Keeping Up With The De Oliveiras: Musical Weekend Away

During my parents' visit, I was scheduled to take a trip with the local concert band to L'Ile de Ré, on the Atlantic coast. I already mentioned the group briefly in one of my earlier entries. On the May long weekend, the association planned a trip to visit a local group on the island, and the local group should be coming to visit us here at some point. But first, a bit of background about my time in the orchestra.

At the end of August last year when we got back from Canada I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed playing my instrument. I decided to search through the association list on our city's website to see if I could find anything interesting, and I found the entry for Harmonie des Lacs. I took a look at the Facebook page and saw that there were a lot of trumpets in the cover photo, so I was very careful to say in my email when I contacted them that I was happy to play whatever part they would give me, but that I was very interested in joining. I got a reply almost immediately telling me about the first rehearsal the second Friday in September, and I eagerly cleaned out my trumpet and started playing a bit in preparation for my big return to music.

I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit nervous about getting back to music, especially since, aside from the completely different language, the music terminology in French is not always the same as in English (for example, they don't use letter names for music notes). At the beginning, our conductor gave me the leftover parts for the pieces the group had been playing the year before, and second trumpet for all the new ones, and I was very happy with that - I was very out of shape the first few weeks!

Though I felt a bit behind the others in terms of skills, it didn't take long before I felt at home. Many of my fellow musicians were very friendly and made sure I wasn't left out from discussions, even in the beginning, and took the time to explain things that I might not have understood otherwise. There are a few in particular that teased me about riding my bike to rehearsal, even in the rain - the music school, where we rehearse once a week, is only about 1.5km from the house - and my light dress despite what they thought of as cold weather. I definitely confirmed my Canadianness to them right away! Overall, the group is quite diverse, with the youngest members in their last years of high school and the oldest in their 70s, and many of them are from different areas of the country. And musically, our repertoire is quite fun, with lots of music from movies, or medleys of songs by popular artists.

By the time we got to our concerts at the end of the year, I had started making good friends within the group. We would (and still do!) stay late after rehearsal chatting during the very French tradition of the apéro (apéritif). Two of the musicians in particular have become such good friends that I see them regularly outside of rehearsal, and one of them even convinced me to join the orchestra in the next town over with her! I was also very proud that, immediately after the winter break, our conductor handed our new sheet music to me and told me that I'm now to play first trumpet only, and ever since I am the one who distributes the music to my fellow trumpets. He even gave me a solo in our Lion King medley, and I may have another one coming up soon! I was also fortunate enough to get a beautiful new trumpet for Christmas - much lighter and more responsive than my old one, with a slightly larger than standard size bell for a warmer sound.

In short, I am so happy to have found L'Harmonie des Lacs, and can't wait for our next concerts! (We're playing one song tomorrow for a gathering to honour the victims of the Paris attacks, a short concert as part of the Saint Cécile mass this Sunday, and two concerts the following Saturday at the local theatre).

Now, for our weekend away. We left on the Saturday by bus, and arrived in the early afternoon on the island. Our accomodations were located at about the midpoint of the island in a city called La Couarde, and we unloaded all of our instruments and personal belongings at a vacation centre with dorm-style rooms before eating a quick packed lunch in the centre's cafeteria. After lunch we had some time to explore, and almost everyone walked the 400 metres to the beach, where some of the guys started a game of rugby, and a few of us dipped our toes in the water and collected rocks on the beach.

The bridge connecting the island
to La Rochelle

Rainy beach just on the other side of the bridge

Beach across the street from the vacation centre

After, we got together with the local orchestra and rehearsed the piece we would be playing together, and then we got dressed in our concert uniform (black on the bottom, white on top) and loaded everything onto the bus. The concert took place in the town square, and with the way it was oriented, we had an unfortunate cross breeze that had us shivering the whole time. I don't have any photos of us playing, since I was too busy trying to keep my instrument warm and not screw up my solo, but our Facebook page should be updated soon with photos of the weekend!

Once the concert was over, we headed back to the vacation centre for an apéro with the mayor and members of the other orchestra, and then we had a delicious dinner at the cafeteria, and then since the wind had died down and blew the clouds away to reveal a beautiful starry sky, a group of us grabbed some chairs and sat around listening to music until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day we were up fairly early for breakfast and a tour of the northern part of the island. We stopped at a salt maker and people stocked up on local salt, and we visited the lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island. And, after a quick lunch, it was back on the bus for our return trip. A short trip, but a fun one!