In this post, Jonathan Savage, MD of UCan Play, reflects on his day at Musical Futures’ Music Learning Revolution.
Musical Futures know how to put on an event! Our day at The Brewery yesterday, just next to the Barbican in London, was fantastic for so many reasons: a great location, free coffee, lovely food, excellent organisation, stimulating content. We really enjoyed exhibiting our products and services. Numerous productive conversations were had and demonstrations were done both in seminars and on the stand. Our huge thanks to Geraldine, Joseph, Josh and our friends at Bose for their support throughout the day.
Two principle things stood out to us. Firstly, the event was full of the most amazing people with a tremendous passion and vision for music education. We met old friends and made new ones too. Here are some of the characters that crossed our path during the day:
It was wonderful to meet up with David Ashworth again and catch up on his new projects.
David Barnard has been a constant source of friendship and advice for UCan Play for many years. Great to see David before he jetted off on another international jolly!
We remember Dean when he was at Roland, then Korg, and now he’s at Bose. When you have a moment (or longer), ask him about his collection of vintage synths.
Here’s one of the most respected voices in music education, John Finney. Thanks for popping over to the stand John. We really value your friendship and wisdom.
It was also fun to meet friends who have only been ‘met’ on Twitter. Perhaps the highlight in that respect yesterday was meeting up with Jackie Schneider. She did sterling work in the debate on whether qualifications really matter to be a music educator before we were able to chat briefly over tea and cakes! Here she is in full flow:
Apart from the people, the other major thing to stand out during the day was young people enjoying live music making! On numerous occasions, in seminars, on stairways and other locations, the sounds of young people making and enjoying music percolated throughout the building. It was lovely, seemed spontaneous, and was a brilliant reminder about why we work in this amazing area of life.
Musical Futures should be congratulated on putting on such an amazing event. It was all done with a sense of style and flair, and a joie de vivre that is often missing from large scale educational events. Their approach is a blue-print for others to learn from and we were proud to be a small part of it.
For me, personally, it was also lovely to spend the day working with my son – Josh – who demonstrated the RC505 brilliantly in one session and then worked with folk individually or in small groups showing the potential of this technology from the stand. Josh is 21, just started studying jazz drumming at the RNCM, and is just a brilliant person to be around. Thanks for your help today and good luck with your ongoing studies.
Recent Comments