Sunday July 26^th

Last day of Neflac! :-( This morning we woke up in the Stayokay in Arnhem. The day began well, because we had half an hour extra sleep time :-) And we really could use that, after a great but tiring concert the evening before, but it was fantastic! So after a good start with nice breakfast, we left to Amsterdam by bus. After 1,5 hours we arrived at the Concertgebouw.

We brought our luggage to the foyer, sorted out our music, did each other’s hair, and after everyone was organized we started the rehearsal in the Kleine Zaal. It was such a pleasure to play there! And besides of the playing we practiced the walking on and off the stage, so fast and fluently as possible, and we now have the speed record on our names. :-)

Finally, lunchtime! It was a very good lunch, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it and to be relaxed, because in 20 minutes already we had to be ready for tuning.

Then the concert started, and it was almost sold out! It was amazing. Everyone played beautifully and the ambiance was so good. And also the audience was great with Ned's improvisation piece. It was a fantastic end of a fantastic week. After the concert we gave a present to all the people who actually made this week happen. A bag with a picture of all the participants of this week for Suzanne, Emily, Andrew, Jeroen, Wieke and Tanja.

It was time for the after party, or as it was written in the program: the farewell party. We saw our friends and family and after some drinks it was time to say goodbye to all of the participants. That was a bit sad, but who knows, maybe we see each other again, because the world is small after all.

It was a wonderful week!

Liefs,

Marianne (YIP), Julia (NTK), Floortje (NTK)

Neflac blog 25. juli 2015

Code yellow, code orange, code red… This is how our day started with checking the weather forecast often.

Today was the first concert day, which was supposed to start in park Sonsbeek, but the weather unfortunately didn’t allow this. We started the day with packing our bags and after breakfast we went to the church in Rheden. There we had a general rehearsal for the concert in the Dorpskerk this evening. Since we couldn’t go to park Sonsbeek we had a private-concert for each other and a few friends/family of the NTK’s. In the concert we enjoyed listening chamber groups which we formed during the summer-academy week.

Friends of Neflac helped with transport from the church back to Rhederoord, where we had our last dinner together as a Neflac family. With full stomachs and full of motivation we were ready to perform again. The concert in Rheden was absolutely amazing and despite the weather we played for a full church. The program of the concert was very colourful-from solo pieces with piano to Neflac flute orchestra with special guest, famous Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman, who performed together with the flute orchestra two virtuoso pieces: Waltz Scherzo from Tchaikowsky and Summer from Vivaldi´s Four Seasons.  We had a great evening, being very lucky to have played with and be able to learn from such an amazing musician like Liza. Tired but satisfied we left for the Stayokay hotel in Arnhem. Most of the tonight´s dreams will be probably about tomorrows concert in famous HET Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Hilde, Katinka, Vita

After breakfast, durig the warming up, the YIP'ers had to learn a dutch song, which was a little bit tricky but it went very well!
We went to do the warming up under some very special, soft, century-old trees.

then the NTK group had theme lessons with Wieke and Jeroen about singing and playing the flute at the same time. Alexander technique had a comeback during the same time, done by Maaike. Here, we learn how to be conscious of our body, and possible tension. As a musician it is very important to be aware of this. After these sessios we felt as if we were floating, we had a very relaxed lunch.

In the afteroon NTK had masterclasses, and later on they performed their ensemble pieces to each other. The YIP group had a very interesting and useful masterclass about audition repertoire. Emily had some great tips about practising and playing the most requested orchestral exerpts.

After our last dinner at Rhederoord, we finally got to play with our special guest, Liza Ferschtman! She's an amazing musician, we were honoured to have her with us, and we are looking forward to hearing her again during the concert. We all got inspired by her energetic way of playing and we were a little bit lost at the beginning, but we finally found our way back! We just hope she likes flutes...! Andrew interviewed her afterwards and she talked about her experience as a musician.

We hope to see you all at our concert tomorrow!!!!

Sara, Gemma, Eline

best blog ever- thursday

We had a fantastic start to our fith day at neflac. After filling ourselves with the daily ham and cheese, we began our day with the morning warmup on the grass. Today we were joined by the f-jes (12 year olds) for name games and physical warmups.

The groups then split with NTKs having a theme lesson on finger technique and posture featuring songs about a swan and a sick purple horse, while the YIPpers played confusing scales.
NTK buddies took their F-JES to lessons to experience Wieke and Jeroen as the older ones experienced Emily, Samantha enjoyed it very much.
We spent the afternoon having brilliant masterclasses with Emily followed by ensembles and flute orchestra. We did spend most of the day looking forward to the free evening and bbq, followed by a refreshing walk in the forrest.
We now wish you a good evening as we enjoy our glasses of wine (YIP only of course)
Love Rocco, Samantha, Nadja and Rosanne

Wednesday 22 July

This morning we started the day with sprinkles for breakfast, and then we did yoga in the sun. It was very hard work, but then we had a lie down on the lawn, so we could "sleep" for a minute. After the yoga NTK and YIP had seperated flute warm-ups.

After some private pratice en relaxing we had Alexander Technique, where you learn about posture and breathing, with Maaike. At Alexander Technique we had another lie down after some standing ups. By then we were really hungry and ate more sprinkles for lunch.

In the afternoon YIP had a class with Wieke about concentration and the psychology of practice, while NTK had a masterclass with Emily, and people played pieces by Roussel, Quantz and Taktakishvili. After a short break Emily gave the YIP a masterclass, where pieces by Nielsen, Prokofiev and Plati were played. At the same time NTK had flute orchestra rehearsal.

Then NTK had time to rehearse with their ensembles, ready for the concerts on saturday and sunday: please come listen! Camilla had a lesson with Emily. Then we had dinner with eve more sprinkles, for dessert.

In the evening we had a workshop called "Creative music making" by Ned McGowan. We learnt lots of extended techniques and composed a piece for the concert.

Neflac Day 3

Welcome to day 3! Today we warmed up by playing Estafette in three different groups. We lined up and passed the ball to eachother, over and under our legs. We then did some stretches, like the 'Neflac stretch' and the 'Skiier'. After this physical warm-up, we split into our two groups (NTK and YIP) to warm up with flutes. We all played a lot of different scales, and practiced our posture

While the YIP had individual lessons and rehearsals, the theme lesson for the NTK was posture, which involved us experimenting playing with bad posture. We also tried putting our flutes in different positions, which was very useful!

Both for NTK and the YIP'ers had individul lessons and masterclasses. YIP had two tech clinics, as well a visit from Jan Baggerman (who is a flute tehnician) so anyone could have their flutes checked by him.

NTK had ensemble coaching where we played and rehearsed some pieces in preparation for the concert this weekend. And then comes the flute orchestra!

For the flute orchestra we had 30 players, each playing all different flutes; C Flute, Alto, Bass, and Contra-Bass. We practiced some pieces for our upcoming concert this weekend, which will be super fun!

The workshop for tonight was with Glenn Liebaut, who worked with us on Dalcroze/Eurhythmics. This is when you use your body to make percussive and rhythmic patterns, together and in groups. He also got us to sing and move together in rounds and in circles. He then took us outside to make a performance from the rhythms we had learned, which was really, really enjoyable.

Today was a really good day, and we are looking forward to tomorrow!

Slaaplekker!
Nichaud, Rivka, Shanni and Judith