Semester Finished!

I am very happy to announce that my semester has ended!  I gave my final singing evaluation on Tuesday this week, and it seems to have gone pretty well.

I was so happy because I got back my comments from the vocal faculty yesterday and they were more positive about my singing than they have ever been before.  I know I have improved a lot this year, and it is so gratifying to know that the improvement is showing.  I am so grateful to Jane and my other teachers that have helped me over the years, who continue to help me and guide me.

I sang a song by Copland, called "Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?"  The lyrics are from a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Do you want to read my comments?  I can type them up for you.  Hopefully that's not being too egotistical...I am just so happy about them.

 But first I should give you the lyrics to the song because a couple of the faculty members made funny references to them in their comments:

Why do they shut me out of heaven?
Did I sing to loud?
But I can sing a little minor,
Timid as a bird.
Wouldn't the angels
Try me just once more?
Just see if I troubled them -
But don't shut the door, don't shut the door.
Oh, if I were the gentlemen in the white robes
And they were the little hand that knocked,
Could I forbid, could I forbid, could I forbid?
Why do they shut me out of heaven?
Did I sing too loud?

Okay. Here are the comments:

Daniel Mobbs: Great English diction. nice long phrases - Well done!  Enjoy your break!

Sylvia Anderson: Excellent presentation of this wonderful song! Your talent shows forth!

Cesar Ulloa: You have a very sweet voice. Very expressive and musical -- Great job! Keep up the good work you are doing with your teacher!

Leroy Kromm: Very nice! Very good sense of pitch. Great musicality.  Good improvement. Keep up the good work to maintain good breath management! Merry Christmas -

Jane Randolph (my teacher): Well, you were incredibly musical, but you were not aware of your low support and you definitely had to make space as a result -

Cathy Cook:  Great job - wonderful improvement and progress this semester - it's really coming along! keep up the great work!!

Patricia Craig: Nicely sung! Pretty, silvery sound!  Have a good break -

Ruby Pleasure: Why do they shut me out of heaven?  I would let you in.  We know that you have the highs and flexibility but I'm enjoying the warmth I'm hearing.

Pamela Fry: Your voice has grown so much! It's not too loud, just beautiful! Way to go! Don't check yourself out -- just let it go - you're such a good musician, just trust it and let it go - have fun!


I found it amusing how Jane was definitely my worst critic, which is of course her job.  I am so grateful for her perfectionism.  It is obviously doing good things for me.


Now I have just one more semester to go.  I feel really ready to be out of school next year.  I decided not to apply for the Post-Graduate Diploma right now at the conservatory because I just can't see myself going into more debt at this point.  I think I might try to work next year as a vocal coach and piano/voice teacher in San Francisco....But it will be hard to pay for an apartment because rent has gone WAY up in San Francisco in the last couple of years.   So we'll see how long I can survive.

I am excited though!

New Song! "Come and Walk With Me"

I was up ALL night the night before last, trying to get my final project done for my recording class which was at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. And here it is... a song I wrote a year and a half ago that I just recorded for the first time.  There is still a lot of work I want to do on the mix... But right now I still have finals and juries coming up and I am just too excited to not show you guys what I have been working on.  So here you go:

Learn how to make a free Electronic Press Kit

First Orchestra Rehearsal!

Oh my goodness!!!  I sang for the first time in my life today with an orchestra behind me... and it made me soooo happy.  I was pretty nervous, but then I got up there and all of the sudden I felt really good and like, this is where I belong.   So happy.  All of the sudden all my performer/pianist instincts kicked in and I thought, I know what I'm doing here.  It was a lot of fun.

Watch this and you will hear the first note to ever come out of my mouth accompanied by an orchestra:

http://youtu.be/wk_XpG_ToNs

http://youtu.be/9NL4UnD8tak

http://youtu.be/3mGkosHj9d0

Random-ness!!! And Kermit.

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe that the semester is almost over already.  I actually only have about two more weeks of class, plus a week for finals and a little break for Thanksgiving.   I WILL SURVIVE!!  :-)

I still need to learn most of my music for juries though (for those of you who don't know what a jury is in music school: it's where you have to sing a few songs at the end of the semester for all the teachers on the voice faculty, in order to receive part of my semester grade).


Did I ever show you what I bought from a lady on the street in San Francisco?  I was coming out of the conservatory one day and she had a bunch of puppets that she had made by hand... Including one of my favorite characters from my childhood:

That's right. It's Kermit.  

He was only $15. 

Kermit I had some fun Skyping together with my little niece. 

     I once had a hand-writing analysis done when I was at some sort of fair somewhere...(my brothers and sisters and I all did it... We had to write a few sentences and they put our writing samples through some sort of machine where it listed our personality traits supposedly from analyzing characteristics of our handwriting).   One of the things it said about me is that "You cheer yourself up by indulging in whims."  I had never thought about that before, but it is VERY true.  I don't remember anything else the handwriting analysis said. But that one was right on.

         Here's another whim.... Big, dangly earrings for which there are not many occasions to wear in public...    Next singing performance maybe :-)

Oh life.   I manage to keep myself entertained in the midst of it. 

Stream of Consciousness

Oh, Little Life of Music... Aren't you full of trouble? But everyone has it, everyone goes through it.

We are not alone in our solitude.

I am a dream, you are the waking,

I am a scheme, you are the making,

I am a heart, you are the breaking,

I am a hope, you are the taking.


Do you care if I ramble?  What if I scramble through a bramble?  What if I fall into a shamble?

Do you mind?

This is my mind you are reading...

You are reading my mind.

I'm sorry if I'm winding, down a twisted road

Sometimes we do that, in finding our

True home.

Are we ever home?

It feels like I'm a wandering

Minstrel

Singing in a different town,

Every day,

Looking for a softer bed to rest my weary head.

But everywhere I carry

My little mandolin,

And I play, and I play,

And I play.  

This is my life, I say.

This is my music.

This is my life: my music.  

Walls

Sometimes in life it seems like you just keep hitting walls...or maybe the walls keep hitting you?  Somehow you keep running into the exact same trouble, trying and trying for years to overcome the same problems, the same weaknesses.

It's hard to be an artist.  It's hard to be a human being...a human being who needs things like, food, and sleep, and love, and exercise, and music, and accomplishment, and relationships, and fun, and relaxation, and meditation, and change, and constancy.  It is hard to be human...because we are all human, and we are constantly moving and searching for our needs and trying to provide for the needs of others and somehow always being not quite competent at either.

Life is hard for humans.

But of course I would rather be a human than any other creature.  Especially since I have known the joy of making music...and now I would be absolutely miserable without it.  It's such a constant nagging in me...and I HAVE to do it, one way or another. Whether or not I'm ever really "famous" or "successful" at it, I still have to do it, no matter what.  I have to keep improving my craft, keep expressing myself through this beautiful and amazing art form.  I HAVE to, you know?  I just cannot imagine myself ever devoting myself to something else instead.  Not in this life, anyway...

So even when the walls are there, I cannot stop. I'll keep beating my head against them until either they break, or I am dead. :-)

I will do this thing.

  

New Goals

I am happy because I got this email from the Bachauer International Piano Competition a few days ago:

Dear Jacquelyn Weitz:

The GINA BACHAUER INTERNATIONAL PIANO FOUNDATION is pleased to acknowledge that we have received your official application for the 2014 GINA BACHAUER INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS PIANO COMPETITION to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 11-25, 2014.

We are pleased to report that we have received 200 applications from candidates throughout the world.

It is our pleasure to invite you to audition in Salt Lake City on February 4, 2014 at 2:00 PM. The auditions will take place at:

The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center

Jeanne Wagner Theater

138 West Broadway

Salt Lake City, UT 84128

801-297-4250

We recommend that you arrive at the audition site 30 minutes prior to your audition time in order to have a warm-up period and to become accustomed to the setting. 

During the audition, candidates will begin with a selection of their own choice, followed by one or more requests from the jury (as time allows).

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to e-mail or telephone the offices of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation

            Telephone:  +1 801.297.4250

e-mail:  info@bachauer.com

We look forward to the pleasure of making your personal acquaintance and the opportunity to hear your audition performance, and we extend our very best wishes for much success.

Sincerely,

Kary Billings

Chairman of the Board

Douglas Humphreys

Artistic Director

I sent an application in to them the DAY of the deadline....nothing was working the week before with their website and I kept losing all of my saved work and having to start over again and again.  But once I finally got it submitted I heard back from them pretty quickly.  I am excited to have a new performance goal to be working toward in my piano!

The audition on February 4th is just to audition to GET IN to the competition in the first place, so we'll see if I actually end up a competitor.  That would make me happy, though!

I am also really happy because people have been telling me recently that my singing is improving a lot.  My friend, Crystal, heard me sing one of my arias from Serse in the practice room the other day, and she said she couldn't believe how much I have improved since last year.   She said my sound is  thicker and more focused. And when I auditioned for the operas this fall, one of the directors told me that my voice has gotten much bigger since last year.   

Jane was also really happy with me at my lesson that day, and even suggested that I might continue with a Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Performance from the Conservatory, after my Master's Degree.   That was really encouraging to hear.  The reality is that it's only sort of an option, depending on my financial situation in another year or two..... In my current situation it's a bit of an impossibility, but we'll see what happens!   As Jane said, "Well, you never know...". 

New Reflections

From the Reflections blog, once again:
http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/10/down-in-river-to-pray.html
http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/09/forgiveness.html

New Song

Hey there...

I am taking a class this semester called "Intro to Recording Techniques,"  and this morning we had our first real recording project due.  It had to be something that included speaking, music, and some special effects/sounds.  So I decided to record one of my songs that I had started writing a while back.  I finished the lyrics in a night and then made the recording over two nights.  It's pretty rough (as all my home-done recordings are), but I think it gives a good idea of the song's potential:

Send Newsletters to your fans from ReverbNation.com

Good News

Today (well I guess technically now it's yesterday) I got some good news!   Last week I auditioned for all of the vocal ensembles at the conservatory... and today I found out that I got a major role in the Baroque Opera!  It will be performed this coming spring.   I am so excited.   I will sing the role of "Romilda" in the opera Serse by Handel.  I have been dreaming of singing with the Baroque Ensemble since I first moved to San Francisco to study piano about three years ago... and now at last I get to participate fully.

Do you know what else that means?  This will be my first time ever singing with an orchestra!   Of course, I have already played piano with orchestras many times before, but now I will sing.  That makes me so happy.

We will start rehearsals and coachings almost immediately.... our first meeting will be Friday of next week.

I am so excited!!!!


  

Another Ravel 2nd Movement

I just uploaded a video from my Saturday night performance of Ravel's Concerto in G Major.  The performance I had already uploaded to Youtube was from the Sunday matinee.    I think I actually like the Saturday night version of the 2nd movement better... so I decided to upload it.  

The school's video recording system malfunctioned on the first night, so I only had one camera angle to use (thanks to my friend James!) sitting in the 3rd row.

New Blog, New Reflections

Hi there!

     I know it's been a while since I've written... This summer sure has been slipping by me.  I got a job teaching at a little music academy here in San Francisco and I have quite a few students.  It's paying my rent this summer, so that is wonderful.  Teaching sure takes a lot of energy.  But I really love my students.

I just decided to start a new blog, with posts about little remedies and health tips I have come across in my life that have really helped me (or others I know).  For now I've called it "Jackie's Little Health Journal". That may change, we'll see. 

Here is the link: http://www.jacquelynshares.blogspot.com/

I have two posts on it so far.

Also, I posted a new post on my Reflections blog: http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/07/prayer-and-scriptures.html

Until later,

Jackie

 

Monteverdi

My performance from April with Tatiana on baroque guitair, at the Baroque Ensemble concert. The song is a madrigal by Monterverdi.

 

Here is the translation:

 

“Se i languidi miei sguardi” 

Se i languidi miei sguardi, se i sospiri interrotti, se le tronche parole non han sin or potuto, o bell’idolo mio, farvi delle mie fiamme intera fede, leggete queste note, credete a questa carta in cui sotto forma d’inchiostro il cor stillai. Qui sotto scorgerete quegl’interni pensieri che con passi d’amore scorron l’anima mia; anzi, avvampar vedrete come in sua propria sfera nelle vostre bellezze il foco mio. Non è già parte in voi che con forza invisibile d’amore tutto a sè non mi tragga: altro già non son io che di vostra beltà preda e trofeo. A voi mi volgo, o chiome, cari miei lacci d’oro: deh, come mai potea scampar sicuro se come lacci l’anima legaste, come oro la compraste? Voi, pur voi dunque siete della mia libertà catena e prezzo. Stami miei preziosi, bionde fila divine, con voi l’eterna Parca, sovra il fuso fatal mia vita torce. Voi, voi capelli d’oro, voi pur siete di lei, ch’è tutta il foco mio, raggi e faville; ma, se faville siete, onde avvien che ad ogn’ora contro l’uso del foco in giù scendete? Ah, che a voi per salir scender conviene, ché la maggior celeste ove aspirate, o sfera de gli ardori, o paradiso, è posta in quel bel viso. Cara mia selva d’oro, ricchissimi capelli, in voi quel labirinto Amor intesse onde uscir non saprà l’anima mia. Tronchi pur morte i rami del prezioso bosco e da la fragil carne scuota pur lo mio spirto, che tra fronde sì belle, anco reciso, rimarrò prigioniero, fatto gelida polve ed ombra ignuda. Dolcissimi legami, belle mie piogge d’oro quali or sciolte cadete da quelle ricche nubi onde raccolte siete e, cadendo, formate preziose procelle onde con onde d’or bagnando andate scogli di latte e rivi d’alabastro, more subitamente O miracolo eterno d’amoroso desìo fra si belle tempeste arse il cor mio. Ma già l’ora m’invita, o degli affetti miei nunzia fedele, cara carta amorosa, che dalla penna ti divida omai; Vanne, e s’amor e’l cielo cortese ti concede che de’ begli occhi non t’accenda il raggio, ricovra entro il bel seno: chi sà che tu non gionga da sì felice loco per sentieri di neve a un cor di foco!

If my languishing looks If my halting sighs, If my unfinished words have not yet been able, Oh my lovely idol, To make you completely aware of my devotion, Read these notes, Believe in this letter, In which I bled my heart in the form of ink. Here you will discern those internal thoughts That with loving steps run through my soul. You will also see how in its own sphere My passion blazes amidst your beauty. There is no part of you That with the invisible power of love Does not draw me to itself. I am after all nothing but The prey and prize of your beauty. To you I turn, o tresses. My dear snares of love, Oh, how could I ever safely escape If like snares you bound my soul, Or purchased it like gold? You, yes, you then are The chain and price of my freedom. Precious threads, divine filaments, With you the eternal Fury, on her fatal spindle Twists my life. You, golden tresses, you are The rays and sparks of she who is my only passion. But if you are sparks, How is it that you descend at every moment, Unlike fire? Ah, since one must descend in order to rise to you, The highest celestial sphere to which you aspire, O sphere of passions, o paradise, Is found in that lovely face. My dear forest of gold, richest of tresses, Love weaves in you that labyrinth From which my soul does not know how to escape. Then let death cut down the branches Of the precious forest And free my spirit from its delicate flesh, For among such lovely foliage I will remain a prisoner, When I have become cold dust and a naked ghost. Sweetest bonds, my beautiful golden rain, As you now fall, let loose from those rich clouds Where you are held, And in falling form precious storms, Golden waves with which you bathe Crags of milk and streams of alabaster, Dying suddenly. O eternal miracle of amorous desire Among such lovely storms I burned my heart. But now the hour bids me, O faithful messenger of my affection, Dear love letter Which now frees itself from my pen Go, and if Love and merciful heaven grant That the rays of her beautiful eyes don’t ignite you, Seek shelter upon her breast. Who knows if you may not find your way to a heart of fire From such a fortunate place!

 

New Reflections

New post on my Reflections blog:

http://www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-beatitudes.html

April Opera Workshop Video

Here's a video from my April performance in Opera Workshop.  I'm happy with some of my singing, and unhappy with other parts.  But that's why I'm school for this, right?   This duet is gorgeous though.  I'm so glad I got to perform it. 

Contortion Class

Now that school is out I've started going to contortion class two nights a week.  Last night we had "Picture Night" ... so I'm posting a few photos from class.  My friend Yulia is the other girl in the poses below.  She is from Russia. 

Nearing a close

It is now only one month until I will give my first-year vocal jury at the San Francisco Conservatory of music.  I have to say I am feeling a great sense of happiness and relief as I am seeing the end of this semester draw near.  Not because I am in a hurry to leave the conservatory (on the contrary), but because it will be so nice to be able to rest for a little while after the semester is finished.  It has been very very intense the past months of my life!   And now I am feeling very tired.

I have two papers remaining to write for my Film Music class, and two more assignments and a final project to do for my Vocal Pedagogy Class.  I might do one of those tonight.  I also need to work on my paper for film music.  I was planning to do that Sunday night, but got an email from my Professor saying that he postponed the deadline from this Monday (today) until the following Monday (whew!).  I'd still like to get it done now though, instead of staying up all night next Sunday!

I applied to be an RA (resident assistant) at the school dormitory next year.   I'm hoping to find out soon if I got the job or not.   If I do that will mean free rent for next year, which would be very nice!  That would ease up a lot of my financial pressures and concerns for next year.  But we will see. 

I also have a friend named Crystal that would like me to move into a nice apartment with her this summer (and move out of the dorms!) which could also be very nice...but I'm not sure how I would afford it next year without working.   But I am going to go look at the place with her tomorrow, anyway, to see if I am interested.

In the meantime, I also need to get all of my music memorized for my jury in May!  So much to do.

This summer I think I will try to stay in San Francisco, if I can. I'll try to get a job somewhere, maybe teaching or accompanying or waitressing or something.  So I can pay the rent, take lessons with Jane, and practice.  

I love San Francisco... I'm already anticipating my graduation in one year (which will come very fast, I know!), and wondering what I will do after that???   I really want to pursue performing and making recordings, but I'm not sure how exactly to go about it.  I've also thought about the possibility of going for a Doctorate...but I'm just not sure that I really want to devote the next several years of my life to MORE academia.   Although, one of my friends just got a full ride PLUS a large stipend for living to go get his doctorate at a university in Illinois.  And he doesn't even have to work for the stipend (as an assistant or anything!).  That's a pretty sweet deal, worth about $40,000 per year for the next three years.

But something tells me I need to find a way to really concentrate on my goals...

But how?

Practicing and making recordings takes a lot of time, and that's hard to come by when one is either working full-time trying to support oneself or going to school full-time. But it's also hard to do when I'm living at home with all of my family, and have all the responsibilies of home and family and pets and visitors, etc.

Maybe it's just going to be hard, no matter what, and somehow I just have to find a way.

Anyway, I'm praying for opportunities to show themselves.  I'm sure the right things will happen for me at the right time, because God has always watched over me in the past.

I guess I should go get writing that paper....

Goodnight!

Welcome to the World!

My brother's wife just had a new baby last week and I was able to go visit during that time because it happened to be my Spring Break!  Here is the beautiful boy: 

My sister-in-law with the new baby:

My mom and I babysat the other children while my sister-in-law was in labor, and once the baby was born, we brought them to see their new brother: 

Proud big sister:


Daddy with his new boy:

Yaaay!  Welcome to the world, Baby Beck! 

New Reflections

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/03/keep-commandments.html

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/03/jesus-heals.html

Another vid

The other song I did on Cabaret night with Nahuel!

Reflections

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/03/our-deepest-trials.html


http://www.jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/03/small-enough.html
 

New Performance Genre

Guess what I did on Thursday?  I gave my first-ever live performance my own original songs.  I did it at the "Cabaret Night" Vocal Department Recital at SFCM.  I was really nervous and felt kind of embarrassed, in a way, to be singing my own music in front of a bunch of people.  But people liked it (at least they cheered and told me they did, haha!).    

I met this really cool guitarist named Nahuel Bronzini, who approached me in the hall one day at the conservatory.  He said, "I think I saw you singing some sort of pop song on Youtube. Was that your own song?"  I said yes, that it most likely was.  He asked me if I had made an album, and I said no.  He asked, "Why not?".   I said I wanted to, but so far I haven't really had the facilities or the means to actually produce an album.    "Well, that's what I do,"  he said.   He said he has started his own production studio, and asked if he could send me some of his stuff, particularly a collaboration he has with another girl who is a singer/songwriter.  Of course I said yes.    So I emailed him and asked if maybe he could listen to some of my songs, and maybe we could do some collaborating!      So one evening I went and played and sang a bunch for him. He kind of strummed along on his guitar, and had some good and interesting suggestions for my harmony and form.  He also had lots of ideas about possible arrangements and instrumentation if we were to actually try to make some recordings.   So, I feel excited to have met him!

 Then I heard about the Cabaret Recital, which is kind of an anything-goes-night for singers at the conservatory.  We can sing Jazz songs, or Broadway, or old crooning tunes, or whatever.  So I asked the department if I could sing two of my own songs.  And then I asked Nahuel if he would be interested in performing with me.   We just got together a couple of times and sort of improvised and worked out an arrangement together. It was so fun!  I even sang with a microphone (microphones are not normally EVER used for a singer at the conservatory...because in classical singing it's all about a singer's natural ability to project).   But it's different when you are singing jazz or pop and have to be seated at the piano, turned sideways to the audience, and at the same distance/level as the piano.  

Then, Nahuel messaged me on Facebook a couple of days ago... He uploaded one of the songs we performed to Youtube.  It's still set to "Unlisted", so you won't be able to find it in the search engine right now.  But here it is.   There are still a lot of things about the arrangement I want to work on and improve, but for a first run - it's not so bad, right?  

Enjoy:

    

Busy-ness

Oh my goodness,
I have this serious craving to make music, to write, to play piano, to compose, to record something, but I'm soooo busy!!!   Aaaaa!   I am taking 20.5 credits this semester and I always have something else coming up to think about.  I mean, I'm singing, of course, and acting, and teaching, and preparing presentations, and writing little papers, and memorizing French vocabulary, etc. etc.   But everything takes its toll, that's for certain. 

BUT SOON.... I will somehow find a way to create, to make everything I want.  Somehow I will find a way!  I will !!! 

Bye for now...

Reflections

Two new posts on my Reflections blog:

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/02/thou-art-merciful.html

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-holy-spirit.html

 

Something new...

 

So guess what I have started doing here in San Francisco....

 

Taking a contortion class!

 

My teacher is amazing, and I'm having so much fun.

 

Look what I did tonight!

 

 

This one below my teacher calls "The Snake"...but I'm not very good at it yet.  She has to hold me there.

 

 

She's also been helping me a lot with my splits, which I guess I was not keeping my hips totally straight in so I kept pulling certain muscles that were getting over-stretched. 

 

I'm so happy to be here in this city where I can learn so many wonderful things from so many wonderful people.   Life is good.

Losses and Gains...and Transfigured Nights

Tonight I sang in the Conservatory's Concerto Competition.  I didn't make the final round, which will take place tomorrow.  I am sad about that, but I am happy because I feel like I gave perhaps the best vocal performance of my life, both technically and emotionally.   It wasn't perfect, but I felt like it was all there...you know?   There was a kind of magical energy in the air that happens when you know you have created something wonderful.  

I sang Mozart's concert aria, "Mia Speranza Adorata".  I love the piece.   But, now that the concerto competition is over, I can concentrate my energies on some other repertoire as well.

But I feel as if I have turned over a new leaf technically, that suddenly much of what I sing is easier, I am finding ways more quickly to overcome difficulties.  Jane is helping me a lot with this.   It makes me excited to see what more progress I will be able to make this year!


Today in the class I am taking about Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, (taught by my piano teacher, Paul Hersh), we listened to and talked about Schoenberg's sextet, "Verklarte Nacht".   It's a piece that Schoenberg wrote based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, which I thought was so beautiful I wanted to share it here (first in the translate by Stanley Appelbaum and then in the original German):

Plus a link to a recording of Schoenberg's piece on Youtube: http://youtu.be/U-pVz2LTakM

Transfigured Night

Two people walk through a bare, cold grove;
The moon races along with them, they look into it. 
The moon races over tall oaks, 
No cloud obscures the light from the sky, 
Into which the black points of the boughs reach. 
A woman’s voice speaks: 

I’m carrying a child, and not yours, 
I walk in sin beside you. 
I have committed a great offense against myself. 
I no longer believed I could be happy
And yet I had a strong yearning
For something to fill my life, for the joys of
Motherhood
And for duty; so I committed an effrontery, 
So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
To be embraced by a strange man, 
And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it. 
Now life has taken its revenge: 
Now I have met you, oh, you. 

She walks with a clumsy gait, 
She looks up; the moon is racing along. 
Her dark gaze is drowned in light. 
A man’s voice speaks: 

May the child you conceived
Be no burden to your soul; 
Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming! 
There’s a glow around everything; 
You are floating with me on a cold ocean, 
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you. 
It will transfigure the strange man’s child. 
You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine; 
You have brought the glow into me, 
You have made me like a child myself. 

He grasps her around her ample hips. 
Their breath kisses in the breeze. 
Two people walk through the lofty, bright night. 





Verklärte Nacht

Zwei Menschen gehn durch kahlen, kalten Hain; 
der Mond läuft mit, sie schaun hinein. 
Der Mond läuft über hohe Eichen; 
kein Wölkchen trübt das Himmelslicht, 
in das die schwarzen Zacken reichen. 
Die Stimme eines Weibes spricht: 

Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von Dir, 
ich geh in Sünde neben Dir. 
Ich hab mich schwer an mir vergangen. 
Ich glaubte nicht mehr an ein Glück

und hatte doch ein schwer Verlangen 
nach Lebensinhalt, nach Mutterglück

und Pflicht; da hab ich mich erfrecht, 
da ließ ich schaudernd mein Geschlecht 
von einem fremden Mann umfangen, 
und hab mich noch dafür gesegnet. 
Nun hat das Leben sich gerächt: 
nun bin ich Dir, o Dir, begegnet.

Sie geht mit ungelenkem Schritt. 
Sie schaut empor; der Mond läuft mit. 
Ihr dunkler Blick ertrinkt in Licht. 
Die Stimme eines Mannes spricht: 

Das Kind, das Du empfangen hast, 
sei Deiner Seele keine Last, 
o sieh, wie klar das Weltall schimmert! 
Es ist ein Glanz um alles her; 
Du treibst mit mir auf kaltem Meer, 
doch eine eigne Wärme flimmert 
von Dir in mich, von mir in Dich. 
Die wird das fremde Kind verklären, 
Du wirst es mir, von mir gebären;
Du hast den Glanz in mich gebracht, 
Du hast mich selbst zum Kind gemacht. 

Er faßt sie um die starken Hüften. 
Ihr Atem küßt sich in den Lüften. 
Zwei Menschen gehn durch hohe, helle Nacht.

New Poem Post

http://jacquelynwrites.blogspot.com/2013/01/change-is-coming.html

My new job

Did I tell you that I have been teaching a rhythmic gymnastics class to little kids on Saturdays?

Kind of crazy, I know, but I have - and they had their New Year's recital today.  Here is a video of their ball routine:

Aren't they adorable? They are almost all little Russian-American girls.  So the first few classes they were always asking me, "Do you speak Russian?".   I wish I did!!!

New Videos!

A few of them... a couple of old recordings, a couple of new ones...

This first video (well, actually, just audio) is from a performance I gave several years ago, which I was always too embarrassed to put online anywhere because of the mistakes I made in it.  But I just listened to it again for the first time in a long time, and I realized that in spite of some things that are messy... it overall was an effective performance.  

These next two videos are from my opera direction class that I took last semester. The first one I am playing one of the wicked stepsisters in Isouard's rendition of Cinderella.  My director decided to put a modern spin on it - So in this scene my sister and I have just received notice (via text!) that we are invited to the prince's ball.  We are excitedly exercising to prepare ourselves, whilst arguing about who the prince will like better.  My sister, Thisbe, with her dancing, or me, with my singing!  

Here I play a famous Spanish dancer who has just performed for the King, but a young pageboy falls in love with me and is wooing me from my garden window...

And this is a song from the recital I gave at the end of last year at the conservatory. 

New Reflections

Two new posts on my Reflections blog:

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/01/struggles.html

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2013/01/when-toward-bitter-winds.html