Long Time Without a Post...again...

This month was NOT so boring that I didn't have anything to post about.
It was so busy that I didn't have time..plus STILL no internet (RCN is about to get the strongest worded letter I've ever written...). But it doesn't matter, since I will be in Cincinnati with Jon in just 3 weeks! I landed a job and therefore am able to move earlier than expected.

Here's a recap on this awesome month:

-2 weeks with Opera for the Young, performing Pirates of Penzance. Which is really an amazing company to work for and with. The first week of October, I was in rehearsal with them, and I just now came off of a week long tour throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. There were some GEMS of questions that kids came up with; some were about details of the show ("why is February such a beastly month?") and some were just plain cute (Kindergartener raises hand and, when called on, proudly proclaims "I likeded the show"). I will be touring with them throughout the winter and spring as well, and am thrilled with how fun it is. It reaffirms my career choice on a daily basis.

-World premier performance of Kyong-Me Choi's "The Eternal Tao." This Guggenheim funded production was performed last Friday, October 22, and was the most difficult piece of music I've ever had to sing on stage. Dr. Choi employed extended techniques such as sprechstimme and hummed chromatic scales, and had orchestra, electronics, recorded sounds, and singers. Somehow it all came together and we had a fantastic performance. I definitely had to push my ears and rhythm to the limit in order to prepare for this piece, and it's nice to know I have that capacity.

-I also had a couple of auditions/competitions...and many more to follow. This is always the hardest time of year for me...learning to separate Myself as a person from what I do. It's a recurring theme here, but it is difficult to have such a personal aspect of yourself judged on a regular basis, and yet maintain high esteem and what I heard referred to as "courage" this past week. I never thought of audition season as a courageous time, and I think that will help my process this season. At any rate, I'm proud of what I've accomplished this past year. Hopefully my momentum will continue.

Now, to bed. I have a consultation/lesson tomorrow with the man who I hope will be my new voice teacher once I move to Cincy for good.

Ok, not having internet is getting ridiculous....

I spoke to another friendly yet ultimately unhelpful RCN technical assistant yesterday. GAH.

Last week I was up in Madison, rehearsing for and launching Opera For The Young's 2010-2011 tour of Pirates of Penzance! It was a FANTASTIC week. All the singers are great and the staff are some of the kindest, most fun people I've ever met. I tried to blog from my hotel room there but kept getting caught up in rehearsing/socializing/sleeping.

I will tour Madison and come down to the burbs of Chicago during the last week of October. Check my website for locations of my public performances!

Accomplishments

Even without internet in my apartment (it's been 8 weeks now, kind of amazing...I spent a significant amount of time yelling at an RCN man today), I managed to get most of my goals for the month accomplished.

I did my 2nd recital with Kyra last night, and it went pretty well. I always wish I had more time to analyze music and get my presentation better prepared, but we were well received and had a lot of fun. Tonight I record "Mi Chiamano Mimi" for a friend's conducting DVD, and then Saturday I go to Madison for Pirates rehearsal week! woohoo.

I also managed to get 20 applications off in the past week. This feels incredible...so far I got 1 audition, no rejections. If only the track record would stay that positive....we shall see. I also learned that I don't have to get off the school apps as ridiculously early as previously thought, since I can actually make all the normal auditions in the winter, even with my OFTY tour schedule. Yay! So I'm taking a brief hiatus from the madness of application-assembling.

In other news, Jon got cast as the Marquis in Dialogues of the Carmelites at CCM! Very exciting.

I think that's it. mostly I miss the cathartic hours spent surfing online, looking at nothing at all. You'd think I would have accomplished more with no internet, but so much of what I do is tied into the Web that mostly I've been watching public television and playing Spider Solitaire (which is SERIOUSLY addictive).

Hopefully I will post more next week as I'm fairly certain my hotel room will have internet. Fingers crossed.

writing from library

I just had an early rehearsal at my old school for an outreach show I'm doing this Friday, so I had a minute to bask in the glorious free internet that is provided by Academia.

This weekend I put together 18(!) applications. I am recording this evening (the voice fairy visited me this weekend and fixed all of last week's fatigue) and then sending them off tomorrow. It is always such a circus to put together everything...each company has their own litany of what they deem important to judge you as a singer, and it's your job to make everything look as professional as possible, since you are basically selling yourself as a product.

I don't have much work this week, but that's good since I have 2 concerts, 2 recordings, 1 outreach show, and still memorizing 2 operas. Sometimes I wonder how I'm going to get it all done, but it seems to miraculously fall into place.

This past weekend I visited Jon in Cincinnati (LOVE our new apartment) and sat in the living room surrounded by lists, envelopes, resumes, headshots, and applications. He quietly let me go nuts for the 5 hours I needed to assemble everything....I am SO THANKFUL to have a partner who completely understands what I have to go through each year.

My internet, She is Lost

It's been awhile because my stupid silly new apartment building had a stupid silly electrician who cut all the wires enabling RCN to hook up my interwebs.

grrrr.

so it has been frustrating. And has put a block on all of my communications with gigs and hindering my application filling out process. After many phone calls to my super, the problem should be resolved "over the next week or so."

we'll see.

this wasn't a post about singing. I have 2 gigs coming up: one for an art installation opening on September 25, and one is a concert with cellist Kyra Saltman. See my website for complete details.

Getting my ducks in a row

This fall is exceptionally busy for me, mostly due to 2 operas in October. I am also working kind-of-full-time. BUT audition season waits for no one!

My plan this year is to have ALL of my applications out by October 1. Some are for summer programs, like Santa Fe, and some for 1 to 2 year-round programs where the singers are kind of the resident artists for a company. Applications often include headshots, resumes, letters of recommendation, recordings, proof of birth, first-born child, etc.

In addition, I have decided to apply to 2 or 3 schools for doctoral programs. This would be difficult as it may mean spending a year away from Jon. But we both understand that in this career we may have to be apart a lot, and we work hard to keep our relationship close even when we are apart...as we are these next 6 months or so.

SO to recap:

learning 2 operas
filling out 50 billion apps
working full time
doing it all before october 1st.

ok go.

Week's Almost Up

I leave NEMC tomorrow...the week has been bittersweet. This place is still absolutely amazing: beautiful scenery, fresh air, and you hear music being played no matter where you are on campus. But the experience has made ME feel pretty old; most of the counselors were younger than me, if not in many years then in schooling and life experience. But I had fun anyways.

We were given some downtime, as promised, and I tried to use it wisely. Occasionally life things got in the way (I battled some nasty food poisoning one day; another day, the toilets in my cabin overflowed and we all mopped it up) but I also became MUCH more familiar with the music I'll be singing in the next 2 months. I think it was helpful to have time and learn how to budget it, because my fall is going to be a crazy mishmosh of nanny work and music work, and it will be interesting to see how I make it all happen. I know everything will get done, but I'm going to have to be harder on myself than I have been in the past with time management...I sense some new schedules are going to be drafted.

Tomorrow I meet with my family again, spend 1 more day in Maine at a friend's house, and then prepare to head back to the midwest.