Concerts attended: 55
Concerts played in: 42
Bach Preludes and Fugues read through this year so far: 47
Trips out of Melbourne for concerts: 4
New friends made and experiences of ANAM 2011: priceless
What a year it's been. I never dreamt that this could happen, that I would be asked to audition and come to this institution. I never thought I'd get this amazing opportunity to study with the teacher I wanted to learn with. I never thought I'd have this much motivation to work so hard. I never thought I'd get through THIS much repertoire in one year (and let me tell you, the list is mighty long!). I didn't think that I could sustain that much playing without feeling some sort of physical pain. I never thought some of those people would be my friends, but ta-dah, look, they are! I never thought it'd come full circle in one year - chamber music finals, when it all started with chamber music camp 2010 and the competition a few months later.
But it did all happen. Somehow.
There have been so many highlights (with only a few blips on the radar) of the year. There have been some amazing artists, amazing teachers and people to inspire. There have been some extraordinary works to learn and perform. There have been so many revelations: technical, musical, personal. There have been wonderful colleagues who have encouraged, challenged and been so enjoyable and fun to work with.
It really is a unique place - I have heard so many guests come and say that they've never experienced any other institution quite like it. I'm pretty amazed that pianists are encouraged and even required to undertake lots of chamber music and sonata work with other musicians. I have discovered amazing musical collaborations with some of my colleagues this year and enjoyed getting to know them and their work very intensely in a short space of time. I still sometimes have to pinch myself to make sure this is reality, and that I'm well in it.
This is not to say it's always been easy. On the contrary. There have been times of craziness, where I wanted time to stand still, for it all to go away, to have a body double, as I wondered how I managed to get myself into so many things. Throw in the other stuff of having a part-time job, often-inconsiderate other residents and the stresses of normal life and it got a little bit out of hand. But all those around me were giving, generous, kind and encouraging.
And it's been busy, for sure. I had to make a list of dates with the repertoire for the second half of the year because I couldn't get my head around it, and couldn't figure out what to practice. My arms cradled a large pile of books that I apparently got lost behind. Just when I thought the pile would decrease, another thing would be added to it. Too often, I think, I said that I'd catch up with friends "when this is all over" but it never seemed to be over until the very end. But I'm one of those people that would like to have no regrets, so I also don't regret working hard this year and getting to know a bunch of other people. This is the journey of life, yes, where we meet different people at different times along the adventure? I only not regret being able to have 400% of time and energy and effort to maintain every relationship to the same degree as I would have liked.
I've learnt how to say 'no' a bit better this year, but it's still a work in progress. I've been given amazing opportunities this year and I've grabbed most of them and run far and fast. Maybe I should have been pickier and choosier about the battles and challenges I wanted to take on - a precedent has now been set! I hope I have the same sort of drive and passion through and beyond next year. I hope I continue to see things as great opportunities, despite it being a bit different, the vibe and personnel changing. 2011 has been a defining year indeed, and one that I'm thankful for.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The back end
So my ANAM year has finished for 2011. I played my last concert for the year on Wednesday at the Hobart Town Hall, and tonight I will be going to the final concert at the MRC. I am feeling quite nostalgic about this group of students with whom I've travelled over the past eleven months, but there is so much other to report on, so let's get cracking on it...
Looking for houses
I decided over the last summer that this would be my last year at Queen's. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage what I knew (and probably didn't anticipate to the extent that it has been!) was going to be a busy year at ANAM and a job that required some weekly commitment and a fluctuating workload according to the season of things. Thus, we commenced our house hunt a number of months ago. K and I decided we would like to live together, and on some sort of chance-like conversation, we also found J and considered him a worthy housemate! First up, I knew from stories of others' experiences that house-hunting is not a particularly pleasant or enjoyable experience, but one that is necessary. I was prepared for that. I was not, however, prepared for what it actually involved. Such ignorance on my part! Where do people learn all these life skills if they're not formally taught or told what they have to do?! Thankfully the other two had their heads screwed on the right way around and were able to navigate the ins and outs of it all. However (to cut a very long story short), in our looking-arounds, J discovered that he had an increasing preference for north of the river, while I discovered an increasing preference for south of the river. My preferences are borne out of the fact that ANAM is in South Melbourne and that while this year has been great (for saving a small though significant amount of money, pursuing a job that looks great on my CV, being in close proximity to some friends, convenience factors, being able to be part of my church community locally), the travel through the city every day, which adds up to about an hour and a half all up, has been quite tiring and cumbersome. And I realise I'm crossing a great divide as I go southwards - it seems akin to crossing the river in Perth, which I will NEVER do..! (Now just watch me break that one..!) But it seems like the logical choice given that I spend most of my time at ANAM and travel time is something I would like to not have to factor in very much of. So over the course of looking online, going to a few inspections, applying for a house in Brunswick, we parted ways as other opportunities came up. I think we parted happily - we are all still friends (yay!) who are scattered a bit more than originally planned. Maybe it'll just mean that we can go to each other's places for dinner or something fun like that. So the big announcement is that I will be a resident in Albert Park next year. It is a studio apartment/granny flat thingy above the garage/workshop at the back of a house owned by a couple whose daughters have since moved out of home. It is a 10min walk from ANAM, in a really nice area (safe, nice people, close to all sorts of things) and I think it will work out well, at least for next year. The only thing that scares me a little is living by myself, but having talked to lots of people about it, the way I figure is that I spend so much time with other people (okay, bar the time alone in a practice room) and working in collaboration with them that the space by myself I think will be good to have - to recharge as an introvert. I am scared, and also looking forward to checking out the area, learning the new locality, finding new places to hang out and visit, going to a different market and the like.
And obviously associated with moving out of Queen's is the end of my job. I've had the role of Director of Music for two years and honestly, it looks pretty good on paper for a first job out of university. When I first took the role, people sounded impressed, but I honestly think that it has sounded better than it actually entails. Hopefully nothing I write will incriminate me here, but in (fairly) brief, I have found it difficult this year to run a concert series with what felt like little administrative help (from organising all the little details of each concert, to being on the door at concerts other than my own, where I had to call in favours from friends, to making sure that the room was clean and set up, often I would do the set-up myself). I've also found living at College this year quite difficult; I think I have found it quite difficult in previous years, but other factors have compelled me to stay. This year I was living facing inwards to the quadrangle, and endured quite a lot of noise - from the gym that would be in use and pumping out awful doof-doof for hours each night, to drunken shenanigans. Try to combine that with a rigorous schedule which would have hopefully seen me sleep between the hours of 11pm and 6.30pm in a regimented way (occasionally those times get skewed, in the direction of less sleep) and College works out to be a terrible place for such discipline. For the frustrations of running a concert series pretty much single-handedly, it has been quite a success, if I may say so myself. The Seraphim Trio concert drew a capacity crowd (with some help from the Development Office). The Beethoven concert I played with E was a great opportunity to play ANAM repertoire in a different setting, to prepare for other recitals, and to test what it'd feel like to play three big Beethoven sonatas back to back (hint: I didn't collapse but was very exhausted...)
Alas, the job is complete and I am hoping the girl that rang me and asked me questions for half an hour does get the job, and that I also have not misrepresented my experience - all the good, bad and ugly of it.
Schools concerts with Richard Gill
One of the annual projects at ANAM is community engagement. These are usually concerts presented to children at local primary schools. After Breath Week earlier in the year, where the ANAM choir was led by Richard Gill, I knew that I had to get myself into the project he was leading later in the year. I learned that if you ask and express interest with your own initiative, sometimes people are willing to consider you for things that they wouldn't have otherwise. So, I laneded myself in this particularly Community Engagement project. We had an introductory session where we talked about why it's important to teach music, what ways we can do it, and things like that. Just as a preface (which is obviously late..!), Richard Gill is a conductor and extraordinary music educator who has spend years tirelessly advocating for music education in schools. He is an inspiring man with so much energy and passion. We were to do two days (only in the morning) at Albert Park Primary School. There was some confusion about how it was all going to run (again cutting long story short) so it was decided that Richard would lead the sessions on the first day and we would see how we went and we could lead it on the second day. We had prepared some repertoire to introduce the children to music and to listening for certain things. Watching Richard interact with the children, and the questions that he asked and they way that he got them to listen and answer was incredible. One of his blanket rules is to demand that they listen, that the music demands their attention, and to expect that children will be intelligent and ask and answer questions the prove this. We did not feel as if we were going to do a job half as good as him the next day...! But we did get there. We probably weren't quite as enthusiastic, or quite as comfortable, but we still managed to do it. It was also pretty cool to see how the children reacted - to spot the ones who obviously had some musical training, the ones who were actively listening, the ones who moved to the music and things like that.
Then it started getting really busy (if it hadn't already been!). A few more projects were added to the pile: the Smalley horn trio (Australian Voices concert), chamber competition (two ensembles), Beethoven in Hobart. The Smalley horn trio is hard. Really cool, and really hard. We started work on it at least a month in advance because we knew it was going to be a challenge. The programme was curated by Ian Munro, the Australian pianist, who made two visits to ANAM in two weeks. I had a couple of lessons with him, which were great. So much to think about, so many ideas! He apologised that I had been allocated the trio, which is apparently far harder than the quintet he was playing. Oh well. I learned lots, worked my butt off for it, and it was an enjoyable experience. In the late projects of the year, I had been in groups that I had not really played with very much, or at all throughout the year. I found that lots of these were actually great collaborations, and am sad that we didn't discover these much earlier in the year to foster these musical relationships (and friendships to boot!). It's a bit of a pity as some of these people are leaving ANAM after this year! :(
My two ensembles somehow found ourselves in the Chamber Competition Final (of five ensembles); the final was about two weeks after the first round - uh-oh! We quickly have to learn the rest of the piece!!! Let me tell you, trying to put together a quartet and sextet with insanely busy people with other projects and classes and commitments is really difficult. The cellist in both of these groups was also the same guy, so as we tried to fit in as many rehearsals as possible to give us the winning edge, I found myself running from rehearsal to rehearsal, often spending five hours before lunch with the same person. Talk about intense! Also switching from composers and styles so quickly proves to be a challenging brain game as my role in each ensemble changes ever so slightly. However busy this period was, it was a very steep learning curve on how to keep on top of things, to manage a bundle of demanding programmes at one time, to be efficient at doing stuff. I wouldn't ask for the workload for more than three or so weeks though - it's physically and mentally draining. So many kind and well-meaning friends would express their concern at my workload only to be met with my reply of, "Well, it's gotta be done!". Sorry for anything that may have come across as rude or unappreciative. The actual Chamber Competition Final was an exciting night. Guaranteed to have a high standard of playing (this is the final, right?!) and to be an evening of great variety and great indecisiveness, I think this night is one of the hightlights of the whole year. Apart from the music and extensive preparation, there is the ever-present question of what we were going to wear. For a big night, we demanded big dresses....! D6 probably would have won an audience prize of best-dressed, as our clarinettist was playing with MSO earlier that night, where the dress code is tails and white tie. To make life much easier for him (not sure how?!), the male half of our sextet donned tails and white tie (they looked so dapper!) and the girls found extravagant dresses to match. In my case, this was the rare pulling-out of the year twelve ball dress, which doesn't fit quite as well, but makes a significant statement. We walked to out whistles and great laughter, as we played the cheesiest piece of 'serious music'. There were moments in the piece where I just felt we let go and let the music happen - it is such an incredible experience to be able to do this: to know your part so well, and to trust the other musicians so much. The talented quartet who played the Ligeti quartet won the competition, which was really exciting! I think something that has really struck me about ANAM this year is how supportive everybody is about everybody else; I feel that there hasn't been that streak of competitiveness that is associated with most high-level training, or even at universities and conservatoriums. There were certificates handed out to students who were finishing their time at ANAM, as well as a few more awards - the recipients were indeed worthy! A fine celebration at the pub followed an incredibly long day. What a relief for it to be over, but also a little sad, as I came to love the people I was playing with, enjoying spending such intense amounts of time with them, and working so decidedly towards something.
But, they say no rest for the wicked! The next morning, I was off to Hobart for another ANAM project. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra was having a Beethoven cycle, performing all of the symphonies across a period of a few weeks. As part of the festival, we (ANAM) were to present a total of four free lunchtime concerts of Beethoven's solo and chamber works. Each day featured one of the pianists and their associated artist/s. I was playing the second and the fourth concerts (one week apart - I flew down twice): Piano Sonata No. 17 in d minor 'Tempest' Op. 31 No. 2, the 7th violin sonata in c minor Op. 30 No. 2, the 5th cello sonata Op. 102 No. 2 and the 'Ghost' Trio Op. 70 No. 1 (heck, I hope all those opus numbers are correct!). Lots of Beethoven to round off my ANAM year - a tiny bit like how I opened it, and worked through it...
We were put up in the Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, which is quite a nice hotel at one end of the CBD, and right across the road from the ABC/TSO studios. How handy! We were given a studio apartment EACH (Seriously, I'm a student. I sort of was expecting, and totally would have been fine, to share, but no!). I walked in to a large room and thought, "Is this all for ME?!?!" I was thankful to be staying for two nights! We wandered down to Salamanca for a quick lunch, then had a bit of rehearsal/practice time in the afternoon. We went again to Salamanca to Cargo's for dinner; it was a warm balmy night and so there were quite a few people out. Pizzas there are excellent, and there is much choice. We finished up with gelate in excellent delectable flavours. The next morning, I went to meet S for breakfast. She was in Hobart for the AISOI programme, which was cool, because we had actually (re-)met two years prior at the same programme when we were next-door neighbours at the student apartments. We struck up a friendship, played in a trio together the following year, and have since become great friends. It was lovely to see S again after a while. She is really good at keeping in touch, even though we don't see each other as regularly as we used to (maybe two times a week for rehearsals). I then wandered off after breakfast (and buying a delicious-looking lamington) to the Hobart Town Hall to have a brief rehearsal at the venue where I'd be performing the next day.
It is a lovely room, quite sizeable. The room is mostly light blue, with great decoration and detail. The stage is raked, which makes it quite trippy, considering that there is also a very lovely Steinway 9-foot piano on stage. I am one of those people that like things to be parallel and perpendicular and straight and this caused a bit of disconcern. However, it is a beautiful instrument to play. The Town Hall had also been filled with seating, about 300 or so chairs. When I first walked in, my immediate thought was, "We're never going to fill it! So many chairs!", probably based on the audience size that come to the lunchtime concerts at South Melbourne. However, when I arrived at about 12.45pm later to watch the first concert, the hall was already about half full, and taking a seat that I thought was going to be quite near the back (about three-quarters the way down), people kept streaming in. The first concert went really well, and it was delightful to hear such joyful Beethoven's music can be. A celebratory drink and lunch followed the concert before another rehearsal with K for our concert the next day. We went to Fish Frenzy that night for dinner, which was great - K and I had vowed to eat seafood while in Tasmania (because it is so good, and Tasmania is known to have great seafood and produce). The Fish Frenzy on the menu was a large portion of fish, calamari and scallops, accompanied by chips. What a feast! We rolled home after a good feed in preparation for our concert the next day. It went pretty well; the audience was bigger than the previous day (apparently the audience size kept growing. By the last concert, which I played in the following week, the hall was full and there were people sitting in the little seats down the sides in the bays.) However, all I could think while playing was, "Oh no, that's going on record!" The concerts were recorded by the ABC in Hobart and will be aired in the period between Christmas and New Year. I am hoping that they also recorded some of my rehearsal and can edit!! A celebratory lunch and drink again and then it was to the airport to fly back to Melbourne. A delay prolonged our trip home after a really long day, but it was nice to know that we would be coming back to Hobart within the week!
With only one concert left, I was pretty excited. There have been very few times this year where I have only had to work on one programme - usually my time must be divided between practicing my own repertoire, chamber repertoire, having rehearsals for several groups and having lessons and tutorials on various things. With only one cello sonata and trio to go, my workload was very well set out. The sonata I have played a bit this year, and it's nice to have played it now three times in the year, also having it be a re-visit from several years ago. The trio I also learnt last year, but obviously playing it with different people makes it a different experience. However, familiarity is always nice. My second visit to Hobart was again enjoyable, perhaps a little more so as my travelling companions were people I knew much better. The member of faculty was also excited about dining with us, and really enjoyed the experience of relaxing, eating and drinking and listening to music! Incidentally, also staying at the same hotel that week was the Australian test cricket team. I tried not to stare in two days as various assumably famous people wandered in and out! We grabbed lunch on the pier, at the old Jam Factory. We also finished up with ice-cream on the perfectly beautiful sunny day, and then headed off to rehearse. A productive rehearsal later (albeit with some weird balance issues because the studio we were in was not ideal, nor did it replicate the hall in any way) we went back to the hotel to rest and do whatever. I watched TV for about two hours. Amazing.
We then wandered down to Salamanca to eat dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant which was very busy, but totally worth the wait. H ordered drinks and entrees, which is always a wise idea because he knows his food and drink. Excellent choices! The majority of our table enjoyed the spaghetti marinara, with excellent seafood (this is half the reason to go to Hobart - to enjoy the food!!). A fine evening to remember.
Our concert the next day went well. As I mentioned before, the hall was packed. A couple of friends unfortunately couldn't make it, but others did, so it was lovely to see some familiar faces in te very large audience. We played quite well, even though again, some part of my brain was focussed on the fact that ABC was recording our concert. Lunch and drinks at Fish Frenzy (again) by the pier - champagne at 3 o'clock in the afternoon - to mark our final ANAM performance for 2011 was a perfect celebration. Such relief at the end of a busy year called for extreme happiness for the rest of the day (spotted with tiredness!) and a well-earned sleep in the next day. What an adventure.
To follow in the next post: final musings and reflections on the year....
Looking for houses
I decided over the last summer that this would be my last year at Queen's. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage what I knew (and probably didn't anticipate to the extent that it has been!) was going to be a busy year at ANAM and a job that required some weekly commitment and a fluctuating workload according to the season of things. Thus, we commenced our house hunt a number of months ago. K and I decided we would like to live together, and on some sort of chance-like conversation, we also found J and considered him a worthy housemate! First up, I knew from stories of others' experiences that house-hunting is not a particularly pleasant or enjoyable experience, but one that is necessary. I was prepared for that. I was not, however, prepared for what it actually involved. Such ignorance on my part! Where do people learn all these life skills if they're not formally taught or told what they have to do?! Thankfully the other two had their heads screwed on the right way around and were able to navigate the ins and outs of it all. However (to cut a very long story short), in our looking-arounds, J discovered that he had an increasing preference for north of the river, while I discovered an increasing preference for south of the river. My preferences are borne out of the fact that ANAM is in South Melbourne and that while this year has been great (for saving a small though significant amount of money, pursuing a job that looks great on my CV, being in close proximity to some friends, convenience factors, being able to be part of my church community locally), the travel through the city every day, which adds up to about an hour and a half all up, has been quite tiring and cumbersome. And I realise I'm crossing a great divide as I go southwards - it seems akin to crossing the river in Perth, which I will NEVER do..! (Now just watch me break that one..!) But it seems like the logical choice given that I spend most of my time at ANAM and travel time is something I would like to not have to factor in very much of. So over the course of looking online, going to a few inspections, applying for a house in Brunswick, we parted ways as other opportunities came up. I think we parted happily - we are all still friends (yay!) who are scattered a bit more than originally planned. Maybe it'll just mean that we can go to each other's places for dinner or something fun like that. So the big announcement is that I will be a resident in Albert Park next year. It is a studio apartment/granny flat thingy above the garage/workshop at the back of a house owned by a couple whose daughters have since moved out of home. It is a 10min walk from ANAM, in a really nice area (safe, nice people, close to all sorts of things) and I think it will work out well, at least for next year. The only thing that scares me a little is living by myself, but having talked to lots of people about it, the way I figure is that I spend so much time with other people (okay, bar the time alone in a practice room) and working in collaboration with them that the space by myself I think will be good to have - to recharge as an introvert. I am scared, and also looking forward to checking out the area, learning the new locality, finding new places to hang out and visit, going to a different market and the like.
And obviously associated with moving out of Queen's is the end of my job. I've had the role of Director of Music for two years and honestly, it looks pretty good on paper for a first job out of university. When I first took the role, people sounded impressed, but I honestly think that it has sounded better than it actually entails. Hopefully nothing I write will incriminate me here, but in (fairly) brief, I have found it difficult this year to run a concert series with what felt like little administrative help (from organising all the little details of each concert, to being on the door at concerts other than my own, where I had to call in favours from friends, to making sure that the room was clean and set up, often I would do the set-up myself). I've also found living at College this year quite difficult; I think I have found it quite difficult in previous years, but other factors have compelled me to stay. This year I was living facing inwards to the quadrangle, and endured quite a lot of noise - from the gym that would be in use and pumping out awful doof-doof for hours each night, to drunken shenanigans. Try to combine that with a rigorous schedule which would have hopefully seen me sleep between the hours of 11pm and 6.30pm in a regimented way (occasionally those times get skewed, in the direction of less sleep) and College works out to be a terrible place for such discipline. For the frustrations of running a concert series pretty much single-handedly, it has been quite a success, if I may say so myself. The Seraphim Trio concert drew a capacity crowd (with some help from the Development Office). The Beethoven concert I played with E was a great opportunity to play ANAM repertoire in a different setting, to prepare for other recitals, and to test what it'd feel like to play three big Beethoven sonatas back to back (hint: I didn't collapse but was very exhausted...)
Alas, the job is complete and I am hoping the girl that rang me and asked me questions for half an hour does get the job, and that I also have not misrepresented my experience - all the good, bad and ugly of it.
Schools concerts with Richard Gill
One of the annual projects at ANAM is community engagement. These are usually concerts presented to children at local primary schools. After Breath Week earlier in the year, where the ANAM choir was led by Richard Gill, I knew that I had to get myself into the project he was leading later in the year. I learned that if you ask and express interest with your own initiative, sometimes people are willing to consider you for things that they wouldn't have otherwise. So, I laneded myself in this particularly Community Engagement project. We had an introductory session where we talked about why it's important to teach music, what ways we can do it, and things like that. Just as a preface (which is obviously late..!), Richard Gill is a conductor and extraordinary music educator who has spend years tirelessly advocating for music education in schools. He is an inspiring man with so much energy and passion. We were to do two days (only in the morning) at Albert Park Primary School. There was some confusion about how it was all going to run (again cutting long story short) so it was decided that Richard would lead the sessions on the first day and we would see how we went and we could lead it on the second day. We had prepared some repertoire to introduce the children to music and to listening for certain things. Watching Richard interact with the children, and the questions that he asked and they way that he got them to listen and answer was incredible. One of his blanket rules is to demand that they listen, that the music demands their attention, and to expect that children will be intelligent and ask and answer questions the prove this. We did not feel as if we were going to do a job half as good as him the next day...! But we did get there. We probably weren't quite as enthusiastic, or quite as comfortable, but we still managed to do it. It was also pretty cool to see how the children reacted - to spot the ones who obviously had some musical training, the ones who were actively listening, the ones who moved to the music and things like that.
Then it started getting really busy (if it hadn't already been!). A few more projects were added to the pile: the Smalley horn trio (Australian Voices concert), chamber competition (two ensembles), Beethoven in Hobart. The Smalley horn trio is hard. Really cool, and really hard. We started work on it at least a month in advance because we knew it was going to be a challenge. The programme was curated by Ian Munro, the Australian pianist, who made two visits to ANAM in two weeks. I had a couple of lessons with him, which were great. So much to think about, so many ideas! He apologised that I had been allocated the trio, which is apparently far harder than the quintet he was playing. Oh well. I learned lots, worked my butt off for it, and it was an enjoyable experience. In the late projects of the year, I had been in groups that I had not really played with very much, or at all throughout the year. I found that lots of these were actually great collaborations, and am sad that we didn't discover these much earlier in the year to foster these musical relationships (and friendships to boot!). It's a bit of a pity as some of these people are leaving ANAM after this year! :(
My two ensembles somehow found ourselves in the Chamber Competition Final (of five ensembles); the final was about two weeks after the first round - uh-oh! We quickly have to learn the rest of the piece!!! Let me tell you, trying to put together a quartet and sextet with insanely busy people with other projects and classes and commitments is really difficult. The cellist in both of these groups was also the same guy, so as we tried to fit in as many rehearsals as possible to give us the winning edge, I found myself running from rehearsal to rehearsal, often spending five hours before lunch with the same person. Talk about intense! Also switching from composers and styles so quickly proves to be a challenging brain game as my role in each ensemble changes ever so slightly. However busy this period was, it was a very steep learning curve on how to keep on top of things, to manage a bundle of demanding programmes at one time, to be efficient at doing stuff. I wouldn't ask for the workload for more than three or so weeks though - it's physically and mentally draining. So many kind and well-meaning friends would express their concern at my workload only to be met with my reply of, "Well, it's gotta be done!". Sorry for anything that may have come across as rude or unappreciative. The actual Chamber Competition Final was an exciting night. Guaranteed to have a high standard of playing (this is the final, right?!) and to be an evening of great variety and great indecisiveness, I think this night is one of the hightlights of the whole year. Apart from the music and extensive preparation, there is the ever-present question of what we were going to wear. For a big night, we demanded big dresses....! D6 probably would have won an audience prize of best-dressed, as our clarinettist was playing with MSO earlier that night, where the dress code is tails and white tie. To make life much easier for him (not sure how?!), the male half of our sextet donned tails and white tie (they looked so dapper!) and the girls found extravagant dresses to match. In my case, this was the rare pulling-out of the year twelve ball dress, which doesn't fit quite as well, but makes a significant statement. We walked to out whistles and great laughter, as we played the cheesiest piece of 'serious music'. There were moments in the piece where I just felt we let go and let the music happen - it is such an incredible experience to be able to do this: to know your part so well, and to trust the other musicians so much. The talented quartet who played the Ligeti quartet won the competition, which was really exciting! I think something that has really struck me about ANAM this year is how supportive everybody is about everybody else; I feel that there hasn't been that streak of competitiveness that is associated with most high-level training, or even at universities and conservatoriums. There were certificates handed out to students who were finishing their time at ANAM, as well as a few more awards - the recipients were indeed worthy! A fine celebration at the pub followed an incredibly long day. What a relief for it to be over, but also a little sad, as I came to love the people I was playing with, enjoying spending such intense amounts of time with them, and working so decidedly towards something.
But, they say no rest for the wicked! The next morning, I was off to Hobart for another ANAM project. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra was having a Beethoven cycle, performing all of the symphonies across a period of a few weeks. As part of the festival, we (ANAM) were to present a total of four free lunchtime concerts of Beethoven's solo and chamber works. Each day featured one of the pianists and their associated artist/s. I was playing the second and the fourth concerts (one week apart - I flew down twice): Piano Sonata No. 17 in d minor 'Tempest' Op. 31 No. 2, the 7th violin sonata in c minor Op. 30 No. 2, the 5th cello sonata Op. 102 No. 2 and the 'Ghost' Trio Op. 70 No. 1 (heck, I hope all those opus numbers are correct!). Lots of Beethoven to round off my ANAM year - a tiny bit like how I opened it, and worked through it...
We were put up in the Old Woolstore Apartment Hotel, which is quite a nice hotel at one end of the CBD, and right across the road from the ABC/TSO studios. How handy! We were given a studio apartment EACH (Seriously, I'm a student. I sort of was expecting, and totally would have been fine, to share, but no!). I walked in to a large room and thought, "Is this all for ME?!?!" I was thankful to be staying for two nights! We wandered down to Salamanca for a quick lunch, then had a bit of rehearsal/practice time in the afternoon. We went again to Salamanca to Cargo's for dinner; it was a warm balmy night and so there were quite a few people out. Pizzas there are excellent, and there is much choice. We finished up with gelate in excellent delectable flavours. The next morning, I went to meet S for breakfast. She was in Hobart for the AISOI programme, which was cool, because we had actually (re-)met two years prior at the same programme when we were next-door neighbours at the student apartments. We struck up a friendship, played in a trio together the following year, and have since become great friends. It was lovely to see S again after a while. She is really good at keeping in touch, even though we don't see each other as regularly as we used to (maybe two times a week for rehearsals). I then wandered off after breakfast (and buying a delicious-looking lamington) to the Hobart Town Hall to have a brief rehearsal at the venue where I'd be performing the next day.
It is a lovely room, quite sizeable. The room is mostly light blue, with great decoration and detail. The stage is raked, which makes it quite trippy, considering that there is also a very lovely Steinway 9-foot piano on stage. I am one of those people that like things to be parallel and perpendicular and straight and this caused a bit of disconcern. However, it is a beautiful instrument to play. The Town Hall had also been filled with seating, about 300 or so chairs. When I first walked in, my immediate thought was, "We're never going to fill it! So many chairs!", probably based on the audience size that come to the lunchtime concerts at South Melbourne. However, when I arrived at about 12.45pm later to watch the first concert, the hall was already about half full, and taking a seat that I thought was going to be quite near the back (about three-quarters the way down), people kept streaming in. The first concert went really well, and it was delightful to hear such joyful Beethoven's music can be. A celebratory drink and lunch followed the concert before another rehearsal with K for our concert the next day. We went to Fish Frenzy that night for dinner, which was great - K and I had vowed to eat seafood while in Tasmania (because it is so good, and Tasmania is known to have great seafood and produce). The Fish Frenzy on the menu was a large portion of fish, calamari and scallops, accompanied by chips. What a feast! We rolled home after a good feed in preparation for our concert the next day. It went pretty well; the audience was bigger than the previous day (apparently the audience size kept growing. By the last concert, which I played in the following week, the hall was full and there were people sitting in the little seats down the sides in the bays.) However, all I could think while playing was, "Oh no, that's going on record!" The concerts were recorded by the ABC in Hobart and will be aired in the period between Christmas and New Year. I am hoping that they also recorded some of my rehearsal and can edit!! A celebratory lunch and drink again and then it was to the airport to fly back to Melbourne. A delay prolonged our trip home after a really long day, but it was nice to know that we would be coming back to Hobart within the week!
With only one concert left, I was pretty excited. There have been very few times this year where I have only had to work on one programme - usually my time must be divided between practicing my own repertoire, chamber repertoire, having rehearsals for several groups and having lessons and tutorials on various things. With only one cello sonata and trio to go, my workload was very well set out. The sonata I have played a bit this year, and it's nice to have played it now three times in the year, also having it be a re-visit from several years ago. The trio I also learnt last year, but obviously playing it with different people makes it a different experience. However, familiarity is always nice. My second visit to Hobart was again enjoyable, perhaps a little more so as my travelling companions were people I knew much better. The member of faculty was also excited about dining with us, and really enjoyed the experience of relaxing, eating and drinking and listening to music! Incidentally, also staying at the same hotel that week was the Australian test cricket team. I tried not to stare in two days as various assumably famous people wandered in and out! We grabbed lunch on the pier, at the old Jam Factory. We also finished up with ice-cream on the perfectly beautiful sunny day, and then headed off to rehearse. A productive rehearsal later (albeit with some weird balance issues because the studio we were in was not ideal, nor did it replicate the hall in any way) we went back to the hotel to rest and do whatever. I watched TV for about two hours. Amazing.
We then wandered down to Salamanca to eat dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant which was very busy, but totally worth the wait. H ordered drinks and entrees, which is always a wise idea because he knows his food and drink. Excellent choices! The majority of our table enjoyed the spaghetti marinara, with excellent seafood (this is half the reason to go to Hobart - to enjoy the food!!). A fine evening to remember.
Our concert the next day went well. As I mentioned before, the hall was packed. A couple of friends unfortunately couldn't make it, but others did, so it was lovely to see some familiar faces in te very large audience. We played quite well, even though again, some part of my brain was focussed on the fact that ABC was recording our concert. Lunch and drinks at Fish Frenzy (again) by the pier - champagne at 3 o'clock in the afternoon - to mark our final ANAM performance for 2011 was a perfect celebration. Such relief at the end of a busy year called for extreme happiness for the rest of the day (spotted with tiredness!) and a well-earned sleep in the next day. What an adventure.
To follow in the next post: final musings and reflections on the year....
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