You never know who’s gonna stop by the Atlanta Music Project! This past week we had a world-renonwed cellist visit the Atlanta Music Project’s Gilbert House site so I thought it’d be great to invite AMP Cello Teaching Artist, Chris Thibdeau, to do a guest post.

Below are last week’s events in Chris’ words.

Johannes Moser poses with some AMP Students

Last Tuesday was an exciting Valentines Day for the students at the Atlanta Music Project – cellist Johannes Moser came to visit our Gilbert House site! Mr. Moser was kind and generous enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to perform for and work with AMP kids. As he was in Atlanta to perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he performed selections from the concerto:

The kids were wowed and so was I! It was incredible to be in the presence of such a talented and generous musician. After his presentation, Johannes was able to work in a lesson setting with my AMP cello students.

Johannes teaches AMP cellists Shaniya and Wonderful

There was even an impromptu duet with Kailah Corney and Mr. Moser during Kailah’s lesson:

I had a moment to discuss cello technique with Mr. Moser. One of the things I noticed during his performance for the students was that his right hand (bow hand) was extremely lose – to the point where his ring finger and pinky were no longer on the bow! Johannes explained to me that in order to play the fast spiccato passages from the second movement of the Elgar, he needs to have an extremely loose and relaxed bow hand. Having those fingers off of the bow help give the grip some additional flexibility and allows him to play at an extremely fast tempo. Looks like it’s back to the practice room for me!

Chris sets up his student Kailah Corney for her lesson with Johannes Moser.

Finally, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was able to provide my cello students and their families tickets to see Mr. Moser perform with the orchestra on Sunday. The AMP kids were extremely excited and couldn’t wait can’t for the performance!

Mr. Moser posing with AMP cellist Wonderful, after his Elgar Cello Concert to performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Thanks to the ASO and Johannes for working with us here at AMP – we won’t forget your visit!

Johannes Moser poses in his new AMP T-Shirt with Atlanta Music Project Executive Director, Dantes Rameau (L) and Cello Teaching Artist, Chris Thibdeau (R)

From Dantes:

Thank you the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for setting up Mr. Moser’s visit to AMP and for the concert tickets, to the Gilbert House staff for their assistance and to Chris Thibdeau for this guest blog post. Finally, a special thank you  to Johannes Moser for reaching out to the Atlanta Music Project to come spend time with our students.  A technology-savvy musician, Mr. Moser posted a video of his trip to the Gilbert House on his YouTube channel which you can see here!