fornight du mort

I hope the title accurately captures what really has been the most terrifying, the most productive, and the most intense fortnight I've probably ever had.

It would probably be easiest if I did this in chronological order, yah? And I'm sorry if it gets tedious, or boring. You don't have to read it all - this really is the story of my life, and if you're not interested, I don't mind. Whatever. I often write just to collect my thoughts - so often the benefit of me, while perhaps letting my friends know what's been happening my life, because I'm away from many of them quite often, in some way or another.

Week 9 of uni kicked off as looking like an intense week of chamber music. The Chamber Music Competition schedule was released on Monday afternoon and we found out that we were playing that Friday! Eeek!!! Luckily we'd had a rehearsal the previous week, but still....!

On Tuesday we had a Don Giovanni reherasal - that went well. Also came the prospect of doing a concert (or part of anyway!) which has since been set in stone, and is a great opportunity for us to perform, as we now have something to work towards. Resumed rehearsals (after some confusion about location! Sorry!!!) with A because we were due to perform/compete twice in the next week.

I kid you not, week 9 (first week back after the mid-semester break, which is not very well placed mid-semester) involved class or meetings almost every day at 9am (no doubt that means getting up to practice, starting at about 7.15am every morning. Which means getting up by 6.30am!) and ending (ie. coming home finally to 'rest' ie. do homework etc) at earliest 6pm! Talk about getting back into the swing of things after holidays! It seems almost crazy to have ever predicted that I would practice before a 9am class or meeting, but I tell you, after realising on the morning that I met K, this would be necessary, it has seemed a given.
Gosh, the holidays feel SO long ago! I can't actually remember what it felt like to be on holidays anymore, it's been that busy!

Anyway, Week 9 Wednesday. Meeting with the Dean at 9am to discuss several matters, including preliminary discussions about O'Week 2008 which MSS will be involved in somehow. Plus just, you know, other matters the Dean should know about. My piano lesson was cancelled so we had a 2hr trio rehearsal to go over the Bruch. Pretty intense stuff. Then had lunch quickly then had to dash off so I could catch a train to Heidelberg. Why Heidelberg?, you ask. Well, the Austin Hospital is there, and Apollo was doing a hospital performance, in which case I had to conduct the choir. Sure, it was a fair way to travel to perform for 15mins, but so worth it because we knew we were bringing a smile to people's faces. Plus the Austin foyer has great acoustics hehe. Immediately after, I ran promptly from the hospital with E, B & B to jump on the 2.21pm train back to the city, to make my 3.30 trio rehearsal (yep, again). We did another hour and a half or so before we were completely buggered. But so productive! Had Collegian's Dinner that night - got a Wyvern Medal, our table was so successful hehe! Didn't go to the turn - instead, did homework at the like and had to go to bed early for yet another big day. Annoyingly, got woken up at about 2am by somebody setting off the fire alarm. Needless to say, I was very UNIMPRESSED.

Thursday was yet another early morning - had rehearsal in Melba at 9.15am because our trio was playing in Concert Class. We had to wait for a very long time because other people kept switching the order of the programme (so-and-so had to go at so-and-so time etc.) We didn't play that well, I felt (we all felt), but we received some good feedback. And even if we played comparatively &%$* to how we normally do, or expect to, we definitely feel that there's chemistry (of a good musical and relational kind, all good!) working within our trio. Which is nice. :)
After my 1pm class, went down to the ABC for my piano lesson. Bumped into E there, which was cool. Had a good lesson, especially on a Steinway D. I guess it made up for the crap non-piano chair which I had to sit on! Came back to uni for Sinfonia, which was fun again. Except that there were only four violins at this reherasal, and much of the music we were playing was divisi across both violin sections, so this meant we were all basically playing our own part. Hehe. Much fun, though very exposed! After Sinfonia, went to meet my cousin to go with her to see my aunt & uncle's new apartment in the city. So cool! I have a few photos of the views (which I may or may not post here..? Dunno) but they're amazing - city lights hello! We went for dinner at a little Japanese restaurant tucked away in a little alley, which was delicious (the dinner, not the alley). Sashimi, yum! My uncle is very good at convincing me to try food....

Friday started off with practice (surprise surprise!) and then our trio met up at 10am to rehearse briefly before our competition heat at 11.40am at Melba Hall. We played much better on Friday than we did on Thursday, felt much more comfortable (thanks to the few people who did come to see us!) but there are still some bits which we need to fix. That's ok, always a learning experience. Enjoyed lunch with S after that (after being asked, see post below re: 'celebrity', to accompany about three other people for next week!). Had a rehearsal with R at 3pm after which I was then kinda able to relax a little bit! Went to the Vic for a social Connect night (T was sick) which was fun.

The weekend was really for a bit of recuperation (although I didn't really feel recovered, because I was doing...homework? I dunno. I don't really feel weekends anymore..!) but I must have gotten some stuff done! We (QCWT plus extras woohoo!) did Jude's music on Sunday night, which was awesome. It went off, it was amazing to help people worship in a really enthusiastic manner. This then brought up some issues....(not in detail here though). Managed to fight off any convincing from T to go out after for supper - he is the only person I've met so far who can manage to convince me to go out so much!!!

Hello Week 10, the busiest week in my life, I think. Production week does not even rate compared to this...!
Monday doesn't look that busy, but always feels it. Piano practice 7.15am, class 10-12, Don Giovanni rehearsal 12pm, went to lunchtime concert (probably only the 1.30-2pm bit), class 2.15-4.15pm, Apollo 4.30-6pm, and then come home. See? Doesn't look like much, but it actually is...! There was no point going home in the middle of the day so perhaps that's it....long days at uni!

Tuesday kicked off with practice, then class at 9am, then a rehearsal with C at 10am. It went really well - it felt pretty comfortable to be playing with her, which was nice :) Practiced some more, because I could, and I'd booked a basement practice room. Then went to help set up for the MSS vs MSS Grudge Match. This mainly involved on my part transporting food/equipment/setting up stuff. I kid you not, I cooked sausages all afternoon. It was fun though! It kinda meant that even though I didn't get to watch the netball or the tug-of-war, I got to basically meet everybody standing in line for food! It was pretty funny, considering that I was clearly representing the Music side (due to my role), I kept saying hi to all these Med kids. I'm pretty sure a lot of people probably thought I was a traitorous sort! Hehe. It was nice to see two sub-sections of my life mesh though, I like it when things intersect and become a little clearer! Then had to run off for another rehearsal with A because we were playing the next day. That went well, not too long (he had to run off). I led the Bible study that night at QC, which was the 2nd in the Simply Christianity series; this was a fairly compelling session - even I was amazed as I was preparing and delivering the information!

Wednesday kicked off with practice. I really think this should be the default assumption of every day and the day I don't practice in the morning will be like, "WOW!!!" Then "What's wrong?!" haha.
Anyway, it started at QC and then shifted to the basement at the Con. Had a short reherasal with C before her performance at 9.15am. That went pretty well. The adjudicator for the day was just lovely - much fun, and easy to play for. Immediately after hers, I was unexpectedly called to page-turn for the pianist for the guy who played next. The flautist played well - pretty amazing stuff! I was really proud of him, because he's a first year (mid-yr entry) mentee of mine, and he's doing really well! He's already playing in orchestra and in chamber music class an stuff!
And then it was time for my lesson! So, went to that, thinking that I'd only have to play through the other half of my programme that we didn't get through the previous week. But no, she had a different idea. It was basically this: "You're going to play your entire programme for me this morning!". And I didn't feel ready at all. I had one memory lapse, but that's ok. It will be much cleaner and much better by the time my exam rolls around. But she was really enthusiastic! She said I did really well and that my playing had improved very much even from last week! She had some points to make about each of the pieces, which was good - I like feedback and more things to work on. And then this little conversation emerged:
C: How old are you?
Me: 20
C: When do you turn 21?
Me: Next year, April.
C: Hmm....well, I think you should look at the Shepparton piano comp - there is an age restriction, that is, you have to be at least 21, but check it out on the web and see if you qualify.

And then we were discussing what sort of repertoire I had accumulated over three years and other suggestions for things I could learn over the summer. To possibly do this comp.
Now, it should have clicked, because I do know almost all the information in general about this comp. But indeed, I googled it, and indeed, it is the one and only AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL PIANO AWARD. Is she SERIOUS?!?! I'm so not good enough for this! People like A win things like this! Not people like me even come close to him in stage 0.5! This competition is huge. You can look it up yourself if you're interested. There is a total of about $40 000 in prizes. One has to audition first by sending in a recording - and not everybody even gets to go to Shepparton to even play in Round 1! Wow. Anyway, I feel honoured that C even suggested it to me, and quite gobsmacked in general. Just really blown away.

So, I felt WRECKED after my lesson - about 30mins of intense music - and most of it's not easy by any means! But also very enthusiastic about piano! Went to listen to E (and L!) play in the concert comp - she did really well! Then went to practice some more in the basement, waiting for A for his concerto. It was running a little late, so we kinda had to wait outside Tallis and listen to another horn player, which was a little unnerving! We finally got in there. And I had to play the whole of Strauss 1. Phew!!!!! It went pretty well - we know there were some bits that weren't perfect, that could have been better, we know because we've done it before. But we managed to hold it all together that even RD applauded at the end. And even paid me a huge compliment, saying "A, you should thank your accompanist very much!" and then promptly suggested other works for A to play! Hehe. So, I was then COMPLETELY BUGGERED (as opposed to just WRECKED hehe) after an intense morning of playing piano with the pressure of two performances and one mock performance. Wow. I finally went home at 1pm - after spending all morning playing piano, 5hrs at the con on a day when I'd normally only have lesson!
I went to East Melbourne that afternoon/evening to have a reherasal with D's trumpet student (doing grade 2 AMEB exam). Their house was beautiful - really nice suburb, with wide tree-lined streets. And all the houses old and stuff, but I bet all done really nicely on the inside. On the way, I actually passed by what I think would be my perfect house...it's a two-storey apartment added into/onto a converted church. It's a modern apartment with four rooms (I think!) and beautiful spaces, north-facing, retaining the original church windows. It's up for auction, so if you do know anybody who'd be interested, I'd love to know!

Thursday was a long day - as Thursdays normally are. Thankfully, it didn't involve running around the city. We had a trio rehearsal to read through some Schumann (we left our Bruch for a little while so it doesn't go stale). Unfortunately, the piece, while it's ok, doesn't do much for us. We're hoping to do the Mozart instead too (hopefully this Thursday!) I left Sinfonia early so taht I could go to a public lecture entitled "Globalisation, Crises and Growth" given by a professor from UCLA - he's an expert in economics of Latin America. He was most entertaining. I'm glad I went to this lecture, I'd been tossing up all day whether I really wanted to go (and come home late) or regret not going at all. M said he wanted to go, but couldn't, so I should - I took his advice! The lecture was really interesting - so many of the concepts I've learnt in class (and am learning now in macro!) really came alive. And I suppose I really needed something like this, because I've been feeling for a little while now, quite discouraged about my commerce subject (this usually happens at around this time each semester). And I really needed somebody or something to inspire me. This guy did. Also because I could actually understand what he was saying from an economics perspective. Even econometrics became relevant! Who knew...?!
Came home at about 8pm (yep, it was a VERY long day...!) and had a rehearsal with A because we were playing on Saturday, and couldn't fit it in any other time. It's a good thing we live close to each other. But also to think we never had done nights/weekend other than this even though we live so close..? Seems silly, we don't catch up on weekends!

Friday was yet another huge day. I had to interrupt my piano practice (in the basement!) to go to a macro tute, because our tutor just didn't turn up on Monday. (Don't people realise that some people have schedules that are so tightly packed that it's hard to make it to other classes?!?!?! Gah!!) Chamber music class was greatly distracting due to the presence of a baby girl (the daughter of one of oboist in the trio that played in class). So cute though! I think we were all impressed that she managed to amuse herself and stay pretty quiet through the whole hour! Had a meeting with the VM about plans for next year (I had questions, still thinking about anything else I need to know!) and then had to dash off. I was debating whether to take the train or tram, but I figured that I didn't want to walk that far, so I opted for the longer ride on the tram. So, I trammed it out to Hawthorn to go play for this Grade 2 trumpet exam (student of D's). While waiting in the corridor, I saw Ian, which was funny. It struck me that I was on the other side of AMEB exams now. Even in the 'waiting room', there were lots of kids and their parents - I'd forgotten what it was like to be the one taking the exam! My mum used to take me in, and make sure I had everything, and made sure she always brought along a special treat of chocolate for after my exam! Too cute. And as I sat there thinking about how it seemed so normal to say hi to one of the examiners, I reflected on how this must have been when I did exams in my youth too! Music circles can tend to be fairly small and of course, teachers are also examiners!

D drove us to the station, where we caught the train back to Flinders. I hung out at Fed Square at BMW Edge because the Apollo Concert was on that night there! I figured there was no point going home, hanging out for half an hour, only to have to come back again. The venue is absolutely GORGEOUS! All the seats are wooden, as is the floor. The seats are arranged almost assymetrically, on various levels. The backdrop is this amazing glass looking over the Yarra, broken up into segments of different shapes and sizes. Backstage (actually, under stage) is very well-equipped - male and female dressing rooms with mirrors, toilets, and lots of space. The concert went really well. There were some awesome acts, and lots of fun was had all around! Yup, that was my BMW Edge debut! Thanks to the friends who came along - it was great to have your support and to see your smiling faces! Thanks to everybody who was in it - a successful concert, and being part of Apollo has meant a lot to me this year :) I came home at about 11.20pm, a very long day indeed!

So, the fifth performance of week 10 was on Saturday. Yeah, 5 performances in one week. Gah. No wonder I was so dead. No wonder you saw me in so much black!
The morning was fairly chilled, laid-back: a bit of work, after sleeping in till about 8.15am! Amazing!
Went to jch to meet A at about 12.45pm to head down to Southbank. I was a little early and had the chance to listen to the Japanese pop that psyches him up. Oh, and the 1-2-3-4-1-2-3 piece, I've forgotten that one. It's hilarious! But really intelligent too, contrasting against the five-note ostinato. Yeah, I know, takes a real music nerd like me to think about that and finding it intriguing (oh the things that go through my head!). We trammed down Elizabeth St (ooh, other side of the neighbourhood!) and crossed over the Southbank. We found his parents and hung out with them for a little while (we were early) then headed to St John's to suss it all out. We had plenty of time to test a few things out, get REALLY warmed up, hang out. We were playing first, so that was kinda good to get it over and done with nice and early. It's a great venue to play in, really nice acoustics, and nice piano! We played (we were recorded for national broadcast sometime in the future too...eek!) - both of us felt we could have played better, but the way I figure it, sometimes it's just the day. Stuff happens. We did make it through quite well though! So, playing first is sometimes a good thing. We watched some of the other performances, but then I was really tired and hungry (I don't think I could have sat still through three pianists in succession either after four other performances!) so we ducked out to Southgate to get food. Sometimes playing first is a bad thing too - we had to wait till the end for the adjudication! I'm really proud of A - he should know that! He's been getting lots of opportunities to perform and do stuff, and I feel really honoured to be doing half of that with him! This has been an amazing year of soloistic growth! His parents drove me home, which was very kind of them. I got out of their car only to bump into B&T and P, and I got into their car to have a chat. We then went for college dinner - it was nice to have friends over! I had really intended on doing lots of work on Saturday night. But T rings me up and goes "Come over to our place for a movie." And remember, T is the only one who is that successful at making me go out. So of course, I give in (asking for an extra 15mins to do my assignment) and we head over to their place. We tried watching "Good Night and Good Luck" except that it was really intense and serious and we really weren't in the mood for such a movie. Perhaps another time - I'd really like to watch it though! Sounds interesting. So the night kinda just turned into hanging out, which was cool. It was nice to take a break!


The last orchestra concert of the year was last night. It was an awesome night - we went with an entourage of about 21 people, which was cool. College, con and church people (basically how my friendship circles are roughly divided). It was funny that K & A weren't playing in it, but it was nice to be sitting with them too! U played really well - the Beethoven was so clean (only about 2 wrong notes if I heard right!), and at no point in time was the balance out. I don't know her that well but gave her a mighty congratulations and hug. She did so well - it was just beautiful. The Brahms, I think we pretty good. Some funny solo notes coming in funny, but that's ok. I think it could have done with even more guts (and dare I say it, balls?!) and just bigger in general, but it was still enjoyable to listen to! I even saw friends of friends last night, which was cool - who incidentally knew other friends of mine and stuff. I like seeing links!
We went out to the Glenferrie afterwards (thankfully it was open!) which was cool. Most people were really exhausted but also happy and high! (Gotta love the combination!) I had a great time hanging out with musos. We were waiting for the last train - it was so windy, but we were just hanging out, much fun-ness! I came home with the 2nd yrs (mostly Bendigo crowd who are my friends!) plus some others whom we love. So much fun. Some funny photos in general. Got home at about 12.40am (yeah, who would have thought Monday night was so good?! Haha. It's just musos that make it good there!) and put myself into bed at about 1am. And then I thought it'd be a good idea to wake up at 6.30am this morning to practice. Needless to say, by 9.15am, I was ready to climb back into bed! It's ok, I made it through the day - had another Don Giovanni rehearsal where we realised that the performance is a week and a half away!! Eek! But should be so much fun!

Went out tonight again with most of the same musos - we went for dinner on Lygs, just because we could, I think. And we rarely get the chance to all hang out together. (Last night must have been the first in a long time! And it was so much fun!)

And now, I'm heading to Bible study - session 3 of Simply Christianity.

I'm sorry this post is so amazingly long. I'll be really impressed if anybody actually reads this one too, so let me know if you do, and do leave comments if you so desire! Yeah, it has struck me to post shorter and more frequently, but given everything that you've just read, I suppose you'll forgive me when I say that I didn't really have time to do so...!

To finish off, my most memorable quote of the fortnight goes along the lines of "If anybody tries to tell me that they're busy, I'm going to hit them over the head". Now you understand why! :)