Its 1:15 am. I'm waiting for my laundry to get done. Tomorrow morning at 9 am Arneis is driving to Michigan and Ohio to play some concerts and do a residency at Dan's, the violist, old high school. It promises to be an amazing time, but after a semester from hell and a quartet concert last night that was a very high stress situation, I'm so ready to sleep for the next week.

Oh well. Onward.

I've been updating mostly via facebook status. I realize that new blog posts have been few and far between lately, but I'm hoping to rectify that situation.

We'll be back in Boston next Thursday evening, but then I have my solo recital to stress over. I've come to slowly realize that things are going to be kinda stressful and annoying until I have moved into my new apartment sometime after September 1st (wherever that is - I don't know yet) and then it'll be school time again. It really doesn't stop for me. While that is exciting, and the possibilities and opportunities this summer for quartet and then a new place are thrilling, I can't wait till Christmas break.

A Sad Evening

Poor Butler. Poor poor poor Butler. They worked so hard, they played so hard.....darn it all, they were so good! Only two points. (sigh) Hopefully this tournament will only mean good things for them in the future - more power to get even better players, more fans, etc. Molly and I were good Indiana/Hoosier-born girls and watched the game with screaming and excitement. (Molly is a graduate of Butler, where Hannah will be graduating from next month.)

Things are as usual intense and hectic, but oh well. The schedule never lets up, although my personal practicing goals are going ok. Arneis is in rehearsal frenzy. This is our schedule for the summer:

Juilliard Quartet Seminar (NYC) in May for 7 days.

Banff (Canada) in June for 3 weeks.

St. Lawrence SQ Seminar (Stanford, CA) over June/July for 10 days.

Muir Seminar (Deer Valley, Utah) in July for 3 weeks.

Things have moved fast - but its exciting. Hopefully we won't hate each other by August 1st.

Its also official - Molly and I will no longer be roommates starting September 1st. She is moving to NH to live with Kris, her boyfriend, who teaches 7th grade up there. I'm bittersweet about it. I have loved living with her, but its time for us both to move on, and I'm mostly ready to live on my own. As I'm looking for a studio or one-bedroom, it may not be a realistic dream, but I'm going to try my hardest. I have lived for almost 4 years in this apartment. I love it, and mostly, I love my neighborhood. Its safe, there is a grocery store a block away, and my favorite Thai restaurant almost literally across the street But there is something exciting about cleaning out and packing up and starting over and change.

Time for bed.

Day 7

The weekend went as planned, and I am happy to report that my schedule is still going well, as well as the scheduled practicing involved.

Yesterday and today, for Dean Committee reasons that I cannot disclose, were quite long, and my body is sore and my brain mush. However, I must conquer! Arneis rehearsal tonight. More Beethoven 95. Good times.

There has been some recital drama over the past week but fortunately its pretty much done, thank God. The new plan is Debussy, Franck, and Bach g minor. I've worked the g minor sonata often enough, but never performed it. Still no confirmed date, but hoping to have that figured out by Wednesday. Eek.

Time to go eat. I forgot my packed dinner in the fridge at home, so its Chipotle time for me. Yum.

PS - Go Purdue and Butler! Indiana basketball is the best.

Day 4

After spending last night at Heidi's, I enjoyed a ride to BU this morning to practice after Heidi dropped off Adelaide at her own school (which is close by). With an arrival of just after 8:30, I was able to practice from 8:45-10:45 smoothly and without any problems. It felt good - was rough at first - I was so tired after not getting into bed till one and waking up before 7 (all you mothers out there I know I am a wimp when it comes to sleep) - but I survived and was somewhat more prepared for the Bach Birthday Celebration rehearsal at Emmanuel this afternoon.

March Madness has hit and I'm watching it right now while typing this and doing laundry. Watching it though has made me realize how much I miss the Olympics, even though towards the end I was getting a little bored. Eh.

Last night Arneis found out we did not make it into the next round for Fischoff. Its a long dramatic story, but the short version is we had a recording session in early February that we felt good about, but the recording engineer lost all the footage (need I remind CCE that for Fischoff it has to be a dvd? So annoying). He had all the audio but none of the visual. So we had to use stuff from November, which, lets face it - things sounded much better in February than they did in November. This is a disappointment, of course, but I am also a tiny bit relieved as it frees up some days that I wasn't counting on in early May. And we already have plenty going on from May - July.

On my way to Emmanuel today I saw a guy walking his squirrel. On a leash. This has to be one of the more bizarre things I've seen. And I will also mention that the squirrel didn't seem to be enjoying it. I'm half wondering if he captured the squirrel five minutes earlier in a nearby park and started dragging it around on the leash.

The spring weather here over the past three days doesn't fool me. I expect another snow storm next week.

Day 3

This morning was an earlier case morning - up at 7 instead of 7:30. I've been so bad with the blog lately, I'm sure many do not know that I am the graduate student representative for the College of Fine Arts Dean Search Committee here at BU.

I wish I had the willpower and need for less sleep to report that I practiced from 7:30 to 8:30 am this morning, before the meeting, but alas, I know my limits and that did NOT happen.

However, I just practiced for an hour and a half, and will be practicing tonight after teaching as well, so things are still on track.

Tomorrow morning will finally be a much needed 3-hour morning practice session. These are few and far between, but cherished and I can't wait to get some of this recital rep more figured out. I'm playing Debussy, Franck, and Prokofiev 1 sonatas for my recital (which has yet to have a date because of an Arneis schedule that is still in flux).

Speaking of Arneis, my summer is shaping up: we have been accepted to the Juilliard Quartet Seminar in NYC the third week of May, the Banff Quartet Seminar for three weeks in June, and then of course the Muir program in Utah for three weeks in July. Add all of that to the fact that I'll be moving for the first time in four years, the action for me doesn't stop until August 1st. And then a month after that begins my final year as a student attending classes.

(sigh) Life is going fast!

Day 2

Good morning to all,

While this morning does not have an early practice time, it does have an early start. I am leaving in five minutes to go downtown to have rehearsal with the one and only KM.

KM (initials for privacy) is a harpsichordist (and witch) who has invited me to partake in the Palm Sunday service at her church of employment in Reading, MA. We are playing a baroque sonata together. I mean witch in the sense of wicca.

The practicing for today, alas, has to be moved to a bit inbetween class and orchestra, and then after teaching tonight at 8 pm.

But I was up at 7:30! Day 2 so far so good.

Day 1

Today is Day 1 of my new regimen for the rest of the spring semester.

It is in three parts:

1. Be awake by 7:30 am every week day from now until April 29th (the last day of the semester).

2. On the days where my day doesn't begin till after 9 am, practice at 9 am until first scheduled event of the day.

3. If I have a less scheduled day, practice for two hours. This means if I can sleep a little more and not start practicing till 10 or 11 am, but two hours in the day must be accomplished.

There are several reasons for this:

1. Mostly because I have no other time to practice during the day and usually no time in the evenings either.

2. The older I get, the less inclined I am to practice at the end of the day, and the better and better I practice at the BEGINNING of the day.

3. I have come to realize that when my sleep schedule is consistent, and more importantly, I get up at the same time every day, I am less tired during the day.

4. If I get up at 7:30 am every day, I will actually want to sleep at 11:30 pm instead of 2 am - and then will be able to get up earlier the next day - its all obviously a cycle.

5. I have a sh**-load (pardon the language but its true) of music to learn, from my recital rep, to my orchestra rep, to my work/gig rep, and I am determined to be well prepared for all of it.

There are a rare few cases where I will need to be at a determined location BEFORE 9 am - those days obviously I will not be practicing at 9 am, which is why the regimen is in three parts.

It would be wonderful if my life was structured as such that I had a regular time all the time in which to practice, but every day is different - and my life has become busier than ever before. I am blessed to have work, but hopefully with a better scheduled practicing/sleeping regimen, I will feel less stressed and more accomplished.

I am persistent. I shall conquer!

I try so hard to get my life to be less stressful, yet I've spent the last few hours cleaning up a mess because I didn't write down a rehearsal time correctly. Its all my fault. I have no one to blame but myself, and now its creating havoc on other people's Saturday.

When does it ever end?

January Recap

I really would love to try harder and do better with this blog. Now that January is over, I should be able to do that. Maybe. Hopefully.

January, with all of its insanity, is finally over, and now that the long recording sessions for Arneis (simply to get into competitions and festivals) are also over, mid-February is finally here and I finally have time to breathe.

Here are some events that have happened recently:

Concerto Competition at BU: The string prelim round was February 1st, and I played the Hindemith Violin Concerto (1939). I played well, and made it to the top 5, but only the top 3 are passed into the final round with all departments competing. So my 2nd BU concerto competition attempt was another failure. There has been a little controversy over the decision, and only one of the 3 string players actually won the whole thing (there are 3 winners - they are a pianist, a flutist, and cellist), which isn't normal. I was surprised at how disappointed I was not to have been able to do the finals. I love the Hindemith concerto - I love playing it - and since it is rarely done and not known, it felt more like my own personal piece. Ah, well. Next year is my final chance to try. I was thinking about Britten being my next concerto, however, after doing Hindemith in a prelim where Sibelius, Shostakovich 1 (violin), and Elgar (cello) were chosen, I'm afraid to do something not well known (3/4 of the faculty deciding had never heard the Hindemith before). There is some time to try and decide.

Arneis' First Recital: It was January 26th. I haven't talked about it much if at all on this blog, but I am now the first violinist in the Arneis Quartet, a group that has been together for several years, although not always the same people. They lost a violin and the cellist about two years ago, after a stint at the Juilliard Seminar and Banff Quartet program. Since then, Rose, the other violinist, and Dan, the violist, have been trying to find replacements to get it off the ground again. I have been playing with them since September (the cellist, Agnes, is also new), and in late November, we were invited to do the Muir Quartet's quartet program in Utah this summer, July 2010. We are also applying for other summer stuff and a couple competitions. We did two full mornings of intense recording sessions, and now all thats left is sending them off and seeing what happens from here.

Teaching: As against it as I was when I was an undergrad, and even maybe as a masters student, teaching now takes up on average about 12 hours out of my week. I am teaching twice a week (3.5 hours per day) for Brookline Public Schools, 3 undergrad BU non-music majors, chamber music coaching for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and my two private students. I am loving it. Brookline is the most frustrating at times, since they have group lessons as well every week, and feel no obligation to practice alone, but a few of them take it very seriously and practice hard. I have one however who is consistently so hard on herself - I have never seen her smile, and every time she makes a mistake, she looks almost ready to cry. She is also incredibly prepared for every lesson. I am not sure what is creating her self-imposed disgust with herself, since I am constantly telling her its ok and I know that her class group teacher is a good guy. I hope no one at home is telling her she sounds bad. Beginner violin for parents that don't know better can be hard to listen to.

Birthday Party: The third annual Molly and Heather birthday party was last night. This will probably be our last, as Molly's new boyfriend, Kris, has stolen her heart away (and she his) and they are discussing a possible move for her to live with him in New Hampshire (only a hour away). I will be sad to lose her as a roommate, and I am scared to figure out a new living situation (although Heidi is already working on it!). I've lived here now for three and a half years. But it will be exciting to organize and throw out what I no longer need. Things are getting a little claustrophobic.

The rest of February has little happening, thank goodness. Time to reset and start practicing new rep. And time to sleep!

An added point: Recently, I was trying to schedule something with a person who said we couldn't schedule anything at that moment because this person didn't have their schedule on their person (this person said it like this person NEVER carries it with them). I do not understand people who don't carry their schedule with them on a daily basis. I don't understand them. I don't mean to offend anyone who reads this blog who don't carry some type of schedule with them on a daily basis. But if you are a musician who has a constantly changing schedule, then carry your schedule with you. Always. You never known when someone will call you with a gig. Wouldn't it be nicer to schedule it then and there? (Forgetting your schedule if you are one who always carries it with you is a different story. I completely understand forgetting things.)

Too busy for a real post.

1. The concerto competition is February 1st. I'm playing the Hindemith Violin Concerto (1939). Its a great piece. All you Hindemith naysayers, don't knock it till you've heard it (and I doubt you've heard it).

2. Arneis Quartet is rolling along. There will be pictures soon.

3. I have the nastiest cold right now. I spent all of Saturday in bed. It was amazing, yet painful too - I wanted to do laundry on Saturday. And go to Marshalls. Neither happened. Very painful. And I had to cancel a 4 hour quartet rehearsal. Disaster.

4. I still haven't gotten paid for a gig I did in early December. Angry emails have been flying.

5. I haven't posted since Christmas because I don't have enough hours in the day. Literally. Not.

6. Martha Coakley didn't win tonight. But I did vote. I didn't get a voting sticker. I was mad about that. Apparently they ran out by the time I ran through the door to vote at 7:55 pm (the polls closed at 8 pm).

7. I'm playing two performances with the Mark Morris Dance Company next weekend.

8. Its time to go to bed.

Merry Christmas to all!

My flight has been delayed from 6 am to 8:40 am, so I am sitting in the Boston airport right now, with my coffee, trying to kill time. I had brought a movie but accidently forgot to put my headphones in my laptop bag - they are currently in my already checked luggage - oh well.

Have been loving vacation so far. Even though I still worked a lot the past few days - taught, did Emmanuel, had a gig Saturday afternoon - I have enjoyed the past four days already to the fullest extent. I love this time RIGHT before Christmas - I have no school obligations, and the guilt for not practicing doesn't settle in till after Christmas. Till then, just blissfulness......

Oh, except I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning. For the first time in two years. Ouch. Wish me luck.

Two Events

I've had a 14 hour day every day this entire week, and even though its only 10:30 pm, I'm going to bed in a few minutes. However, I'd like to share two things from my week that I think the blog readership will enjoy.

1. I have been teaching for Brookline Public Schools this semester in their after school, private lesson Extension Program for violin/viola. I have great students who are eager and try hard. One however, although he is cute as a button, is a little more of a challenge for me (doesn't help that his fingernails are very long and quite grimy - especially when I take his instrument from him to tune it), but he is earnest and dedicated. Yesterday afternoon, while he was playing another round of Banana Boat Song, something caught my eye - a small, brown spider was winding his way down, clearly attached at the elbow of this student. Not wanting to freak out the poor boy, I let him finish, went up and swiped subtly underneath his arm in the attempt to detach the spider from said child, then lightly squished the spider on the floor. A spider was apparently living on this kid.

2. I played the first part of Handel's Messiah tonight for a BU Choral Society concert. It was second on the program - the first piece was Britten's Ceremony of Carols, with a harpist, Michael, who is a friend of mine. During intermission, the orchestra went up to get ready to play, and I saw Michael's harp sitting quietly near the wall, clearly out of the way and not bothering anybody, in its blue Lyon and Healy padding. I started warming up, and suddenly (like how the Angel of the Lord came suddenly, although my news is not good tidings of great joy for anybody, least of all Michael), I see four BU Choral Society singers (these are non-music majors) trying to move the harp into the back hallway - and the harp is on the dolly backwards. And they are obviously struggling with this harp - its starting to tip a little. I rush over and tell them they have it on the dolly backwards. The response: "Oh." Sheepishly, they start to turn it around, struggling again. I demand to know where Michael is. They don't know. I advise that they leave it there or find Michael to move it himself. Apparently they were ordered to move it, and to do it quick. I say fine, and proceed to supervise, all the while thinking of Mary Keener and my vast experience in the days when I helped her move her harp.

Life is incredibly busy right now - busier than ever before - and I don't know how I'm going to accomplish everything in the next two weeks, but somehow, it will be done. I look forward to the future days when December, which is suppose to be a month of Christmas joy and holiday spirit, is filled with more of the professional kind of stress (ie just playing concerts and finishing up a semester of teaching) instead of the mad rush of presentations, papers, and juries. After this December 16th, only one more December in school to go, in 2010. I cannot wait.

Haiku to Procrastination

Practicing is good.
Procrastination is bad.
I need to practice.

A List

1. In a true, serious effort to make myself less busy this year, I am busier than ever.

2. Molly gave me the most beautiful scarf from London (from her trip to Oxford and Paris) and I love it. MK and I bonded while she was gone - I can't believe its been almost a year since she came to live with us.

3. The weather this fall in Boston has been so weird. We've already had a day of snow (didn't stick, but still), and that was in the middle of October. The past few days were almost seventy, and tomorrow's high is 49.

4. This week I'm playing Haydn's Creation at Emmanuel (for the second time in a month). This piece astounds me every time I have been in a rehearsal for it. Every part is beautiful - even the standard "pastoral" 6/8 F major aria (which often can be taxing and a bit tedious in other works) is stunning, and I'm not usually stunned by them. I think Haydn is making a general comeback in the classical music world, and its about time.

5. Hannah's been in Phoenix with Holly and Tony for her vacation from PA rotations. While having lunch with Heidi last weekend, I was happy to think that while all four of us couldn't have lunch together, at least all of us was having lunch with a sister.

6. I've started teaching private violin/viola lessons twice a week for the Brookline Public Schools. Don't worry - the viola students aren't working on Walton or Bartok - just beginning method books. I promise to refer them to professionals when they overreach my alto clef reading abilities.

7. I can't wait for Christmas break.

8. Happy 2nd Birthday Emily Keener!

9. I'm such a terrible friend when it comes to keeping in touch.

10. With that, I'm going to bed.

Recent Happy Pictures

At Capitol Hill - with a raised eyebrow.

Molly and I finally rearranged and cleaned the living room - we're especially proud of the bookshelf.

Holly visited us all in Boston - we had such fun!

Things are so incredibly busy right now, and I know I need to call several people (Mary, David, Kim, Paul, Hannah) that I haven't talked to in so long....argh....I promise soon! Thinking of you all!

Hello from Yonkers, NY.

I'm here for the final installation of the Manchester tour, which always ends with something in NYC. We played at Trinity Church yesterday, at Wall Street, and afterwards a very nice, wealthy lady had a reception for us around 42nd St. on the EAST side. Boy, it was ritzy. She has THE most spectacular communal backyard garden, and on the other end of this communal garden is Steven Sondheim's house. Yes. Thats right. Yesterday I saw into the backyard of Steven Sondheim, as well as the back of his house.

Send in the clowns. Oh wait, they're here.

Ok, ok. Its finally time for another blog post.

I'm in lovely Vermont for the Manchester Music Festival's annual fall tour (although its not quite fall yet - this year its really really early, for whatever reason - usually they are in October). This is my seventh, and it is, as always, beautiful, peaceful, and lovely. I seriously want to have a home up here someday, maybe retirement? Eh. Too far away to think about. Anyway, the best part about this year is that I don't have to return to Boston in the middle of it for an orchestra concert. Hooray!

School is now in full swing, and while the first few days were incredibly depressing, I've pretty much gotten over it and am now in a mindset of work work work. I think I won't go to the orchestra and chamber music meetings next year. No point.

Will post again soon. Right now I've blanked on anything else to say.

How about another lovely picture?



Hannah and Finnis at Holly and Tony's wedding reception.

First Day of School

(sigh)

:-(