This has really been a long time, but it shows you how busy we are working, preparing the house and the wedding. Yep 2nd of May is the day, in the Interburgo hotel at 18.30. This weekend is kind of a holiday in Korea so we have some time to celebrate and go out. Hyojung has find the dress, my new suit is being made. we sent al the invitations, Pelgrims Mission Choir with Mr. Lee will sing(He will also be our driver during the day) we expect around 200 guests, 4 of them probably will be dutch and the rest family of Hyojung, friends of us from school, church, just friends and friends of Hyojung and her family. The pastor from the church we attend, Myong Deok, will perform the wedding and Nico Smit from Holland, who will be here with his wife, is taking part in the ceremony too, exchanging rings etc. after that we will go for two days to Gyongyu(Ye ye Dekoor, the 20 minutes museum place) where we can relax and do some sightseeing. Then we have another free day on monday and Tuesday schools starts again. I am having great fun teaching at the Keimyung university. It is kind of exiting at the fairly new department of 'Musicproduction'. The brand new building houses the academy for the Performing Art and Media. The school has a name for the classical Department, biggest, best in Daegu, etc. mainly because of the nationwide known Chopin Academy. This is the Piano Department with teachers from Poland too. They work together with the State conservatory in Warschaw. Anyway the students of the Musicproduction Department have to study a performing instrument as a Major too, besides their Sounddesign, Studio-recording, Engineering and Composing. But there is not much experience in teaching instrumental in Jazz/Pop etc. style, so I have to set it up myself, which means a lot of writing. Curriculum, Syllabus, handouts, readers, etc. But I like it and I believe the students too. It is fun because I can read a lot of books about Jazz Pedagogy and Teaching and other new books making the lessons my own style. I also have many idea's about setting up other things for the school, like ensembles, classes, etc. to make it a real jazz school. But let's see later. We have also plans(Mr. Lee and I) to start up a Jazz choir in the city, probably connected to his Yenoeul Music Centre. But this won't be before the second semester or even the next academic year. Last week we had a wine and diner party with all foreign faculty of the University. I met many Canadians, Americans. Polish, Russians, Australians and Chinese. Very nice to see how they all are finding their way into Korean society and struggle with the Language, which i think is not too difficult. Last Saturday Hyojung moved het stuff to my house and another room is filled with book shelfs, furniture etc. afterwards we had a diner with the family in my house. some weeks ago my stuff came from Holland. It went very quickly, they came with 6 man and within 2.5 hours all the 186 items/boxes, including the grant were up on the 5th floor. Wow these guys can really work fast. We still have some boxes to unpack, but the music room, the kitchen. the living room and the other spaces are pretty filled up now. We also bought a new couch and a new table with chairs. A small group of church members goes every week for a trip in the mountains so I already joined 5 times, I really like it. It's not too high(700m. most) but in spring it is beautiful. This week Hyojung was sick unfortunately, her mother too, even went to Hospital for it, some kind of flu, but not the 'bird 'one. Hyojung refused to stop working, so she was very tired everyday. She is OK now. I am exited too here that all the choirs I left behind in the Netherlands are doing well(I never expected them to not do so). Usko has a new conductor and had a series of St. John's Passion concerts in the netherlands and Italy. Dekoor is in the final stage to appoint a new musical director and the concerts with Tijs Krammer went pretty well. Dudok performed yet another set of succesful Matthew Passion Concerts with Erik van Nevel from Belgium. Good to see I can be missed, haha!!!??? Do you miss me already? In the summer I will be in Europe. I have to be in Austria 14th of July to adjudicate at the World Choir Games and after that I will go to Denmark for the World Choral Symposium to meet al my international music friends. After that Hyojung and I will visit the Netherlands but we will also go on a delayed honeymoon to Italy, Venezia, Roma and Firenze. Then in August I will teach at the Vocal Pop and Jazz days in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, and the last week of the vacation I will travel to Italy again for Europa Cantat, Lignano, for another singing week with Vocal Jazz for Choirs. 

That's about it for now, give me a reaction on the blog.

You can always reach me at:

Johan Rooze

Appartment 402, 2542-30 Daemyung 3-dong

Namgu, Daegu

705-823 South Korea

Telephone:

+ 82 (0)53 620 6721 Home

+ 82 (0)53 580 6624 Office

+ 82 (0)10 5580 7472 Cellphone

Email:

jrooze@mac.com

jrooze@hotmail.com

jrooze@kmu.ac.kr