New poems

Two new poems on "Hear Me" :  http://jacquelynwrites.blogspot.com/2011/10/spider.html

http://jacquelynwrites.blogspot.com/2011/10/beauty-that-i-see-in-thee.html

Dancing

Since I've been back home in Montana, I started taking ballet again with my old ballet teacher.  I really love dancing, and I find that taking a dance class is one of the only ways that I can motivate myself to exercise regularly. 

I also decided to try a new type of dance for the first time - a beginning modern dance class on Fridays.   Since this is my first time dancing modern, I am taking the class with girls who are from ages 9-13.  The movements are really really different than ballet so I feel like it's taking me a while to get used to.   However last Friday in class my teacher, Ricki, asked me,  "Do you take ballet?"     "Yes,"  I said.  "Have you ever considered coming to dance with my Terpsichore dancers?"   I was surprised because "Terpsichore" is a small modern dance company that my teacher founded here in Billings, composed of about 8 women.  "No, but I'd love to!"  I said.    I went to a performance of theirs a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it - the women were all really strong and the dancing was beautiful.    So now I am going to dance with them!  I am excited about that.
        I went to the first rehearsal on Monday night, and it was difficult.  The combinations are long and complicated, and it is hard for me to remember them.   And the other dancers are all very advanced and catch on really quick, so it makes me feel pretty dumb.   But that will get better with time, right?   Anyway, it was still fun and I am sure it will get more fun as I get better!   I am posting some pictures below of the dance company:  



The woman in the front of the picture above is my teacher, Ricki.

They are beautiful, aren't they? 

Change in Plan

Well, I've had to call off my audition this weekend for the Metropolitan Opera National Council.    I was supposed to be leaving today with my dad and my accompanist, Sandi Rabas.... However today my cough has gotten worse enough that I feel like I can barely speak two words without coughing and I have a headache and an earache... So altogether it's not looking so good.  

I tried singing a few things over the phone yesterday for my teacher Dennis and he was surprised, for as sick as I am, that I could do as much as I could do, but still some of the notes just didn't want to come out and it was really unpredictable when they would come out and when they wouldn't.

However all is not lost -- I plan to submit another application to compete instead in the Met auditions in January in Denver.  It's just that the trip is a little farther and it will be fairly close to my performance with the orchestra at the San Francisco Conservatory so it will be a little more stressful.   But I will have a lot of time until then to get my program really polished,  so maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

Now I think I'm going to take some Nyquil and go back to bed. 

Stupidity

So I stayed up too late a couple of nights ago, working on some grading for the class I teach.....and the next day I started coming down with a yucky cold/cough!   I'm not very happy about this, considering that my Met audition is in just a few days now... Hopefully it will get better quickly.   But for now this means I can't rehearse...practice...sing....etc.  

      I cancelled the lessons that I have to teach today so I could stay home and rest.  And this morning my voice teacher, Dennis, told me to gargle and drink water with baking soda in it to help it go away faster. So I did that (it made me gag!!!).   And I've been taking vitamin C.   So hopefully it all works.   If anyone feels like saying a prayer for me that certainly couldn't hurt, either!  :-)

          

          

        

           

New recording up

This is from a rehearsal I had at the San Francisco Conservatory for the Handel Aria concert of the Baroque Ensemble.   It's not a perfect performance - the flautist and I are improvising the ornamentation so it gets a little weird once or twice where I'm not sure what notes I'm singing! And my flautist's music falls off the stand at one point so you can hear that, as well....  But overall otherwise I think it's a pretty good recording. 

Ah, La vita!

Sorry that it has been so long since I last made a post on my blog!  I have been so busy since I started teaching at MSU this semester, it has been crazy.    

I decided (at my teacher Dennis' encouragement) to try the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions this year, and the first round is coming up for me next weekend in Pocatello, Idaho!  My dad is going to drive down there with me and my accompanist, Sandi Rabas.  The competition will take place in the afternoon on Saturday, October 29th.

This Sunday I am going to give a mini-recital in preparation for the competition, to try performing all of the repertoire (a lot of it I have never performed before!).  

Here are my 5 arias that I have decided on for the audition:

Les oiseux dans la charmille (The Doll Song) from Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach
Ou va la jeune indoue (The Bell Song) from Lakme by Delibes
Tornami a vagheggiar from Alcina by Handel
Deh vieni non tardar from the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
Willow Song from The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore


My mom got a new video camera this week and I asked her to record the recital on Sunday so hopefully I will be able to get a good recording of something I can put up!


My mom took this picture of me doing yoga the other day... I'm just beginning to be able to hold this pose for a short period of time (anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds) without losing my balance:

Cool yes?   My fingers look like they are posed and ready to play the piano down there on the carpet...

La vecchia macchina

My poor little car (a 1989 Chevy Celebrity...in desperate need of a new coat of paint) has been broken down almost since I got home this summer.  It started running really roughly, almost as if one of the cylinders was not firing, and it was almost dying as I drove it and the speedomiter was not working at the same time.   I took it to three different mechanics - the first two wouldn't even agree to look at it because they didn't know what was wrong... Then I took it to another place, and they told me it needed a "tune-up" and that a leak needed repairing.  So I agreed to the tune-up, in hopes that that would take care of the problem.  Well, they did the tune up -- they changed some spark plugs and wires and cleaned a filter or two -- and charged me $438.  But... I went to pick it up, and the car was still not working.  They said the intake and radiator were both leaking so I needed to have more work done on it... $1000 worth all together.   I had just had some leaks repaired last summer and I haven't noticed any fluids dripping from underneath, so I thought this sounded very strange.  

So I took it back... but was out of money for the moment so I knew I had to wait a little longer to have anything major done. But I took it back over to one of the other places I took it to in the first place, and asked them to look at it again and see if they can tell what was wrong.  They said they wouldn't do anything to it unless I was willing to spend $200-$300, and I agreed.  (I think they were concerned because it is such an old-looking car that they thought maybe they would try to fix it and it wouldn't get fixed and then I wouldn't pay them)...      So they agreed to take it; they kept it there a week and a half (enough time for my aunt to send me $200 for my birthday!) and then called and said that the computer in it had gone bad  (and that they checked the intake and there was NO leak!!).   They said they went to the salvage yard to find a used computer so that the cost wouldn't "bury me" (like the cost of a new computer would)... and then told me I could come pick it up the car today. 

There was a bit of a scare when I went to get it with my mom, because after they gave me the keys and I got into the car to leave....I turned the key in the ignition, and I couldn't get it to start.  The mechanic had to come start it for me.  He said he thought that there was just some dirt in some pipe that they sprayed and that it would clear itself out, but to bring it back in if I had any more problems.   I went to the school and practiced for a little while, and when I went to leave it started like a charm.  :-)   Good old car.    

And I'm so grateful when I find an honest mechanic....

Some new posts on my reflections blog: http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-feel-as-if-god-placed-his-foot-into.html

http://jacquelynsreflections.blogspot.com/2011/08/by-small-and-simple-things.html

A new type of practice

I think I mentioned in a recent post that I was wanting to start practicing yoga.  Well I started watching some videos this summer on Youtube, and then got a book at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago:

 and started practicing on my own...

But I was very happy today because I was able to do a pose I have been working on for a few weeks for the very first time:

A failed attempt...

It's called the "Bow Pose" or  Dhanurasana.

And here's another one, called the "King Dancer" pose, or Natarajasana.

 

They'll get better as I get more flexible.  Right now I can only hold each of these poses for a few seconds before I fall out of them... actually the bow pose I can probably only hold for two seconds, haha. 

 

But I really like yoga!   I think I'll probably keep doing it now for the rest of my life.  

 

 

 

New Video - Handel "Oh Sleep Why Dost Thou Leave Me"

Here is a new video from my recital at the San Francisco Conservatory in May.  It's one of the arias I sang by Handel, called "Oh Sleep Why Dost Thou Leave Me". 

A Beautiful Wedding

Yesterday my family drove to North Dakota to attend my aunt Shanna's wedding.  She got married on top of a butte on my new Uncle's farmland... It was so beautiful.  We took a hayride part way up to get to the wedding site.  Here are a few pictures from it:

My sister and her boyfriend and I sang a country song, "I Know How the River Feels" as part of the service.  My sister and her boyfriend played the guitar (I have to learn to do that!! :-)....

This is my dad and mom:

                            Me.

Some wedding guests admiring the beautiful view.

 Coming from the trucks/haywagon:

The ceremony beginning:

                                               On the haywagon.

My aunt and uncle: