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...