Update, Zivi & Amazing Concerts!

Dear readers, I need to apologise for my bad blogging schedule during the past weeks. There has been just so much happening in my life that I could not find the time to write.

But hey, here's an update!

Well, first of all, I was on holidays a few weeks, in the mountains in Switzerland, but also in Denmark. In Denmark I filmed a lot, those videos still need some editing done and it will take a bit of time until I finish that. But don't worry it'll come!

I'll also write a post with some of my favourite pictures from this trip in a couple of days.

Two weeks ago I started Zivildienst. It's for the people in our country who don't wanna do military service. I did not want to join the military, because I think it is a waste of time and because I want to do something good during the time I have to serve the country. At Zivi one can work at multiple different places, for example at an elders residence, a Kindergarten, somewhere in the mountains helping a farmer or like me, at a school. I started working at the school I went to five years ago and I must say it's such a cool job! Such nice people around me all day and it's just 5 minutes away from home! Now I am off to a Zivi camp in the mountains with a course on how to care for teens :)

Last week on Sunday I also started working as a photographer in Muri at Pflegidach, a really cool and cosy jazz club! It's a lot of fun and I can even see the concerts for free (: Yesterday I saw Nate Wood and the concert was amazing! Here are some impressions:

Preparing a cool concert - Summerparty - Recording

Exams are over, but there's still a lot of things on my to-do list! One of them is a concert which will be next week on Wednesday at 7 PM at our school. It's the concert of the music-focus subject, which means there will for sure be a lot of great performances!

At the moment I am practising like wild for this event and in the meantime, I also had to record some jazz standards for my teacher so he could mark them.

Last weekend a good friend of mine had a birthday party which was really cool! We've played a lot of Viking Chess, an awesome game, had a barbeque and a great time enjoying our exam-freedom :D

One week of Monteverdi!

Spring has sprung, at least during the past few days I've spent in the choir-camp of our school. It was such a blast! On one hand we had to practise our Monteverdi for nine hours a day which was a pain sometimes, especially for voice and back, on the other hand we also had quite some free time which we spent outside playing Frisbee, lying on the grass on the lakeside or jammin' on one of the many pianos which were just standing around in the house :)

One really early morning I went up the hill to capture the sunrise with my drone, the lighting was so lovely!

In the late evenings we often sat at the lake singing songs and enjoying the first warm nights in this year!

On Thursday, the day we went back home, me and two friends decided to take the boat back to Biel because we all have a GA (a card with which you can literally travel around in the entirety of Swiss trains, buses and boats). It was a great idea because the boat trip and the view on the lake and mountains were amazing :D

In Biel we wandered around for a bit and then sat down at the river eating some chocolate.

Oh and just a funny picture of a guy who was sleeping with the jacket over his head on our trip home ^^

Today I had another band practise for our concert next week on Thursday (which by the way I'm gonna film and share ;) and now I'm off to cook in another camp with some of my friends in Jura, the north-west of Switzerland. I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you and some cool pictures next post!

Songcircle, Royal Slam and a new Setup!

This week was really cool because I could attend multiple cultural events! First of all was another Royal Slam this week, with an awesome dance performance by my Salsa teacher, a really interesting and funny cartography presentation and a slam poet from Basel who slammed about his sad life as a primary school teacher :D

I also produced a video this week about sustainability at our school, we even won a price with it! But unfortunately, I only talked in Swiss German which means you probably won't understand a thing.. But here's the Link

Also, on Wednesday, my godfather invited me to a song-circle. It's a type of concert I've never been to before, where the artists literally sit in a circle and go around in circles performing their favourite songs together! Such a unique and fun concept, I really enjoyed it!

Last but not least I finished my new recording setup at home which, in my opinion, turned out really nicely :)

Oh and I hung up to new paintings I got from London :D

Huge Christmas Celebration - Blind Cow

This week was totally amazing! Next to some last exams before the holidays me and six friends from the focussubject music went to a really cool restaurant together! It's called "BlindeKuh" which is translated to blind cow. One cool thing about this restaurant is that you are served by blind people and blind people cook the food you eat. But the amazing part is that you yourself are in an extremely dark environment. You literally don't see a thing for the whole time you eat dinner!
It's cool because your other senses, for instance tasting and hearing, are extra observant and the food tastes a lot more intense than usual. A really fun and tasty way to experience how it would be if you were not able to see, I can totally recommend it!

Every year there is a huge Christmas celebration at our school. Since it once was a monastery (quite some years in the past) there is still a very big church on the school-grounds. There we sang with the big choir, some small choirs including the teachers choir. Of course the school orchestra played as well. All together it was a lot if fun! You can see some video footage Here.

In addition to singing in the choir I also ran around with my camera all the time. Nearly every time you heard the wood creaked it was probably me on the entablature ^^
But I got some cool shots:

The Teachers-Choir

I also had another concert this week with the SiSoKo. It's the singers-songwiters concert at our school where I accompany some singers on the piano. It wasn't so much fun this time because I was really ill on Thursday and my nose was running all the time..

With my parents I went once again to a very cool winter market in Zürich. It's called Heiliger BimBam and it's very alternative and hipster. I like!
We had a lot of fun and I even met some vendors from last years market!

Funky concert, lovely Christmas market and an awesome theatre!

A week ago me and my friends from Funky Donkey performed at our school for a charity project. I helped all afternoon to prepare everything for the band, carry the drumset and base amp over to the cafeteria and in the evening everything was set and we were ready to go! First the group that organised the whole event had a little presentation about their project. They donated the collected money to the Philippines and made a charity concert!
Before we preformed there was also a Klezmer group, some dancers and a singer preforming. We also played with a Latin music workshop from our school which was great!
But take a look ;)



Winter has arrived and it got very cold outside. Which means I'd prefer to stay indoors in the warmth, but with some exceptions. Mainly if there is an event happening in our region. So today there was a winter market where all products were produced by physically or mentally disabled people and all the profit went to the organisations that help them. It's a very unique market where there are many different stands with various cool things they sell!

Yesterday evening I also went to a very cool theatre called Mummenschanz in Zürich with my parents and my cousin and his girlfriend.
It is such an unique concept of theatre and you should totally look it up or click on this Link! We've enjoyed it a lot :)

Here are also some more pictures from the concert:

An amazing concert at my school and a new piano!

This Friday two very cool things happened. First of all I finally made an arrangement with a transport company to pick up the piano, which my grandparents wanted to give to me (since nobody used it at their house), and bring it to my place. Now I've set it up with two microphones so that I can put on some effects too. It's so nice to finally have a real piano at home!

On Friday evening I also went to a concert by W:KK, a group that arranges concerts in Wettingen every year. There was a famous viola da gamba player who performed some classical pieces which was lovely and a guy playing the bandoneon who was amazing!
They both played really nice and it was a joyful evening :)

Ibrahim Maalouf @JazznoJazz

This Thursday me and my parents went to Zürich to go to the JazznoJazz Festival. It's a huge annual Jazz (and no-Jazz) concert week where a lot of world famous musicians perform. I wanted to go and see Jacob Collier again on Wednesday but unfortunately he was ill and had to go back to the UK to recover.
But I also went to see Ibrahim Maalouf, a french-libanesian composer and Fusion Jazz musician who plays the trumpet and flügelhorn. His "speciality" is that he often plays quarter notes which makes his music very unique!
It was a very lively concert! Everyone was singing, clapping to the rhythm and dancing; so much fun!

Picture from JazzNoJazz

I had a lovely week with lots of sunshine. And the park of our school turned very autumny :D

Jacob Collier and Karls Daring Alleyshow

Last Sunday I went to a concert again (which was a relief after having two concerts of my own on Friday and Saturday).
Jacob Collier played in Muri and it was an amazing! Collier is a young musician from London who became famous by doing some unique YouTube Videos like this one where he sang a-capella songs with split screens. And now he already collaborated with Snarky Puppy.

Picture by Musig im Pflegidach

Friday evening me and my parents went to Zürich to see "Karls Kühne Gassenschau" which is translated to Karls Daring Alleyshow. It's a theatre group which exists since 1984 and performed a lot of self made and very critical theatre pieces in Swiss German. Their new project "Sektor1" is all about the future and how trash will be managed then. They say that they've found the solution to the garbage problem by sending all the bags up into orbit. The whole earth is clean and the people who live clean get a reward by being able to go to the Sector 1 for a day. It's the most beautiful Sector of all.
But then the garbage starts falling down from the sky again and emerging from the ground and in the end they build a time machine to get pack into the past to make this never happen in the first place.
The whole scenery was just brilliant and with the live music and all the fire and explosions it was also rich of action.

Concert after concert after concert

On Friday there was a singers and songwriters concert at our school. I accompanied singers in three songs which was so much fun! We will record one of them in the future and upload it on Soundcloud so you can have a listen too!
If that wasn't enough already I had a concert yesterday evening where they've played our compositions from the young composers project. It's such a cool feeling to hear your finished piece being played by professionals! We recorded it too but we need to get some stuff over with the owner's rights so I can upload it to YouTube and you can all listen to it!

And this evening I will be going to the Jacob Collier concert! It's something I have been looking forward too for a very long time and I'll be sure enjoying it :D

Here are some pictures of the rehearsal yesterday morning ;)