Category Archives: ESI

We rounded off our first semester with a big midday smörgåsbord feast. Some of the ESI Board members and/or notables showed up too, though we didn’t meet them all. There were some dances beforehand and some songs afterward — we had learned a song in class featuring someone who ate so much that his belly […]

Not all, but most. We spent our morning learning about Christmas traditions from our special guest scholar, Gunnar Ahlbäck. He brought us an entertaining multimedia lecture that featured poems, stories, audio recordings, and a considerable stockpile of images. He also included some text slides about how and why and when the holiday is celebrated in […]

Our Christmas concert came together into a very pleasing show. In contrast with the fall concert, this performance included both the playing class and the dance class. It was fun to introduce more collaboration. There were more opportunities for smaller groups, not quite so much everyone-playing-most-of-the-time. And of course opps for the musicians to play […]

Student concerts at ESI feature home-baked goodies for fika, so we had a big baking party. I confess that most of my personal contribution entailed staying out of the way, plus an occasional round of photo documentation, but all will have to admit that the delicious results spoke for themselves. While I’m at it, I’ll […]

(The longer I didn’t go and fetch my camera, the later it became, so there are only these few pics from Petra’s new camera as wielded by Johannes.) Super-sweet: the ESI staff provided our own little Lucia pageant during morning fika. Stina baked lussekatter and served glogg, and set the serving table with even more […]

We continue to have occasional guest teachers in addition to our usual all-star lineup. Most recently: Agneta Stolpe spent a day with us to do a variety of exercises about performance preparation. The schedule only advertised her as a song teacher, which of course she is, but her work also encompasses voice training and performance […]