Leaving on a jet plane

In about thirty-six hours I will be boarding a flight to go to San Francisco... I'm so excited!  I almost can't believe it's already been six months since I was there... and then on the other hand, it seems like it's been a year already. 

I have two lessons scheduled with Paul, for Thursday and Saturday.  Saturday evening will be Hannah's concert, and then I think we are all going to go out for dinner.  That will be fun!    Yoshi, my chamber music coach from my first semester, will come too.

I'm so nervous to play for Paul again!  It has been quite a while since I have had a lesson with anybody, or performed my concerto for anyone... but that's why this is good for me, right?

I asked my friend, Anna if she could listen to me play through the concerto tomorrow before I leave for SF the next day... at least then I can be a little nervous again, and see if and where I have trouble.


I've been working on a number of new original songs recently, which I am excited about.  I feel like my improvisation on the piano needs to get a little better before I can make a good recording of them though.  But all things come in time, right?

Okay --  I'm going to go play through my concerto before I head to bed.

Goodnight!



 

Second Scarlatti

Here is the next Scarlatti video from my recital... a slow one in B minor.  So beautiful!!!  I love Scarlatti.

       
       Just a few minutes ago I pressed the "submit" button on my application for the voice program at SFCM!!  I'm so excited.   Now I have a couple more applications to do.  I'm pretty sure that I want to go to San Francisco but I need to give myself some options.  So I think I may apply to the Boston and New England conservatories.  One never knows what will or won't work out...

       In only a week I will leave for my short trip to SF...    I have a lot to do before then!   Number one, practice!   I haven't been doing enough of that lately and I really do not want to embarrass myself when I play for Paul...

       The weather has been so beautiful here lately... even if a bit cold.   About three weeks ago, I woke up to go to ballet class, and there was the most beautiful soft, fluffy snow falling everywhere around.  I put on my sandals to go outside (I hadn't bothered even a couple of weeks ago to find my winter shoes yet!).   The sky was clear in the morning air and the sun was rising so everything was a little sparkly.  It was so beautiful and relatively warm (for it being snowy!), that I just stood out there for several minutes in my sandals as the snow fell around me.   Then I got in the car and left for ballet, and didn't even bother changing my shoes.   I was certain the snow would quickly melt under the rising sun... but much to my surprise, I came out of ballet only one hour later to find my car buried in three or more inches of snow!    So my feet turned into snowballs walking through it in my sandals.   Still it was so beautiful I really didn't mind. . .

        Time to get some sleep.    Goodnight!

         

Scarlatti!

I'm finally getting around to posting a couple of Scarlatti sonatas that I played in my recital this spring.  Here is the first one up:

And another aria

And here is another!  This is the "Bell Song" from the opera Lakme by Delibes.

New Aria

New video up - I was working on videos ALL day and night last night because I had a prescreening recording due today for SFCM.  This is me singing the "Willow Song" from the Ballad of Baby Doe, by Douglas Moore.  It's from the recital I gave two weeks ago to help prepare me for the Met Auditions. . .

Plans in the making

I don't remember if I wrote about this before, but just to fill you in to the plans I have been busy making for next year. . . .    In September and October I was very occupied working on my application for a Fulbright scholarship/grant to study abroad in Italy next year.  They will let me know in January if I am selected as a final candidate.   

But, since I don't know what the outcome of that will be, I am also planning to apply to a couple of different Master's programs now, in voice!   I called my teacher, Jane Randolph from the San Francisco Conservatory today, and talked to her about the possibility, and she seemed positive about the idea of me coming.  So I will definitely make an application to SFCM, and then a couple of other places I haven't decided yet (but I am hoping for SFCM...and/or Italy...!).  

And today I bought a plane ticket to go back to San Francisco for a few days in early December.  My friend Hannah Nicholas won the lower string concerto competition at the conservatory last spring, right after I won the piano concerto competition (both of us from Paul Hersh's studio!  - Paul, by the way, teaches both piano and viola at the conservatory.).   So I will go hear her play her concert on December 3rd.     While I'm there I will have a couple of lessons with Paul on my concerto and a couple of lessons with Jane on my Met audition program.   I'm excited - it will be nice to go on a trip and get back to the big city for a while (and out of the December weather in Montana!  :-).   

I've been working on getting a couple of other videos posted on youtube but for some reason when I put them through my software right now the sound doesn't come up matching with the video, so I have to work on that some more....

I have to get up early tomorrow to play the organ at church!   Goodnight...