SAISA Music 2022
Due to Covid restrictions, OSC was unable to physically host SAISA Music this year, however we still managed to get a huge number of musicians together across many schools linked to SAISA via google meets on Saturday afternoon, 26th February. It was the first SAISA to happen in two years, and it was awesome that OSC was hosting it (online). The experience was pretty amazing, I got to connect with many different people; from other students to musicians and educators. In this blog I will show what went on during SAISA Music 2022.
First we started off with the Opening Ceremony and Keynote. During this session we watched the lighting of the oil lamp and each school was introduced. After that we were able to hear from incredible musician; Eliza James (see above), who has played violin for some of the world greatest musicians such as, Stevie wonder, Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera and Shakira. Eliza James also has done soundtracks for the Conjuring, Glee and many video games. It was amazing to hear about her journey as musician and actually very inspiring. We were also able to ask her questions which I’m very grateful for.
After the opening ceremony, we each joined smaller calls that we were able to choose before-hand. My first call was hosted by Mr. Williamson, who teaches music and music theory, in Nepal. We learned tons about Bossa-Nova; a unique music style that originated in Brazil. We learned about the origins and misconceptions of Bossa-Nova, and also what makes Bossa-Nova so unique, vibey and clever. I really enjoyed this workshop and learned a lot in such a short period of time. A key learning outcome I gained was not to put down music that seems abnormal until you really study it and discover the techniques applied.
My second workshop was a theory worksop, presented again by Mr. Williamson. During this block we discussed the history of German Art Song. This workshop was very much oriented around the poetry of a specific german opera and its meaning/literary devices. We listened to two versions and interpreted the piano accompaniment as well. This workshop was really interesting to me and I gained my confidence by joining in on the discussion and expressing my thoughts on the piece. I enjoyed listening to what other’s had to say as well.
My final workshop was with Ms. LaMarca. We learned about Jazz Improv. We first discussed the origins of Jazz, than looked into the basic structure of Jazz called the 12 Bar Blues Form. With the guidance of Ms. LaMarca we than tried our own additions. Everybody was either playing an instrument or vocalising (I was singing). I really enjoyed this, and than showing our work and playing together a bit in much smaller breakout rooms which I was quite nervous about at first. However with practice and help from people in my group, I managed to finally become more confident. At first I did struggle staying on tune with someone who was playing an instrument on the call, but I kept trying and I did eventually get there.
After we had completed all our workshops it was time for the closing ceremony at 4:50 pm. During the closing ceremony everybody at SAISA Music came together to watch what each school has been doing during lockdowns to come together to make music. It was really cool seeing how other schools still managed to put on good shows with world wide lockdowns in place. We supported our OSC friends through the chat when we got to watch each other’s performances.
At first I was sceptical about SAISA music taking place online, however it was actually such a great experience. I think its really great that so many different people from so many places could come together and share/learn about something we all love; music. Not only was it fun taking part in a hobby, I also learned a lot about different genres of music.