Musical Opportunities through PAA in Spain
I am working at a music internship in Barcelona, Spain. I was placed at La Sala Escola Musica, which is a developing music school in Poble Sec, Barcelona. I am working with Monica Trueba, who is the head director of the music school and a piano teacher as well. The school teaches everything from strings, brass, woodwind, piano, and percussion instruments with professional faculty from Barcelona. I just love the fact that the faculty puts a lot of passion into their teaching. In addition, they are also very encouraging to make sure their students can be the best musicians they possibly can be.
As part of my internship my responsibilities include: writing posts for the school’s music blog, preparing activities for the school’s upcoming summer camp, preparing and presenting classes to children aged 6-12, and observing different private lessons around the school and giving input when needed. I have only been there for a week and already have been engaged in a lot of activities and been given a variety of responsibilities. First of all, I already wrote a blog (in Spanish I might add!) for the school’s website that discussed “music as a universal language.” I have also taught four private lessons that consisted of two singing lessons and two piano lessons. I taught the entire lessons in Spanish. I have also observed three piano lessons, two private adult singing lessons, and a young group general music class. During the singing lessons, I gave some feedback as to how they were singing and what they could do to improve.
Working at the music school is just one small segment of the entire musical culture in Spain. I have observed so much music occurring within and on the outskirts of Barcelona during my first week. The first musical activity I noticed happened on the metro. There were a lot of musicians playing at the metro stops as well as on the metro itself. Some were playing instruments I never even heard of. For example, some musicians played what is called an Ajayu, which is a native instrument from Chile. I have also seen people playing guitars out at the park just for fun. I really do appreciate seeing this, because music for me is not just a profession, but it also a way to just help me relax.
What I really admire about the city of Barcelona is that there is such a variety of music happening at any one time, whether it’s classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, R&B, or even EDM music. Within my first week, I have seen a Spanish classical guitar concert and traveled to Montserrat to witness one of the oldest boy’s choirs, La Escolania, perform at a Basilica high on a mountain top. The last music experience I witnessed, during my first week, was at the Fountain in Montjuic. Every night at 9 PM, this fountain creates a water show set to music from Disney. It was absolutely incredible. I have another five weeks, and I hope that my musical experience will be just as amazing then as it is now. I hope to encounter more musical styles and continue to discover the uniqueness of music in this great city of Barcelona.
Written by Andrew Wang
Performing Arts Abroad music intern in Spain
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