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Primary school 'de Frissel', Veenwouden, The Netherlands 2006 |
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Teachers"The presentation and musicality sparkles with enthusiasm... The story combines suspense and information and both the children and the teachers listened and took part in fascination." • Joukje Telgenhof |
Children"... We came into the room and saw someone standing there. And guess what she was playing? A viola! And on a sort of a hanger hung a normal violin and nearly everyone said: "Wow, that violin is old" and I said it too because it looked as if it was a bit rusty and it was very fragile ..." • Martine, 9 years old"... We had a violinist at school. First she told a story. Then she told us what the difference was between a viola and a violin. What she told us was very informative. She told a story about Mr Bach. And she played some tunes on the violin and the viola. It was really fun ..." • Silke, 8 years old |
About the follow-up lesson"I got to play the violin! There were 4 sorts. A half-sized, a three-quarter and a normal violin and a viola. She'd brought them all with her and I played the normal violin. I really liked it!" • Jasper, 9 years old |
"The Horse's Secret"Johannes Looijengaschool Surhuizum 2007 |
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Teachers
Johannes Looijengaschool Surhuizum The 9, 10 and 11 year olds from the junior classes watched Anita Gude's The Horse's Secret together. Both the children and we, as teachers, really enjoyed it. Anita plays beautifully. She started the performance with music and caught the children's attention immediately. Her story was captivating and the children interacted really actively. The narrative was interspersed with music and the children often recognised certain pieces of music, which ensured they kept paying attention. |
The children were enthusiastic about the performance and we asked both classes if they would like Anita to come along again but this time to give violin lessons. They thought it was a great idea and Anita came back to the school and taught in both classes. It was a huge success. Anita makes music sound so fascinating and her teaching is clear and fun. And what could be better than having the chance to play an instrument yourself? Not being forced to but simply being able to if you want to. The children's faces were beaming when they tried to play a melody themselves. Anita kept helping and explaining and the hour soon flew by. |
The handout Anita sent us before the lesson was full of ideas. We found it worked really well to play the children extracts of music from the composers listed in the handout and from the performance. Lots of people have a cd at home with well-known music written by famous composers and the children recognised the music from adverts, tv series, and so on. It really helped motivate everyone. And the children loved the lesson in the class as much as the performance. We highly recommend it to anyone wanting to do more with music. • Conny Bulthuis-Notebomer and Willem Holthuis |
A Dramatic Final Chord 2007 |
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A soul can't be smelt, felt, or heard, yet people can pass the emotions of their soul onto the musical instrument they play. Anita Gude explains how with her viola, violin and bows in an inspirational story originally meant for children but just as special for adults. |
Anita was staying at the Frisian Volkshogeschool Schylgeralân on the island of Terschelling off the coast of the Netherlands while she gave four performances of her musical narrative The Horse's Secret to the pupils at the local primary school. We were also staying at the Schylgeralân while we worked on various maintenance projects in the school and invited Anita to join us round the hearth one evening. During dinner, someone jokingly asked Anita if she would like to play for us, maybe accompanying the accordion in some Frisian folk songs. She hesitated slightly and then said that she'd be happy to actually do her theatrical performance for us, although it's really meant for children. As most of our volunteers are between 60 and 80 years old, we're well on our way to becoming children again, so why not? |
That evening, as the fire crackled, Anita suddenly appeared in full costume with next to her, a sort of stand with a viola and a violin on it. And next to that, the bow. She told us about how the viola was made, what was used for each piece and so on. And then came the story of the bow - a magical story of finding the very best hair for the very best bow belonging to the very best composer Bach. It was such an enthralling story that by the time it was finished there was hardly a dry eye in the house and Anita received a well-deserved standing ovation. The story is informative for young and old, from beginning to end, and the way she tells it is so engaging that I hope she will continue performing it to adults. Her modest manner holds your attention vividly right up to the final dramatic chord. I wish her all the best in her work. • Piter van der Veen |
04/13/2007 Leeuwarder Courant, Dutch newspaperArticle |
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04/13/2007 Dutch Television Friesland |
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