This blog is going to be a bit longer than the following ones, I just want to give you an overview of myself, what I've been up to, what I am doing now and why I do what I do.
As you might have seen in the about me section I am Emilia and I live in Scotland although I grew up in Germany. I was born in the golden year of 2000 and had a lovely childhood on the wonderful Island of Föhr on the west coast of Germany. My parents brought me up with everything you wish for and most importantly for me: with music! They both play the pipes (there is your connection to Scotland) and funnily even met through piping. Mom picked up pipes when she was an AuPair in Scotland a long time ago (it was actually 1994) came back to Germany, wanted to keep up the practise, found a piping workshop on the Island of Föhr, organized by my dad who grew up on the island and boom: Mom found a new home, a husband and a few years later I was born. Having had the piping workshop as the thing that brought my parents together I went along every year and for 4 days a year I had the wonderful sound of blasting pipe drones in my ear (which stuck with you even a week longer). Nevertheless it always has and still is one of the highlights of the year and to be honest I think that is a big reason for doing what I do musically. Thanks to my parents and also our pipe teachers for that!
Starting school as one of the youngest in my class has never been a problem and to be honest I loved school! It all got a bit less attractive when I went from primary school to secondary school after 4 years even though the first years at secondary school were quite interesting as it was something new. The older we got the higher the stress level and people kept asking: "What do you want to do after school??" well, not having an answer to that was of course unacceptable and people were wondering what you did with your life when you didn't exactly know what you were going to study. To be honest, there is enough souls out there that finished school with me and still don't know what they want to do. And you know what: That is ok! Everyone is different, some people take longer some don't, we're all individuals and in my opinion there shouldn't be a measurement of when you need to decide what you will do for the rest of your life. Back to my story.
Honestly, I utterly detested school for the last two years and that mainly because my own interests were not supported through the school. To be fair, our school is the smallest secondary school in Germany and it is understandable that they lack of time and staff for extracurricular activties within the school. What I want to say is, that I would've wished for just a little understanding in the things I did. I was very passionate about music but our school was too small to found good choirs, ensembles or anything else musically. I am again not saying that there was nothing, but the support and funding also from the government for musical activties in school were just not there. Who needs music and the arts nowadays, eh? Having nobody in school (except my lovely music teacher! shout out to her!) that really understood what I wanted I started to organize things myself. I went to concerts, workshops and tried everything to get musical education outside of school.
Based on that I started piano when I was six years old and violin when I was ten. Violin was always my dream but mum insisted on waiting till I was 10 (bless her for that!). Finally in February 2010 even five months before my 10th birthday I saw a piece of paper on my seat saying that mom had booked my first violin lesson. Yay!! Dream come true. As I suppose for everyone it took my about a year or two to be able to play a decent tune on the violin. My teacher was the most wonderful teacher with an interest in my musical interest that I had not experienced in school or anywhere else, except of my parents. Five wonderful years with my teacher but then the sad reality that she needed to move away from the island. Finding new teachers on the island is very hard because as lovely as the island is, it is still different than living on the mainland and not everyone can cope with that. Half a year passed by without a single violin lesson and as I didn't have weekly lessons I really struggled with daily practise. Then suddenly there was the rumour of a new violin teacher coming to the island which was great news! I was motivated again and couldn't wait for my first lesson. I went to a first lesson and it was lovely to be back on track again. The new teacher was a performer and played in good bands all over Germany and was on the island once a week to teach all the kids on the island. The only problem was, that he was a performer and not a teacher. Don't get me wrong, he was an amazing violinist and he had the best techniques but he was not a teacher. When 20 minutes of your 30 minutes lessons are based on him playing something, you're not really improving during the lessons. I still went to the lessons because I was afraid that if I stop lessons I will not keep up the practise and will stop playing which I didn't want at all! All of the practise was classical and when I was home I practised the material but after that there was at least 30 minutes of playing folk tunes that I just played for myself or my parents.
It was in October 2016 that someone told me about the folkBaltica Ensemble and said I should join if I enjoy folk music. It was not based on the island but it was not far on the mainland. I auditioned, got accepted and joined them in March 2017. What an experience! There was other people in Northern Germany that enjoy folk music as well! I came to the first rehearsal weekend and there was so many lovely people that I felt welcome from the first minute. In the folkBaltica Ensemble, consisting of people aged between 15 and 25 we play traditional as well as contemporary folk music from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland and many more. The main concert of the Ensemble is the folkBaltica Festival Opening Concert in Sonderborg in Denmark which is always a great experience playing in a great concert hall for so many people. Additionally to that there is the Tonder Festival in Denmark in August. Biggest folk festival in Europe and just another dimension with so many different musicians from many different countries. As part of the festival we play a schoolconcert where kids from Northern Germany and South Denmark can come in for free to see us and two other bands. The concert is held on an OpenAir stage and it is just crazy playing for about 6000 people! What an experience! A fun fact about that: When I grew up my parents used to take me to the festival and my first Tonder Festival experience was at he age of one month. I used to watch the musicians on stage, admiring them and thinking how amazing it would be to be on that stage. So now I get to play the biggest stage on the festival ground with so many good friends and amazing music! I am truly blessed!
As well as fiddle I also play piano, organ and sing. Piano has always been a part of me and starting when I was six I feel like I played piano my whole life. As my piano teacher is also an organist and a conductor (and also the nicest and caring person on earth!) I started organ and singing in a choir in 2016. Having piano as my first instrument was super helpful, just for a general understanding of music theory and chord patterns. Organ was another dimension and hard at first but once I got behind the system it was a nice instrument to add to the musical collection (not that I bought an organ, this is meant metaphorical). Singing in a choir definitely helped harmonizing and it was just nice seeing the same kind of folk every week, as these were not the people you would see in school.
Now back to school. The last year was a torture, I'm totally honest here! I couldn't wait to finally pass my A-levels and I was the happiest person on earth when all of that was over. During my last year I always though about what to do after school. Music was always in the back of my mind, but I was never completely sure if this is really what I want to do fulltime. Being to unsure about it I decided to make gap year as I wasn't even 18 when I finished school which is quite young for school leavers in Germany. Having a sister that is 13 years younger than me I had some experience with kids, so I though, why not give it a go an be an AuPair for a year. The country was never to be doubted and off I went to Scotland in August 2018.
See when you get these clichees of the these perfect families for AuPairs. Well I'm one of those. In my cover letter for the AuPair application I pointed out that music was my main hobby and that I would love if the family was interested in music. My host mum is a music teacher at a secondary school with an extra music school. There ya go! I came to the family and met the most welcoming people ever. I felt home from the first second and couldn't have wished for a better match. That year was the most exciting year of my life and all the opportunities I had were just immense! Being in Scotland meant a lot of gigs, a lot musicians and sessions! I quickly found a weekly session in the town I was staying (which was Callander by the way, lovely town!) it took me 5 weeks to go my first gig in Scotland but from then on weekends were packed with gigs, concerts and anything music related. Additionally I had the chance to have a look at universities and colleges and informed myself a lot about music degrees. In February I had an unconditional offer for the BA Applied Music at the University of the Highlands and Islands! What a chance! Although I had other offers for other not-music-related degrees I couldn't say no to the music, even though that meant less chances of a secure job in the future. Then in April I saw an announcement for a scholarship by the University for a traditional musician who wanted to move to the Outer Hebrides and study folk/traditional music there. After a couple weeks the most impossible thing happened and I got a confirmation for the scholarship. I was going to study traditional music in Scotland on the Outer Hebrides.
My year ended on another island with the amazing Tiree Music Festival. The festival had it's 10th anniversary and I was volunteering with one of my best friends. What an experience! The weather was blasting, Tiree showed it's best side with blue water and white beaches and the music was a belter! TMF I will definitely be back next year!
This summer I went back to Germany to see friends and family and work at home. I also played a couple of gigs at home and of course I wouldn't miss the incredible Tonder Festival in Denmark. This year was something else! The gigs we played were massive and all the other band smashed it! What a weekend!
September came faster as I though and there I was off to Scotland again. It was the same as last year only that this year it meant completely moving to Scotland, at least for 4 years. Different feeling but I was beyond excited and couldn't wait meeting all the other people on the course. It started with a residential week for all students in Inverness and then everyone goes their own way. The degree is based on e-learning so all the lectures are online. I've met some amazing people and I was so happy being able to share music with other musicians. The task of composing a tune or putting a set of tunes together, bearing in mind that the topic of the tunes should be health and wellbeing sounded impossible at first but after just a couple of hours we managed to have an idea of what we were going to do. The residential ended with a performance of all the different groups presenting what they've come up with during the four days. It was incredible to see how different the approaches and results were. After that I went back to visit my host family again and then I was off to the Outer Hebrides. An eight hour bus drive from Glasgow to Skye and a two hour sail later I landed in Lochmaddy on North Uist.
I will write another blog about my first week and in general my approach is to blog once a week. Additionally I will do a little entry on the music page every week on an album or a band I recently discovered. I might also be a band I already know for years, it will hopefully give some people new ideas for music and influence.
Now I've been on the Uists for just over a week and I am slowly settling in. It is definitely different but beautiful!
I think I've been writing on this for two hours now and if you've come this far, chapeau!
Take care & thanks for reading!
EMILIA
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