Dr. K goes HIFA in Zimbabwe!
We arrived at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare on Sunday morning, greeted by a fleet of enthusiastic HIFA runners, like a flock of sheep at safari. Possibly my best preparation for this trip – jabs, pills and sun-screen aside - was browsing their website a week or two earlier for a look at their programme and downloading off of iTunes some Ismael Lo (one of the main acts appearing at the festival). Not to say that we weren't all ecstatic to be in Zimbabwe, but nothing could have prepared us for the week ahead. Clutching our instruments and a HIFA artist welcome pack, we had no idea what to expect.
No clocks to be seen and apparently very little concept of time (how refreshing) it is a wonder that all of our concerts ran more or less to schedule, were unfailingly very well attended, and glory be, extremely well received (how refreshing!).
It is fair to say that between us, the “Dr K” sextet produced a great deal of the 'classical' music heard at HIFA. Nicky, Kymia, Alex and Gerard brought a series of solo/duo recitals to a captivated church crowd, introducing contemporary works alongside some more standard repertoire. They all performed marvellously, with particular credit to Kymia and Nicky for rising above the conditions (or not); the piano tuners fork, marked A=440 I believe, had opened our ears to a world of A=436...). Alex and Gerard, although playing fixed-pitch instruments, would have their own issues pinning down an instrument to rehearse and even perform on! Alex prepared, to our amazement, Beethoven's 'Eroica' Variations on a synthesised keyboard with no sustain pedal from a room at the hotel, while Gerard had to keep a hand on every piece of percussion for it not to be whisked away to be used in another concert at the opposite end of town! The cooly relaxed way things were done here, when there were so many bumps in the road, was what we affectionally came to know as the 'African way'.
No clocks to be seen and apparently very little concept of time (how refreshing) it is a wonder that all of our concerts ran more or less to schedule, were unfailingly very well attended, and glory be, extremely well received (how refreshing!).
It is fair to say that between us, the “Dr K” sextet produced a great deal of the 'classical' music heard at HIFA. Nicky, Kymia, Alex and Gerard brought a series of solo/duo recitals to a captivated church crowd, introducing contemporary works alongside some more standard repertoire. They all performed marvellously, with particular credit to Kymia and Nicky for rising above the conditions (or not); the piano tuners fork, marked A=440 I believe, had opened our ears to a world of A=436...). Alex and Gerard, although playing fixed-pitch instruments, would have their own issues pinning down an instrument to rehearse and even perform on! Alex prepared, to our amazement, Beethoven's 'Eroica' Variations on a synthesised keyboard with no sustain pedal from a room at the hotel, while Gerard had to keep a hand on every piece of percussion for it not to be whisked away to be used in another concert at the opposite end of town! The cooly relaxed way things were done here, when there were so many bumps in the road, was what we affectionally came to know as the 'African way'.
Alex was afforded a well earned break, halfway into his dual role as soloist and accompanist, as the rest of us turned our attentions to the CABS Opera Gala. The build up for this event was huge - “who could imagine a HIFA without it, such a highlight of the festival?”. We welcomed oboist Karen Gibbard and harpist Sarah Nichols for our big moment on the Telecel Main Stage, playing to thousands all camped out in Harare Gardens. The posse of singers from New York were stars, all of them, exceptionally talented and full of praise for their newly pieced-together ensemble. Arrangements from orchestral settings of famous arias proved successful even as rehearsals fell by the wayside; we reached our full compliment by show time, at least. Many thanks to William Hobbs, pianist and director, for leading us through some adverse conditions and pronouncing our names correctly most of the time.
Thankfully we managed to squeeze in some festival time of our own. Taking in a few shows and sampling every food stall on site became a priority (speaking for myself) and our hopes of going on safari were realised by Peter Rundell – Gerard's father and overall legend. He arranged for us all to visit Mwanga Lodge for the day, which included a tour of the animal orphanage, game drive, elephant ride, canoe trip and lunch. Elevenses was provided with tea served in fine china at the most dramatic hilltop setting before our elephant ride – a touristic fancy or a stark reminder of Zimbabwe's colonial past? Perhaps both. I was also glad that Kymia never got to cuddle her giraffe as her intimacy with the elephant had already given our tour guides some concern for her life. For most of us this was all a completely new and unforgettable experience and I struggle to pick out a defining moment, though I will say that a solid, staple meal at the lodge was very much appreciated after nearly of week of jerk chicken, hot dogs and noodles. I later discovered that Sadza, a local dish, was a little more forgiving on ones bowel movements.
We returned from our safari adventure just in time for the first of two performances of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man, involving Gerard, Nicky and myself in another festival ensemble under the baton of Paul Colman. Both nights had sold out well in advance and received standing ovations – a triumph for the Harare Chorus and everyone involved in this production.
Only after all this did we arrive at Dr K's first recital on Saturday. “Winging it” is not an expression I like to use. However, we had almost zero rehearsal and precious little time to look at our own parts until Saturday morning, by which time we more worried about which tone-zone the piano was in and the lag we'd suffer travelling continents between it's own pitch (A=436) and the vibraphone, if there was one, that we knew all too well was at A=442.
[I apologise to anyone reading this who doesn't tune an instrument everyday to a standard pitch. In the UK the standard is A=440Hz, and this must seem like a load of fuss over nothing, but playing in a small ensemble where piano and vibes are competing at a differential of 6Hz is quite an experience, I assure you.]
Needless to say, we requested that the piano was at least tuned up to A=440, to which the piano tuner politely agreed and did so, which led us to believe his pitch fork was faulty when it was perfectly and accurately retuned to A=436. Anyhoo, life's too short, I know I'm rambling... So I'll continue.
We resolved this by tuning to the piano and subsequently making an unspoken agreement within our inner quartet (if I'm allowed to call it that) of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello to meet in the middle and resolutely play as we know to 440Hz, ignoring what was going on around us. That was my experience anyway. The concert went bloody well, all things considered. Boulez's Derives went smoothly and felt really good to play, Rzewski's Pocket Symphony was enjoyed by all (maybe because the improvised sections were less prepared?) and West Side Story was, well, West Side Story and they loved it.
Dr K 'Programme 2' came at 2:40pm on the following and final day of the festival. We were more concerned about our preparations for this concert and again arrived to set up especially early and make use of some rehearsal time. In any case this was limited to setting up after the church service, due to finish at 12pm. We arrived at around 12:15pm with it still in full flow, or so we thought, and so we waited. Turned out the service did finish at 12pm. That was the English service... the Shona service followed immediately afterwards and proceeded, singing and dancing, for another two and a half hours! We had no intention of interrupting the flow so instead went and enjoyed some Malaysian Noodles while Alex recited, in order, every Formula 1 champion since 1950.
It has become a Dr K speciality to pull concerts out of the bag. Not our finest fifty five minutes ever by any stretch; we started late, kept people waiting outside in the heat of the day, shuffled our programme so the vibraphone could be carried off to the main stage mid-recital... was this the 'African way'? No, just a slight lack of organisation. The show went on, to the audiences delight, and I would be so happy for them to invite us back next year.
Only after all this did we arrive at Dr K's first recital on Saturday. “Winging it” is not an expression I like to use. However, we had almost zero rehearsal and precious little time to look at our own parts until Saturday morning, by which time we more worried about which tone-zone the piano was in and the lag we'd suffer travelling continents between it's own pitch (A=436) and the vibraphone, if there was one, that we knew all too well was at A=442.
[I apologise to anyone reading this who doesn't tune an instrument everyday to a standard pitch. In the UK the standard is A=440Hz, and this must seem like a load of fuss over nothing, but playing in a small ensemble where piano and vibes are competing at a differential of 6Hz is quite an experience, I assure you.]
Needless to say, we requested that the piano was at least tuned up to A=440, to which the piano tuner politely agreed and did so, which led us to believe his pitch fork was faulty when it was perfectly and accurately retuned to A=436. Anyhoo, life's too short, I know I'm rambling... So I'll continue.
We resolved this by tuning to the piano and subsequently making an unspoken agreement within our inner quartet (if I'm allowed to call it that) of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello to meet in the middle and resolutely play as we know to 440Hz, ignoring what was going on around us. That was my experience anyway. The concert went bloody well, all things considered. Boulez's Derives went smoothly and felt really good to play, Rzewski's Pocket Symphony was enjoyed by all (maybe because the improvised sections were less prepared?) and West Side Story was, well, West Side Story and they loved it.
Dr K 'Programme 2' came at 2:40pm on the following and final day of the festival. We were more concerned about our preparations for this concert and again arrived to set up especially early and make use of some rehearsal time. In any case this was limited to setting up after the church service, due to finish at 12pm. We arrived at around 12:15pm with it still in full flow, or so we thought, and so we waited. Turned out the service did finish at 12pm. That was the English service... the Shona service followed immediately afterwards and proceeded, singing and dancing, for another two and a half hours! We had no intention of interrupting the flow so instead went and enjoyed some Malaysian Noodles while Alex recited, in order, every Formula 1 champion since 1950.
It has become a Dr K speciality to pull concerts out of the bag. Not our finest fifty five minutes ever by any stretch; we started late, kept people waiting outside in the heat of the day, shuffled our programme so the vibraphone could be carried off to the main stage mid-recital... was this the 'African way'? No, just a slight lack of organisation. The show went on, to the audiences delight, and I would be so happy for them to invite us back next year.
We met so many warm, welcoming, happy, helpful, great people along the way - Peter, Manuel, Jo, Aldo, Sarah, Caitlin, Samuel, Lester, Camille, Laquita, Ronnita, Michael, William, Paul, Eren, Rose, Taku, Walter, the CEO of Lays Crisps, Memory, Hope, Prudence, Clemence, Patrick and Gonzo – I'd like to thank them all plus the names I've forgotten in no particular order in a list on a blog they may never read. Thank you HIFA, you were wonderful.