i think i made it...

after getting through production week, i had to keep going through week 5.

went mask shopping last monday, to the city. thankfully it didn't take too long. also bought a book for chamber music notes. i figured that chamber music is something i really want to get into, and i sit in class listening to pearls of wisdom, which somehow exit my mind almost straight away, which is a waste. so, a book to write down these pearls for future reference.

went to the orchestra concert on monday night.
two bad ideas (completely my fault):
1. wear shoes that hurt. and i know they hurt. but then 1a) i suppose is that i didn't take precautions (ie. bandaging) to prevent even more hurt.
2. stay out wayyy too late. luckily, i came home with some friends, so thanks guys!

and Y&J didn't even open up the top part for us...
A) i got asked for ID at the bar, when i ordered a lemon lime & bitters. uhm....there isn't that much alcohol in that drink....it's basically soft drink..!!!
B) towards the end of the night i heard somebody in passing "is it just me or are there lots of really young people here...?!" um...we're not all young, like, underage or even just straight out of school thank you. i felt like turning around and telling her, "um, does that mean you're old?"

ball working-bee on wednesday involved writing names on placecards. daniel commented "the president and vice-president shouldn't be doing tasks like this!" haha. i like his idea of executive :) but it was fun anyway, doing the job with him, ed & bridie.

all years concert class was pretty good. the horn quartet cracked me up - who knew horns could swing it?! and will's composition was absolutely beautiful.
admittedly, i didn't really concentrate very much on thursday, and am surprised i even managed to sit still for part of thursday, because thursday night was MUSIC BALL!!!

photos may come later, no guarantees (ie. just get facebook). preparations started well in the afternoon - involving me having fantastic ideas about hair, and trying to source a lily hair piece. i was really hoping for a clip at the chemist. two chemists later (and no hair piece) i decided that a live lily would have to suffice. the conversation at the florist kinda went like this:

me: "do you have any oriental lillies?"
florist: "white or pink?"
"err..preferably pink, but white's ok too."
"well, we have these"
"i was actually just hoping for just one lily, you know, almost completely open, for tonight"
"well, i could sell you this one..."
i decided to take the whole stem, which comprised of one almost completely open lily, plus two more to bloom over the next week. the lady probably thought i was completely crazy haha.

then the hair-curling began. now let me tell you that my hair doesn't normally curl. it has never, and so i really was quite unsure whether my fantastic plans were going to work out. thanks penny for doing it, and for enduring such a shiny hand/finger from the hair spray. and check this out, i'm going to put in a photo because it's pretty phenomenal...:


i was a bit freaked out coz i had to make the welcoming speech, plus a few thankyous at the beginning of the ball - and if you know me, you'll know that i don't really like public speaking at all. but all ended up going well, and it turned out to be an aweomse night! ok, so we decided that it'd be a good idea at about 2am after the ball to go get macca's. it was a good idea at the time.....not so great afterwards haha. got to bed at about 3am, and woke up (after a sleep in yay!) at about 8.45am. i guess it's no surprise that chamber class was significantly less full than normal - to the extent that everybody could get a seat haha.

was very bored on friday night - i suppose after the excitement of the previous night, it seemed like a funny end to a great week!

went to renee's 21st on saturday night; this required a drive of about 1.5hrs in ben's hire car. hehe fun times. good conversations :) this party was so nice, i had a great time :) and admittedly, i've never been to that area either, so that was really cool!

on sunday night a few of us went to UC parkville, which was cool. that was the first time i'd been, so that was a new experience! we had the urinetown oscars at birra bella that night, after our final production meeting. there were some awesome awards presented, and a final chance to wrap up the excitement and experience that was urinetown. as i look back on the experience, i think several things:
1. I probably wouldn't really choose to do it again. this is not to say i didn't have a good time. there are several reasons for this:
a) this is a massive job. i unfortunately don't have the luxury of time. (although i was impressed i managed to do it, keeping on top of almost all of my uni work. and i didn't skip any classes!)
b) i don't find the music in musicals (in general) to be incredibly fantastic, in terms of the challenge it presents musically. of course, some of it is very hard, and is very good, but when you compare it to the piano repertoire (arguably one of the biggest) i struggle to keep interest when there is little more than oom-cha oom-cha.
c) of course, not to say i didn't enjoy my experience at all - because i did - or that recognition is the only thing one works for, but musical directors definitely don't get enough recognition for everything they do. i suppose it's because they're often left to their own devices, because something like musical directing is very specialised, and not many people can do it. and a lot of time and effort is spent in so many other (also important) things, but i think people sometimes overlook the music in a musical, as if it's a given. but the musical director is actually probably one of the most important people of the show - without that person, there is no musical, there is no show. if the music isn't hot, the show isn't hot. and i think MDs can be seriously under-appreciated.

those are my thoughts so far....

so thus began my week of going out YET AGAIN. i didn't realise this when i planned my semester. when i thought that the week after the show was going to be busy, i didn't really think about the following week. it kinda went like this:
sunday night - urinetown oscars
monday night - jude's smc
tuesday night - kungsbacka trio concert
wednesday night - dinner with mel and tim
thursday night - very long day at uni, didn't go out wow!
friday night - george's 21st
which leaves me sitting here on a saturday night, blogging.

cancelled apollo choir on monday afternoon, coz i felt horrible. i felt pretty bad about having to cancel though, so i went along and waited for a while while people trickled in, only to tell them to go home coz i felt sick. the sick thing is completely my fault - going out lots, not enough sleep. seirously self-induced, i know. but lucky it's med students: "what are your presenting symptoms?" haha. i love hanging out with them, they're awesome!

so, the jude's smc meeting was good. it was good to think about so many issues. thanks erica and jane for the ride home :) haha. and when we circled round the roundabout twice to check on the guy who was lying in the middle but apparently not drunk/passed out, when we realised he had a bag of grocery shopping, and then got up and walked home after we drove past again to ask him "are you ok?" haha.

i was debating all day tuesday whether i should go to the musica viva concert. in the end, the things that convinced me to go were:
1) my brother telling me that i should
2) mel asking me whether i would regret it if i didn't go (the answer was yes)
so i went. i coudln't find anybody else to go with me, so i went by myself. this thought was a bit intimidating, actually, coz i've never been to a concert (or similar kind of thing, such as a movie, or eg. going to dinner) by myself. but it was ok. because:
a) i saw a couple of people i knew (from the con)
b) i had an amazing seat - in the circle (elevated view) smack bang in the middle. all for $15!
c) i met a couple more friends i knew after the concert
d) we listened to the post-concert little chat with two members of the trio, plus one of the composers (obviously not schubert nor smetana...they're dead...)
e) i chatted a bit to the pianist; i told him that i really enjoyed watching him play, then had to explain that i was watching him quite a lot because i am a piano student myself
f) emma ayres (the cellist for the 1st beethoven cello sonata for the beethoven project with 3mbs in week 2, and most definitely the host of the afternoon weekday show on abc classic fm) was hosting this chat. i got to talk to her, she remembered me, then i actually did tell her that i enjoy listening to her :)
so the night was actually fantastic

i had a great piano lesson on wednesday morning. i was nervous, coz i didn't really know what i was doing with the chopin, and don't really play much beethoven (although after the cello sonata, i've been more enthusiastic!) so wasn't sure whether my interpretation was anything like what it's supposed to sound like! but she gave me lots to think about, which was good. i've had 3 lessons in 6 weeks, which by most standards, is not good at all. but it feels like those lessons have been productive, and feels like that i HAVE to be self-motivated (can be hard for me without lessons), and that it's a lot of individual progress, independant study. which i guess has to happen sometime, because a teacher can't hold your hand for your entire life.

went to dinner with mel and tim that night to a place called Rumi, which serves cuisine of arabic-speaking nations. so we had things like: dipping bread with their house-made yoghurt, cigar shaped pastry (omg, so good), persian meatballs, a cauliflower dish, and lamb on rice (best rice i've had in a long while!). it was so beautiful, and oh-so-filling! we walked a bit, came across a beatuful pastry store which caught our eyes (and stomachs!) and had to buy some stuff! yum :)

accompanied nick d for concert class on thursday - he sang poulenc's le bestiaire. it's fantastic. we got ripped for using half-stick, but that was about it. the ensemble worked fantastically. the ending was absolutely magical, this amazing g min 7 chord, labelled "long", "laiser vibrer", and tied over, plus a pause on the bar line. there was this amazing silence as it rang in melba hall. absolutely wonderful. i think that's how wonderful performances end (to quote/paraphrase another student's review) - in magical silence, or to raptous applause.

was a very long day on thursday - up at about 7am, had to meet somebody at 7.45am to give something to them, a day of uni (with funny breaks, not worth coming home to waste time, so brought homework to do on the couch - no wonder people never think i leave!), came home at about 7pm after sinfonia. no wonder i didn't want to go out thursday night!

friday was yet another intense day. (it was an intense week of piano, which is absolutely lovely!) M came to queen's at approximately 8am for our rehearsal at 8.15. J slept through her alarm, came at 8.30. we played through some stuff, then ran down to uni for our 9am chamber music tute. that was fairly intense, but good! H had good stuff to say about our playing, plus lots of comments and suggestions for doing stuff. at 10am, J had another tute (this time with her quintet!), M had a music lesson, and i had the hour off (couldn't find a practice room, sad!). then we had chamber music class, at 11am, whereupon our trio played! we were at the front for a while, about 45mins (of the hour long class!). we played quite well. we were very well-warmed up! so, yeah, about 4 hours of playing before lunchtime! pretty intense!! but fantastic. if only that was all i had to do....lucky i'd done my techniques assignment well in time :)

so, at the moment, working on rachmninoff prelude (b-flat major, pretty intense. i don't get it, caroline suggests stuff then says later, after i've completely committed to it, "it's hard". oh great..! haha). i really have to re-look at the chopin winter wind. it's an intense programme, actually. looks like this:

JS Bach: Prelude & fugue in D Major (bk 2); Prelude & Fugue in E Major (Bk 2)
Chopin: Etudes Op 25 nos 7 (the beautiful one with the conversation between the lh and rh), and 11 (winter wind)
Beethoven: Sonata in a-flat major, op 110 movt 1
Rachmninoff: preludes op 23 nos. 2 & 4

plus keeping up with chamber music:
4 of the 8 pieces for clarinet, viola and piano op 83 by max bruch

accompaniment stuff, including:
a strauss nocturne, saint-seans nocturne, the sextet from don giovanni

i don't think the concerto competition is going to be for me this year...i've hardly looked at it...

oh well.
so, sorry this is insanely long. if you've made it all the way, i'm incredibly impressed. leave me a comment if you did, i'll personally congratulate you! bed time...