Oopsies

I have been so busy I have not updated my blog in a long while. Also, I got a 5-year journal, where you write a sentance or two everyday, so it seems like I am keeping up to date with things, but not to the WHOLE WORLD! Let me look at the highlights of the past couple of months:

Summer is now over. We had the official first snow fall of the year on October 29!! It was a blizzard, and some people in VT and CT still do not have power. It snowed three inches in Central Park, but Westchester (only an hour away) recieved 14!! Pretty crazy. It is the earliest snowfall since the Civil War. That was only 150 years ago, but it is still a long time! Everyone here is blaming it on Global Warming/Global Climate Change.

I moved into a new apartment with some buddies from CCM. I love it and it is the first time I have had an apartment where I can decorate and make it "home." It is really cool. IT is in Long Island City, so though it is not Manhattan, I am SO close to everything. It takes ten minutes on the train to get to Times Square. Brilliant! Even when I lived on the UWS, it took 40 mins and I had to deal with the overly crowded 1 train... Here, in LIC, I have the 7, N, Q, R, M, and E all within five minutes of my house. Pretty sweet deal there.

I am taking lessons from Stephanie Baer at NYU and am involved with Karen Ritscher's masterclasses at NYU/MSM. I am very blessed to be able to still progress in the viola even when I am not at school. I love the teaching style of both these teachers. They blend well together. It is also really cool to have masterclass with a different instructor because you get different view points on the same thing. Some how, this seems to work. I like it. They are also VERY kind, which I need. Kind words of encouragement work much better for me than distain.

I have a lot on my plate involving the literature I am playing: Reger G minor suite (learned and almost all memorized!), Bach Cello Suite 4 in Eb, Paganinni Caprice 5 (ouch!) and Bartok Viola Concerto. I have this pretty cool practice regime where I practice several times throughout the day instead of in one chunk. It gives me time to accomplish other things, and I do not get frustrated as much. Also, it gives me time to think about what I accomplished, and what I still need to get done. It really adds up. An hour here and a half hour there makes four hours go by!

I observed the pit for Wicked in September. Suprisingly, the orchestrations make the score. The viola part is SICK, and Kevin was really cool. It is always great to get insights into how people scored the gig and their background. So far, almost everyone I met has gone to MSM or Juilliard... is that saying something?

Speaking of scoring, I went to the 802 Theatre Musician Meet and Greet (I had a rehearsal, so I only was there for the greet). Jonathan Tunick spoke, as well as other musicians and BIG SHOTS, and it was so nice to hear I am doing everything correctly. Practicing is your job until you land your gig, you take any gig you can even if it doesn't pay, you are a nice, dedicated person and you hand out cards like mad! Check check check check. Pretty cool. Jonathan Tunick said something that stuck with me "Your goal should be to play at the highest level possible, just like a basketball player." Makes perfect sense to me. You take pride in what you do and everything is an opportunity.

I participated in a Workshop of a new musical entitled Folk Wandering. I am not really at liberty to discuss all the deets of this work, but I am sticking with the project and we have a public reading of it in December. It should be really great. I think the message is quite good.

I played with the New York Chamber Players. It was a fun gig where I got to meet some great musicians and play the master concerti. It really helped me remember that I do indeed like classical music. I had been turned off for so long while being at school. The spark is back.

Now, onto non-music related things. I went to Sleepy Hollow! It is so beautiful. The bridge is no longer there (thanks to the Rockefeller's modernizing the city), but the Old Dutch Church still stands. I have pictures, but no way to upload them, so I will add them later. The cemetary is brethtaking, especially in autumn when the leaves change.