Ben van Dijk coaching the JONDE
Sunday, August 01, 2004
From July 1st till July 9th 2004 I coached the trombone section of the "JONDE".
The section of the Jonde + Ben van Dijk.
The Spanish National Youth Orchestra "JONDE" worked in this period on Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony "Lobgesang" and Stravinsky"s "Pulcinella Suite". For every section there was a different coach and this year there were coaches from Spain, England, USA and the Netherlands. It was my job to make an ensemble out of 4 new appointed trombonists who didn't know each other before this period. Also it was my task to decide who was going to play which part. This year's session was located in the beautiful Pilgrims City of Santiago de Compostela.
Ben having a beer on the Plaza.
The orchestra had its domicile in the old Pilgrims Monastery across the old Cathedral in the center of the city. What a great ambiance to work on music! After two days of working with the students on general trombone matters, ensemble playing and individual lessons I made my choice and had my sections ready.
Vicente Garrido Domingo was going to play the "Pulcinella Suite".
Vicente and Maestro Hogwood.
Vicente is a very talented trombonist with the exact byte in his playing for this kind of music. The other three made up the section for the Mendelssohn.:
Carmelo Sosa Bancalero was the only one with an alto trombone and showed a very solid high register in our sessions, so he was perfect for the first chair in Mendelssohn.
Francisco Javier Garcia Benedito, with his full tenor sound was the perfect second and
Gregorio Sanchez Arcos played bass trombone so it was clear he was meant for the bass trombone.
The four trombone student in a compilation.
We worked hard on the Mendelssohn and every day the section sounded better.
Carmelo did a great job on the alto, a famous difficult part in the alto literature. Fran blended super and Gregorio gave the bass needed for this music. It was great fun for me to work with these talented boys.
The last evening the group invited me for a great typical Galician diner.
Great Spanish food and a super ambiance.
We had great fun and after that the disco gave some good entertainment.
Fiesta with the Jonde in Santiago!
The next day I had to travel back home again, I made it but the final day was still a little bit too much in my blood. Water, water and more water saved my day.
Salute y forza de ......!
Ben van Dijk