A new Gonzervatory is kicking off in Germany! For me, it’s the occasion to reflect on my experience.
First off, what’s the Gonzervatory?
The Gonzervatory is a multi days Master Class aiming to prepare a concert with original creations prepared by the artists during the class. I participated in 2018 Gonzervatory last year.
Clearly, the Gonzervatory was very rich for me in several aspects: musically and humanely: it gave me self-confidence and showed me the power of collaboration as well as so many other aspects.
During 7 days (on the 8th we gave the concert) we had:
- individual courses
- collective courses
- conference with an artist (a different person every day) and music session with them that allowed us to share our personal touch
I already knew Chilly Gonzales through his musics and having been to one of his concerts a few years back. His music and his personality touched me. On stage, he plays the “Musical Genius” but I wondered what was behind the scenes.
As our professor, he gave us exercises that felt coherent in the moment, but which looking back seem amazing to me now. The collective courses with him were what he calls “musical push-ups”, such as: create an original music in a very short time (up to 15 min) solo, duo or trio. When I compose alone at home, I take time… a looooot of time. As I didn’t practice improvisation as much, these were new exercises for me, and I was pleasantly surprised to be that creative.
Humanely as well, he really did the job, boosting our confidence while creating a trusting and fun environment. All in all, the atmosphere with the other artists was superb.
And now what?
After the Gonzervatory, I gained in confidence ten folds. I kept in touch with the other artists, and I even collaborated with Dalebi on another project recently: the song “Do What You Love” with rapper Logic and HitRecord.
I have a lot of other ongoing projects. I especially am working on a project to celebrate the classical music forgotten composers, focussing on Afro-descendents of previous centuries. I have started with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and prepared his biography!
Other composers will come soon! And of course a concert is in preparation… because since the Gonzervatory I can’t stop anymore.