Ni Hao! Welcome to my China Orchestra Blog...

Welcome to my China Orchestra Blog...   Scott and I found out about the South Shore Orchestra through my friend Charlotte, who is in my Women of Substance Book Club and also plays violin in the Mason Orchestra.  The South Shore Orchestra is out of Valparaiso, Indiana.  We were happy to hear that they could use a flautist and a percussionist for the tour, which went from December 26, 2015 through January 7, 2016.  We began and ended in Shanghai, playing eight concerts in the first seven days of the tour.  We played both Western and Eastern music and were joined by four amazing solists:  Matthon Ring Black, a baritone from Chicago/Arkansas; LiTing , an erhu player from China; Isabel Martinez, a classical guitarist from Spain; and Charo Alcara, a soprano from Spain.  Our director was Troy Webdell.  And our fearless organizers were Pete and Kathy.  We quickly developed a workable rhythm for our many travels...

The photos on this blog entry are a quick and dirty overview of the tour.  Our usual schedule was to wake up quite early, grab breakfast at the hotel, hop on the two buses to travel to the concert site for the day (anywhere from 2 to 6 hours), have a rehearsal, take about an hour or two break, play in a fabulous concert hall venue, and then eat dinner about 10 pm at night.  The first seven days were pretty brutal as far as schedule, with no time for site-seeing or wandering around. This was difficult, as we came to play music, but we also wanted the opportunity to take in more of the towns we were playing in  at night.  By the 8th day of the tour, we were able to begin to take in more of the sights and sounds and olfactory delights of China.

Some of the highlights of the sites included the following:  a trip to a Buddhist Temple, accompanied by a simple monk lunch; visiting a Conservatory where we heard performances on ancient Chinese instruments; visiting an Artist Retreat Colony (my favorite!!!); visiting a tea farm; touring a silk factory; going to the old portion of Shanghai where we toured a beautiful rock garden; visiting an ancient village; the Night Market in Shanghai; visiting the West Lake area in Shanghai (Scott's favorite); performance and visit to Shangri La Community, which features multi-million dollar homes in a suburb of Hangzhou.

We traveled, by bus, from Shanghai to Hangzhou to Ningbo to Changxing to Lishui to Wenhou to Jinhua, and then back to Hangzhou and finally to Shanghai again.  Most of these cities are south or southwest of Shanghai.  Scott and I had been to Shanghai before, during a typhoon back in 2011, but all the other cities were new to us.

For those of you who may not be familiar with our Chinese history, this is the first time we have come to China without a teaching assignment.  Thanks to my participation with LATTICE in East Lansing, I discovered a small partnership between Oakland University and the Province of Guizhou in Southwest China.  I made contact with Bill Richardson in 2008, and after chatting for several hours, was invited to teach in China during the summer of 2008.  I was placed in Beije, which is several hours outside the capitol of Guiyang.  This is a remote, mountainous site.  My teaching partner Nancy and I worked with elementary and middle school teachers.  It was, without a doubt, the most phenomenal and challenging teaching experience of my life.  Our task was to work with Chinese teachers of English, helping with English but mostly teaching and modeling active teaching strategies.  The Beije site frequently had no water and/or electricity for a week at a time, so we had to draw on all of our creativity.  I lived in an old Peace Corps apartment, with many maps and a squat toilet.  Because of the lack of electricity and water, we ended up spending all our evenings with students out on the basketball courts, singing and dancing and getting to know one another.  An amazing journey.

Scott and I went to Guizhou together during the summers of 2011 and 2014.  Our mission was the same; however, we worked with middle school and high school teachers this time around.  Once again, the focus was on teaching active teaching strategies, as their classes are largely taught in lecture/test mode.  We worked in and around Guiyang, the capitol city, these two summers.  And once again, we made lifelong friends on this journey.

As many of you might know, I typically take my computer and keep an active blog when I am overseas.  My daughter Alicia was profoundly helpful in posting, as blog access had been impossible in China.  This time, I knew we would be very busy with travel, rehearsals, and concerts, so I didn't think I would have time to write each evening.  As it turns out, that was a true prediction.  So, this blog is after the journey.  I will try to capture the immediacy of each place as best I can.  There are many adventures to write about...

My heart, always, to Bill Richardson, whom I credit with my lifelong love affair with China and the beautiful people we have come to know in Guizhou Province.  Thank you, dear Bill.

And thank you, my beloved partner Scott, for embarking on this China Orchestra Tour with me.  Adventures with you have become a way of life, and you are a beautiful travel partner. And I look forward to our many future journeys together.