Jazz on the Peaks of the Pirin Mountains

What could possibly happen on a two-week orchestra trip to Bulgaria?

As it turned out, an extraordinary amount. When the Aramis Orchestra is involved, you can count on a spectacle. Hearing the statement "we need to get a double bass nearly 1,000 meters up a mountain," you scratch your head in confusion and in the end you find yourself standing in front of a five-piece ensemble with drums, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, and said double bass, on the second-highest mountain in Bulgaria. Two weeks packed with program from start to finish. It's already a logistical feat in itself to bring all the instruments, along with more than forty people from all over the world, to Bansko in Bulgaria. On top of that: climbing two mountains with a jazz ensemble within two weeks, organizing rehearsals with a thirty-person lineup, and squeezing in a side trip to Greece. All in the spirit of: after all, a bit of vacation has to happen too. In between all this, alongside the ongoing rehearsals, there's also negotiation with local politics over venues, rehearsal spaces, and media coverage.

Two questions: What does this have to do with moderation, and what exactly do I do on an orchestra trip? Originally planned as organizational support for the orchestra on-site, I ended up stepping in as an amateur percussionist. Moderation is the art of creating a space in which something can emerge that couldn't have been foreseen beforehand. That's quite a challenge when, at the same time, you're expected to keep control over everything. The Aramis Orchestra demonstrates, more vividly than any other organization, what can emerge through this principle. I learned a lot about how to operate at the edge of the unplannable while still keeping control over what's happening. The prerequisite for this balancing act is that everyone believes in the same idea and commits to it. During this trip, I got to meet so many wonderful people, and I learned not only something for my path as a moderator, but also how to read sheet music as a percussionist.