This week got better as it went on, and ended definitely upbeat with a visit to the education day at the London International Music Show at Excel. Music technology just gets better and better too: as Arthur C. Clarke would say, it’s advanced enough now to be indistinguishable from magic. Heartening to see just how vibrant and asborbing the world of music-making continues to be – I thought we’d become a world of consumers, voyeurs and record-collectors, but no, the place was crammed full of teenagers all doing stuff with real and virtual instruments, and the music publishers’ stands were heaving with new books, and instructional CDs & DVDs.
But the unexpected highlight was the keynote by Sir Ken Robinson . Entertaining, inspiring, mind-blowing, it was worth the trek to Royal Victoria Dock just for this short presentation. We sat, all of us, young and old, on the cold concrete floor of the cavernous ‘Festival Field’ for, I guess, 45 minutes, completely captivated. For a taste, read ‘Take a chance…let them dance‘, a short transcript of a similar address on creativity and education, which, it so happens, includes the most wonderful story about how Gillian Lynne became a dancer
As this end of London is so photogenic, I took a few pics for my LIMS 2008 gallery.
