And another...

This is another recording from that same performance in November. It is a traditional ballad that has been sung for centuries, called "Barbara Allen".  I performed it a capella - at the suggestion (and near insistance) of my Baroque Ensemble director, Corey Jamason.  I put pictures on the video from the photoshoot Rachel took of me last summer -- Some of the lyrics in the song seemed to fit perfectly with the pictures such as  "When green buds were a-swellin" and "As she went walking through the fields", etc.


When I first performed this ballad for the Baroque Ensemble class, a bunch of people started crying! It is a sad story.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAmb9pj-ZzQ

If My Complaints...

I just posted a new recording on Youtube, from a live performance I gave in November with Tatiana Senderowicz on the guitar.   My singing isn't perfect, but overall I think it's a pretty effective performance.   Tonight I perform three Handel Aria's and Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze"!  I'm excited about it... but I should sleep now!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FawCwxZcv0A

Baroque Ensemble Concert

 I'm back at school and already the concerts are coming up fast!!!   I have so much practicing to do!  Here's the email I got from my Baroque Ensemble director about our concert coming up on the 28th of January - where I will be be singing three Handel arias and a Bach aria:

Hi everyone-

Could you please send me your availability for coachings for this week and next week? The concert on the 28th
is being advertised very well and I understand the place will be
packed, happily. I would like to get at least two
coachings in the book asap with the possibility of a 3rd run-through session.

 - Corey




I'm so excited and nervous about that!  I will try to get somebody to video-tape it so that I can hopefully post a video later.


 Off to practice!!!

A Few Montana Pics

I can't believe that I leave in only three days to go back to San Francisco. The break went by so fast! I didn't get nearly as much practicing done as I had wanted or planned... But visiting with my family and celebrating Christmas was a lot of fun. 

My sister Stacy took these pictures when she was visiting Billings for Christmas (I "borrowed" them from her!).  This is our adorable little Chihuahua, named "ChiChi". He is about eleven years old now!

 

These are some pheasants that are nesting somewhere in our backyard - My little sister Rachel loves to feed the birds and she has quite a menagerie going!

This is my brother-in-law shoveling snow off the driveway:

 The snow and cold is, in a way, quite invigorating and refreshing... But it will be nice to get back to the  warm days in San Francisco!

New Year

My  New Year's Goals:

Finish my diploma at SFCM (give all my recitals successfully!)

Study jazz at the conservatory and in Boulder (my dream would be to get good enough to improvise while performing comfortably  by the end of the year)

Make some high-quality recordings.

Exercise regularly :-)

Sound good? If I think of anything else I can add it later. 
 
Happy New Year!!

New Videos

Last night I was able to upload 2 new videos to Youtube - they are from a practice performance I gave with the Rimrock Opera last summer of Menotti's "The Telephone".   Here they are:

Audition results... and other news

I got the results from my audition for Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" at last! (I auditioned December 10th in San Francisco before I left for home). Here is the email they sent me: 

Dear Jacquelyn:

I'm sorry to tell you that we will not be offering you a role in the upcoming productions of  "Trial By Jury" and "Engaged". We saw an exceptional group of incredibly talented people at the auditions, which has made the decision-making very difficult. Unfortunately there are just not enough roles to go around!

Thank you so much for auditioning. We do hope to see you back to audition for other Lamplighters shows soon!  

With very best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Vardigans

General Manager

Lamplighters Music Theatre

So that won't be happening this spring.  That makes me a little sad, but it is probably actually a good thing because maybe it would have made my schedule too busy this semester. 

I got an email from David Korevaar (a concert pianist and teacher) at the University of Colorado in Boulder this week as well, informing me that they would like me to re-audition in January or February for scholarships for their program this coming year. CU Boulder was the first school I auditioned for last January. The audition went very well and I liked the school a lot, so I was seriously considering going there until I got offered the scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory.   Since the Professional Studies Diploma at the San Francisco Conservatory is only one year long, however, I decided to defer my enrollment at the University of Colorado until next fall so that I could plan on going straight there after my year at SFCM.  

Now because of the my CU scholarship audition coming up, I have a lot of music to practice and and prepare by February 12th  (the date I chose for my audition). So, like I said, it is probably for the best that I didn't get into "Trial by Jury".... 

Of course I still would have loved to have been in it!

Tonight my family opened presents for Christmas (we have a tradition of opening them on Christmas Eve).  I got some new shirts, a beeping remote-control key-finding keychain (because I am always losing my keys), and... a new portable hard drive from my Mom and Dad to go with my new laptop from Niclas!  That will be very handy for backing up all my important files.  I'm so excited to get to work again!

 Things have been so busy this week with my family. It has been a lot of fun, but I can't wait to start practicing all my new music and working on recording!  I might practice a little bit tomorrow even though it's Christmas.

Tomorrow we get to talk to my brother Joseph on the telephone for the first time since he left on his mission in September.  It will be so nice to hear his voice!  He will call us on our home phone at 2:00 in the afternoon.   All of the family will be here to talk to him... I'm excited about that!

All my family has gone to bed so I'm going to go and get a little sleep now too...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

A Wonderful Christmas Present

I have to tell you an amazing story that happened to me.  Those of you who have been reading my blog may remember that I wrote a few weeks ago about how my laptop has not been functioning since this summer... The hard drive crashed and everything on it got deleted, and the computer was totally unusable because of it.  It was driving me crazy not to have my laptop at school but I was waiting until I could get a little more money to be able to afford a new hard drive to fix it...

Well, soon after I wrote that blog post,  I received an email from a very nice person who read about my problem on my blog offered to pay to have the hard drive fixed for me. His name is Niclas and he left a couple of comments on my blog before (and on Youtube as MrCapacitors).  I wrote back and said that I would be very happy to have it fixed - but that it would probably cost about $100.   He wrote back and said that was fine - and before I had the chance to write back he wrote again, saying that if my laptop is old perhaps it would be better for me just to get a new laptop, and then offered to pay for a completely new laptop for me.

It seemed almost too good to be true... I didn't want to get my hopes up too much in case it actually didn't happen...  but this generous person actually went right away and found a computer that would be good for my needs (especially for the sound and video editing that I do), and transferred the money to my paypal account.  So I ordered a wonderful new HP laptop from Amazon the night before last... And it came with free one-day shipping for Christmas so it got here today! I am writing this blog post on it right now!  I am sooooo happy about it - what a wonderful surprise Christmas present. 

Tonight is the first time in months that I can upload pictures straight from my camera again (I could only send pictures from my cell phone before)!  And here is a picture of my new computer:

Pretty, yes?  It even has a fingerprint scanner!!!

Soon I will start putting some more music online... I'm so excited! 

Merry Merry Christmas!  And thank you so much to Niclas who just made my life much easier...

:-)

Down by Fisherman's Wharf - and Outside the Conservatory Window

There was a huge Christmas tree down by the wharf when I went there last week!  You really can't see how gigantic it is in this picture... but each of those Christmas ornaments were almost the size of a soccer ball.






I love this picture I got of the boats on the water with the clouds:










And here was the view from my practice room window last night while the sun was setting:






This was from the window above the stairway: 

Ho finito!

Oh my goodness I have had so much going on and I have lots of good news to write about but right now I don't have time so I will just write a little...

This morning I finished my last final for the semester - it was my oral exam for Italian class.  I think I did well!  I am so happy because my Italian teacher  is really amazing - his name is Brian Neilson. I am learning so fast in his class. 

Tonight is my audition for the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, "Trial by Jury".  I am a bit nervous for that because I just started learning the excerpt that I will be singing last night, and it is not very well-memorized yet. Fortunately it is only two pages long... I am just going to work on it most of the day today, until I have to go to the audition.

And tomorrow I have another audition with a small opera company (the San Francisco Parlor Opera) for Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman". I will be audition with the "Doll Song" for that, and a couple other pieces if they ask for them.

Tomorrow our chamber music coach, Yoshi, is taking my quintet out for dinner! That will be fun. It will be right before my opera audition though, so I am a little nervous about getting there in time. My group said we will choose a place for dinner that is very nearby.

That's all for now... I have to go practice.