Airport troubles

December has certainly flown by, my goodness. And soon it will be 2013. I can't quite believe it! This semester has been very intense, both academically and musically. And I'm afraid next semester is going to be even worse, looking at my course schedule. Do you know when I am done with all of this I will have a degree in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music? I had a bit of trouble getting home for Christmas. I have started flying on a new airline that created a straight flight between my home in Montana and San Francisco, California. It's really nice because it also is really cheap. However my flight this Christmas turned out to be a bit of a nightmare... I was supposed to leave at 1:00 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, but a pilot got sick in the morning and they decided to give the pilot for our flight to an earlier flight, but then they couldn't find a replacement for our plane so the flight was delayed. At about 5:30 in the evening they announced that a pilot was on his way, but that it would take him an hour and 50 minutes before his train arrived at the airport. We ended up sitting in the airport until 7, however once the pilot had arrived, they realized that the flight crew had to leave because their shift had run out. And of course they didn't have a crew to replace them, either. So at about 7 in the evening they cancelled the flight, after making us sit in the airport and wait all day. Lots of little kids started crying, probably worried about missing Santa in the morning! And the airline actually brought in the sheriff and several policemen before they announced the flight was cancelled, just in case anybody lashed out in anger at them. So we all stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport (after waiting in line for another 2 hours for a voucher from the airline). They told us our flight would leave at 2:15 in the afternoon the next day on Christmas. But then the next day when we got on the plane, there was ice on the wings (which, incidentally, had come from Montana, where it was zero degrees!). The Oakland airport didn't have much in the way of de-icing equipment, so we just had to sit in the airplane for two hours while the ice slowly melted off the wings in the rain. I suggested to one of the passengers next to me that perhaps we should go sit on the wings to help warm them up instead of wasting our time in the seats in the cabin. But eventually we did take off, and I arrived back home at about seven in the evening, just in time for Christmas dinner with all of my family.

It is sooo nice to be home!!!

New Song

I've been working on a new song for the last couple of days. The recording isn't perfect, but I couldn't decide between two different versions I made. Here they are:

Come again

Here is a new video from my most recent performance at the conservatory.  I'm hoping to re-record this some time with Tatiana, perhaps with a few other Dowland songs.

Vaudeville?!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while on my blog!  School has been keeping me soooo busy.  

I started a new wonderful thing last week...  Jazz lessons!   Yes, I am taking jazz lessons on Saturdays from now on, from a man named J.R. Bennett.    I'm excited about it - but I'm so bad at it right now.  I hear things I want to play in my head, but they don't come out in my fingers.   I hope I will be able to improve quickly.   I just wish so badly that I had perfect pitch!!   Maybe one day.

 I also got offered a job on Saturdays helping to teach little tiny kids gymnastics.  Isn't that funny?  I am hoping I will be able to trade the help I am giving for gymnastic lessons for myself.  That would be fun.

Aaaaand.... I have a crazy gig coming up, one that is unlike anything I have ever done before.  I am performing the piano (and maybe singing) in a Vaudeville show.   With dancers, magicians, acrobats, and silent Charlie Chaplin short films.      My job will be to accompany EVERYTHING on the piano, including the magicians, the dancers, the acrobats, and the silent films.   And I have to IMPROVISE.   I'm not kidding you.   I'm so afraid!  

I have so much music to practice.

I had a lesson today with Paul and I was telling him about the show and he said he wants to come because it sounds so interesting, haha!     So I'd better get it together. That's going to be on the 16th.

Anyway, I should probably go and get to work.  

Goodnight!

New Earrings!

My sister sent me these pretty hoop earrings as a belated birthday present.  Now I finally get to wear something different.  Yay!

One more view...

 

Quote of the Day

Yesterday at my voice lesson Jane was holding both sides of my waist to help me breathe correctly.  Then she said, "You've got a great body for singing.  You're like a plug."
"A plug?  Like a little brick?"  I said.
"Yeah, but like a plug.  A little sound plug."


 

New Old Video

This is from a concert I gave a few years ago with the Texas Christian University Collegium.

 

I miss performing with them!

 

 

For your amusement

Sisterly Love

Rachel wrote a song for me earlier this year when I was about to leave for a month to go to San Francisco for my concerto peformance.    I told her I liked it so much I wanted to stick it on my blog. So she let me record it, and now I'm posting it up here for all of you to see!  :-)  She is a very talented little singer/songwriter.  

Phew!

Okay, so Opera Direction class wasn't as scary as I thought today...  I did stay up until 1:30 a.m. last night memorizing my aria, and then I slept for five hours before getting up to finish memorizing.   But then I went to class, and I thought I was going to have to sing while we worked on staging with one of the student directors -- but it actually ended up being just a discussion about our understanding of our characters and the interpretation of the piece.   I was relieved!  But I'm glad I got the aria memorized, anyway.  That's  certainly no time wasted!

The aria is a duet from Massenet's opera, "Cherubin".  I'm playing a famous Spanish dancer, named "L'Ensoleillad", who is being seduced by a 20-year old who has just been called into the army. . .  The music is soooo beautiful.  I'm excited to perform it.   The performance will be November 18th.

I have been overwhelmed with my schedule lately, and I decided, reluctantly, to drop my composition class.   Composing takes a lot of time and creative energy, and I am finding it's taking a lot of time away from both my piano and vocal practicing, which I can't really afford right now (since, after all, I am here for a performance degree).

I had a disappointing lesson with Paul last week (I was disappointing, not him), just because I hadn't practiced enough.  And he basically told me, if I don't have enough time to practice, he doesn't want to waste his time spending an hour with me each week.   It made me feel really terrible and depressed, even though I completely understood.  But it made me realize I need to re-prioritize and trim down my schedule a bit, which is a good thing! 

  All things in their proper order.  I will still keep working on writing and recording my own songs in my spare time, but without the pressure of having a major project due by a certain deadline.

Okay.  I have to go decide what I am going to sing for the next Vocal Department Recital on October 11th!!   

Stress!

Tomorrow morning I have a first staging for one of the opera scenes I will be performing in this semester, but I just got the email about it today so I am trying to quick memorize my aria!!   And I caught a yucky cold this past weekend that made me miss my coaching on the music on Friday.  Crazy this life!   I just barely got the aria memorized about five minutes ago, and of course it's shaky.   What do you think the best strategy for me to take over the next 8 hours before class at 9 a.m.?   Should I just go to sleep and then wake up early and go through it a few times more before class?   Should I stay up later and keep solidifying it?  Should I go to bed for an hour or two and then get up and see if my subconscious has done some work on it and then re-affirm that work by going through it again??    I'm actually thinking of trying the latter.  

Working under pressure like this is kind of a bummer, but I have to admit that when I was back in Billings I was really missing the excitement of performances and lessons and reasons to learn things and reasons to polish the music that I was working on.  So, I will be grateful.   Just pray for me that I can do okay over the next few days!  

And my cold is still making my voice hoarse....

 

First Semester

Whew.  Yesterday was the first day of class at the conservatory. 

And it has been quite a whirlwind the last couple of weeks.

I auditioned for the Baroque Ensemble last week, and to my disappointment, was not admitted into the ensemble for this year.  My audition did not go very well; for some reason I ran out of breath at the ends of about three of my phrases.  I think I was really nervous, because I wanted to be in Baroque so badly.  Isn't that ironic.

However, I did get selected for a callback for the Musical Theater Production of Sondheim's "Into the Woods".   The callback auditions will be held on Friday.   I have a callback for the role of "Rapunzel".   Hopefully that goes well.

I also just got an email that I was accepted into an ensemble/class called "Operatic Stage Direction".   In that class we will learn how to direct opera scenes, as well as perform in scenes that others are directing.

The rest of the classes I will be taking are: Basic Phonetics, where we learn how to write the sounds of speech using the International Phonetic Alphabet, Beginning French, Advanced Italian, Beginning Acting, a history class called "Orfeo's Lyre", Vocal Physiology, and a composition class called "Creative Uses of Electronic Music".  Of course if I am accepted into the Musical Theater production I will be participating in that, as well.  So it's going to be a very busy year.   And then there are my regular voice lessons with Jane Randolph, piano lessons with Paul Hersh, and a weekly coaching with Tim Bach.  Oh and one other class, Vocal Performance Lab every Wednesday afternoon.

I also got a job as the student assistant in the registrar's office.  So I have been very busy helping get everything ready for registration, and then spending two full days registering all the students in the school (with the registrar and assistant registrar) for their classes for this semester.    It's been intense.

Tomorrow I start with an early morning of French at 8:30am.  I guess I'd better go get a little homework done before then.

Goodnight!

P.S.  New reflections: http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-live.html

 

Gratefulness

I just feel so happy and grateful today for all of the blessings I've received lately, and I just want to write a little bit and express myself. I'm so happy and excited to be back here at the conservatory...back with all my wonderful teachers, back in a place where I will be able to be totally immersed in music and be able to concentrate on my musical development for the next two years.  It's going to be amazing to be concentrating on my singing, and to have all the coaching and acting and language training that I've never been able to have before.

I'm so grateful, so so so grateful.

My room in San Francisco

Space is certainly the most valuable commodity in San Francisco... and for the price of a two or three-bedroom apartment that I could rent in Billings, Montana, I have this little room in San Francisco: 

It's comfortable enough... and very very close to the school (that's the best part!). I can walk to school in only five minutes or so.
  

The view out my window is to a tiny corridor on the inside of the building.  The room across from mine has been closed off with bricks.   That is fine with me;  the last time I lived in this building there was a guy living in the room right across from mine so I had to keep my drapes closed nearly all of the time. 

Here is a picture down the corridor:

Not much air comes in through there because the top of the corridor is actually closed off with a glass ceiling. 

And here is me in my new room. Notice the earrings, once again! :-)  I will get to put in a different around the middle of September.

Birthday Surprise!

Yesterday I had a wonderful birthday...which included getting poked by a lot needles!  After a ballet lesson in the morning, followed by lunch with my Mom and two friends from church, I went to get a tetanus shot in my right arm (which is very sore today!).  As soon as I got home that afternoon, my friend Stephanie called me and told me I needed to come over for "a thing".  

So I drove over to her house. Steph and her husband Rick took me to the mall...and we walked around for a bit looking for the place where "the thing" was (I had no idea what it was going to be).  Soon she turned into a little jewelry store called "Claire's", walked up to the counter, and said to the woman there, "This young lady is having a birthday today and she would probably like to get her ears pierced."  

"Stephanie!!" I gasped in surprise, and slapped her in the behind. 

 "What???" she said, "I thought you wanted to!"  

I had told Stephanie in some other conversation we had earlier this month that I had had my ears pierced as a child, but I ended up getting an infection/allergic reaction after I didn't take out a certain pair of earrings for a couple of months (I was nine!).  My ears actually grew around the backs of the earrings, and after discovering that I couldn't get my earrings out one day, my mom had to dig them out with a pin.  After the traumatic experience, I have not worn earrings ever since, and the holes in my ears closed up. So I told Steph that I had been thinking about getting them re-pierced for a long time, but never had the gumption to go and do it. 

So she helped me.  After walking around the store for a while saying things like, "Should I do it? I'm afraid! What if I cry?" (to which Stephanie replied, "I will hold your hand!"), I finally decided to go ahead with it. 

It actually didn't hurt nearly as badly as I remember it hurting the first time when I was nine (actually it hurt much less than the tetanus shot I had gotten earlier that morning!).  Maybe that was because I had my ears pierced before, so the cartilage was not as difficult to go through as it was the first time.  Or maybe because when you are only nine you are more sensitive to pain, who knows?  Anyway it wasn't bad at all. 

Tonight I made my Mom take a few pictures of me to show off the gold stud in my ear lobe (which I have to wear for the next six to eight weeks before I can change it!)

So here is my new ear.  Pretty?  

My birthday full of needles!  

  To finish off my birthday celebrations, today my sister Rachel took me shopping for a new pair of jeans, and tonight my family went out to dinner.

 So that was my wonderful birthday!

New Video!

I've been working on a new project for the last couple of weeks. For quite some time I have really been wanting to learn how to create "professional" sounding recordings.  I want to be able to record my own songs that I write and have them be really high quality.   I decided that maybe the best way to practice that would be to try to re-create some popular songs that I like from the radio.  So my first is this:   "Gravity" by Sarah Bareilles.  

I know the recording isn't totally professional yet, but I think it's a pretty good start.  Hopefully I can only get better from here, right?

Two weeks

I can't believe that in only two weeks I will move to San Francisco!!!

My dad is going to drive down with me on the 10th of August. We will rent a car, and then he will fly back on August 12th to Montana.   We are driving because I want to bring my electric piano with me, as well as my window air conditioning unit and a couple of little appliances (my toaster, rice cooker, etc.). 

I wish I had more time to practice before I go, but I guess it will have to be enough.  This summer has gone by very quickly, but I have taken some time off from practicing so hard and it has been one of the more relaxing summers I have had in a looong time.   I think I needed the break.

I have some new songs I have been trying to get recorded but my software keeps having problems when I try to mix down the final mix.  I'm hoping when I go to San Francisco someone will be able to help me with it. I got a new video camera about a week ago, too, that plays miniDV's.   I got it because I want to upload some of my old performancees from miniDV to Youtube.  I haven't figured out how to get it all connected yet, but hopefully soon.

Tonight I'm going to go and sing karaoke with my friend Steph, (the one who just got married).  That will be fun - my first time ever to go out for karaoke night.

Bye bye!  

New Website

My old website host, which I have had for the past six or seven years (Microsoft Office Live), recently stopped offering free website hosting.  So my website was shut down (because I didn't want to pay for their "pro membership".      So I have been in the process of finding a new free website hosting service, and I decided to go with Google sites.   Now I finally have it basically set up, and after much ado have figured out how to direct my own domain name (www.jacquelynweitz.com) to my new website as well.

So you can visit it here!  www.jacquelynweitz.com 

I decided to try adding Google Adsense to my website and blog for the first time. Who knows?  Maybe I will earn $0.25 now and then if someone clicks on an ad.

I still need to figure out how to optimize my site so that people will find it in Google search results.  But for now I am taking a break because I have been working on it all morning and my brain is fried!

Enjoy!

New reflections

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/07/seeking-truth.html

Yoga Yay!

So, here is my first blog post which also contains... a VLOG post!      I have just recently started to be able to do a forarm scorpion pose without assistance from the wall... which makes me happy.

Here is a video of me holding the pose for a full minute:

This morning at four A.M. my family and I returned from Cooperstown, North Dakota, where we gave a fundraising concert for the Cooperstown Museum, as well as a memorial for my step-Grandfather who passed away two years ago.  My sister Rachel, Daniel Montoya (her boyfriend), and I sang popular, country, and folk music, and Rachel and I played some classical piano pieces on an 1863 rectangular Steinway grand piano.   It was an intense weekend...it is a ten hour drive from Billings to Cooperstown.  And then a ten-hour drive back again.   But it was a good experience.   I improvised accompaniments for myself on some songs I hadn't performed before, like "Some Enchanted Evening," and "Red River Valley". 

I'm thinking maybe to make some money when I move to San Francisco in August I might look for a job playing/singing at a restaurant.   I think my improv skills are starting to be solid enough that I could be passable.    It would force me to keep working on it regularly, as well, and expanding my song repertoire.  

Do you know that in only one month I will move to San Francisco?   And then I will live there for two (or at least two) full years.    I feel so strange!  But so happy.   San Francisco has been very good to me so far.

Now to figure out what to do with the remaining month before I leave... I have a friend in Texas that wants to make some recordings of me, if I go down there.  But I'm not sure if I want to take a couple of weeks right now when I am about to move, or if I should just stay here and practice and get ready for the placement exams and auditions I will have to take in August for the classes and ensembles at the conservatory.    I also need to do some things like clean out my messy room, haha.  Plus if I leave I will not be able to keep teaching my students who are taking lessons over the summer so I will lose money.   But, on the other hand, I will have some good new recordings.   My friend Matt was a recording engineer for the Fort Worth Symphony in Texas, so he knows what he is doing.

Lots to think about.

For now, I think I'm going to go practice some yoga. 

Little life of Mine

Our lives are so small, aren't they?  When I think of this big earth, and all the billions of people in it... and unknown numbers who have already lived and died their brief little lives.  And I only know so very few of them.

And the world is so old.  And I am so young, but I will not be here long. 

Our lives are so little. 

Reflections from my recent first visits to the temple:

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/06/so-i-went-to-temple-two-days-ago.html

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/06/another-day-at-temple.html

A New Day

Click here to go to my reflections post about today:    http://www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/06/celestial-room-inside-billings-montana.html


The Billings Temple.

Summer plans

Time goes by so fast and it seems so long since I have posted, once again.   But summer is here, and soon I will be moving back to San Francisco.

I have so many plans, it seems, and so little time to execute them.   But I trust that I will have time to do the things that are most important.

I have been thinking a lot about the things I want to do, and recordings I want to make... and I have been considering starting a couple of new Youtube channels - one for children's music, and perhaps one for religious music.   I love both genres but it seems strange to mix everything together in one channel. 

Next month my sister, Rachel, her boyfriend, Daniel, and I will be giving a show in Cooperstown, North Dakota.   We will play the piano, guitar, and sing songs, both popular and classical, as a fundraiser for the museum there.   My great grandfather has some mechanical traveling shows on display at the museum, and my step-grandfather is buried in Cooperstown, so they asked us to perform.    I am working on resurrecting my second Hungarian Rhapsody of Liszt for the performance.

A couple of new quotes on my reflections blog:

http://www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/06/beautiful-quote.html

http://www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html

Alright, time to go practice.

Pointe shoes!

Okay, here they are!!   My mom just took these pictures with my cell phone of me on my new pointe shoes.   I've only had two classes with them since I've started again so I'm not very strong yet.   But they are pretty, aren't they? 

   And here is my other new trick... I can now do the scorpion pose without the help of the wall.

Here I am getting into it:

And there it is...

And my backbends are getting much better than they used to be.

                                                 

All done! 

A New Starting "Pointe"

Yesterday I taught my last lesson as a teacher at MSUB.   Now summer is here.  I will keep teaching some private lessons, and then in August I will move to San Francisco!  Crazy how time flies.  I am so happy though.

This week I ordered pointe shoes for ballet.  I'm excited -  I tried pointe several years ago and then I quit dancing for quite a while.   When I started again this year I wasn't sure if I would do pointe again but now that I'm getting stronger I decided I want to try it again.     I will post a picture when I get them!  

I am also really happy because there are so many ballet schools in San Francisco where I can continue dancing... and there happens to be one that is very close to where I will be living (only a seven-minute bus ride away!).  So I am planning to go there to keep dancing if possible.  It's so beautiful and such good exercise, too! 

April Photoshoot

On Sunday my sister Rachel asked me if she could do a photoshoot of me so that she could try out some new equipment she got for her photography.  She's becoming quite a wonderful photographer.... Here are some pictures from the shoot:

More Happy News

So I got a letter today, that, strangely enough, makes me very happy.   The letter was from the Fulbright Foundation, informing me about the results of my application for a scholarship to study in Italy next year.   Here is the letter:

Dear Miss Weitz,

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has asked the Institute of International Education to inform you that you have not been selected for an award under the U.S. Fulbright Student Program.

I know you will be disappointed, but I wish to assure you that your application received careful and serious consideration by the Board, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, and Fulbright supervising agencies abroad.  However, as is often the case in the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the number of well-qualified applicants this year far exceeded the number of awards available and the limited opportunities for placement abroad.

I emphasize that this decision in no way prejudices your chances for participation in the Fulbright Program at a future date.  Each year's selection is separate.  If you wish to apply again for a Fulbright award, your application will be considered, as before, solely on the basis of eligibility requirements, merits, and the placement possibilities in the country of your choice.

We appreciate your interest in the Fulbright Program, and hope that your interest in and support for international educational and cultural exchange activities will continue.

Sincerely,

Theresa Granza

Director, U.S. Student Programs

Why would this make me happy?  Well, I came to the realization, after I got accepted and offered the scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory, just how much I wanted to go there to study singing.   It's not that I couldn't have done that, anyway, even if I had been offered the Fulbright, but it would have been a very difficult decision.   It has been a dream of mine for years to go and study piano in Italy, and the Fulbright scholarship would have paid for EVERYTHING for me to do that, from food to housing to school and transportation.   And it would have been a wonderful opportunity to become fluent in the language, to learn about another culture and expand my horizons.... so it would have been difficult. 

However, now I don't have to worry about that decision.  

On top of that, BYU rejected me from their voice program!   And I was actually very happy about that too.   

I had prayed to God in the past month or two, that if I am not supposed to go to either of those places, that I just won't be offered the opportunity - that God would make the pathway clear to me.   And so it has been.   And I am SO excited about the opportunity to go to San Francisco and study voice for two years in such an amazing environment with so many wonderful teachers.   I am so grateful to God and to all the wonderful people in San Francisco for giving me this chance.  

I am so happy! 

Happy News

I have to tell you that I am so happy right now!  On Wednesday I got a letter from the financial aid office at SFCM, informing me about my scholarship - which will be $20,000 per year for the two years of my Master's!   I am so happy about that.  Unfortunately it still doesn't cover tuition... (it's sooo expensive!), but a good portion of it.   For the rest I am going to try to raise some money through some fundraising recitals this summer, and what I don't cover with that I will have to pay for with student loans.

Jane called me yesterday and said, "So you got your scholarship letter yesterday?  You got a good one!" and she was wondering if I was going to come.   I said yes.  She said, "Oh I'm so excited!  We are going to have so much fun."    I'm so excited, too!

I'm going to have so many opportunities to perform and learn vocally that I have never had before in my life -  in masterclasses and with weekly private coachings on my music, and in classes on diction and acting and opera workshops and all sorts of wonderful things.   I'm so happy!

So... that's my news.   :-)

Ravel is Up!

I got my Ravel video up! Hope you enjoy...

Videoing, Editing.... Vlogging?

I've been working for about the past three weeks on editing a video from one of my concerts in San Francisco.  It's almost finished now.  I'm so excited to put it up, but it just needs a couple more little things tweaked before I will feel comfortable uploading it for the world to see.

I've been thinking about maybe starting a vlog (that's short for video blog, right?).  Would that be interesting?  I could video little bits of my life here and there and places I go and things I do, etc. etc.  I think it could be cool.  I think I would probably start a new Youtube channel for it.  I was thinking I would call it, "Life and Music" just like my blog here, but then I saw on Youtube that the name has already been taken by somebody else.   But "This Life and Music" hasn't been.  Is that a stupid name?  I don't know.   "This life" is, after all, the only one I've got here.

On another note, today I held a handstand for almost an entire minute without falling into the wall! That makes me happy.   Maybe if I start a vlog I'll video myself doing it next time.

Alright.  Must sleep. 

Goodnight!  

New Moves

I'm getting more flexible, bit by bit...

While I was in San Francisco I discovered that I can now do this cool new stretch... Only on my right leg, though (for now!).   Here it is - the splits plus.... foot to the head!

And this is me doing another stretch for leg extensions...

               
                    Those were taken in Brother and Sister Fletcher's living room, who I stayed with while I was in San Francisco.   Brother and Sister Fletcher are soooooo nice!!!

            Okay, so then I got home and I tried it again in my house after ballet one night... Maybe I got a little carried away with snapping photos of myself using the timer function on my new phone... But I was so proud of myself for getting my splits that far. 

           And one more without the foot to head...(plus couch cushion intrusion on the left...)

There you have it... Jackie doing the splits!   :-D

Waiting...

Sorry it's been so long since I've really posted much to my blog!   I've been so busy with the concerts and auditions...but now everything is finished (until something else comes up!), and I can rest a little.

Some of you are wondering when I am going to post a video of my Ravel performance... The answer is soon, but it might be a couple weeks more.   I accidentally left my hard drive in San Francisco (when I told that to my teacher Dorothea, she broke out singing, "I left my hard drive in San Francisco!"  to the tune of "I left my heart in San Francisco"!).  The hard drive has several of my video and audio files from the concert.   So my friend in San Francisco has been keeping it for me and is going to send it to me in the mail this week.  Hopefully it arrives safely and then I will be able to begin work on the videos!

Right now I am getting ready for my ballet school's recital in May... I will be playing the piano, accompanying one of the dance numbers, as well as dancing in a couple of pieces.  Won't that be interesting?   I'm kind of excited about it.

Now, I am waiting to hear back the official word from SFCM and BYU about acceptance and scholarships into their master's programs... and from the Fulbright Foundation about my application for a scholarship to study in Italy.   All are good possibilities... So we will see what happens.

Well, I'm tired so I will say goodnight for now.  

Goodnight! 

One more day

It's hard to believe this is my last full day in San Francisco... in about 18 hours I will give my audition for the voice program at the conservatory, and then my plane will leave the next day to go back to Billings.

It has been a wonderful trip...  I will have to write a lot when I get home and have a little more time (and don't need to get ready for an audition the next day!)

I'm sitting here listening over and over to recordings of Schubert's "Du bist di ruh", which I just memorized this week.   I'm going to start with the Bell Song by Lakme for my audition tomorrow (I think).  It's a long aria, so I don't know how much they will hear of anything else.  

Wish me luck! And cross your fingers....  Or even better, say a little prayer!    :-)

Goodnight.

Tomorrow, tomorrow

Tomorrow it is!   Ravel will be played... and I will be happy!

     Rehearsals have been going well -- I have so much to write, but so little time.  I will have to catch up when I get back.

        Two concerts this weekend in San Francisco with the SFCM orchestra.    The first one is tomorrow, and the next Sunday.   The Saturday concert, so I've heard, is already sold out.  That makes me happy.

        Okay, goodnight!

Concert Ad

The conservatory sent out this info about my concert in the "February Concert Highlights" email:


It's coming fast!  Andrew Mogrelia is leaving his position at the conservatory after this, and the concert I will play on is the last performance he will give as conductor of the SFCM orchestra. 


Conservatory Orchestra
Andrew Mogrelia, music director
Jacquelyn Weitz, piano

For his valedictory performances as music director of the Conservatory Orchestra, Andrew Mogrelia has chosen a dazzling program of orchestral favorites: Berlioz’s festive Roman Carnival Overture, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major featuring pianist Jacquelyn Weitz and Sibelius’s magisterial Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105.

Saturday, February 11, 8 p.m., Concert Hall, $20/$15
Sunday, February 12, 2 p.m., Concert Hall, $20/$15
Café Crème open for concessions before performances and at intermission.

Applications

Sometimes it seems like I will never be done filling out applications... applications to schools, applications to competitions, applications for scholarships, applications for jobs, applications for everything.   But it's a necessary process, if I ever want to go anywhere,  or do anything.  

I am almost finished now with an application for BYU.  I decided to apply there for a Voice Master's as well, in addition to the San Francisco Conservatory.  My audition for BYU, if I get one, will be on February 26th, the weekend after my audition in San Francisco.   So much waiting and anticipation, always!  

That's all for tonight...

Goodnight! 

What to Wear?

Okay - so for my concert with the SFCM orchestra in February, I ordered a custom-sewn dress (made to my measurements) from a dress shop in China, but it didn't turn out to be quite what I wanted.   The color of the dress was supposed to be hunter green, but instead it is kind of minty, pale green (which for some reason with my skin tone makes me look really pale and kind of sickly).  And even though the dress is sewn to my measurements, somehow it fits a little big on me.  And when I sit at the piano, the sleeves fall down off my shoulders... which would not be good in a concert.   It is pretty though, but I just don't know if I want to try to make it work for this.  You can see in the close-up pictures how it's just a little lumpy.        Sooooo...

    What to do?  I have a dress that is identical to the blue-green one that I wore for my recital this spring, except it is all white.  I might where that one.   Or I have a red one that my mom would need to do a little altering on... (fortunately she is good at that).  But somehow I don't know if red is quite the right color for the Ravel concerto, or maybe just not for this performance, I don't know. 

Anyway, I guess I'll figure it out.  I'll have to where something, after all!

New reflections

New post on reflections...   "Knock and it Shall be Opened"

... me and my quest for perfect pitch.

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2012/01/knock-and-it-shall-be-opened.html

Re-mastering

So I'm no recording engineer... but maybe if I keep making recordings of myself I'll end up becoming one by default. After talking to my friend, Matt Bowers, from Texas (who really is a recording engineer), he gave me some tips and ideas about how to clean up and bring out the piano sound on my song a little better. So here is the video again, with the piano like you hadn't heard it before:

And just in case you want to compare it to the previous recording, here it is: