Footjoint

Lost and Found

2010-08-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

LOST:
one English horn
one computer
$200 cash
one American passport (thankfully, none of these things were mine)
our collective sanity
my heart (last seen in Colombia with Andres Lopera and Bernardo Alviz, in Ecuador with Dante Anzollini, and in Rio de Janeiro with Xiomara Mass)
two pairs of dress shoes and one favorite earring

FOUND:
Hope
Friends
Brahms
Jesus (the big one in Rio)

Brazil, cont.

2010-08-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

After a day or two of very little food and lots of sleep, I'm much better! The concert in Ribeirao Preto (THAT was the city I was in!) went well despite how sick I was. It was one of the most beautiful halls we've played in so far, and probably had the best acoustic. It was great, because I could play the soft solos in the 2nd movement of the Shostakovich without working so hard to make the sound go to the back of the hall. I thought I could have puked at any moment, though. Exciting.
So now we are on the home stretch. After our concert tonight in Araraquara, we will be on a bus for an entire day to drive to Rio de Janeiro.

I'm kind of into lists right now, so...

Things that could potentially happen on a YOA bus after a concert:
1. a massive pillow fight (there are small pillows stored in the upper shelves)
2. we start singing Colombia Tierra Querida
3. everyone falls asleep within 5 minutes of leaving
4. we start chanting someone's name if they did a good job
5. we start chanting "MUCHA ROPAS!" and then some people take off their clothes

That last one is how I know that "striptease" in Brazilian Portuguese is pronounced "strippytcheesy." Seriously. This group is crazy.

Another list.

Things that could potentially happen during a YOA encore:
1. We start without the conductor on stage by accident.
2. If we're in Brazil, all 7 Brazilian members of the orchestra get up in front and take their shirts off to reveal soccer jerseys underneath. The audience likes that.
3. Sometimes one of those guys actually wears an Argentina jersey over his Brazil jersey. He takes off his shirt, everyone boos, and then he takes off Argentina and throws it somewhere and everyone cheers.
4. Someone almost gets hit by a bass. Bernardo usually dances while carrying his bass above his head.
5. There could be a giant conga line that snakes through the aisles in the audience.

Really, if you haven't seen a YOA encore, you haven't really lived.

This is bad.

2010-08-12T14:39:00.001-07:00

I don't know what city I'm in. I don't know what day it is. All I know is that I have a concert in an hour and 20 minutes and I can't stop throwing up.

Eighteen concerts and four more to go.

2010-08-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

As our sprint to the finish continues, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas finds itself in Poco de Caldas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We are staying in an absolutely charming old hotel with many architectural details - high ceilings, old moldings, tiled floors, wide verandas and shuttered windows that open up into courtyards. There is a rumor that the 3rd floor is haunted. There are only 3 floors of the hotel, so a good portion of the orchestra is staying there and we are all walking around in a sleep-deprived daze, watching out for something out of The Shining.

Our concert last night in Sao Paulo was amazing. The program: selections from West Side Story, Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and Brahms' Symphony no. 1. Our flute section has been undergoing some sad changes - my best friend in the orchestra and fellow flautista, Olga Bertinat of Uruguay was called home to deal with some issues surrounding her orchestra job in Montevideo. She won't be finishing the tour with us, and I'm now covering her parts. There has been a lot of juggling of parts lately - in Sao Paulo, one of the flutists here was very ill and couldn't really play the concert, so I covered her parts as well. I played principal flute on all three pieces and did an okay job.

Olga plays piccolo and flute with an orchestra in Montevideo. She's an amazing person, full of humor and kindness. She's also very sensitive to justice and cares a lot about doing what is right. She cares deeply about music and plays very expressively. She has a boyfriend, Alex, and a dog, Danilo. She swears in English. She will be missed!

Peru and the best day ever

2010-08-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

So, we are in Lima and have given two concerts so far. We have one more tonight and then we fly to Sao Paulo tomorrow morning for the home stretch - Brazil!
The day before yesterday we had a completely free day - that felt weird. So of course they had things planned for us. Here's what I did:
1. Saw crazy old Incan ruins outside of Lima. Link to pictures coming soon. Took the Spanish version of the tour and actually understood some things.
2. YOA has a way of giving us alcohol at the (usually) wrong time - like before we eat lunch after a long morning of walking around Incan ruins.
3. We started drinking at this horse ranch where the horses are trained to dance! We continued to drink (they served us this specific kind of Peruvian alcohol that is mixed with lime juice and raw egg) as the horses did this cool show for us. The people had beautiful costumes.
4. I ate beef heart without knowing it. And then I ate more beef heart KNOWING it.
5. They served us lunch. If there is one thing you need to know about Peru, it's that the food is AMAZING. This might have been the best lunch I've ever had.
6. A band played. And a group of folk dancers came to dance for us. It was really cool!

More posts about Peru soon...

En Lima, que lindo

2010-08-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Quito was both spectacular and spectacularly difficult: we made a professional recording of Philip Glass' Cello Concerto. The orchestra got to the hall at 11 am and finished at 8 pm - and we were so tired. Glass was there, as was his wife, Wendy Sutter, who plays the cello solo. We played the concerto, along with Mahler 4, two nights ago to a packed house at our last concert in Quito. In the cello concerto, it's very difficult to get all the parts to match up, and we had an extra challenge with a particularly boomy hall. It's also difficult because the orchestra couldn't hear the cellist for most of the piece due to the natural acoustics of the hall and the thick texture of the orchestration. It's like jumping into a pool blind. For the recording, we had to do a lot of repetitions of tiny little parts. By the end of the day, we were on take 189. Some of those takes were entire movements, some were just one measure. It was exhausting, but I think the recording is going to be good.

That was yesterday. Today we got to get up at 4:30 am to fly to Lima, Peru! It's really foggy here. Lima is right by the Pacific ocean and there are some parts that remind me of the sunset district in San Francisco. After just one meal here, the food has really lived up to it's reputation. Lima is the ceviche capital of the world and I am willing to agree after having eaten just a little bit of ceviche pescado at our hotel for lunch. It's raw fish cured with lime and other seasonings. Amazing!

otra familia

2010-07-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Now in its second residency in Quito, Ecuador, the orchestra is playing Mahler's 4th symphony and two pieces by Phillip Glass, our composer-in-residence. The orchestra is...exhausted, sick, and continually pushed. I am feeling fine, with the exception of a painful cough. We are still getting used to the altitude in Quito and some people are experiencing headaches.
On top of this, two members of the orchestra have lost grandmothers in the last few days. It is so hard for them to be away from their families and far away from home. We help each other by offering stashed food, vitamin C tablets, covering each others' parts in rehearsals, and with lots of hugs.
Quito is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. We haven't seen too much of it because we've been shuttled between the hotel and the concert hall, which is quite far away and up a steep hill. The clouds here are beautiful - there are lots of eucalyptus trees and other flowers. One of my favorite parts is that all the buses have names painted across their front windows - "Trans-Zeta," "El Rey de la Via," etc. Fun...we even had a bus that had a furry covering for the outside of the rear view mirror.

Need...oxygen

2010-07-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

At 5 pm today the flutist who plays principal on the Brahms symphony called me and asked me to play for her - she has a fever. So with only one 20 minute soundcheck as my rehearsal, I played the whole symphony and it was...pretty good.
I'm going to back up.
We woke up this morning at 4 am to get to the airport to fly to Quito, Ecuador. We spent all day going through our bags, doing customs on one end and immigration on the other, etc. Last night I got to bed at 1 am and that was after I tried and said no to a lot of people about going out. Anyway, we arrived in Quito around 12. We slept until 4 pm. And the altitude! Oh, my god. We are at 10,000 feet here. They actually gave us oxygen backstage. I was shaking the whole time because I don't really know the symphony and it's such an important part. I made a couple of big mistakes, but overall it was a passionate, memorable performance.

We are going to be in Quito for the next week - tomorrow we start rehearsals for the Mahler and the two Glass pieces. At some point they are going to take us to the park with the equator so we can stand on it and take pictures!

Bogota - Quito

2010-07-25T22:19:00.002-07:00

At some point yesterday in Bogota I looked down at the pen in my hand and it said "Oberlin Alumni Association." And it was weird.
I have had a couple of challenging days on the tour. We left Cali at 3:45 am on...was it Thursday? or Wednesday? I have no idea.

I will give you a summary of life here in Bogota:

* leave Cali at 3:45 am two days ago; arrive at 7 am in Bogota
* sleep until 12:30 pm
* attempt to wash everything in my suitcase at Pablo's apartment - this took ALL DAY because we kept leaving to do stuff and then we had to come back to switch the loads.
* I've been allergic to EVERYTHING and have been feeling really poorly, even with my medication
* while my laundry languished wet in a hamper waiting transfer to the dryer, we went to the Candelaria section of Bogota, which is the oldest section - saw the presidential house, the congress, and the supreme court. It was beautiful! And we saw some filming of a telenova in the streets.

The hardest part of this day was that I couldn't just go back to the hotel and sleep some more. I was tethered to a bunch of crazy latinos. At 11 pm, with my laundry still not in the dryer, we went back to the hotel to get Pablo's bag. Everyone got out of the car and they were just hanging out. It drove me crazy, and I just started to cry because I was so tired. Immediately I was told to go to bed - and these amazing people finished my clothes and folded them for me. They are amazing. People really try to take care of each other in this group, and they will drop everything to take care of someone who is feeling bad.

Okay, now a summary of today:

* wake up at 8:30
* play a CONCERT at 11 am
* lunch was confusing because it was in employee cafeteria of a supermarket and there were only two people serving food to about 150 people. Waited for food for about 40 minutes.
* play ANOTHER concert at 5 pm. yes. another concert. 3 hours.
* 8 pm: go back to the hotel. Have a cocktail party for all the donors. Lots of speeches. LOTS of speeches. Pablo's band played. And then finally, at 10 pm, dinner.
* Okay, and here's the best part! We wake up at 4 tomorrow to go to Quito - and we play ANOTHER concert tomorrow night!!!

The most difficult part of this day has been the altitude. 8600 feet is really high. And several people (including my Chilean roommate had to sit out the concert because of altitude sickness. And she plays viola! Xiomara, my oboist friend, didn't play the morning concert, either, but managed the evening concert. Olga almost passed out in the middle of her flute solo in Shostakovich. It's really bad -- and Quito is even higher. So we are trying to take care of ourselves, but it's been very difficult under the circumstances. I don't know when we're going to get a day off again. The schedule in Quito is very compact because we have to learn Mahler and all of the Philip Glass pieces for recording.

Somehow, through all of this, we are having an amazing time! I love my friends, I love this orchestra, and I love Colombia. On to Ecuador...

Cartegena y Barranquilla

2010-07-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

After a couple days of 95 degree heat, a pearly green ocean, and the constant threat of massive sunburn -- oh, and two concerts -- we are waiting in the airport for our flight to Cali from Cartegena.

I'm a little tired and distracted in the airport, but some of the things we saw:

1. The old city of Cartegena, complete with old Spanish colonial architecture, climbing vines and flowers, and LOTS of flags for Colombian independence day.
2. The old wall that surrounded the city, dating back to the early 1500s.
3. A beach with water so warm it was almost like soup.

Cali is the purported capital of salsa music of the entire world. Looking forward to some dancing and good music, and maybe even a decent orchestra concert.

Medellin y Cartagena

2010-07-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Medellin is a city of about 3 million people in the heart of Colombia, and it's probably my favorite so far. We left the hot springs to drive about six hours here along more mountain roads. Honestly, I'm surprised no one threw up. Our bus drivers take the curves pretty fast.
We arrived and immediately plans were in the works for going out - we took a short taxi ride to a salsa bar and everyone started dancing. Our group split off and we went to a smaller place with loud music and more dancing. We piled into a cab at about 2:30 to go back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, the weather started to turn bad for our outdoor concert. Our soundcheck was delayed and then canceled and then there was talk of the whole concert being canceled because of rain. We went on anyway, although I question whether it was a good idea. The audience wasn't covered, but we were. They huddled under umbrellas and under the eaves of a building across from us. I think the orchestra's playing is suffering because of lack of sleep, among other things.
Yesterday we had to get up at 5 to go the airport for a flight to Cartagena, which is a huge city on the very top of the continent. The orchestra took up the whole tiny plane -- apparently we took too long to get on the plane, so we missed our take-off time. We were supposed to make a connection in Bogota, but we couldn't leave for Bogota now because there was some kind of big air show going on there. What kind of capital city closes down the entire major airport for an air show? So we got off the plane. Hung out for a while in the airport. Our tour managers did some negotiating and they were able to get us back on the plane for a flight straight to Cartagena, so we actually got there early.
Last night I didn't do anything but catch up on sleep. Today is the big concert with Joshua Bell on the eve of Colombia's 200th anniversary of independence from Spain. We are playing the national anthem at midnight in the old stone section of the city. Should be amazing!

Armenia and Manizales

2010-07-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a crazy few days...I'm sitting here just trying to remember everything that we've been doing.
After Ibagué, we drove to Armenia on a crazy mountain road that twisted and turned and went up and down for hours. The scenery was really beautiful, but I think all of us just wanted to sleep instead. The schedule has been punishing - a concert every day in a different city. I think the hardest part is actually not being able to sleep well on the bus because the roads are so curvy.
My oboist friend Pablo has family in Armenia and invited us to his house for lunch. His mom and grandmother made an amazing meal - beans that they had shelled and made that same day, a hunk of well-seasoned beef, some kind of raw cabbage ensalada, rice, plantains, and I don't remember what else. It was so good! And it was interesting to go to a real Colombian house. They are all so different and seem hobbled together with all kinds of materials. Everything was so comfortable. We got to look at Pablo's baby photos. I couldn't understand his mom or his grandmother at all because they have very thick accents. I think they were really happy to meet all these people that Pablo had told them about for so many years.
The next day, we drove to Manizales, which is where I am right now. We are staying at this beautiful convention center that has natural hot springs! Thankfully, we got a full day of rest here. Yesterday we didn't have a concert - we didn't have to do anything, in fact. So of course we did everything. After staying up late soaking in hot volcanic water, we slept in. Then we piled into a taxi to take us into Manizales to have some food. I have been eating so much meat here that I was hoping for something a little different (usually meals are served with some beef, a little chicken, some chorizo, and then some pork skins, which I don't really like) so I ordered fish. I got the ENTIRE fish! It was looking at me. It was delicious, but the attached fins were kind of gross.
After breakfast/lunch we met our friend Ricardo, who plays flute with the Filarmonica Joven de Colombia, the other orchestra we've been traveling with. Manizales is his hometown, and he had his car, so he picked us up. We drove about 30 kilometers through mountains to another little town where Guillermo lives. He's one of the clarinetists in our orchestra. We wandered around the town for a while looking for his street. Ricardo kept pulling to the side of the road asking people where the street was, since there are no signs. Finally we found the street but were unsure about the house. He asked a guy if he knew Guillermo - and once he described him as playing clarinet and that he had long hair, the guy was like "oh, yeah, his house is over there." We knew we were at the right place because there was this amazing Colombian music coming out the windows from Guillermo's band. His house was already full of people from the orchestra dancing and drinking beer and eating food - it was only 1:30 in the afternoon.
Eventually we got back into Ricardo's car and headed into Manizales again, where we wandered around. Ricardo took us to his father's jewelery store and introduced us. We rode a gondola that is strung along the city. Manizales has streets that are even steeper than San Francisco. Finally, Ricardo took us to his house for dinner! Another amazing family and amazing meal. The hospitality just blows my mind. We listened to Colombian music on the radio and danced in the living room.
Today we are driving to Medellín and we'll play a concert there tomorrow night.

Ibagué

2010-07-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

We played the first official concert of the tour last night in Villavicencio - an open-air concert in the big plaza in the middle of the town. There were so many people there! A huge stage had been set up with lights and two big screens that projected video of the orchestra playing close-up. We arrived early for a soundcheck and then it rained. A lot. Like, rivers of rain running in the streets. We were all huddled in tents while it passed over us. The concert was a big success - we played all three encores and then we played another encore twice. They didn't want us to leave! Finally, we went back to our hotel and had dinner by 11:30 pm.

We had to wake up at 5 am to be on the bus by 5:30. We drove all day to another city, Ibagué, which is where we are now. We stopped at another hotel for lunch and to watch the World Cup final game - there was also a pool to swim in and even a bowling alley in the basement. After Spain won the game, we hung out for a little longer, had a snack, and got back on the bus. Now we're all pretty tired. Our concert is tomorrow night and it will also be outdoors. The weather is a little humid - it rains every day at some point. But it's not too hot, I think partly because we are at a higher altitude.

Measures of growth

2010-07-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

The orchestra is ready to start giving concerts. We have had a great residency, full of chamber music concerts and dancing and rehearsals. The food is good, but I have never eaten so much meat at once in my life. Not sure how I feel about it.
I asked Alex Klein, the oboe coach (and former principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony) to give me a lesson. I was nervous about asking him, but he was like "let's go now." So we did. We talked a little about being a musician and being selfish. His opinion is that artists are selfish, and that it's a good thing. It's a necessary thing. You have to have an opinion about everything - both on music and in the world. And it must be an educated opinion and one that you can express with conviction. I feel that my playing has been very subservient and apologetic recently. So I got out of my little box. I played a movement of the Bach partita for him. I haven't felt this creatively challenged in at least a year, maybe more. I felt open enough to have crazy ideas, and then he helped me organize those crazy ideas into something that had flow, logic, and narrative. What a great teacher.
Tonight we will have an open dress rehearsal for donors and special guests here at the hotel. Then tomorrow we will play a concert in Villavicencio and then the next day on to Ibague.

Symphonia India

2010-07-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's been raining a lot here, and in addition to that there has been a lot of rehearsals that don't involve all of us. The result: some boredom and stir-crazy feelings. Tomorrow we will start to rehearse Mahler, which means that more of us will be distracted. When you don't have enough to do, it's easier to become homesick. The enormity of the tour hits you in the face and you just want to go home and pet the dog.
We are on a huge plain that meets the mountains. There are a lot of farms and ranches around us, and it's flat, flat, flat in one direction as far as we can see. Sometimes we see lightening far in the distance. You can watch storms approaching and see it raining miles away. Last night we got a great thunderstorm with a lot of rain. Everything is so green here.
I got asked for the second time yesterday if I was Italian. Apparently I pronounce things in Spanish like an Italian. It's still wrong, but at least it's not with an American accent.
We are mostly playing established works by European composers like Shostakovich and Brahms. We are playing one piece by a Mexican composer named Carlos Chavez. We performed his Huapango at Carnegie Hall in February, and now we are playing his Symphonia India, also known as his second symphony. All of the themes are based on music from the indigenous people of the Sonora desert. The percussionists are also using instruments from that culture. It's a pretty intense piece.
I am glad to be here among friends. I love all the people here. But I need to get busy or get homesick.

bambuco, la piscina, y muchos ensayos

2010-07-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

We are still at the residency and rehearsing about 5-6 hours per day. It's pretty tiring, but we are having fun, too. The flutes from Orquestra Jovem de Colombia and YOA have combined to make a chamber music group. We are playing an arrangement of a bambuco song called Il Papi. Bambuco is Colombian music, very rhythmic, very difficult. It's hard to get the right style. Luckily, we have two Colombianos to show us the way, but I don't know if we will ever get it right.
This orchestra, in addition to working hard, also knows how to relax. There is a party every night at the pool that goes late into the night. Sometimes someone brings a guitar. The sky here is so dark that you can see the Milky Way and way more stars than in Chicago.
One challenging aspect here is laundry. There are laundry services, but they are very expensive. So everyone is handwashing their clothes and hanging them on the balconies. But it's been windy, so the whole resort is littered with underwear right now.
Our favorite conductor, Carlos Miguel Prieto, arrived yesterday and began working with us on Shostakovich, among other things. We will have a big rehearsal tonight for the music from West Side Story. He's a good conductor and a good human being.
Our lives are little boring right now. We will begin the actual tour in earnest in four days. Then it will be non-stop - we will drive to a few cities in Colombia and then take something like four flights within the country. Then we fly to Quito. Then we fly to Peru. Then to Sao Paulo. I think after that we are on a bus until we go home. But this tour isn't light on the fossil fuels.

Dispatch from the equator

2010-07-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

So, the antibiotics are kicking in and I'm feeling much more human. The residency is in full swing now, and everyone is getting to know each other better. I have several friends who are taking it upon themselves to teach me more Spanish, and they give me quizzes at dinner to see how much I remember. The punishment for getting more than 2 words wrong: being thrown into the pool. They haven't had to do that yet.

Part of this residency is launching the new Filarmoníca Joven de Colombia, so there are actually two orchestras rehearsing in different rooms at the same time here. The FJC will accompany us throughout our tour of Colombia to raise awareness (and funds, I presume) of the new organization and classical music in general. We will also combine orchestras to play a couple of things, including Bernstein's suite from West Side Story. We had our first mega-rehearsal this morning and, well...it was loud. Lots of people. Every part doubled. There is tremendous talent here. They are just trying to organize it and to channel it into something manageable. It's a little strange to play with the combined orchestra, because you have great rhythm and sound, notes are learned, but it's difficult for everyone to follow the conductor. Our flute section is pictured above: Olga from Uruguay is principal, followed by Roberto of the FJC; then Kaili, a Canadian, and then Carolina of the FJC. I'm playing piccolo on the Bernstein and feel lucky that no one is doubling with me. That would be painful.

On a separate note, the town closest to us, Villavicencio, is having a yearly outdoor festival that apparently culminated last night with an outdoor concert with Marc Anthony last night. For those who don't know who that is, he's a big star in Latin American music. He's also married to Jennifer Lopez. And apparently they were both staying at our hotel last night and left early this morning. This could just be a rumor.

Antibióticos son buenos

2010-07-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

So, I am most definitely still sick and getting worse here. I still have whatever it is I got in Oregon, which doesn't seem to respond to vitamin C, allergy medicine, sleep, or ibuprofen. The nurse for the orchestra gave me some antibiotics today. Maybe that will work? Oh, and the whole orchestra got inoculated for yellow fever today, too. Everyone is walking around with sore arms. The vaccine is required for entering Brazil. Speaking of Brazil, there are a lot of long faces today because of their defeat at the World Cup. A therapeutic soccer game is underway now in front of the hotel.
Rehearsals started today. Since we need four flutes for the Mahler, all of us get time off occasionally because they will rehearse a piece we're not playing in. I'm not playing in the Brahms symphony, which is a little disappointing, but I guess that's what happens when you play your audition tired, sick, and relatively unprepared.
Really, I'm kind of relieved that I don't have anything seriously important to do. I would be really stressed out right now. Instead, I can just sit back and enjoy playing and traveling. We also rehearsed Shostakovich 9 and Chavez's 2nd Symphony today.

Colombian mountains and how to get over them

2010-06-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

So, today we got up early, had breakfast, and then piled into a bus with basses, celli, and other assorted instruments (and lots of baggage) to drive to the residency site. This is where we'll practice and learn all the music for the tour, as well as be mentored by some great musicians like Leone Buyse and Leon Spierer.
We heard that the drive to the site would take approximately three hours. We left at 10:30 am and got to the place at 6:30 pm. Hmmm...partly that was because we stopped for a long Colombian-style lunch, which meant that we were eating HUGE pieces of meat. I ordered a combination of some kind of sausage, beef, and what turned out to be fried pork skins (didn't eat those). Plus rice and beans. Plus half an avocado. Plus fruit salad. Plus empanadas. Plus mango juice. It was ridiculous.

Okay, so partly our trip took so long because we went over and through huge mountains. There were tunnels that were only big enough for one lane of traffic, so there was a lot of sitting there waiting for the tunnel to clear. The mountains were so beautiful - they look a little like the mountains in Kauai in Hawai'i. So green and very steep.
We finally arrived at our hotel/resort place, and now everyone is frantically practicing for placement auditions tomorrow. I'm sharing a room with a Chilean girl named Pauli who plays viola. It's really nice to see old YOA friends, and to meet new ones.

YOA Tour 2010 Commences Ahora

2010-06-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

I left Chicago yesterday to join the Youth Orchestra of the Americas on their 2010 Latin American tour. The first stop: Bogotá, Colombia. Today we will all pile in a bus to go to our residency site in Villavicencio, which is about three hours away in the mountains of Colombia.
YOA will spend the next ten days rehearsing there and playing chamber music. Then we will start to travel around Colombia (you can see the dates on my calendar) mentoring members of the new national youth orchestra system that Colombia is implementing. After that, we will continue to play concerts in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. I won't be home until August 17th!
This is definitely the longest tour I've ever been on. I am still dealing with some remnants of a viral infection and I'm concerned about being sick the whole time, so lots of sleep is imperative. We have to pace ourselves and not burn out too early. But really, this orchestra is known for it's hyperactive energy. Playing with the YOA is an electric experience.
Last night, we experienced Colombian customs and immigration. Let's just say it's not too sophisticated and that rules are not applied to everyone in the same way. I was detained, along with a violist and a bassoonist, for not having an address for our hotel on our customs form. It was kind of scary, but in the end one of the officers took me outside to find our contact. I couldn't see him in the huge crowd, but I did see some other people with instruments. They had been allowed through without providing an address (no one knew it!). After about an hour of sitting there while they had confiscated our passports, we were freed and allowed to go outside. The violist, Javier from Chile, taught me a lot about being patient and not arguing your case too much. It seems like they really just make up the rules on the spot and all you can do is be nice and go with it.
I'm really excited to hear the orchestra, to see old friends, and to travel more of the country. More soon...

Home

2009-10-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

After a long day of traveling, I'm back in Evanston. Damaris and I were on the same flight to Miami, so she offered to give me a ride to the airport. Her brother drove us. He has his own show on Dominican television, and people recognize him wherever he goes. It was fun when the toll booth lady did a double-take when she saw him and got completely excited. His show includes a part where he looks into the future. Apparently, he's inherited clairvoyant capabilities from his and Damaris' grandmother.

Anyway, I wanted to post some more photos. Some of these are from a short concert the students gave for local school children. Afterwards, the kids got to come on stage and see the instruments up close.

I loved these students and I hope I can see them again someday.

Amazing people

2009-10-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

We had our final concert tonight, and I fly home to Chicago tomorrow. The students did a wonderful job, and I think everyone learned a lot -- me, the musicians, and the audience. I feel particularly close to several students, including a brother and sister who play the oboe and flute. Their mother came to all of the rehearsals and watched as I coached them. He played in the quintet, and she was the flutist in the Mozart quartet. Both brother and sister (Ívan and Emily) were very good natured and quite talented, and their mom always greeted me with a hug and a kiss. They gave me a gift of coffee and cookies tonight. So sweet.

It seems like this is the beginning of what will hopefully be a long relationship between me and the students, the music teachers here, and Traveling Notes. It's likely that I might return to the country in the next year to work with students at the university. I really hope that this is the case.

This entire week was a lot of work, and I am exhausted. But it was good to get out of the U.S. again, to get more perspective on the world and on my own situation. I enjoyed practicing Spanish so much more on this trip than on the YOA tour, and I'm not exactly sure why. I didn't do my Spanish homework before going to Santo Domingo, so I wasn't particularly prepared to speak the language. I didn't even bring a dictionary or a phrase book. But I was surprised to find that I could pick out a lot of words while listening to people and understand the basic idea of what was going on. As the week progressed, I was able to comprehend phrases, and then whole sentences. Then I suddenly found myself speaking in whole sentences. I would think in my head how to begin a sentence, and what words I wanted to use, and then I would just start talking, and words would come to me, and they would be the right ones. It's amazing, and it makes me want to do more Spanish immersion in the future.

I've become very attached to the people I've been working with. Ellen Brager, the director and brain of the whole Traveling Notes operation, is one of a kind. She was born and grew up in Belgium, where she learned to speak Flemish, English, French, and German as a young girl. Since then, she's been traveling the world, living in many places and working to improve her language skills. Now she is also fluent in Spanish, after living in Peru and the D.R. She is an efficient, professional person who doesn't always gel with the laid-back culture here, but in that way she makes an excellent administrator and director for a program that needs a lot of pushing and constant vigilance.

As for Robin, Jorge, and Damaris, I love playing music with them and I respect them enormously as musicians and people. Robin is an adventurous, strong person with a deadpan sense of humor and an unwavering sense of self. Jorge, although he was sick for most of the trip, was indispensable in creating our schedule and providing translation, in addition to being a great teacher and violinist. Damaris, our pianist, was also critical to making the trip happen, as she was able to work her connections in Santo Domingo in order to get the project off the ground. She's also a great person to talk to, in any language.

Yay, colonialism.

2009-10-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

We do so much stuff here, it's hard to believe it all happens in one day.

After having breakfast and answering email at Ellen's house (which is just around the corner from where I'm staying), Robin and I got dropped off at the Colonial District in Santo Domingo. It's the ancient part of the city that includes a stone fortress/mansion where Christopher Columbus and his brother lived, the oldest cathedral in the Americas, museums, and other touristy parts. I was expecting it to be kind of like the old part of the city in Salvador, Brazil, but it was much less crowded -- meaning Robin and I were much more conspicuous, which I didn't like. We took a lot of pictures, saw a lot of kids on school trips (they all wanted pictures with us, too), and walked around. We also shopped a little, and I got to bargain for some things, which is fun.

We found an old museum that we wanted to go into, but it was being renovated. They let us go in anyway and look at the crumbling parts of the exhibits. This museum was supposed to be about pirates, but it looked like the pirates got there first. Robin wanted to take some "booty," but the guard wanted a bribe and eventually we just left. You never refuse a guy a bribe when he has a gun. Our foray into urban exploration in the Caribbean was fairly successful, and we learned a lot about astrolabes in the process.

We got into a cab to go home and get lunch before going to do more stuff. It was 2 pm, the height of the lunch hour, on the hottest day since we've been here, and we're stuck in a cab with no air conditioning in heavy traffic. By the time we got home, we were completely soaked in sweat. The driver kept telling me how much he loves Obama.

After freshening up a little, Robin, Jorge and I went to do a little concert for a school for children with Down's syndrome. Most of them had never seen instruments like ours before, and they were totally excited and interested. We gave them some instruments so they could participate, too, and we vamped on some chords while they sang a favorite song. After we were done, they didn't want us to leave and kept hugging us and saying thank you.

We headed back to the Palacio des Belles Artes, which is where we've been teaching this week. We taught for four hours. I coached my wind quintet on Ravel and then moved on to help a Mozart flute quartet. After that...well, Ellen asked us if we wanted to go have dinner and then swim in the ocean. Um, yes. So it's now two in the morning and my hair is still wet from swimming in an ocean that feels like bath water. Robin and I looked at each other in the water and I said, "Aren't our lives strange?" We don't have money to replace our old shoes with holes in the bottoms, but we're hanging out with the super-rich on an island in the Caribbean.

Here's a picture of Christopher Colombus' house:

Rehearsals continue

2009-10-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

As much as the Dominican Republic is a vacation destination, I am here almost exclusively to work. We may have a couple of hours on Friday to go to the beach (I still don't have a swimsuit, though) or go see the colonial district. But mostly, we are here to teach and play.

The quintet I'm coaching is made up of young people from the national youth orchestra. They are very passionate -- and they don't mince words with each other. They are also a little loathe to concentrate and would rather chat and joke around than get down to business, which is a little frustrating. But they are doing pretty well. I wish I knew more about how to play the bassoon, as our bassoonist is having the most trouble, particularly with intonation.

I asked someone today why baseball is so big in the Dominican Republic, while it seems that soccer is much more important in other Latin American countries. They told me that it's because the Dominicans don't want to run and chase after a ball for the entire game -- they'd rather conserve their energy for one big swing of the bat. This came from the country's director of musical activities (which is a government position, believe it or not), Carnex. Carnex is a suave guy, sophisticated, who studied with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard and played with numerous orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic. He told me that he doesn't play anymore and has since sold his violin so he could buy a really nice house. He's into the electric violin now, but mostly he deals with the bureaucracy of the Dominican government as it relates to classical and traditional musical performance in the country -- how people get paid, how performances are organized, how the national conservatory is supported, etc. He wants to resign, but the Ministry of Culture won't accept his resignation. So for now, he stays. He also has a radio program on Sunday nights that plays classical music. He interviewed Damaris (our pianist) on his program earlier this week (they grew up together in Santo Domingo) and revealed that as an adolescent he was completely in love with her. He got into some trouble over that.

Tonight, half of my Mozart flute quartet didn't show up, so instead we shuttled the violist off to another quartet with a missing viola, and I gave the flutist a lesson for two hours. This seems pretty typical. Example: today, the wind quintet was supposed to rehearse from 3 to 5. I was dropped off at the rehearsal space at 3:15, at which point I only found two of the five members present and all the doors to the rooms locked. It took another twenty minutes to unlock the door to the rehearsal room, during which the bassoonist showed up. At that point, we began rehearsing with me playing the flute part and an imaginary oboist. Around four o'clock, the flutist arrived, and around 4:15 the oboe player came with a crappy reed that he had to soak for another ten minutes. So, 4:30, we were all present and ready to play...for half an hour of serious rehearsal. Hmmm.

The flute player I taught tonight, Emily, is wonderful. She is 16, very nice, very musical, with an involved mother, and a natural intelligence. With the right guidance and practice, she could easily go to a conservatory in the U.S. The problem is, of course, money and a visa. The way of life for a musician here is far more stark than the challenges we face in the U.S. The obstacles these musicians have to overcome in order to practice their art are overwhelming: cultural and familial acceptance, money or connections to buy or borrow an instrument, time away from a money-making job for practicing, study and rehearsals, and the simple fact that a lot of people here have no idea about classical music. It's a Eurocentric idea that really has very little to do with day to day life here. The heat is hard on the instruments....there are all these issues. So, all the young musicians I've talked to have to mention these caveats when they talk about a career in music. It's generally regarded as completely impossible, at best irresponsible.

More tomorrow.

La República Dominicana!

2009-10-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

For the past two days, I have been working as a music teacher and chamber musician in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic through a program called Traveling Notes. My colleagues include a Dominican pianist who now teaches and plays in association with a university in Las Vegas, a Peruvian violinist who plays with the Virginia Symphony, and an American cellist who lives in Boston. We're here to further the cause of chamber music and classical music in the Dominican Republic, and in the Caribbean in general. In addition to playing concerts here, our group will mentor ten chamber music groups here in Santo Domingo.

Our group has rehearsals in the morning and early afternoon. We're preparing for three different concerts: one for a school that works with children with Down's syndrome, a benefit concert for Traveling Notes in the home of a patron, and the big concert at the end of the week, when our students will also perform.

We begin teaching at five in the afternoon, and continue through 9:30 pm. Each of us coaches two groups in the evening. Since I'm the only wind player, I have the pleasure of coaching a wind quintet consisting of some very good Dominican players in their late teens and early twenties. They have a lot of personality, and a couple speak some English, so we can get by with the little Spanish I know, the little English that they can translate, and musical terms. They seem to be arguing a lot with each other, and I'm not clear always about what. But they are generally very passionate. The clarinet player in the quintet is also a composer, speaks English pretty well, and is very knowledgeable of contemporary music. He knocked down some expectations for me right away: I didn't expect to be asked about the New Complexity or Finnish composers while I was in Santo Domingo.

Once I'm done with the quintet, I spend two hours with another group, and since we rotate around, it will be with a different group each night of the week. This is so much fun - different students, different instruments, different levels. I'm a little worried that by the end of the week we teachers will be telling these students four different things, but hopefully it will all be somewhat consistent. I particularly relish these chances to talk to string quartets about breathing together.

There is a kind of chaos that seems to accompany certain Latin American cities. Santo Domingo is one of those. You cannot come here and expect things to work normally. The corruption of this city permeates nearly every way of life -- electrical blackouts, the way buildings are built, the way people are paid. I learned the other day that there is 60% sales tax on certain things, like restaurant food -- but if you have diplomat status, as we do, you just show your diplomatic papers and you don't have to pay the tax. We musicians are supposed to have some money from the Ministry of Culture to pay for our meals and transportation while we are here, and we still don't have the money because the government is insisting that they take a 25% cut. Organizers through Traveling Notes are trying to get the full amount, and so we are in a perpetual "mañana" status. It's always going to happen tomorrow. We just go with the flow.

My Spanish is getting better, particularly my listening comprehension. Everyone is encouraging me to talk as much as I can. It's a surprise to realize that I already know how to say a lot of basic things. Strangely, trying to speak any language at all besides English is helping my French, too, since I generally try to say something in French first by accident, and then correct myself.

Tonight after the rehearsals and coachings, we went out to have Dominican sushi, which is awesome. Imagine sushi, with rice and nori, but topped with plantain slices and avocado, with sweet fruit sauces. Amazing.

Tomorrow, more rehearsals. We literally haven't had any time to ourselves to sight-see or to stick a toe in the clear Caribbean water. Maybe on Friday.

California Immersion

2009-09-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

I'm back in Evanston after a long two months spent mostly outdoors in California. First: six weeks at Cazadero, a music camp where you either sleep under the stars or, if you're higher on the food chain like me, in a tent cabin with a canvas roof and a deck built into surrounding redwoods. You eat outside, teach outside, rehearse outside, and practice (mostly) outside.

Six weeks of outdoors clearly wasn't enough. So Leander and I embarked on our long-planned, long-anticipated backpacking trip along the California coast. We left on August 10th, taking a very sketchy little bus from Sebastopol to Stewart's Point, a small cluster of old buildings near Sea Ranch near the Mendocino-Sonoma border. The bus dropped us off, and we began walking south. The destination: San Francisco, about 126 miles away. It was supposed to take 13 days, in which we would be camping every night but one, cooking all our meals outdoors on a little stove, and keeping the ocean on the right. We ended up doing the whole trip in 11.5 days - and it was awesome. Especially the part about leaving the flute at home.

We walked south through Salt Point State Park, Fort Ross, and across a gnarly section of the San Andreas Fault. We camped above some beautiful coves, picked up supplies in Jenner, near the mouth of the Russian River, and bought smoked salmon from a nice guy on the side of the road. We took a boat across Tomales Bay to Point Reyes National Seashore, where a few days later we were able to stay at a hostel and take a much-needed shower. We climbed Mount Vision and Mount Tamalpais, which were both shrouded in fog. We walked many beaches, saw harbor seals, otters, starfish, crabs, and other sea life we weren't sure about. Owls kept us awake at night with their screeches. Our map led us astray many times, a couple of which were kind of dangerous. And we met some really nice people.

We walked into San Francisco on the Golden Gate Bridge, something I've done many times. It probably should have been our most exciting moment, but really, walking on the GGB is pretty unpleasant with all the noise, tourists, and wind. We walked into the city, to our friend's apartment, took showers, and ordered a pizza. And we still had another week to hang out with people and eat food in San Francisco before coming back to Illinois. Beautiful!

Caz Summer 09

2009-08-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm at camp...and we get silly.

For the past six weeks, I've been teaching flute and woodwind chamber music at Cazadero Performing Arts Camp, a great organization based in Berkeley, California that brings several hundred young musicians to the Sonoma County redwoods every summer. I'm a faculty member, which means that I teach the campers and help the counselors learn to teach better. Even though enrollment was down, I taught around fifty flutists over the course of the summer.

I had the good fortune to coach a high school flute and cello duo that was very talented. In addition to being great players, these boys were also avid composers. They learned a couple movements of Villa-Lobos' Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle), and then each of them composed a short work for the duo. They ended up performing all three on the student concert. One of them added a small offstage flute part for me to play. When they performed their own works on the outdoor stage at dusk, with the redwoods surrounding us, it was exceptionally beautiful.

The other reason I love this job: the other music teachers. We get considerable amounts of time away from the kids, which means we get to play a lot of chamber music on our own. Highlights include an arrangement we made of an aria from a Bach cantata for flute, violin and cello; a flute, alto saxophone and piano trio by Koechlin (the player and the music must be particularly notable for me to get near a classical saxophone); and a proposed staff flutophone/theramin ensemble.

Like I said before, we get silly.

Goings-on

2009-02-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

The past month has brought on some victories and some setbacks. I am now a teacher with the Merit School of Music in downtown Chicago. I travel with their Bridges program to several schools on the South Side once a week. The flutists I work with at these schools bring me so much joy -- I believe they understand the value and rarity of music education even more than my regular private students. They are completely attentive, enthusiastic, and tenacious.

Setbacks have included a bicycle accident that I suffered about a month ago. I can only urge all drivers to check their review mirrors at all times. Luckily, none of my injuries related to my hands or fingers -- I hobbled around on crutches for a while, and now I'm walking and rehabilitating my left leg. The driver's insurance is covering my expenses, and a new bicycle.

The greatest news of late is that I've been asked to come with a small contingent of musicians from the Youth Orchestra of the Americas to the Dominican Republic in May. We will perform chamber music and teach young people there for a week. The prospect is so exciting, and completely scary - I'll be teaching six hours a day in Spanish.

Aside from all that, the studio continues to grow, and I continue to practice, and for that I'm sincerely grateful.

Spending money to make money when you don't have any money

2008-12-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

I came to Chicago to network deliberately.

The relocation is going about as I had planned, if not better. Things are happening slowly. I have one (awesome!) regular student, and two who may start this month. Tomorrow I interview for a substitute position at the Merit School of Music. My article for the Chicago Flute Club newsletter is being published as I write this, and I've been asked to write another one, in which I'll interview Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner. Flutist Jenny Swanson and I will present the John Cage flute duos at the debut of Classical Revolution Chicago next weekend. And I'm having lessons with Mary Stolper (DePaul University) and Jennifer Gunn (Chicago Symphony) in the next couple of weeks.

I've also seen some great performances. The Lyric Opera's performance of Berg's Lulu blew me away - and seeing so much blood on an opera stage is kind of noteworthy. Last weekend, dal niente turned in a fantastic performance of several premieres and a trio by Morton Feldman. I think the highlight there was seeing Wei-Han bust out stride piano in the midst of a post-modern all-you-can-eat sampler.

So...don't worry about me. Plenty to do. Plenty to hear. And plenty of free heat is coming on once we move to the coach house in January.

How did it get to be December?

2008-12-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Many apologies to those that follow the blog regularly - I've been getting emails complaining about the lack of entries since the move to Illinois! Thanks for sticking with me!

We got our first big snow yesterday, and now the sidewalks are a lovely combination of slush and solid ice. I'm now an expert at two different train systems, and have met more than thirty wonderful music-focused individuals in the Chicago area. I now volunteer time with The Musical Offering, a fantastic organization in Evanston that provides scholarship-driven music lessons and outreach teaching to an underserved population in South Evanston/Rogers Park. It's pretty amazing to see a musically-driven social justice organization just around the corner. I'm working with them to see how they could increase enrollment. Ideas welcome.

I've asked many music teachers in the area if they are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Are their enrollments declining? Are there fewer inquiries for new students? Do people chafe at the rates for lessons? So far, the answer has been no. Encouraging, but I can't help but think that the economic climate will hit us all at the most gut, basic levels: performance opportunities, grant funding, and corporate support. Where gig income may dry up, we'll have to make it up through teaching. Music lessons may be a standby and a non-negotiable part of childhood education for some families, but for many they are considered a luxury. How can we convince them otherwise? I guess that's part of our job.

Food for thought

2008-10-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

The day after I arrived in Chicago, I heard from a friend that the Chicago Flute Club was presenting that weekend a masterclass and recital with Mathieu Dufour, the principal flutist of the Chicago Symphony. I went, and my jaw dropped to the floor. His playing is so smooth and so uniquely French. His recital consisted of all-French fantasies: Faure, Taffanel, Gaubert, Hue, and others. His sound rose above the piano like wisps of meringue. Everything was light and unfettered, everything sounded completely easy and unhurried. It was so inspiring.

A week later, the CFC sponsored an afternoon-long teaching workshop that I attended. I got to observe two lessons, taught by two teachers to two students who had never played flute before. And each teacher used a different method - one was a Suzuki style teacher, and the other was more conservatory-style. I had never seen a Suzuki flute lesson before, and I was completely impressed. Children who start in the Suzuki program don't actually hold a flute in their hands for several weeks or more depending on their progress. The method sets them up by playing games to teach them physical fundamentals - spitting rice to find the right tonguing technique, drawing on a piece of paper on the floor to find an ideal standing position, blowing at pinwheels, etc. The kids develop a strong physical foundation and they seem better equipped for later challenges and less likely to develop bad habits. I'm now researching the possibility of becoming certified.

On another note, my cousin invited Leander and I to his house for dinner last week. He's the chef for the Lyric Opera. What's an opera company doing with a chef? I'm not totally sure. But the verdict from his patrons have been very quotable: "Tell the new chef that he's yummy." And he is.

I've paid visits to many people in the last two weeks. I've met several flutists, a clarinetist, and had the pleasure of reconnecting with a couple Oberlin friends and even a San Francisco transplant. I love having time to myself to practice. Things are going well.

and moving right along...

2008-09-19T23:35:00.000-07:00

The universe got its way again. With some major signs pointing me out of pretty Portland, I'm finally listening. My life in Chicago will commence on October 1.

This was a difficult decision. The past year, while having some great high points, has been challenging. Illness slowed me way down last fall and winter, and the spring and summer were spent recovering and re-centering. My time on tour in July reinforced several ideas: that I have the capability of going very far, and that it's time for me to get back in the musical fast lane. So, with the combination of big city ambition and a loved one living in that same big city, I'm making the leap.

I already miss my students. They never fail to lift me up. The families I have worked with in Portland this year are utterly unparalleled. I have never worked with such caring, open, flexible, and NICE parents before! Thank you, thank you, thank you. And the young people I work with always teach me something -- even the misfits. Especially the misfits.

With that, so many changes. A fresh design for the website is in the works. A new relationship with Powell Flutes has been established: I have the honor of being part of the their pilot Academy program, something that would not be possible in Portland. It's been great reconnecting with old friends in Chicago. And I'm drooling at the thought of going to regular Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts...I'm just drooling all over the keyboard right now.

The next few weeks will feel like cranking up to the top of a roller coaster: slow, agonizing, scary, and totally exciting.

whatever it takes to exaggerate your dynamics

2008-08-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what it's like to be in a Grammy-winning contemporary music ensemble?

Well, as it turns out, it seems suspiciously like the 7th grade.

Music in schools -- or more specifically, MY school

2008-08-19T16:11:00.001-07:00

My mom sent me an article last week about the apparent demise of my high school's music program. As some of you know, I grew up in Ukiah, California, a small town that often feels like a boring, yet quirky, independent film, complete with cross-cultural misunderstanding, bizarre human interactions, and mild violence, all chronicled by the dizzying journalistic force of our local daily. Each time I return, the place feels more economically depressed.

I don't really have to say that music in school is important. If you are reading this, you probably already know it. Among just my own classmates, this music program produced a freelancing bassist in the Bay Area, a freelance trumpeter in Boston, three school band directors, and me. Music became our lifestyle and our livelihood. And that doesn't include the kids that were helped in countless other ways by music in school: kids that had clinical depression, family troubles, learning disabilities, and problems adjusting socially. Music helps kids understand the pretty heavy concepts of discipline, working together, and supporting your neighbor. The trips my band took when I was in high school were sometimes the only times my friends found themselves outside of Mendocino County. And for my high school, the band represented not just intellectual and artistic development, but a window into the world at large, and a community in which to belong.

It boggles my mind that a country like Venezuela, with its poverty and problems, can provide free musical education to every single child without question -- and yet, in the richest and most prosperous country in the world, it takes a backseat.

There seems to be a movement to restore the Ukiah program, but my frustration is how it could have been allowed to go to seed in the first place. I only left seven years ago, and it was a healthy program with five bands that met every day. It only underscores how fast things can go wrong -- one bad hire, a couple dispassionate administrators, and a lackadaisical parent community could all contribute to the end of a program in your own school.

I don't want music to be only the passion of the elite. Send some money to your public high school band program. Even if you don't have kids, even if your kids are out of school, even if you don't know much about music -- ask what would be most helpful. Whether it's money or some organizational help, I know that they need it, in some cases desperately.

Gone.

2008-07-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

After four weeks, seven concerts, eight cities, four languages, many new friends, and more than 14,000 miles travelled -- home.

For me, this tour meant a lot of things. It gave me a genuine feeling of thankfulness and appreciation for the life I have. Playing with the orchestra has inspired me to new goals in my practicing, and higher goals in my musical life. But overall, I hope I can keep the attitude that was so prevalent in our group - an attitude of positive patience. At our last concert in Montevideo, our harpist, Andrea, had to play the only harp the orchestra could find in Montevideo. And it was the worst harp I think any of us have ever heard. And while she was playing the cadenzas in Scheherazade, the orchestra could not stop laughing. It was microtonal. The strings buzzed in the middle register. One of the pedals kept falling off. In one afternoon, she had to change something like 18 strings. At first, Andrea was close to tears. I mean, really -- to travel all this way and then have play an instrument like that? But pretty soon she couldn't stop laughing, either. This is the YOA way: if things go wrong, you have to laugh about them.

Another YOA way: make friends with everyone you see. This includes the flight attendant on the way to Buenos Aires. He was so excited to meet us that he wanted us to play music on the plane - so we started playing what we could remember from Porgy and Bess in the aisles. Then he gave us free champagne and let our principal trumpet pass out pretzels to the whole plane, allowing her to fulfill her own stewardess dreams. I felt like when I was with these people, I never knew what was going to happen next.

So that's what I hope to keep going in my own musical and real-life adventures. Spontaneity, positivity, smiling -- and who knows what's going to happen next?

Uruguay

2008-07-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

We came to Uruguay on a boat from Buenos Aires. This boat took us for three hours on the Rio Plata, a huge river. The river looks like a Great Lake -- you can´t see to the other side. The Youth Orchestra of the Americas will perform tonight in Montevideo, and then we will all scatter to the winds and to our respective home countries. We will play Mozart´s Magic Flute Overture, a Schumann piano concerto, and Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov with Maestro Marcello Leningher, a very young Brazilian conductor. More than half the orchestra is sick. That includes me, but I don´t think I have the crud as bad as other people. But I think we are all very tired and ready to go home. Some of us already have. One violinist, a Serbian-Canadian, had her passport refused when she tried to enter Uruguay. It was really sad -- she has to stay in Argentina and try to get home some other way, and miss the last concert.

I have most of the day tomorrow to explore what I can of Montevideo. My flight leaves at 5 PM and arrives in Portland at 11:30 AM on Monday.

This tour has taught me a lot of things, and not just musical ones, and I´m looking forward to reflecting on those things as I come home.

Stray dogs are dangerous. So is playing Rachmaninoff.

2008-07-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Last night we performed in Buenos Aires and were then invited to the Brazilian embassy for a party. That´s what we thought. Actually, we were invited to the Brazilian ambassador´s residence, which meant an 1860s mansion with the most beautiful murals, painted ceilings, and ornate decorations in all of Argentina. Who knew? Let´s just say I was glad I never changed out of my nice concert clothes. We were served dinner around midnight and champaign and wine were offered to us until well into the morning. The whole orchestra was there. The orchestra´s mariachi band performed for the diplomats, and they were so delighted they started singing along and dancing.

It´s now 2:30 AM and we are in Rosario, Argentina. We had our last concert tonight with our favorite maestro, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and we are going to Uruguay tomorrow by boat. We celebrated tonight by going to a dance hall near the concert hall. I´ve been hanging out with my new best friend Xiomara, an oboist from Puerto Rico, and we are fending off the various aggressive Argentine men with sticks. And we were almost eaten by stray dogs on the street today. But that´s another story for another day.

Playing with the orchestra is now about as comfortable as it can be. We are a family now. Everyone knows what to expect from their neighbors, and we are able to respond accordingly. The relationship between the orchestra and Maestro Prieto is very special: I don´t think I´ve ever played in an orchestra before where there is so much love between the conductor and the orchestra. It makes playing very easy, and very fun.

How can I describe the attitude of the wonderful people I´m with every day? They are free, easy, and eager to talk to strangers. They are always on the verge of singing and dancing. Some speak three languages very well. We stay up all night, sleep for a few hours on the bus, have a reshearsal, perform, and then celebrate some more.

Ah, currency

2008-07-23T14:01:00.001-07:00

The Argentine peso is only worth a third of the American dollar. Translation: shopping. Our hotel is located a few blocks from a major shopping street, and it´s bizarre to go shopping, see the prices in pesos, and think to yourself, ¨Um...really?¨I bought a beatiful scarf for about two dollars. Then I bought shoes. And some other things. I´m seriously considering buying a new winter coat here -- I´m just not sure it will fit in my luggage.

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. It´s very clean, the people are nice, and the city seems alive with art and other business. I can completely understand the ex-pat thing here. Being here makes me want to move here, too. It´s such a complete change from Sao Paulo and even Rio. Both of those cities were choked with smog. The air was brown, and we were all getting headaches from breathing. A Brazilian composer told me about getting carjacked in Rio. A man put a gun to his head through the driver window while another man reached in through the passanger side and pointed another gun. He was able to escape with his life, and his car was found two months later. It was used for running drugs.

On the other hand, Buenos Aires reminds me of Paris. There are fountains, monuments, parks, statues, and wide boulevards. The architecture looks like an older European style.
It is winter here, and the days are extremely short and rather cold.

Tonight we play at Teatro Colliseo. I´m looking forward to our last few concerts, but I think we´re all about ready to come home.

Buenos Aires

2008-07-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today we said goodbye to Brasil after several weeks, five cities, a residency, three concerts, and a lot of time on the bus. Our concert in Sao Paulo was successful, but our performance in Campos do Jordao was less than stellar. We alternate sometimes between conductors, and one is very good, but the other is...well, less than stellar. Unfortunately our performance at Campos was at the most important music festival in Brasil. And Kurt Masur was there, a famous conductor. It was a little embarassing. We´re all trying to move on.

Campos do Jordao is like the Aspen of Brasil. It´s very high in the mountains, and the town is actually designed to look like a Swiss resort. It´s bizarre. We weren´t there for more than a few hours, including our concert, so there wasn´t much time to explore before we left for Argentina. When we were in Sao Paulo we really didn´t do much besides rehearse and perform. And it truly wasn´t safe to do much more than that in our neighborhood. After our concert there we took cabs to a pizza place, and there were strength in numbers. But I don´t think I´ve ever felt more uncomfortable in a city.

We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina tonight in time to have dinner and then wander around the city a little. There is a sheet music store around here, and there are three pesos to the dollar, so I´m hoping to do some serious music (read: Piazzolla) shopping tomorrow morning. It´s so sad that we don´t have more than one day here. We perform tomorrow night, and then it´s on to Rosario, and then Uruguay. And then home!

Teatro Municipal

2008-07-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

Last night we performed at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janiero. This theater is over 100 years old, and has beautiful mosaics and sculpted bulls that hold up pillars. The Greek muses dance around a giant chandellier on the ceiling. We played to almost a completely full house, all four balconies, and the orchestra sounded great -- we ended with our standard encore (an orchestrated Brazillian samba) and by the time the piece ended, a quarter of the orchestra was dancing samba with each other and the audience was dancing in the aisles. Amazing.

We are in Sao Paulo now, after a very long day on a bus. My bus was the drunk bus, unfortunately. We arrived at the hotel and got settled. Our normal announcement board is in the lobby telling us when and where we need to be; in addition to the usual announcements, there is a note saying we are in "a very bad area." Rio and Sao Paulo are extremely dangerous cities, especially for the lighter-skinned folks. Kidnapping and ransom are regular ways some people make a living here. So we are being careful to stay with large groups and not wander around late at night.

One other note: I don't believe we have been more than 150 yards away from a flan this entire trip. At least that's what my friend Dave says.

We are in Rio!!!!!

2008-07-17T15:14:00.001-07:00

Last night we had our first concert in Salvador, and it was pretty successful. The orchestra will settle down as we play more. The soloist for the Dvorak cello concerto performed an encore of a slow movement of the sixth Bach suite. Suddenly I was struck with a profound homesickness, particularly for Louella playing that movement early in the mornings at Cazadero. I started to cry - I missed home so much, and the cellist´s selection of that particular piece was somehow a key to what I´m normally doing in July -- Cazadero.
Our concert ended at around midnight (things get started much later here) and then we boarded busses back to the hotel. We arrived at 1:30 AM and then had to meet in the lobby at 4:15 AM to catch a plane to Rio. We arrived in Rio de Janeiro around 11, and had lunch. I still haven´t had more than a couple hours sleep.
Some friends and I went to the top of Sugar Loaf this afternoon, which are two huge mountains over the city tied together with a gondola. (Kind of like the pods in Portland.) You can see everything, the whole city, the Copacabana, Impanema, and the Christ statue. And we couldn´t have timed it more perfectly - the sun was setting, and the full moon was rising while we were at the very top. It was so beautiful.
Tomorrow we have our next concert. Then it´s on to Sao Paulo.

More from Bahia

2008-07-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Brazillian dancing is kind of like an aerobics class that has had too much espresso.

We´re all getting a little tired, and the tour begins when we play in Salvador in two days. So the orchestra is trying to rest and have fun before everything gets really out of hand!

I had another lesson with Leone Buyse today. She has a way of saying things that just make sense to me. We´ve been working on clarity of articulation, and opening up my sound. It´s been really fun, and she is a wonderful woman.

Every night there has been chamber music performed by orchestra members in the lobby of the resort. Last night we had a group of cellos, some bassoon quartets, a string quartet, and then a mariachi band brought down the house.

absorbing culture

2008-07-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

There is so much to learn and absorb from all the different cultures here. In our wind section alone, we have Americans, Colombians, Costa Ricans, Venezuelans, a Chilean, and a French Canadian. As I'm learning to speak more Spanish, and dance salsa, I can see how the laid-back way of many of these cultures actually makes doing these things much easier. Spanish comes out f my mouth as soon as I relax a little. I can dance much better if I chill out and let the guy lead me. And music follows that. As soon as we relax, we play much better. As soon as we don't take things so seriously, music flows out of our instruments and it's in tune and together.

Things are so relaxed here that we are becoming habitually tardy to everything. But it's okay, because we just take things as they come. Rehearsal, and whenever that ends, we eat. And whenever we feel like we're done eating, we go do something else. Last night they screened the documentary that was made a couple years ago about the orchestra. They followed several musicians back to their home countries (Colombia, Venezuela, America, Canada, Argentina) and showed how they live and how playing and touring with the orchestra changed them. They also followed a young Venezuelan boy as he begins to play the violin, and contrasted that with an 80 year old former concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Everything about the documentary was about being in the present, and being thankful for what we all have in our lives -- especially music. Many of my colleagues in the orchestra come from backgrounds of intense poverty and struggle. Some were children during wars that the US instigated in their home countries. It is such a privilege to get to know them and play with them.

This is beyond a doubt the most demanding orchestra I've ever played with. The level of playing is extremely high, and the sheer energy coming out of people as they play this music is so inspiring.

Tico Tico!

2008-07-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

We are still rehearsing at this resort in Costa do Sauipe in Bahia, Brazil. It's normally a very expensive place, which is weird for a bunch of scrappy college-age musicians from all over the world to be staying here for free.

The air is very humid and smells a little like coconut. I've seen an iguana on the beach, and a little monkey-looking mammal. The birds are bright colors and sing beautiful songs. I'm learning more Spanish and getting acquainted with a Brazillian drink called "capoena." Basically, it's limes, sugar, and a Brazillian liquor. We're also doing a lot of dancing - and it's a LOT of fun to be led around the floor by a Cuban.

We are going to play some encores for the concerts, and one of the ones we're doing is an orchestra arrangement of Tico Tico. When we read through that piece -- oh, my God -- it was like a party exploded in the middle of orchestra rehearsal. We were playing AND dancing at the same time. Sections would just stand up at different times, and everyone who was in the room who wasn't playing was doing the samba. Otherwise, we've begun rehearsing Porgy and Bess and Sheherezade.

I had a lesson yesterday with Leone Buyse, the flutist who teaches at Rice University and who is with us in our residency. She is former principal of the Boston Symphony and she is a wonderful teacher. She's completely positive -- I haven't heard a single negative thought come out of her head yet -- and she gave me some really good guidance on tone development, which I feel I need.

ahhhhhhhhhhh

2008-07-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Chamber music + Debussy + Amazing harpist + Amazing violist + ME = awesome.

One 1.5 hour rehearsal can indeed be life-affirming.

rehearsals in bahia

2008-07-08T14:05:00.001-07:00

We have finally begun to rehearse in earnest. In the last two days, I have played for more than seven hours each day. We are all tired.
I am playing principal flute on the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, one of the hardest pieces in the repertoire for woodwinds. This I discovered after we started rehearsing it. It is nearly impossible to actually play all the notes. It's insanely fast, and the rhythm is very complicated throughout the piece. But it's an amazing piece. The orchestra is fantastic. The strings especially sound wonderful. I think I'm finally getting my wish -- the wish to play with a bunch of people who are way better than me for a while!

When we don't have orchestra rehearsal (six hours a day), I'm either practicing or playing with a chamber music group. I'm actually playing Debussy's Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp -- maybe my favorite piece of all time! I've also been asked to play a piece by Ibert with the harp teacher. My plate could not get any fuller!

Speaking of plates, the food here is great. It's pretty vegetarian friendly, which is what a lot of you have asked me in emails. Believe me, you have not tasted pineapple until you have tasted Bahian pineapple. I'm also eating some delicious fish. I think the people who have been eating the Brazillian beef have been getting sick. So luckily I'm not tempted by that stuff. Another thing - they have a lot of juice here. They make their own watermelon juice! And papaya juice, and pineapple juice, and mango juice. It's a juice festival. Unbelieveable.

It's been raining here, but that's good because we're inside all day rehearsing anyway.
I'm sure I could tell you something more, but I'm drawing blanks. More soon.

Bahian Youth Orchestra!

2008-07-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, I heard one of the best concerts of my life. It was not played perfectly, it was not in tune, and there were some wrong notes. But the energy in the room was indescribable. The Youth Orchestra of Bahia (pronounced bah-ee-ah) performed for us, all local kids who, a year and a half ago, couldn~t play anything at all.

They performed excerpts from Stravinsky´s Firebird and the New World Symphony. And they played some Venezuelan dances and Brazillian folk songs adapted for orchestra. They were amazing!

And why, exactly?

Because these kids rehearse Monday through Friday from 3-6 pm.And they only started a year and a half ago, without winds. The program is modeled after the Venezuelan music education system, where every child is required to have a musical education of some sort. The principal bassoonist had only started seven months ago and he sounded fantastic. Not only do these kids receive excellent training, and consistent coaching, they all really want to be there. They love the music, and they feel it with their whole bodies. It was like a party- dancing, cheering, and more smiling than I ever remember seeing in an orchestra concert!

Bahia has never had a full orchestra come here before. We are a novelty and something of celebrities. People hug us and kiss us and smile at us.

We have not yet had a full orchestra rehearsal yet, but sectionals are underway. The wind section is astonishing. Our coach is Alex Klein, former principal oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra. I am playing principal flute on the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances - fiercely hard.

After our sectional today the whole wind section went swimming in the ocean together. Yeah. My kind of day.

people from earth

2008-07-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Today we were welcomed to the orchestra and introduced to the faculty members who will teach us during our residency. One of the Brazilian teachers talked about how we are all people on Earth, and we don´t meet enough. I kind of liked that.

It is true that there are people from all over the world here. The cello teacher is from Finland. There are people from all over the Americas, and a new friend of mine is a Slovak girl studying in Montreal. In one conversation, you hear Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. It´s been fun trying to remember my high school French along with the new languages I´ve been studying just for this tour.

It is absolutely beautiful here. I cannot stress that enough. But it gives me a strange feeling to be in a very expensive resort (which I dont think anyone on this tour could afford in real life) that is surrounded by very poor people. The disparity in wealth here is very obvious.

I audition for seating this afternoon, and then we begin rehearsals tomorrow. That gives us most of today to fool around, swim, and lie on the beach!

Elise is in Brazil

2008-07-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

From Costa do Sauipe, a list of things:

White sandy beach
70 degree ocean
Palm trees
Coconut water
No sleep in 30 hours.
Very bumpy flight lasted eight hours.
Everyone is so nice, and very forgiving of bad Portuguese.
Music will start to happen tomorrow.

More soon.

Departing!

2008-06-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

In less than a week I will be in Brazil. I am told that the internet is fairly accessible, so I'm excited to be writing about my experiences, about the orchestra, and all the culture -- keep checking and hopefully there will be updates through the month of July, and possibly pictures!

You can track the orchestra's progress through YOA's website.

I know your next question will be what time is it there?

While I'm gone, I'm going to miss this concert of one of the greatest works ever written for the flute. But you don't have to! Go!

Finally...save the date: September 25th, 8 pm at the Old Church is FLUKE: A night of new music for flute and piano with Elise Blatchford and Rhonda Ringering.

Until later.

New neighbors

2008-06-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I moved into a new apartment - many of you will begin to have lessons in this new space in the coming week.
At this point, things are a little rough around the edges.

I haven't lived in an apartment building in over a year, and there is always the anxiety of practicing in a space that is really not all that private. Will the neighbors complain? How loud is it on the other side of the wall? How many third-octave scales at 8 am does it take to get kicked out of a building?

My personal nightmare is the person upstairs writing the next great American novel.

So far, no complaints. So I continue to melodicize...

Player-instrument relations

2008-06-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

Probably a lot of us can relate to the idea of our instrument being, at once, our best friend and worst enemy.
Michel Debost even compared the player-instrument relationship to a very complex marriage. The flute and I have fallen in love, settled into a routine, had our tiffs, suffered a major rift, separated for a while, and eventually reconciled. At this point, we are involved in a deep connection.

I am known to be a little moody when it comes to my music. A bad practice session can taint an entire day for me. I've been known to angrily switch the radio station when a flute concerto comes on. I have mentally pictured what my flute would look like melted down, or what it would be like to take a lighter to my pads and watch them singe and curl back from the key. I have left it out of the case in cold temperatures to "punish" it.

Yes, I am a little crazy.

Being involved in some long-term practice goals at the moment, I have to say that practicing hasn't been "fun" for me in several weeks. Until today -- which I believe saw me at the start of a new plateau. It's comforting when I just really like to play.

Career facets - it's so much more than the orchestra

2008-06-04T14:31:00.001-07:00

Some of my older students (and their parents) have asked me how exactly one supports oneself as a musician. I can't answer for everyone - for me it's a combination of things. If you're curious, you can see job listings for orchestras around the world without logging into the union pages at musical chairs. There, you can click on the job and see exactly what's required and what the process is. In America, you usually pay a refundable deposit to hold your audition time that can be between $25 and $100. Some orchestras screen resumes or hold tape-only rounds. Most simply invite candidates, and send you a repertoire list that you must learn for the audition.

I was raised on a steady diet of the "make-your-own-opportunity" brand. That means I'm involved in a lot of other projects that are a little harder to explain, like Classical Revolution PDX, a radical chamber music association that presents concerts in venues outside the concert hall. CRPDX has a monthly gig at downtown Portland's Someday Lounge where we're getting a lot of attention and young audiences. I perform and research expansion for them. Right now, none of this is paid work - but we hope to get some money for music rental and organizers' salaries through aligning with other non-profits and applying for grants. My goal is to make this a paid gig for the organizers within the year, and to have all musicians paid within five.

This fall, concertizing will hopefully become a small source for income for me. Pianist Rhonda Ringering and I are planning several recitals around Oregon in the fall. Basically, we front the money to rent a hall or church, we try to get as many people to come as possible, we put on a great show, and hopefully make more in ticket sales that what it cost to put on.

The single most reliable source of income for me is my students, and my future job at Pacific University. Having tuition cover my living expenses opens me to taking on projects like CRPDX and frees me from relying on "gig money." That way, I won't have to feel compelled to take every wedding that comes along!

Summer projects!

2008-06-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

People that tell me they've never missed a day of practice in their lives (something James Galway is rather fond of saying) usually just make me roll my eyes.

Come on -- we have all had the flu. Or other health problems - like a burst appendix! Or if you're a great musician like Sir Galway, you've been on planes for more than 12 hours at a time. And don't tell me that when you got off the plane, you picked up your flute and a book of Andersen etudes and headed for sonic bliss.

At the same time, it's ideal to practice as much as you can. And summer means a hiatus from school, and maybe even a break from flute lessons for some, but I always thought of summer as a special time to attack new projects we don't have time for during the rest of the year. Order a new book of music that's just for fun. Find a friend (any instrumentalist, or a good singer) and have weekly duet reading hangouts. In the past I've enjoyed doing something serial or numerical, like learning all 20 Karg-Elert Caprices. I mapped out ten weeks and learned two a week. I've memorized concerti. One particularly dorky and ambitious summer found me with the goal of keeping everything in the Baxtresser Orchestral Excerpt book in my fingers at the same time.

My project for this summer is exceptional: tour Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. As exciting as that is, though, I think I'm going to miss (a little) the time I've had before to make my own practice choices for a month or two.

What sounds fun for you this summer?

Michel Debost speaks

2008-05-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

My dear former teacher has a great video interview featured at the Oberlin Conservatory webpage. You can view it here.

I particularly empathize with what he says about not knowing exactly why he fell in love with the flute, much in the same way we don't know why we fall in love with other human beings. It just happens, and there is little choice in the matter.

You can hear some of his students playing pieces -- including the Hue Fantaisie, a piece which is familiar to at least a couple of my students.

I miss him so much.

The big switch

2008-05-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

As I welcome many of Jessica Sherer's students to my studio, I feel compelled to write about the very real, very difficult transition that is switching to a new music teacher. Our teachers are very important to us. They inspire us, help us with our problems (often both personal and musical), and provide insight into our playing and our lives.

I had a new flute teacher every two years of my development, from when I began lessons at age 11 to the end of my graduate degree. It was like clockwork! In total, I have had six teachers. Every time I moved on to another teacher (and I never left a studio because I didn't like my teacher - it was always some other circumstance), I felt a mixture of excitement and fear. What new things would I learn? Would they like me? Would they think I was good? Would they change me? Would they make me play things I didn't like?

Some transitions were easier than others. But in the end, I felt I always learned more by switching instead of staying with the same person for many years. Not only did I hear a lot of differing opinions, I learned how to learn from different people.

One teacher in particular was very difficult for me to get used to. He talked a lot, he talked very fast, and told me in one of our first lessons that I didn't know what I was doing.

Didn't know what I was doing? Excuse me? I'd been playing for more than ten years!

I was convinced he thought I was going nowhere. He was incredibly tough on me, and I ended up playing exercises that I used to think were easy v e r y s l o w l y.
He contradicted everything a previous teacher told me. He even made a backhanded comment about one of my old, beloved teachers that I took to be an insult! We pretty much didn't get along for the first year. But I couldn't deny that my playing was changing, and for the better.
The second year, somehow, we came to an understanding -- we even began to like each other! Now we still talk on the phone, and I ask his advice on many topics. He literally revolutionized my flute playing in so many ways, and I owe winning several auditions to his guidance.

What I described is probably the worst that can happen, but it turned out okay. Having had so many experiences with new teachers, I try in my own teaching to make the transition as easy as possible. I don't usually switch old etudes or warm-up plans right away. I try to work within the previous teacher's framework for a while and gradually ease the student into the work plan I have for them. I never disrespect old teachers - they are often my own friends and colleagues!

Different is exactly that - different. Some teachers work better for certain learners, and we need to make decisions accordingly. For Jessica's students, I welcome you, and I'm excited to get to know you!

Haven't we done this in lessons?!

2008-05-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

For those who have experienced my "you blow air, I move the keys" exercise in lessons, check out this YouTube video of two guys in Israel performing the Bach Badinerie that way!
A little silly.
I personally love the expressions on the face of the man moving the keys.
Thanks to Alex Conway, a studio-mate from Oberlin, for sharing it.

Practicing in the Great Beyond

2008-05-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a full year since I graduated from the master's program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For many conservatory-trained students, the first year out of school is potentially the most difficult year, musically, financially, and psychologically. It's been no less for me, and I feel this is a natural time for reflection. In one year, I have faced many obstacles: a knee injury, a chronic respiratory infection that didn't leave for four months, moving to a brand-new city where I knew three people, and the onset of student loan payments! Somehow, I overcame all of these to take seven auditions, compete in the finals of a national competition, and establish a teaching studio! In the coming year, I have a South American tour to look forward to, as well as connections to new students at Pacific University.

Musically, it is the first year in my entire life as a musician when I have not had regular weekly lessons with a teacher. It has been a challenge (and a blessing) to begin to teach myself in earnest. I am the only one responsible for my own progress. I don't have someone wagging their finger at me because I haven't been doing my long tones. It is entirely on my shoulders -- but my teachers from the past are still with me in every practice session. I can hear in my head what they would probably say. I assign myself exercises that they would have assigned.

Interestingly, the most difficult part of teaching myself has simply been the lack of positive encouragement I show myself. I would usually leave my lessons feeling uplifted, like I had a lot of work to do, but that I was fundamentally a good musician, a good person, and that I would figure things out in the week to come. In my solitary practice, I am my worst, most cruel critic. I feel that my next step in my own practice is to find nice things to say about myself! Otherwise, my practice begins to take on a self-flagellating tone. And music becomes something that hurts, something that is to be feared and resented.

The best book I've ever read about practice habits and practice psychology is The Perfect Wrong Note. William Westney outlines a philosophy of practice based on creative problem-solving, not perfection. Of course, "perfection" is the goal: but being constantly perfection-oriented in practice is often counter-productive. Not only does it increase tension (and thus the likelihood of injury) but it also closes doors to possible round-about solutions.

For my students, I hope to impart a sense of lifelong learning and the ability to solve your own problems. I can offer guidance and possible solutions, but only you will be able to know which ones will work best for you. You will probably think of things that I've never considered! That way, whether you enter a conservatory, go on to be a professional, or quit the flute in high school, you will have the ability to pick up and play autonomously.

Launching

2008-05-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Footjoint. This is a blog primarily for my students, fellow musicians, and other interested parties. I'll be talking about my own experiences with teaching, practicing and performing.
Enjoy!