Day 10
What day is it again? I'm lost...
Yesterday I went to the rehearsal in the morning and listened to the Stravinsky Octet from the wings. There were donors in the audience and I really didn't feel like behaving myself in the rehearsal, so I sat around backstage. During Bartok's Music for Strings I interviewed the librarian, who as it turns out is the father of Trix's childhood friend. I sat in the audience for the Gershwin because I wanted to see Jean-Yves play before the concert. He's fantastic... like a rockstar at the piano and he plays like the music is flowing through him via the piano. I had lunch with Carol and asked her all of my interview questions, then I tracked down Michael and talked to him about composition. That was perhaps the most valuable interview I did all week... Michael is very opinionated on the purpose of music and what people should be composing. We talked about working with a lyricist and about getting your music played. The thing that really stuck with me is that he believes that whether you are writing for your peers or for a layman audience, you're selling out. You have to write for yourself. And he wants me to send him a copy of my song cycle.
I spent the afternoon piddling around on the piano and then on my computer futzing with LilyPond. I wrote four bars of music in about a half hour (I'd sung the melody into my phone's voice recorder earlier when waiting for Michael) and then spent the next three hours figuring out how to make the music look write in a pdf. I had so much fun! I take it as a good sign that my brain finds coding enjoyable again, since during school it was far too difficult.
I ran off to the concert with Robert and sat with Laura, Michael, and his wife Marie in the audience. The concert was fabulous. There weren't many people there, but they loved it so much the could hardly contain themselves. Jean-Yves played magnificently and had four curtain calls. Afterwards a bunch of us hung around backstage drinking wine and bitching about a board meeting that I didn't attend. Michael told us all about his septet "Budget Cuts" which is for three players and a conductor, each playing more than one instrument. I wish I could have been at the concert. Laura drove me home and we got to talk about women in the classical music world and what she wears to work and to conduct. So as of last night I have asked every question I needed to of all the right people, even the ones I wasn't sure I really wanted to ask. My work here is done!
Robert and I sat out on the porch and talked about self-esteem for a few hours later. He's pretty insistent that I'm selling myself short and that I'm giving up long before it is reasonable for me to do so. I'm a month away from 23... how can I possibly give up on my dreams of being the next Dar Williams?
Plans for the next 48 hours:
-shop with Justin
-party with Jean-Yves and Robert
-parents get here tomorrow afternoon
-one more concert
-disappear to the mountains for three days
Yesterday I went to the rehearsal in the morning and listened to the Stravinsky Octet from the wings. There were donors in the audience and I really didn't feel like behaving myself in the rehearsal, so I sat around backstage. During Bartok's Music for Strings I interviewed the librarian, who as it turns out is the father of Trix's childhood friend. I sat in the audience for the Gershwin because I wanted to see Jean-Yves play before the concert. He's fantastic... like a rockstar at the piano and he plays like the music is flowing through him via the piano. I had lunch with Carol and asked her all of my interview questions, then I tracked down Michael and talked to him about composition. That was perhaps the most valuable interview I did all week... Michael is very opinionated on the purpose of music and what people should be composing. We talked about working with a lyricist and about getting your music played. The thing that really stuck with me is that he believes that whether you are writing for your peers or for a layman audience, you're selling out. You have to write for yourself. And he wants me to send him a copy of my song cycle.
I spent the afternoon piddling around on the piano and then on my computer futzing with LilyPond. I wrote four bars of music in about a half hour (I'd sung the melody into my phone's voice recorder earlier when waiting for Michael) and then spent the next three hours figuring out how to make the music look write in a pdf. I had so much fun! I take it as a good sign that my brain finds coding enjoyable again, since during school it was far too difficult.
I ran off to the concert with Robert and sat with Laura, Michael, and his wife Marie in the audience. The concert was fabulous. There weren't many people there, but they loved it so much the could hardly contain themselves. Jean-Yves played magnificently and had four curtain calls. Afterwards a bunch of us hung around backstage drinking wine and bitching about a board meeting that I didn't attend. Michael told us all about his septet "Budget Cuts" which is for three players and a conductor, each playing more than one instrument. I wish I could have been at the concert. Laura drove me home and we got to talk about women in the classical music world and what she wears to work and to conduct. So as of last night I have asked every question I needed to of all the right people, even the ones I wasn't sure I really wanted to ask. My work here is done!
Robert and I sat out on the porch and talked about self-esteem for a few hours later. He's pretty insistent that I'm selling myself short and that I'm giving up long before it is reasonable for me to do so. I'm a month away from 23... how can I possibly give up on my dreams of being the next Dar Williams?
Plans for the next 48 hours:
-shop with Justin
-party with Jean-Yves and Robert
-parents get here tomorrow afternoon
-one more concert
-disappear to the mountains for three days