Day Two: My Masterclass
After a while I was out of directly playable music and noticed it was time for my master class.
In the mean time my companion for this festival -El Angel de la Milonga- had arrived. She sighed a bit about the age distribution amongst the contesters in her class and really feared that she would be a round peg in a square hole amongst all those youngsters. ;-) Well, looking pretty young, she was a perfect fit for her category!
To be fair, the major part of the contestants was quite young, say up to thirty years of age. Then there was an age gap of about 15-20 years and then we had the “oldies”, players in their late forties until their early sixties. Quite a generation gap!
My teacher for the master class appeared to be Yves Storms, a well known guitarist and teacher from Belgium, who is active in the concert tour world every year. When I entered the classroom, it wasn’t my turn yet, but also listening to his master classes appeared pleasant and instructive.
Yves Storms has the ability of quickly and effectively getting through to the core of a musical problem. Once there, he discusses the problem seemingly impromptu in a direct and to the point manner, based on a tremendous experience with the practice of music. He discusses matters in an easy, personal and amiable style without missing the point, however. Once the problem is on the surface, he soothes a possible shock with figurative, humorous and solution directed statements and hints. He is able to create an excellent mood for learning, where teacher and student strive for the same goals.
I was surprised how he motivated me to experiment with music in another way than I was used to, or did not do out of some diffidence. I am no singer at all, but in some way he motivated me to sing the music of Fortuna Anglese by Joachim van den Hove even before the master class audience, just to find that I got out of breath the way I played specific phrases up to now. That caused a hesitation in some of the runs, so it appears quite useful to make breathing marks in the score, just like wind instrument players do! Taking into account this breathing, the runs came out much naturally. Additionally I found out something about the atmosphere of the piece, which is a kind of joyous victory song.
I got the impression that Mr. Storms and I shared an interest in Renaissance music. He knew an awful lot about it, not only musically, but also in the historical sense, and discussed things as a genuine conversationalist. Historical background information can add some to the play of a piece.
Summarizing things in a few words, Mr. Storms appeared to me to be an inspiring musician and personality, a fact that he would underline in his recital the next day.