Audition results... and other news

I got the results from my audition for Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" at last! (I auditioned December 10th in San Francisco before I left for home). Here is the email they sent me: 

Dear Jacquelyn:

I'm sorry to tell you that we will not be offering you a role in the upcoming productions of  "Trial By Jury" and "Engaged". We saw an exceptional group of incredibly talented people at the auditions, which has made the decision-making very difficult. Unfortunately there are just not enough roles to go around!

Thank you so much for auditioning. We do hope to see you back to audition for other Lamplighters shows soon!  

With very best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Vardigans

General Manager

Lamplighters Music Theatre

So that won't be happening this spring.  That makes me a little sad, but it is probably actually a good thing because maybe it would have made my schedule too busy this semester. 

I got an email from David Korevaar (a concert pianist and teacher) at the University of Colorado in Boulder this week as well, informing me that they would like me to re-audition in January or February for scholarships for their program this coming year. CU Boulder was the first school I auditioned for last January. The audition went very well and I liked the school a lot, so I was seriously considering going there until I got offered the scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory.   Since the Professional Studies Diploma at the San Francisco Conservatory is only one year long, however, I decided to defer my enrollment at the University of Colorado until next fall so that I could plan on going straight there after my year at SFCM.  

Now because of the my CU scholarship audition coming up, I have a lot of music to practice and and prepare by February 12th  (the date I chose for my audition). So, like I said, it is probably for the best that I didn't get into "Trial by Jury".... 

Of course I still would have loved to have been in it!

Tonight my family opened presents for Christmas (we have a tradition of opening them on Christmas Eve).  I got some new shirts, a beeping remote-control key-finding keychain (because I am always losing my keys), and... a new portable hard drive from my Mom and Dad to go with my new laptop from Niclas!  That will be very handy for backing up all my important files.  I'm so excited to get to work again!

 Things have been so busy this week with my family. It has been a lot of fun, but I can't wait to start practicing all my new music and working on recording!  I might practice a little bit tomorrow even though it's Christmas.

Tomorrow we get to talk to my brother Joseph on the telephone for the first time since he left on his mission in September.  It will be so nice to hear his voice!  He will call us on our home phone at 2:00 in the afternoon.   All of the family will be here to talk to him... I'm excited about that!

All my family has gone to bed so I'm going to go and get a little sleep now too...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

A Wonderful Christmas Present

I have to tell you an amazing story that happened to me.  Those of you who have been reading my blog may remember that I wrote a few weeks ago about how my laptop has not been functioning since this summer... The hard drive crashed and everything on it got deleted, and the computer was totally unusable because of it.  It was driving me crazy not to have my laptop at school but I was waiting until I could get a little more money to be able to afford a new hard drive to fix it...

Well, soon after I wrote that blog post,  I received an email from a very nice person who read about my problem on my blog offered to pay to have the hard drive fixed for me. His name is Niclas and he left a couple of comments on my blog before (and on Youtube as MrCapacitors).  I wrote back and said that I would be very happy to have it fixed - but that it would probably cost about $100.   He wrote back and said that was fine - and before I had the chance to write back he wrote again, saying that if my laptop is old perhaps it would be better for me just to get a new laptop, and then offered to pay for a completely new laptop for me.

It seemed almost too good to be true... I didn't want to get my hopes up too much in case it actually didn't happen...  but this generous person actually went right away and found a computer that would be good for my needs (especially for the sound and video editing that I do), and transferred the money to my paypal account.  So I ordered a wonderful new HP laptop from Amazon the night before last... And it came with free one-day shipping for Christmas so it got here today! I am writing this blog post on it right now!  I am sooooo happy about it - what a wonderful surprise Christmas present. 

Tonight is the first time in months that I can upload pictures straight from my camera again (I could only send pictures from my cell phone before)!  And here is a picture of my new computer:

Pretty, yes?  It even has a fingerprint scanner!!!

Soon I will start putting some more music online... I'm so excited! 

Merry Merry Christmas!  And thank you so much to Niclas who just made my life much easier...

:-)

Down by Fisherman's Wharf - and Outside the Conservatory Window

There was a huge Christmas tree down by the wharf when I went there last week!  You really can't see how gigantic it is in this picture... but each of those Christmas ornaments were almost the size of a soccer ball.






I love this picture I got of the boats on the water with the clouds:










And here was the view from my practice room window last night while the sun was setting:






This was from the window above the stairway: 

Ho finito!

Oh my goodness I have had so much going on and I have lots of good news to write about but right now I don't have time so I will just write a little...

This morning I finished my last final for the semester - it was my oral exam for Italian class.  I think I did well!  I am so happy because my Italian teacher  is really amazing - his name is Brian Neilson. I am learning so fast in his class. 

Tonight is my audition for the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, "Trial by Jury".  I am a bit nervous for that because I just started learning the excerpt that I will be singing last night, and it is not very well-memorized yet. Fortunately it is only two pages long... I am just going to work on it most of the day today, until I have to go to the audition.

And tomorrow I have another audition with a small opera company (the San Francisco Parlor Opera) for Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman". I will be audition with the "Doll Song" for that, and a couple other pieces if they ask for them.

Tomorrow our chamber music coach, Yoshi, is taking my quintet out for dinner! That will be fun. It will be right before my opera audition though, so I am a little nervous about getting there in time. My group said we will choose a place for dinner that is very nearby.

That's all for now... I have to go practice. 

Last week of the semester

First of all as an update - The concert on Thursday went really well!  I was so relieved when after the first movement finished, a man in the audience yelled out, "WOW!" and the whole audience started clapping, even though they knew it wasn't the end yet.  After the whole piece was finished (it's about 43 mins long), we got a standing ovation - so I know the audience liked it.  That makes me very happy.

 Now it's the last week of class... I have a final project due in Continuo class - which is a sonata by Handel for Oboe and continuo.  I will have to learn it and rehearse it on my own with the oboist, and then perform it in class Thursday for the final.

I also have two finals this week for Italian, because I am taking both the beginning and intermediate classes simultaneously this year.

I'm so excited because next semester I will be taking a class in jazz improvisation!   That is something I have been wanting to learn how to do for a long time.

And on Friday I have a singing audition for a San Francisco theater company called, "Lamplighters", which specializes in Gilbert and Sullivan operas.   I have to learn the excerpts this week for that, as well.

So, this week is very busy... but when it's over the semester will be over!! And then I will have a nice break at home in Montana.

I'd better go get practicing....

Concert prep...

Tomorrow is the big day!  I will be playing the Dvorak Piano Quintet in A Major on the second half of the SFCM Chamber Music Concert at 4 o'clock! 

I was so nervous today but we played it through in my teacher's studio class and it went pretty well.  Tomorrow I am going to skip my Italian class so that I have time to take it easy, eat lunch, get dressed, and warm up before-hand. 

So, send me good thoughts around 5:00 pm California time!  

Sausalito

Last week my friend Joe drove me over to the Golden Gate Bridge to a beautiful little town right by the water called Sausalito.



 

The view from the shore of Sausalito:



An adorable little dress shop in Sausalito where I bought a very beautiful concert dress for only nine dollars (it needs a new zipper): 


 

More shoreside views:


Joe was wondering why I was taking pictures of the seagulls... but I thought it was pretty sitting there.

improvisation

(Dec. 22 2010 update: read a follow-up to this post here!)

My improvisation skills are gradually getting better and better on the piano.  It is actually starting to become enjoyable for me to 'make something up'...where not very long ago it used to be pure torture.  Last night I got into it and was making stuff up and improvising until one in the morning.   Most of what I do is not sounding 'good'...but I think it will be in not tooooo much longer.  I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!   Then I am going to sing and play and play and sing and write and... yes, it will be fun!   I've been working on some songs of my own that I want to record, as soon as I can afford to get my laptop fixed.  Its hard-drive crashed this summer before I came to the conservatory, so right now I can only use the conservatory computers, which don't allow me to upload anything.   :-S  But all good things to those who wait, right?     !!!!!!

Two stories of Unwanted Roommates

I was sitting on my bed the other night, and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something move beside my backpack sitting on the floor. I looked and saw nothing, but I heard a little rustle as if something had just run from my view.  I suspected it had been a mouse.  I walked around see if it was hiding somewhere, but I couldn't find anything.

I wasn't sure if I had actually seen anything or if I had just been imagining, but just to be certain I thought I would do a test.  I left 10 almonds on the floor, gathered up all my sheets and blankets away from the edges of the bed (I didn't want any creatures to be able to climb up them), and went to sleep.  In the morning I checked the almonds and there were only nine.  I wondered if I had counted correctly the night before...It seemed strange to me that a hungry animal would only bother taking one almond.  However just to be safe I went and told the man (his name is Bob) at the desk downstairs that I thought maybe I had seen a mouse - he didn't act at all surprised, and told me he would make a note of my room for the pest control.  Then I talked to a boy who lives across the hall from me (a composer named Sunny), and told him I thought I had seen a mouse in my room.  "Oh yeah!" he said. "You have to stick socks in the holes in the walls so they can't get in."   I laughed, "Are you serious?"  "Yeah," he said, and he showed me the mouse entrance into his room at the base of the floor... So I went back to my room and I noticed a gap between my sink and the wall where I thought maybe a mouse could go in or out, so I took out some duct tape and taped over the space.

Later that night I was sitting on my bed again reading, and in my peripheral vision I saw something moving across the room. I looked up and a mouse jumped and tried to hide behind my trash bag, but he knew I had seen him so he jumped out again and darted toward me and past me so fast that I couldn't see where it went.  I looked around the room and picked up a few things I'd left on the floor, and looked around again to see if I could find any other holes. I thought maybe I had actually trapped the mouse in my room, taping up his doorway by the sink the night before.  I decided the only thing I could do was lie down and rest, and see if I heard anything.  I wasn't laying there very long when I heard a rattling coming from near my head. I sat up quickly and turned on the light, but once again saw nothing. I have a bunch of cords plugged in right next to my bed's headboard (for my phone, reading lamp, camera charger, etc.), that I thought maybe the mouse had been climbing up or chewing on. I gathered them all up and unplugged a few to get them as far away from the floor as possible.  As I was doing this (I was making quite a bit of noise), the mouse darted out from behind my bed and into my closet.  So I followed him to the closet and started moving my stuff around to get him to come out again. He darted out again, and this time ran behind the mini fridge.  So I went and pulled out the mini fridge and found a hole in the wall, where he must have gone into.  Once again I got out my duct tape and taped up the hole. I felt a little sorry for the guy though and stuck a couple of almonds in the hole before I closed it up.

Later that night I had a nightmare that a giant mangy rat was crawling on me and trying to sleep on my bed with me. In my dream I eventually got him pinned under my head as I was laying there, but when I woke up I was very relieved to realize that the only thing under my head was my pillow.

I haven't heard or seen anything since I taped over the hole... However last night I decided to put one almond on the floor across the room from me. And I left a few almonds on my table and a few on top of my refrigerator.   When I woke up this morning, the almond on the floor was gone, but the almonds on the table and fridge were all still there.  So I think the mouse is still getting in somewhere (I checked the holes I taped over and they are still covered). However I am glad to see that the mouse apparently isn't currently able to climb my furniture.

I have dealt with rats before (big nasty mean ones) in an apartment I lived in in Texas when I was going to school there, and this tiny mouse is considerably less alarming.  The rats in Texas could climb up high, and they made a lot of noise.  For quite a while I actually had thought my apartment was haunted, because every time I turned the lights off I would start hearing noises -  rattling and rustling and falling things - and sometimes my CD player (which was on the floor) would randomly start playing on its own.  However one day I was sitting there playing my electric keyboard and I saw something on the floor beside me, and it was a big fat rat looking straight at me.  "Ooooh," I said.  "So it's you!" and then I chased him into my bedroom and caught him under a laundry basket.  I tell you what - he was MAD. He was squeaking and squawking and baring his teeth and trying to chew (very rapidly), through the rungs of the laundry basket.  I had to keep hitting his nose with a shoe to keep him from being able to chew through it.  I called my friend Chris who came over right away. We slid a big piece of cardboard under the laundry basket and carried the whole parcel to the car, where I actually held it on my lap and continued bopping the rat's nose every two seconds as he tried to escape from his makeshift cage.  We drove to a field far away next to a highway, and let the rat go there.

As soon as I came home though, I heard squeaking and crying coming from behind my sink!!   I surmised that I had caught the mother rat who had a nest somewhere in the wall behind my kitchen sink...   I went and bought some rat poison and set it out places.  I couldn't stand to sleep in my apartment that night and stayed with a friend (even though I had already been staying there for weeks with the rats - just unaware!). A few days later I encountered a baby rat...which I also caught under a laundry basket this time with my friend Russel's help, and then we also took it out to the countryside.  Fortunately, I was leaving for Thanksgiving vacation to go back to Montana very shortly, so I didn't have to stay there more than a day or two after that. When I came back the rat poison was all eaten,  and I didn't have any problems with rats (or hauntings) after that.

So those are my two stories of "The Unwanted Roommates".

(Story #1 to be continued....)

At the Palace/Art museum for an Organ Concert

Last week on Sunday I tried to go to an organ concert of a lady I met at a funeral I sang for. Some people from my church took me there. 
We ended up missing the concert (we weren't sure where it was and found it right as it was finishing), but we saw some very beautiful scenery in the meanwhile.


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Chamber Music Class

Every week on Thursday I go to Chamber Music Class in the concert hall. All of the different chamber music groups take turns performing the different chamber music works they are working on, and they (or we) receive comments from the teachers and students. We all sit on stage for the class.  The girl sitting next to me is my friend Hannah, a wonderful violist.

Stunning San Francisco - after church at Ocean Beach Sunday

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Success!

Yaaaay!  I just sang at a concert tonight for the Baroque Ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory. It went really well - I sang 23 verses of the ballad of "Barbara Allen" acapella!   As soon as the school gets the recording in the library maybe I can post it up here for you to hear it.   I also sang one other song, called "If my Complaints Could Passions Move" by John Dowland.  I'm so happy and relieved that it all went well tonight.  I got lots of positive feedback from people - a few people told me that "Barbara Allen" made them cry.  So, happy day! :-)

Almond Brain

The night before last as I was leaving the school after a long day of classes and practicing, I began chatting with a man who works the night shift for security at the front desk of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music - He is very nice (his name is Jim), and he was asking me about my goals in music.  I don't know what nationality he is but I think he might be from India...  He asked me what I think of my musical abilities and I kind of laughed and said, "I dunno."  
"No!" he responded. "You must say: 'I am the best!' You must always say this."
I sort of chuckled again, "Okay."  He continued,
"Why not? Why shouldn't you be the best?  Why should anybody else be better than you? We are all made the same way, right?  Does somebody else have golden fingers? Or golden eyes? What makes anybody better?"
"Well sometimes they are smarter," I said.
"But it is still the same mind!" he said. "Other people's brains are no bigger than yours. Perhaps they are even smaller. We can use them the same. You can be the best.  What matters is time - you have to work hard. You can choose to go hang out at clubs, or you can say, 'No, I have a goal, and I need to work toward it'"  He proceeded to tell me that he believes that in ten years my name will be everywhere (and then he asked my name) - I laughed again and said, "How do you know?"  He said, "Because I see you work very hard. You are always here working. You will make it, but you have to have the goal, and you have to believe it."
"Alright, I do," I said.
Then he asked me,
"What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a musician? Are you a good performer?"
"Yes, I think I am a very good performer," I said.
"This is very important," he said, "And a very difficult thing. Many people cannot even speak to an audience, they are so frightened."
"Yes," I said. "But I feel my weakness is in my ability to learn music quickly enough, and to memorize it solidly...It seems like I always have some little slips in performances, and it causes me trouble in competitions."

"Ah!!" he said, "Then I tell you what you must do.  Go to Trader Joe's, and buy yourself a big bag of almonds.  Every night, put fifteen of them in water, and soak them overnight.  In the morning, take the skins off the almonds with your fingers, and eat them. Do this before you eat anything else. And if they taste too bitter, you can dip them in sugar."
"Why take the skins off?" I said.
"Because the skins have a different effect. In one month you will see the results, I promise you.  You will see your memory will become very fast, and you will have a lot of energy and feel very good. Try it for one month. You will see."
"Okay" I said. "I will."
He continued, "Back home we put the almonds outside overnight to get the dew on them, and that has a different effect... But you can also just do it in the kitchen."

So yesterday I went to Trader Joe's, got a big bag of raw almonds for 4.95 (I can't believe how cheap almonds are in California! :-) and followed his directions.  This morning I ate my first dose.  The soaked almonds actually tasted a lot better to me than regular almonds, they get a little softer and taste sweeter and fresher.  I was a little worried about the process of 'skinning' them, but the skins actually come off really easily when you just squeeze them. I think I could see that the ends of the almonds were actually just beginning to sprout... I could grow an almond tree!

Anyway, I am going to continue with the almond experiment (along with as much practicing as I can bear...) and I will let you know how it goes.  :-)

poetry blogs

By-the-way...

I like to write poetry a lot so I decided to start another blog devoted to that, instead of posting it here all the time (because that just always feels weird to me so I don't end up posting anything). Then, after making one new blog, I decided to start another one to devote to my more religious poems/ideas/stories...so now all of the sudden I have three blogs!  Anyway, if you want to check them out there are links to the right! Or click below:

www.jacquelynwrites.blogspot.com

 www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com

Beautiful Montana

I was back in Montana a few weeks ago for my little brother Joseph's missionary farewell.  He left to go on a 2-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We got family photos taken up on the Rims of Billings (the Rims are cliffs that run all along and through the city).  It is a very beautiful place. When I get the family photos I will post some!

Temple Hill Orchestra Concert

Last weekend I went and heard the Temple Hill Orchestra (a volunteer orchestra conducted by John Pew) perform at the Interstake Cultural Center next to the Oakland Temple.  I introduced myself to the conductor...Maybe I'll get to play/sing a concert with them in the future. That would be fun!

Organ concert...Organ lessons

Last Sunday I sang at a funeral in San Mateo. It went very well. Afterwards I stayed to hear a concert give by two young organ prodigies (a thirteen and fourteen year old boy and girl).  They were playing works like Widor's organ toccata, Franck's Toccata and Fugue with Variations, and Bach's organ Toccata.  I am going to start taking organ lessons from their teacher when I get a little more money next semester! Her name is Angela Kraft Cross. I'm so excited about that.

Some Beautiful Lladro

My mom has a few small pieces of Lladro figurines at home in a china cabinet:  These ones I saw in this window at Union Square were huge!  It's hard to tell in the picture... But I'm guessing this one would cost many thousands of dollars.

Union Square and the Wharf

My friend Joe (and international business major going to school in San Francisco) took me to see the wharf and Union Square one night a couple of weeks ago... It was so beautiful!

An afternoon at the beach

A couple of weeks ago I went to the beach with my friends Dhivya (a pianist) and Hannah (a violist).  Here's a picture: 

Continuo continued... and other things

I thought I'd give an update to my last post since I didn't write what ended up happening.

Last week when I played for Continuo it went much much better than the week before.  However - part of the reason that it seemed better was that nobody else practiced much, so in comparison I didn't look as bad as the time before! :-) However, I played again this week, and it was even better this time. I was still worse than the others, but at least I didn't feel like crying afterwards.  It was actually kind of fun because the piece that he gave us last time was a song by Charpentier, and since I am a singer as well, Mr. Jamason (our teacher), had me sing the vocal part while the others played the continuo.  When it got to be my turn, there was no one to sing while I played, so he told me to sing for myself.  I didn't do very well at that, but I really enjoyed it, anyway - it was kind of exhilarating.  I want to perform more concerts where I both sing and play - I think it would be so incredibly awesome if I could do a concert like that with an orchestra someday.

On Sunday I performed at an Interfaith Choral Concerto in San Mateo, where I both played the organ and sang a solo.  The organ made me really nervous because I am not comfortable yet with the foot-pedals, but it was fun none-the-less.  I got a call yesterday from the church where I performed, asking if I would be willing to sing for a funeral coming up next weekend. One of the people who attended the concert Sunday heard me sing and requested me.  I agreed to do it - (it will pay pretty well), and so I have to learn "Time to say Goodbye" for that (the one that Sarah Brightman and Celine Dion both sing). 

Tonight I am going to go with my friend, Hannah to see the San Francisco Opera perform "Figaro".  We got standing room tickets for only $10, but hopefully we will be able to find a place to sit down part way through because standing for three hours would be terrible.

Continuo Class

Oh my goodness I am taking a class this semester called "Continuo Playing", where we learn to improvise on figured bass, playing the harpsichord.  For those of you who don't know - figured bass is a music notation system that was very popular in the Baroque era. Basically the composer would write one note in the bass line and put numbers above it, which symbolize the type of chord you are supposed to play on top of that note.  Then you are supposed to improvise cool stuff on top of it, and make sure that all the chords you play lead smoothly to one another.   I am so bad at it!!!!!!!  Yesterday we had to accompany a violinist in front of the class on "la Folia" and mine was terrible!  Oh my goodness. It was so embarrassing.  I think I messed up fifty times.  It is so hard for me to learn to make stuff up instead of reading it off the page....    But that is why I am taking the class right?  I think my continuo teacher, Corey Jamason, could tell I was really embarrassed and discouraged so he told me (and the whole class) not to worry, that we are doing fine and are exactly where we should be right now, that we have only been playing continuo for one month, etc. etc.    It doesn't make it less embarrassing to make a fool of myself in a performance, however -- especially since the other girl that played in the class this week is REALLY good at it... and she didn't make any mistakes that interrupted the flow of the music... and she played right before me.  I seriously wanted to cry right after I played (but I held it together!).  I'm going to keep going with it though because improvising from figured bass is something that I want very badly to learn how to do.... So I'm willing to repeatedly humiliate myself in order to improve! 

Next week for class I am going to be both singing and playing -  I will sing our new piece while the other students accompany me with the continuo part, and then I will play the continuo part myself.   Mr. Jamason gave me the song to sing and I said, "I will be a lot more comfortable doing this!", and he said, "You are going to do both!"    The idea of both singing and playing at a single performance sounds really fun to me... but hopefully I will play better next week!  He said that this week's piece is easier than last week's...so I should be able to! 

I'm off to practice...

More than coincidence...

(If you are looking for my poem about life called "More than Coincidence" Click here)

Last week I had a lesson with my piano teacher Paul, and while we were working he kept making me sing the phrases to try to get me to have very clear musical intentions before I even touched the piano.  At the end of my lesson I said to him, "I should just sing my voice music for you that I have to sing for Baroque Ensemble because I'm so uncertain what to do with my phrasing in it!".  He asked me if I had my music there, and I did, so he accompanied me on my song by John Dowland: "If My Complaints Could Passions Move".  His next student was also in the room for her lesson after mine, and she listened to me.  I sang the song and he accompanied me on it, and as soon as I finished singing he said, "Well, you're hired!   We are playing a piece for a faculty recital in November that is based on this song (and one other Dowland song), and I would like you to sing the songs on the concert right after we perform the piece."
       "Oh my goodness I would love that!"  I said.  I was really excited about it.  "Isn't that such a coincidence though, that I happen to be singing the song that the piece you are playing is based on?"
      He responded, "My dear, life is full of coincidences."

       Later I was as I was lying in bed thinking about it I began to realize even more what an exceptional chance of fate that was --  When I stopped to consider the odds that: 1) Of all the possible concert programs that the Baroque ensemble director could have chosen for this semester for the singers, he chose a recital of Dowland and Campion songs; 2) of all the pieces that my teacher could have chosen for his recital this semester he chose a piece based on a Dowland song; 3) Of all the songs by Dowland and Campion that the Baroque ensemble director had to choose from, he chose that song to be on the concert; and 4) of all the singers that he could have chosen to sing that song, he chose me.  What are the odds of all those things coinciding to create such coincidence?  One in a million? A billion? Even the fact that I am here in this place at this time this semester of this year when all these things are happening......     I don't know - but it's something tremendous... And it leads me to think that it must not really be merely coincidence bringing such opportunities to me, but providence...

So,
I'm going to be singing on a faculty recital!!!!!

:-D

Chamber music!

Yesterday I attended my first chamber music class - and I got assigned to a group - a piano quintet (two violinists, a violist, a cellist, and me!).   I have been hoping to be able to play the Dvorak quintet in A major for quite some time, but I have never had a group to play it with.  After our group was assigned, we talked with each other about repertoire  and I was very happy to find out that everybody in the group (not just me!) wanted to play the Dvorak.  It will be fun - but now I am a little stressed because they also informed us in class that my group will be playing on the very first master class of the semester, for Gilbert Kalish on September 28th.  That means we have to learn the piece FAST.

Here is the bio of Yoshi, our group's chamber music coach: http://www.sfcm.edu/faculty/nagai.aspx 
(He also has a website at yoshinagai.com).  He seems like he will be fun to work with. 

Poem: A new song

Can you sing a better song?
One that tells me who you are?
One that tells of things
That no one's ever heard?
I want to hear a newer song
One that hasn't ever played
One that never could be made
Except right now.

House concert and Dinner

On Wednesday my teacher gave a recital at his house with his grandson (a talented young cellist). I don't have a car so five of the students of Paul car-pooled with one of the students who does. About 25 people went to the recital and there was an amazing dinner afterward that Paul's wife made.    The recital room: my teacher and his grandson

The house

My teacher has a really beautiful house ... these were the steps down to the deck where we ate  dinner and talked most of the evening.