It never fails. Musicians always find each other, no matter what country or culture they live in! But this is particularly true in this country, where music has not always been honored as something worthy of effort – in fact, for some time music was outlawed. Today musicians support each other and work together to master their instruments.
Within the second week of my teaching, I met a young guitar teacher at our school. He has become a good friend and has literally driven me around the capital dozens of times in the last weeks showing me good places to eat, introducing me to the other musicians, commenting on his country’s history, teaching me some language…and taking me to local festivities.
The country has just observed a very important holiday – the birthday of their prophet. Two musician friends took me out for the day to eat traditional food with the family, listen to recitations of oral histories, and participate in the street music that parades through the oldest part of the city. What an honor! These two video clips are from the street music parades. You will see that the people here are very welcoming…and inclusive! [video coming shortly...I'm having technical difficulties...]
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