Busy

So I've been busy, obviously.

1. Daniel's into climbing. Fortunately, he has yet to explore certain pieces of furniture (like bookshelves), and we don't have stairs in the house aside from the basement steps that are always behind a closed door. Still, any phone book, cardboard box or open drawer is fair game. I finally pulled out a mini step-ladder we used for painting and gave it to him to play on. I figured, hey, if he's going to climb, he might as well be practicing on something that's sturdy and won't slip around.

2. I just won a competition at the school of music with a bassoonist. This is a really big deal for me, in part because I rarely enter competitions and when I do, I never win. Also, the über-rich guy who put up the money for the competition in the first place is going to be at the winners' recital on Sunday, so we'll get to meet him. He wants to have the performance recorded and sold to raise money and awareness for the collaborative program here. So, it's a big deal for my teacher and well, it's just a big deal.

3. It's March already, and if I want to finish this degree before the end of the calendar year, I better get moving. I have a lecture recital to prepare in the next six weeks (ay yi yi), a final project proposal to write, and an exit recital to plan and eventually execute. I also need to find some grant $$ for the final project because I want to do a recording with this fine singer and plane tickets and hours in a professional recording studio don't come free.

4. Next week I'm going to Syracuse to do a recital with Pam (the soprano mentioned above). I can't wait to see her again, but I have to, ahem, learn a couple arias and re-learn some French songs we already performed together in December 2005. Don't worry Pam. I'll be prepared!

Comments

kclblogs said…
congrats on the competition!! it was well deserved, i'm sure.
Pam said…
Hey Suze! I can totally relate! I, too, need to really get my butt in gear for this thing!!! Yikes! But I know it's going to be great -- and fun!!! Yay!
Anonymous said…
Okay, so that "late bloomer" thing that I've peppered your comment roles with regarding my own journey. . the thing about not winning stuff but then starting to *earn* stuff. . that thing where people start to reward real musicianship and not instrumental histrionics. .yeah, right here. . all that work you've been putting in is now starting to pay off so yay! . . and yes it is a tide you may well continue to ride through to the end of the degree and beyond. that's the hope at least.
Animal said…
Super-ooper-duper congrats on your competition win! I enter composition contests all the time (well, not all the time, but as time allows...heh) and have won precisely jack-squat. So, yeah, I can see that it's a really big deal.

Re: recital preparation time...I think you'll look back and discover that 6 weeks is a luxury. I wrote a piece for our flute/clarinet instructors at CMU, and when asking about the difficulty level I was merely told that "we'll have about 10 days to learn it, so just keep that in mind." I think the big-wig musicians have oodles of time to practice and prepare...the rest of us workin' stiffs just need to make do with the time we have. Go get 'em!
Suze said…
animal, as a seasoned accompanist, i realize that 6 weeks (give or take--i haven't actually set a date yet) is a long time. once i learned the first bartok violin sonata in about 3 weeks and it just about did. me. in. however, as you will soon find out :) :) :), doing ANYTHING in six weeks with a small child to take care of suddenly becomes a different game altogether!

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