Highlights of 2010, Especially My Summer Trips!
The year of 2010 has come and almost gone in a quick and wonderful fashion. This year brought on many changes in my life, mostly realizations about what I truly want to be doing with music and my career.
I was fortunate enough to go to Europe this summer, where I attended the PRAGUE PIANO INSTUTITE. I went a week early and took a short trip to Vienna, as well, where I got to see this fantastic film festival featuring a DVD of Lang Lang playing some Beethoven. Hearing Beethoven in Vienna, where Beethoven lived for the last half of his life, is just stunning. It gave me a really connected sense of the music.
The next few weeks, back in Prague, I just had the time of my life at the festival. Each day there was a master class and a recital, with most days having a lecture as well. I took four lessons with professors from all over the world, and the students represented nine different countries (there were 37 pianists there total). In one of the concerts I performed Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in a minor", and played Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Etude-Tableaux in e-flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5" in a masterclass with Elizabeth Pridonoff.
Besides the festival, the city was INCREDIBLE! There was so much history that I got to explore, which included the Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle, Old Town Square and St. Wenceslas Square, the National Museum, and of course, the Vltava, the river that winds throughout the center of Prague. Each night, I went with a group of friends to one of the many restaurants in Prague and sometimes had their authentic food, but often we got pizza or chicken, and it was always SO good! The memories I have of Prague and Vienna are ones that I will certainly never forget.
Once I got back from that trip, I had a few days to recoup, and then it was off to Santa Barbara for three weeks to participate in the MONTECITO SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL. While I was there I got to play the entire Schumann Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47, which is a wonderful work, whilst working simultaneously on many works, including Schumann's "Carnaval" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini". And once I finished that festival I went STRAIGHT to a short, one-week chamber music workshop in Monterey, CA, which was also very fun, to say the least.
The summer of 2010 was probably my biggest highlight, since I did so much traveling and was gone for 7 weeks, but I've also made a lot of great memories in the latter half of 2010. I am now a JUNIOR at the University of the Pacific, and am still accompanying at the Cathedral of Anunciation. It is a wonderful Catholic church that has employed me since February of 2009. I am now beginning to play the organ there a bit, and have played nearly 200 masses at just that parish. Besides working at the Cathedral, I have also maintained my Piano Studio, and had 9 students this past semester, which then performed in the "Fall Student Recital" a few weeks ago. It was so fulfilling to be the teacher watching his students perform--for the first time in my life, too!
I turned TWENTY-ONE years old about a month and a half ago and am loving it! I feel much more my age now, and it just proves to me how soon graduation is approaching and then it's off to graduate school. I am planning on getting my Masters of Music in Piano Performance, '14 at a school either on the East Coast or a few that are here on the West Coast. The application process will begin probably in late-summer, 2011, and the auditions will take place in early-2012. It sounds far off, but it is really just around the corner!
I have mostly turned to journaling in notebooks, which is why there haven't been any entries here in fourteen months. I wouldn't mind updating this good ol' LiveJournal every once in a while. I hope everyone's been well, and take care as 2011 brings in another new year and new opportunities to live life to the fullest!
~Chris
I was fortunate enough to go to Europe this summer, where I attended the PRAGUE PIANO INSTUTITE. I went a week early and took a short trip to Vienna, as well, where I got to see this fantastic film festival featuring a DVD of Lang Lang playing some Beethoven. Hearing Beethoven in Vienna, where Beethoven lived for the last half of his life, is just stunning. It gave me a really connected sense of the music.
The next few weeks, back in Prague, I just had the time of my life at the festival. Each day there was a master class and a recital, with most days having a lecture as well. I took four lessons with professors from all over the world, and the students represented nine different countries (there were 37 pianists there total). In one of the concerts I performed Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in a minor", and played Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Etude-Tableaux in e-flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5" in a masterclass with Elizabeth Pridonoff.
Besides the festival, the city was INCREDIBLE! There was so much history that I got to explore, which included the Charles Bridge, St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle, Old Town Square and St. Wenceslas Square, the National Museum, and of course, the Vltava, the river that winds throughout the center of Prague. Each night, I went with a group of friends to one of the many restaurants in Prague and sometimes had their authentic food, but often we got pizza or chicken, and it was always SO good! The memories I have of Prague and Vienna are ones that I will certainly never forget.
Once I got back from that trip, I had a few days to recoup, and then it was off to Santa Barbara for three weeks to participate in the MONTECITO SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL. While I was there I got to play the entire Schumann Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47, which is a wonderful work, whilst working simultaneously on many works, including Schumann's "Carnaval" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini". And once I finished that festival I went STRAIGHT to a short, one-week chamber music workshop in Monterey, CA, which was also very fun, to say the least.
The summer of 2010 was probably my biggest highlight, since I did so much traveling and was gone for 7 weeks, but I've also made a lot of great memories in the latter half of 2010. I am now a JUNIOR at the University of the Pacific, and am still accompanying at the Cathedral of Anunciation. It is a wonderful Catholic church that has employed me since February of 2009. I am now beginning to play the organ there a bit, and have played nearly 200 masses at just that parish. Besides working at the Cathedral, I have also maintained my Piano Studio, and had 9 students this past semester, which then performed in the "Fall Student Recital" a few weeks ago. It was so fulfilling to be the teacher watching his students perform--for the first time in my life, too!
I turned TWENTY-ONE years old about a month and a half ago and am loving it! I feel much more my age now, and it just proves to me how soon graduation is approaching and then it's off to graduate school. I am planning on getting my Masters of Music in Piano Performance, '14 at a school either on the East Coast or a few that are here on the West Coast. The application process will begin probably in late-summer, 2011, and the auditions will take place in early-2012. It sounds far off, but it is really just around the corner!
I have mostly turned to journaling in notebooks, which is why there haven't been any entries here in fourteen months. I wouldn't mind updating this good ol' LiveJournal every once in a while. I hope everyone's been well, and take care as 2011 brings in another new year and new opportunities to live life to the fullest!
~Chris