(no subject)
i just realized i haven't updated in forever.
i still don't have anything to say. ;) life continues. 9 weeks until the term is over, one of those weeks being reading week. i thought that 4th year would have some sort of winding down happening toward the end but so far i don't think anything has hit farther from the truth yet. things have been insane, i don't remember the last time i posted, but so far this term i have:
-spent 2 weeks solid working with my quartet for a minimum of 3 hours every day getting a CD together to send for summer program applications; finished with a bang, final day consisted of 2 concerts and a recording session. i don't recommend trying said combination of activities in such close succession.
-gone to new york city for the first time in my life. such an interesting place, it has its own weird subculture that on one hand, once you're used to it, is kind of endearing, but on the other hand, has once again found me yet another city that is cool to visit that i don't think i could ever live in. they have awesome food though. everything is way too expensive, too. and i had cheesecake at the cafe where meg ryan and tom hanks met for the first time in the movie "you've got mail." (cheesecake was excellent. perhaps not worth $6.50/slice though.) also went to the metropolitan museum of art and fell in love with the art of joan miró. anyway the audition that i went down to do went pretty well, so i'm crossing my fingers -- i'm guessing that i should hear back within a month.
-won the chamber music prize at my school with my quartet! and only our group won this year! (usually it's 2 or 3 groups that split the prize) so this means we get a full recital all to ourselves, which is very exciting. april 26 @ 8pm, people. only problem with this is our cellist moved to montreal for a few months right after we finished recording our stuff in january. so, we've been desperately searching for a substitute cellist to work with us until she comes back sometime in late march, and finally found someone yesterday! huzzah! thank you hector!
-had my concert with my teacher's trio taken away, i guess their pianist is going to be out of town for most of february so they just feel more comfortable performing a piece they've already learned, ergo do not need my viola skillz. disappointing to say the least. but at least now i won't be going AS insane as i would have in the immediate pre-recital weeks, with opera in there as well.
-finished my last utso concert with doreen rao, the.. interesting.. choir conductor at my school. words cannot describe my ecstasy in knowing that i will never have to work with her again.
-become the opera department's bitch when they decide that orchestra section leader responsibility now includes marking parts. thanks guys. nothing like wasting 6 hours copying bowings. however the associate dean is looking into getting us compensated for the rather thankless task, which is very nice of him.
-had my mom come and visit, which was cool. she decided that it would be fun to spoil me so she came and cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, doing all the nasty little jobs that we've never had time to do here, plus cooking and freezing a good 2-3 weeks' worth of food for me. my mom is awesome.
-set up plans with a friend to go busking hardcore once life stops being so insane with a friend of mine, both of us with the intentions of raising funds for travelling this summer. hoping that i'll wind up in europe again, got some tentative plans to tour spain and possibly portugal with a friend in the month before festivals start... we'll see what happens. i can tell the stress has hit when i'm looking up discount airfares to the other side of the world in my procrastination time... it's been what, 5 months since i came home from europe the last time? feels like much longer. if only i had my own jet. "bye darlings, off to italy for the weekend!" sweet. yet one more reason why i want to marry eschenbach (fabulous conductor who i absolutely adore. he has a private jet, but unfortunately is quite emphatically swinging for the other team).
as for what's coming up, well, i've got my audition for shmf on thursday... i think they're going to laugh at me... they chose some really nastily tough excerpts this time and i really should have started working on them much earlier than i did. they do know me, which is something in my favour, but i'm also afraid i might disappoint them terribly. we'll see what happens. wish me luck.
basically my life currently consists of wasting a lot of time watching degrassi the next generation episodes downloaded off the internet (pathetic, i know) and practicing my leetle buns off for my recital (march 17 @ 8pm! come celebrate st patty's day with a thoroughly non-irish programme and then come to the bar to celerbrate in a more traditional manner!), along with my usual smatterings of formings of (occasionally) unfair and cynical views about everyone around me.
9 weeks until freeeeeeeeedooooooooom!!
i still don't have anything to say. ;) life continues. 9 weeks until the term is over, one of those weeks being reading week. i thought that 4th year would have some sort of winding down happening toward the end but so far i don't think anything has hit farther from the truth yet. things have been insane, i don't remember the last time i posted, but so far this term i have:
-spent 2 weeks solid working with my quartet for a minimum of 3 hours every day getting a CD together to send for summer program applications; finished with a bang, final day consisted of 2 concerts and a recording session. i don't recommend trying said combination of activities in such close succession.
-gone to new york city for the first time in my life. such an interesting place, it has its own weird subculture that on one hand, once you're used to it, is kind of endearing, but on the other hand, has once again found me yet another city that is cool to visit that i don't think i could ever live in. they have awesome food though. everything is way too expensive, too. and i had cheesecake at the cafe where meg ryan and tom hanks met for the first time in the movie "you've got mail." (cheesecake was excellent. perhaps not worth $6.50/slice though.) also went to the metropolitan museum of art and fell in love with the art of joan miró. anyway the audition that i went down to do went pretty well, so i'm crossing my fingers -- i'm guessing that i should hear back within a month.
-won the chamber music prize at my school with my quartet! and only our group won this year! (usually it's 2 or 3 groups that split the prize) so this means we get a full recital all to ourselves, which is very exciting. april 26 @ 8pm, people. only problem with this is our cellist moved to montreal for a few months right after we finished recording our stuff in january. so, we've been desperately searching for a substitute cellist to work with us until she comes back sometime in late march, and finally found someone yesterday! huzzah! thank you hector!
-had my concert with my teacher's trio taken away, i guess their pianist is going to be out of town for most of february so they just feel more comfortable performing a piece they've already learned, ergo do not need my viola skillz. disappointing to say the least. but at least now i won't be going AS insane as i would have in the immediate pre-recital weeks, with opera in there as well.
-finished my last utso concert with doreen rao, the.. interesting.. choir conductor at my school. words cannot describe my ecstasy in knowing that i will never have to work with her again.
-become the opera department's bitch when they decide that orchestra section leader responsibility now includes marking parts. thanks guys. nothing like wasting 6 hours copying bowings. however the associate dean is looking into getting us compensated for the rather thankless task, which is very nice of him.
-had my mom come and visit, which was cool. she decided that it would be fun to spoil me so she came and cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, doing all the nasty little jobs that we've never had time to do here, plus cooking and freezing a good 2-3 weeks' worth of food for me. my mom is awesome.
-set up plans with a friend to go busking hardcore once life stops being so insane with a friend of mine, both of us with the intentions of raising funds for travelling this summer. hoping that i'll wind up in europe again, got some tentative plans to tour spain and possibly portugal with a friend in the month before festivals start... we'll see what happens. i can tell the stress has hit when i'm looking up discount airfares to the other side of the world in my procrastination time... it's been what, 5 months since i came home from europe the last time? feels like much longer. if only i had my own jet. "bye darlings, off to italy for the weekend!" sweet. yet one more reason why i want to marry eschenbach (fabulous conductor who i absolutely adore. he has a private jet, but unfortunately is quite emphatically swinging for the other team).
as for what's coming up, well, i've got my audition for shmf on thursday... i think they're going to laugh at me... they chose some really nastily tough excerpts this time and i really should have started working on them much earlier than i did. they do know me, which is something in my favour, but i'm also afraid i might disappoint them terribly. we'll see what happens. wish me luck.
basically my life currently consists of wasting a lot of time watching degrassi the next generation episodes downloaded off the internet (pathetic, i know) and practicing my leetle buns off for my recital (march 17 @ 8pm! come celebrate st patty's day with a thoroughly non-irish programme and then come to the bar to celerbrate in a more traditional manner!), along with my usual smatterings of formings of (occasionally) unfair and cynical views about everyone around me.
9 weeks until freeeeeeeeedooooooooom!!