"It has been wonderful finally getting to share The Music Lesson with Boston friends and family recently.  If nothing else, I’ve really appreciated being asked and reminded to look back and reflect on the experience.  Watching the movie takes me back to the moments when I was thinking to myself, “I am going to look back someday on what’s happening right this second.  I wonder if I will know what it means then.”  Because we knew so little about where we were going, with whom we’d be working, and what exactly we’d be doing, there was a spontaneity, an openness and joy in discovery (which also carried over to our music).  I’ve since realized that searching for the specific meaning in the moments wasn’t the point.  The spontaneity and openness we achieved were.  The experience (and the film) beg the questions, “what does music mean?” and therefore, “why do we do it?”  I realized, and am often reminded that the answer doesn’t change much from culture to culture – we celebrate with music, mourn with music, are entertained by music, enjoy music.  The essence of the music my friends in Kenya make is the same as the essence of the music we make here – divined from the same reasons.  At the time of the trip I was only a few months away from beginning a performance degree at BU.  The experience offered me the most important lesson and perspective I could have gained – that music is a vehicle for joy, no matter where one is in the world, in their studies, in their development as a musician or person.  Almost four years after our adventure in Kenya, I am still looking back, but instead of searching for meaning like I thought I would be, I am reminded to let go of meaning, let go of perfect technique and sound production, and leave room for discovery and joy. "

Devon Nelson, BYSO Aluma