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From: herm~sm.com (Herman Ho)
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 12:30:16 -0700
Subject: SPAH 96

Just came back from a two weeks trip. During that time, I attended
my first SPAH at St. Louis. SPAH 96 was well organized and I enjoyed
every single moment of it.

I attended SPAH with 3 members of the Hong Kong King's Harmonica Quintet.
I am the last one to get to St. Louis, on Wed. nite. Right at the
hotel lobby, I heard all kinds of harmonica playing, people chatting,
and Bob Williams running around making sure everything is in good
order. Great job, Bob!

One of our member Dr. PC Ho was talking to what he referred to
"the two greatest chord player in the world" - Al Fiore and
Al Smith. We all got excited just talking to them and finally took
a group picture with them. What a treat.

On Thursday, we found out that we need to perform on two occassions.
One for 5 minutes and another for 15 minutes. As we had not figured
out what to play, we spent most of the day finding the right pieces
and yes, practise. Between practises, we managed to get down to the
lobby and took a look at the SPAH store and John's items. I tell you,
we spent quite a bit on CDs, books, video tapes, comb... I think
SPAH should invite us back next year cause we are BIG SPENDERS :-)
Since PC Ho's family was there too, we had to take them sight seeing.
So we went to the arch downtown. A mignificant monument and
spectacular architectual delight! For sure we took a lot of pictures
there, just like any other tourists.

We managed to get back to the hotel on time and gave a brief
performance for about 5 minutes. PC Ho and CK Poon played their
World Harmonica Contest winning piece Concerto for Two Violins by
Vivaldi, while CB Lau and I played Bach's Gavotte from English
Suite No.3. I hope that wasn't too boring for the audiences.

Thursday nite, we went to Al and Judy Smith's room to chat and play.
We also had a chance to meet with Joe Filisko and heard him played
a number. I was totally immersed in the beautiful tone he created
and I enjoyed that very much. He sortof gave us the same impression
when we played Elgar's Salut D'Amor with 4 CX-12 tenors. Then we
had a long chat with Al and Judy, they show us all kinds of neat
techniques on the chord and performance. It was a wonderful time
and I appreciate their great hospitality.

We opened Friday with Doug Tate's workshop. I have been talking to
Doug over the net for half a year and that was the first time I met
him in person. Yes, he's the same person I imagined he would be -
tall, dark, and handsome (!) Not! He is musical, technical, direct,
and humorous. I am very happy to get to know Doug and I belive we
will have a lot to share for the years to come.

More SPAH shop buying and more John's goodies... Then I ran into
Winslow, my fellow Vancouverite from Canada. Winslow is always
cheerful and nice to talk to.

In the afternoon, we got Pete Pedersen and Doug to come to our
room to listen to our rehersal. We played Handel's Water Music and
again Salut D'Amor. Doug was very critical and direct. But what
he said was exactly was we wanted - constructive and to the point.
We welcome those comments as that opens up our horizon in music
interpretation. Thanks Doug. After Pete left, Doug stayed behind
to show off more of his new prototyped Renanniance - it's a gem!
We also discussed music in general, and many other topics. It was
an unforgettable afternoon.

Now came the performance. We were introduced as a bunch of kids from
China. Well, technically, we are from Hong Kong (I am from Vancouver)
and Hong Kong is still a British Colony until June 30, 1997. It
doesn't matter where we came from, cause the SPAH people knew exactly
how to show us the US hospitality. There were two standing ovation
after we played the Chinese Lover's Violin Concerto and the Spring
Festival. We were stunned as we never had a standing ovation before!
We thank all the attendees at SPAH for their kindness and hospitality.
It truely made us feel right at home.

Between breaks, I managed to hit the bar and found Winslow, Joe,
Doug, and Bobbie there. It was my first time I heard Bobbie played
and yes she could! The alcohol did not affect her one bit!

After the concert, well past midnite, we discovered that we had not
been eating yet. We totally forgot about that from the excitment!
So it was Danny's time. PC Ho's wife was stunned by the size of the
bannana split she got - it was enough for 4-5 people! I take it as
a culture shock.

We started Saturday at Doug's workshop again. Then we attended a few
other workshops. We also had a chance to talk to Jerry Adler. Turned
out he knows Fung On, the chairman of YMCA Harmonica Orchestra in
Hong Kong and they know each other quite well. It is such an honour
to meet with a legend and all of us got very excited as well.

We ended up staying at Sissy's repair workshop for the whole afternoon.
She was so skillful and down to earth and we learnt a great deal from her.
We also concluded that the CX-12 tenor tune is indeed a good harmonica,
but needed improvement on the lower octave. The windsavers on the lower
reeds will hit the body if played hard. Also, there are more squealing.
Sissy admitted that and hope Hohner will come up with a 2nd generation
of that nice instrument. Also, it was great to know that Hohner will
re-produce the chromatic MeisterKlasse. When talked to Farrell few weeks
ago, he said that he's helping Hohner in that project. I hope we could
see the new instrument soon, it sure is a good practical instrument.

Came the big banquet / performance on Saturday nite. The food was,
so so but the performances were in general quite good. I
particularly enjoyed Doug's performance (not brown nosing, it's
true) and Peter Madcat's performance. Oh don't forget Harry Bee,
he's a performer all right. My memory of that nite is a bite
blur, must be the wine ;-)

Even though we wanted SPAH to last for another two weeks, we had
to leave on Sunday. All in all, I had a great time at SPAH 96.
To me it was well organized, people were great, and the events were
properly set. I wish Farrell could be there because we would like
to see different varieties of harmonica, also he's full of new ideas
and inventions.

I would like to extend my thanks to Bob Williams and Gordon Mitchell
for their dedication in making SPAH a sussces. It gave us a
great opportunity to enjoy different styles of harmonica playing, but
most of all was having a chance to meet other harmonica lovers.
I love every single moment of it and I sure would come back again in
the future.

Cheers,
Herman