From June 22th to the 26th, the Violanet Festival took place in Vigo. Professors and students of the institutions constituting the European viola da gamba network met in Galicia for five intense days of work, lessons, meetings and concerts.

Mieneke van der Velden and Anna Lachegyi joined the Festival. Read about their experiences below.

Mieneke van der Velden

''The first meeting of Violanet was an inspiring experience; we received a warm welcome from Sara, her crew of students and Jose Luis, and we were treated with much respect and appreciation. For me personally it was interesting to work with students from several different schools; each school has its own sound-concept, bow-technique, and musical taste.

The students were all responsive and open to try new things, which is important in their development as an artist. It was moving to see students from all these different classes together on stage in the final concert, and to feel how music unites.''

Anna Lachegyi

''I had an incredible time a few weeks ago in Vigo, both professionally and personally.

In a few days, we got a lot of great experience: lessons, discussions, lectures, instrument exposition. I was already excited before going there, to meet all those
'big names', the professors of famous universities, writers of my favorite books, the amazing gamba players from my favorite videos. And then my expectations became true, having lessons with these people gave me enough inspiration, work, thinking for a year...

For me, this was the best part: to meet and have private lessons with these teachers, speaking about all the different technical aspects of gamba playing and bow-technique. I believe I couldn't get all these information out from 4-5 masterclasses.

Apart from the lessons, it was also very useful to meet my colleges, the students of the other schools. It is also a nice inspiration to see the level of playing at
other universities, and have long discussions about our 'gamba stuff': curriculum, teachers, instruments, carriers....

And last but not least, I have never been in Galícia before, it felt good to try their incredible food, see the beaches and practice my few-word-knowledge in spanish...''