us playing:  3 voices, 1 violin player, 2 viol players (Larry and his wife Pam), and one person with a contrabass and crumhorn. And, of course, there were plenty of soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders.  Larry at times used his viol as a drum.
 
We started off with "Ah Robin, Gentle Robin" by William Cornish. Then followed nine other pieces, composed by Cornish, Henry VIII, LeJeune, Byrd, Clemens Tallis and more -- some for recorders, viols/violin and voices, some just for recorders, and all lovely! We played until noon, had lunch on our porch, then played all afternoon. Larry gave a private lesson to one recorder player until 6pm.
 
The next day we played in a "barn apartment" since it was free, large enough to hold the now eight of us, and conveniently close to the main house and kitchen. We played inside while the birds were giving a concert outside! This was a day for just recorder players (plus Larry on his viol). The day started off with a trio lesson. After that, the whole group played several Renaissance pieces, two spirituals by William Grant Still, and Baroque pieces in the afternoon. We closed with the very lovely Lascia ch'io pianga by Handel, just right for our now weary souls!
 
As always, we want to thank ARS for making this possible for us. We all feel that we have improved our playing over the years and this makes it much more exciting to play together! Some of us play together on a regular basis.  We find Larry a fun and excellent coach. And, he comes with the good company of Pam and Dolce the dog. We are very much looking forward to the next workshop in the fall.
     
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