Resilience 2020: Barbara Degener

Webinar ESTA CPD Resilience June 2020       Barbara Degener

 

For so many years I have been thinking of joining the ESTA summer course. Thanks to lock down and help from the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Bursary I finally had the opportunity to “meet” a fantastic team of very knowledgeable people.

On the menu was Feldenkrais with Jo Horder to start the day. As part of the idea of “resilience” her sessions were excellent to give us tools to relax and travel on an inner journey, exploring different parts of our body. As string players we constantly have to look after our physical wellbeing and the sooner we are aware of any tension the better. Jo’s sessions were definitely very helpful to kick start finding neglected parts of the body.

The lower string sessions were run by Laura Ritchie, a sheer fountain of cello technique knowledge. It was very reassuring for me that it I was aware of most of it (thanks to my teachers). It also took me back quite a few years when I used to practise Feuilliard exercises regularly and gave me a good reminder to dig the well worn book out again. Hence my students and I have been doing some lovely finger exercises since. Thanks Laura! : )

Apart from the concise run through technique Laura also introduced some fantastic ideas for composing, just using cards with the note names and picking them randomly. A tune is born and the variations are endless: rhythm, expression, octaves, slurs….  Why didn’t I think of that? It’s so simple!

As the sessions were available online afterwards I had the fantastic opportunity to also listen to the upper string sessions with Simon Cartledge. Being a cellist but also teaching beginner violin I am very much aware of the responsibility to help the children to a good start. Simon gave me hope that I can actually learn vibrato on the violin but for the time being I leave it to the experts.

The third session was run by Lucy Hare who enabled us to open up to ideas about “Resilience” and possible future ideas of “Restarting” or “Reinventing” ourselves. This was so helpful in many ways at this challenging time of Corona when suddenly everybody’s world was turned upside down. Lucy managed to create a very safe online environment and with the help of smaller break out rooms on zoom the participants were able to share their thoughts and meet new people. By defining our own strengths and weaknesses Lucy helped us to be more aware of our inner tools to face the challenging times.

Having taken part in various webinars over the last 3 months the ESTA course was definitely one of the top in terms of creating a relaxed atmosphere combined with sharing useful knowledge which nurtured body, heart and soul.

Finishing with the quiz night and Sheila playing the trombone was just another reminder of what a lovely bunch of crazy, creative people ESTA is. Thank you all !