Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo

The workshop at UNASP was a fantastic closing workshop! This is the University of several other exchange students, Jéssica and Rennen. The workshops began in the beautiful chapel where Dr. Moorman-Stahlman gave an organ master class and the girls performed many handbell pieces. The afternoon I presented boomwhackers and bucket drums but we also started off with a crowd favorite, “Two by Two” No matter where we went everyone caught onto the English words to this song rather easily and it was a lot of fun watching all ages from children to college students creating motions.

 

The students in this workshop embraced everything that we taught them and they were so talented. At the very end of the workshop, they worked together on a group percussion piece and it was indeed the highlight of the day for me! The images and video below share some additional highlights and a little glimpse of this gorgeous chapel.

 

Jundiaí

From Porto Velho, we traveled to Jundiaí where we stayed with the beautiful Gonzales family. Dr. Moorman-Stahlman became friends with Helena Gonzales through one of her concerts in the city and since that time Helena and her family have opened their home to LVC students traveling and giving workshops in the cultural exchange program. As you can see from these photos, we had a little play time in the morning before our workshop. We visited the botanical gardens nearby and had a lot of fun along the way.

In the evening we went to the Jundiaí, Christian School of Music (Casa Deus) where we gave workshops in handbells, tone chimes, bucket drumming and boomwhackers. We were very moved when the children all reached out their hands and prayed for us at the end of the service and then graced us with several beautiful songs. We then had a great question and answer period where they asked us all sorts of questions from our birthdays to what kind of food we liked most in Brazil. By the time we left that school, we felt very connected to these Brazilian students. Music makes community!

Brazil, Here We Come!

Screen Shot 2018-05-18 at 5.18.52 PMI was very honored when my colleague Dr. Shelly Moorman-Stahlman asked me to participate in a cultural exchange program this summer to Brazil. The students will be presenting handbell concerts and assisting in workshops for handbells, bucket drumming, and boomwhackers. Dr. Moorman Stahlman will also be performing solo piano concerts, master classes and performing with the orchestra of Villa Lobos in Porto Velho and, Mogi das Cruzes orchestra. She is the guest performer at the Festival do Inverno the largest classical music festival in Latin America…

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