Prof. Armin Rosin of SES lays Foundation for JLSS Posaunen Chor

When we asked SES (Senior Expert Services of Germany) to send us a teacher to start a brass band for JLSS we never dreamt of receiving a famous and highly qualified musician of the caliber of Prof. Armin Rosin. That someone of his fame and exceptional qualifications would accept to come to spend three whole weeks with our students was beyond our wildest dreams. Our loving Lord amazes us with His wonderful care, and this was one of His most wonderful blessings to JLSS. This coming through a devoted Christian (Catholic) affirms the fact that it was the wonderful work of God. Prof. Rosin's divinely touched music also affirms that.

With this amazing event JLSS finally began preparation for a Posaunen Chor. The famous German conductor and trombone soloist, Prof. Armin Rosin, arrived to Schneller School for a three-week period, extending from 28 October till 16 November 2013. Although it was a big shock for us to have such a highly qualified and distinguished person; his decision to come and help us speaks a lot about his wonderful and kind person.

For our students, who are mostly affected by our local culture that looks down on manual work, seeing famous Prof. Rosin laboring daily on our brass instruments and getting his hands dirty with oil and oxidized brass, was much more than a superb lesson. It left a life-time impression on all of them. Yes, he spent three weeks cleaning, repairing, oiling, tuning, and matching our brass instruments in addition to working with our boys and girls, on a daily basis, to lay the foundation for a Schneller Posaunen Chor. He was so wonderful to do all this work in spite of his distinguished musical abilities and fame. He said: "I never do this work in Germany, but I will do it for Schneller School because there is no one to help you with this work."

From the very beginning he started the gymnastic training for the boys and girls and taught them the exercises they have to do on a daily basis to build their abdominal muscles and breathing skills. He affirmed to them that this was the only way to play brass instruments.

He also assessed over sixty students of all ages who were interested in joining the brass band. After a lengthy process he prepared a list of the few students with possible musical abilities who are candidates for the band. He also introduced them to all the brass instruments, and on the basis of his assessment, helped each student decide which instrument is best for him/her to learn to play.

He also prepared a reference document for students which contains detailed instructions for the gymnastic and breathing exercises. He prepared the document in German and English, and Rev. George D. Haddad assisted him in translating the Arabic text. JLSS now has an extremely valuable document in three languages, paragraph by paragraph, which is an excellent resource for brass students. This, no doubt, is a first in the Arabic language. All our students who attended his lessons have this document in Arabic. The brass teacher, whom we hope JLSS will eventually recruit, will have a reference document in three languages to help him/her continue the wonderful work that Prof. Rosin started.

Prof. Rosin also played the trombone during some chapel services and demonstrated to our students the wonderful music that can be performed by brass instruments. He is such an amazing musician who is absolutely wonderful to hear. His skills and performance are absolutely amazing.

We have been greatly privileged and honored to have him, and he achieved wonders during his short stay. We will follow up on his work by allowing the few potential brass students he discovered to regularly practice on the instruments, after doing the exercises, until JLSS can have a brass teacher to fulfill its music objective.

The brass instruments were kindly collected in Germany and sent to JLSS by Dr. Bassil Rischmaui and EVS. Prof. Rosin's assessment is that JLSS has all the instruments it needs and even more. He restored the instruments to a good condition, and even recommended keeping a few excellent ones aside until students are advanced in their playing skills.

We express our sincere gratitude to SES for sending Prof. Rosin to our school. We express our most sincere gratitude to Prof. Armin Rosin for his exceptional kindness, divine music, wonderful training program, and the amazing assistance he provided our school during his visit. Vielen Dank Prof. Rosin!