Well, I changed my strings today and suddenly life had color. I think I might have been WAY overdue for an A and D string. Its nice, because a lot of things sort of fell into place today. Tomorrow morning I"m leaving for Lenox for another lesson with Sato. I'm going to leave a lot of time to fight the potential holiday traffic. After the lesson I'll stop in Ware and visit Aunt J. 5 days and counting until the audition! All the excerpts seem to be settling except for brahms piano concerto and the blasted La Mer (but only because I hate to practice La Mer).

Ok, off to bed.

Well, its been a while since I last posted. My summer has been pretty uneventful but strangely busy! I am preparing for the Springfield symphony audition (which is now next week! YIKES) and although I've been prepping most of the summer, I feel strangely unprepared still. I am such a mental case.

Last week my Uncle Jerry died unexpectedly. This was very sad as he was only 55, and going through some rather stressful and sad things, and there were many people that needed closure with him that did not get it. R and I played all the music for the Funeral Mass, and we were so happy to be able to do it, but the experience was sort of tiring and overwhelming. I had been planning on going to Lenox to see Sato and have a lesson on Monday or Tuesday and now its been pushed to this Saturday. Needless to say, not a lot of audition prep was done when we were driving back and forth to Boston. Our rehearsal in the church was also a little hard, as the fire company decided it test the fire alarms while we were playing in the Balcony (next to the fire alarms).

Yesterday I drove to Portland, ME to play for the principle of Portland Symphony to get my name on the sub. list. The lesson went fine, except for the fact that I really didn't have a chance to warm up before I had to jump into Dvorak Concerto. Since I've had 2 surgeries on my hands, a warm up is necessary or else my arms just freeze up. Yeterday I believe I drove 8 hours in all and came home exhausted. Today I was hoping to practice a lot but ended up just recovering from the here and there of the last few days.

Tomorrow is a practice day. No phone, no distractions. Saturday I am going to Lenox (maybe a stop at the coffee shop??) and Sunday I'm going to play in 3 Masses with R to get myself playing in front of people. MOnday is practice, tuesday morning is Ken and Wednesday is the audition. After that I'm going to take a few days off, go to the Lake with R and Lucy and maybe drive up to Vermont with Aunt J. Beyond that I want to sleep and get myself back to gether for (hopefully) my new job (tehe) and the next round of auditions.

Lastly, Health care. Ours is so expensive BUT It seems in Mass we can buy it due to the law here. Hm..I"m looking into it!

Studio Recital Preparations

Teaching still seems to occupy my life lately. My studio recital is on June 20th and after that I"m really hoping to be able to focus on audition preparations and a recital this summer.  My recital seems to be coming together. I have most of the student's rep prepared, I"ve started on my pianist's book (and hired a pianist for that matter) and I have pretty much decided what I am going to play (just a quick show piece...Popper Hungarian Rhapsody and maybe the Swan or possibly a duet with Jen if she's interested).  I also have a cello choir from WCS I'd love to have there. This year we did a choir version of a movement of the Bach Da Gamba sonatas, and The overture of the Barber of Seville.  It would be very fun to have them there, but we'll have to see if people are available. 

I guess thats it for now, not a very exciting post. I"m stil working on Robert's piece, as its pretty hard, but I really like it!

Busy Busy...When's the break?

Well, life is still busy it seems. I feel as if I haven't had a moment to come up for air since I've been back from Kansas.  Tomorrow I"m auditioning just for the sub list for BMOP.  I injured my thumb working on r's piece so I had to find a quick alternative piece to prepare-that didn't have thumb position and was written after 1950. I came up with Bloch's 3rd Suite...the first movement. I"m also playing the Gigue from Bach's 3rd suite.  A standard for me...

Thursday I'm leaving for Dartmoth College in NH for 3 days to play with the orchestra there. I'm pretty stoked about the program....Brahms 4, Brahms academic overture and a mozart piano concerto.  Fun music, and free housing at a  hotel near by!  yay, no driving and free internet!

This summer I"m trying to lay low and prep excerpts for the possible NYPHIL audition next year, play a recital-AND learn r's piece. I did agree to do a week at the Bard Conductor's Institute Orchestra in upstate NY, and I have to teach at a Suzuki Camp in July. I've been quasi wait listed for another program and I'm hoping that I might be able to attend that. I'll write more about it if it were to become a reality. 

I guess thats it for now. Tonight my students played a recital in Whitinsville, and I taught most of the day. My mom's dog is here and he's not been well so I stuck a vet appointment in the center of it all and found a way to squeeze a little practice into the day due to tomorrow's audition. I wish I had a little more prep time!

Nothing really that exciting...

      This weekend E came over and we shopped, a lot.  :-)  We also worked for many hours on R's cello piece.  ITs coming along, but it is very difficult and I'm thrilled/grateful to have her help with it.. I"m excited about the challenge, it will be a good summer project and I think its an amazing piece.  

     My teaching is taking up a lot of my time lately, due to the fact that I've been taking auditions-I'm way behind in make up lessons, ugh! Next week also marks the beginning of the recital season-which makes fitting in make up lesson even harder and adds recital rehearsals into my schedule.  Beyond that I"m still feeling run down and trying to sort-of rest and get myself sorted out and back in some sort of order and practice schedule.  Next week I'm also going to NH for a few days for a gig. Maybe in june I'll be able to stay in Massachusetts for a bit. 

Generally things are good, and I"m chugging along and in pretty good spirits!  Tomorrow is a hair cut, Chiropractor (My neck is super tense from all the playing lately) and then teaching for 7 hours.  

Pictures

I have no control over picture size it seems!!!  YIKES..some are big some are small...and I have no idea why!

Kansas City part 2 and back to the grind....

Obviously, the situation that I flew into didn't really set me up for a stellar audition...I"m over that-but I do want to figure out how to wow them on my next audition....sigh

After the audition E and I got together and decided to take Olathe.  We went out to eat and then went to the mall of the midwest or something (Its a virtually deserted mall) but it had GLOW IN THE DARK GOLF!   Golf was hilarious. E couldn't keep her ball on course at all!!!  We also did a little shopping and fooling around in the mall.  Afterwards we went back to the hotel (and my suite) and skyed with Jen.  All in all a fun day after a hard and slightly disapointing audition day.

Wed E went home and M came and picked me up to go to her house in Leavenworth, KS and proceeded to shop for the next 3 days. I'm sad she's moving to Germany b/c she'll be a lot farther away, but at the same time Im' super excited for her!

Saturday morning I flew home without any hitches, and was met by my boy and a dozen roses.  What a faboo man he is!  

So whats up now? Now there are lots of make up lessons to teach, a summer to plan, a recital to plan (more than one actually-for me and my students).  I already have my pianist and ball gown for my recital...I just need to find a hall and a date!