- Diana Stork of MCMF and I plucking out an Irish tune together
- Diana's Paraguayan, Celtic, Medieval harps
The blog worthy portion of this realization begins with this past fall semester, when I began to seriously mill over the ideas I had had of what I wanted to do when I graduated from University. From my studying to earn a degree in cultural anthropology and a minor in music, I knew I wanted help people develop better understanding and respect for each other by providing opportunities to experience the meaningful art of other cultures around the world. Language, music, dancing, painting, sculpture, drama, literature, film (and more) are different ways we can access the topics and feelings that sit at the heart of an individual or a group of people. In my experience, listening to and gaining an appreciation for the music of my own or another culture, has given me one more way to better understand the people I've met and will meet.
My next step was to find out if there was some organization that already doing this. I decided I would google "multicultural" and "music", just for kicks. A page of results appeared on my computer screen and one name in particular caught my eye: The Multicultural Music Fellowship (MCMF). To make a long story worthy of space in this blog, I ended up meeting the director of MCMF, Diana Stork, in Berkeley Californ-i-a. I absolutely loved every granola, eco-friendly bit of that place and I especially loved the things I learned about Diana. I felt one of those "kindred spirit" friendships with her as we discussed what she has done to promote multicultural music appreciation in the Bay area through the harp. She is an accomplished harpist who performs, gives workshops around the world, directs youth harp ensembles, and organizes music festivals, including an annual festival of harps. She has great connections in the harp world and the multicultural music world.
What is interesting about me finding MCMF and making all these plans to come out to the San Francisco Bay area to meet Diana, was that in the process of trying to find a job and housing I found I had family that lived a few hours away from her AND through emailing them, I found out that my Dad's cousin built (builds) harps. I've been playing for 7 years now, and just now, I find out I have family connections to a harp builder! I have no idea how this happened.
Yet, with the process, I feel very lucky to have met Diana and to have such a valuable contact as MCMF.
2 comments:
THAT is so very cool! I can so see you doing just that! Now, are there still plans to intern with her, or what happened there?
If I do, I would need to find my own funding, perhaps with a research grant of sorts...
I applied for a job with Parks Canada in Waterton and Banff so I'm waiting to find out about that too.
The thing is, I have a visa to work in the states for a year, so if I don't hear back from Parks, I likely will go out there.
The big question in my mind is will I stay in the States or go back to the motherland??
I don't know what will happen yet, but I think lovely things are floating up in the air for whats coming next.
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