2014 Port Townsend Choro Workshop

[Al Bergstein]

I'll kick off the postings. 49 students. 6 teachers, including Tim Connell from Portland. A really great mix of students from very experienced players to newcomers to the music. Lots of returning folks, so the vide is warm right away. Opening night instructor's concert. Great opening night jam afterwards going long past midnight. Lots of folks posting to FB also.

(L-R) Jovino Santos Neto, Anat Cohen, Douglas Lora, Dudu Maia, Alexandre Lora and Tim Connell.

[DSDarr]

So bummed I couldn't make it... next year!

David

[Al Bergstein]

The 2014 Port Townsend Choro workshop was another spectacular time. Classes were really top notch. Dudu Maia is honing his teaching skills with new mandolin thinking in his unique approach. Ensemble coaching was great, especially the gentle and intelligent hand of Anat Cohen. The instructor's concert sold out at $28 a ticket for a hall holding 280, standing room only. The band of Jovino Santos Neto on piano and other instruments, Alexandre Lora on pandeiro, Douglas Lora on 7 string guitar , Dudu Maia and Anat Cohen on clarinet brought down the house, with roaring standing ovations for two songs in the first set and two in the second. List member Tim Connell was invited onstage to play a tune with them, as was clarinet player and Centrum program manager Greg Miller. The afterhours parties and jams were great. Last night Forro party in the kitchen while choro jammed in the living room. It was true that Tim's usually laid back guitar player, Mike Burdette was seen forro dancing in the kitchen...a rare and special event in itself. The place was jumping! To top it off, I got in my car to head home after 3AM, and turned on the car radio, and Seattle jazz station KPLU was playing Anat Cohen's choro! Weird! Days of sleep are anticipated once the heart slows down... and the morning mimosa's wear off.

[Justin Carvitto]

Thanks for the recap Al. I'll be saving my $ for next year's tuition.

[DSDarr]

Fortunately I did make it to the amazing concert last night at Cornish, with all the guys from Trio Brasieiro, Anat Cohen, and Jovino Santos Neto. What a show!

David

[Al Bergstein]

For those who missed both shows, they will be streaming the Portland concert (without Jovino but with Anat) from Abbie's House. You can donate a small amount to help show your love. Here's the links. 7:30 PDT 9:30 CDT 10:30 EDT 3:30 AM London Time.

http://www.concertwindow.com/shows/2...iro-anat-cohen

[DSDarr]

Al -- that's tomorrow evening correct? Tuesday the 6th?

David

[Al Bergstein]

Unfortunately, we fought technical issues on the audio portion of the online concert. The computer had some new video mixer software which seriously compromised the audio. I gave Abbie a lot of ideas on how to fix it, but we couldn't do it on the fly. It's still early days on all this consumer level video streaming. Got a lot of bugs to work out. Single camera low res flash seems to work fine. Trying to get 2 cameras and high level audio is still an issue.

[Al Bergstein]

I'm sitting here tonight listening to the off the board recordings of the instructor's concert from this year's workshop. I do not have the authority to release any of this to the world, but I hope you will contact Dudu and the others who played to release at least one of these tunes. The concert was spectacular. the recording is pretty damn great.