This year Grey "Bear" Erickson and Joshua Allen, graduates from the September 2002 class, were chosen to take a trip to Costa Rica as ambassadors of the Los Angeles Music Academy. Here is their story:

Pura Vida: This pretty much sums up the whole trip. Pura Vida, or Pure Life, is the national motto, and greeting in Costa Rica. Everyone is very laid back, which made settling in quite easy. The main events included concerts, clinics and seminars. Our "home base" was the North American Cultural Center of Costa Rica (CCCN) in San Pedro. In the CCCN mission statement the center offers a "high value artistic and educative program all year long that represents the interaction between the United States of America and Costa Rica, with events economically accessible for the general public." Basically students have access to English classes, an art gallery, a theater, and a cafeteria. The CCCN helped us out with sponsorship, and scheduling the gigs and clinics.

On the first day we had rehearsal at the InNova Music Scool, which prepares students for the LA Music Academy. InNova was founded by LA Music Academy drum graduate Mauricio Gomez. He was the drummer that laid down a truly fat beat for all of our performances along with bassist Marco "Chiqui" Ordel. After rehearsal, we cruised over to the Cultural Center for lunch and a seminar for the English students on a "subject of our choice." We tried to stay away from music, but...well...we are MUSIC FREAKS! The point of the seminar was to get students to listen and interact with the English language, so we got everyone to say their name and a little bit about themselves. Coincidentally, almost everyone thought it necessary to talk about music. After the seminar came the clinic with the guitar students of InNova.

Well the next day was a little more relaxed; we had rehearsal and gave another seminar to more English students. The following morning we got up early and drove a couple hours to Cartago, San Rafael where we were scheduled to give a benefit concert to elderly people. The drive there was interesting; it was raining, and then, out of nowhere, sun and blue skies. Then…back to rain. When we arrived in town, there was no one on the streets. It was like a ghost town. We found our final destination, which was a church, and set up. It was cold and our fragile guitarist hands were not happy. However, all you could see in the audience were the warm smiles. Seriously, not to get sappy, but when we had coffee after the show we received so much praise. We must have kissed fifty grandmothers on the cheeks while saying "gracias" even though we had no idea what they were saying. It then occurred to me how scarce live music was in their small town.

Somehow the day got even better, despite our thinking, "Wow, that was most definitely the highlight of this trip!" We went back to the Cultural Center to jam with the students of InNova Music School. There was a drum set, two guitar amps, a bass amp, and a whole bunch of young kids ready to rock! First we read a chart that some students had been working on. It was tough Talk by the Jazz Crusaders. After that, students came up to do their thing, and they let the rock n' roll loose! Then, like our teachers at the LA Music Academy, we gave them some constructive criticism. Fortunately in Music Listening class at school we learned how to actually "listen" to music (thanks Mike). You would be surprised at how differently you "listen" to music after you graduate. A few female drummers that were just starting out at InNova got up and jammed with us. I hopped on bass (lookout, a guitarist trying to play bass!) and Bear on guitar. It was so much fun, and after we finished jamming with everyone they crowded around us like we were superstars. We thought, "Hmm, last year we were crowding around the people giving clinics at school and now this? Wow." We really wanted to keep jamming, but we had a dinner appointment with the Director of the Cultural Center, Manuel Arce. He told us that tomorrow we were scheduled for a trip to the rainforest.

The morning arrived and we were on a bus driving to the rainforest. Along the way we saw many coffee plantations and, to make a long trip short, a huge truck got stuck across the road. Our "one-hour" bus ride turned into a four-hour bus ride. Eventually we arrived and…there it was...the rainforest. It is too hard to describe it because without seeing it for your own eyes it sounds like just a bunch of green, wet trees (coincidentally, that's all it is). We took a basket ride through the bottom of the trees and on the way back we were on the top of the canopy. After being there, we really didn't want to return to society.

On Friday we had our final concert in the theater of the Cultural Center. It was exciting because we had a light show (thanks Pablo and Alejandro). They adjusted the lighting to the "mood" of the song. We played an hour - fifteen minute set and an encore song penned by our jazz teacher Jeff Richman. Saturday came and it was off to Jaco Beach for a little R and R (rest and relaxation). It was so hot we couldn't walk on the dark sand without our sandals. We pretty much lounged in the warm pool all day. We returned to San Jose to say good-bye to our new friends then we hitched a flight back to the States.

Thank you to everyone at LA Music Academy, InNova Music School, Cultural Center CCCN, and the great people we met in Costa Rica!

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers that dream up the dreams."
~ Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory