Finishing

Greetings from my new Chicago home... so many things to wrap up on (and to complete and publish a bunch of private, unfinished blog posts on this site), but wanted to post a final sign of my having finished the MMus at RAM.

After a rather hectic, crazy time putting my final concert project for the academic component of my course, I am happy to report that I submitted the written component of my degree last week. Thus, I am officially done with the course. Don't yet have any idea what mark I'll get, but the dissertation and everything else is really completely finished. And, just to finish things up, made a wordle for the dissertation on my concert project: 'Concordance of Sound: A Listening Party'. Enjoy.

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Spring!

So, there are actually quite a few unfinished posts between the last one and this one. But unpublished and in rather sketchy form... mostly written during the times when internet wasn't working in the house. I'll get them up eventually.

Two big updates, though:

1. I successfully sang my final MMus

recital at RAM last Friday. Still waiting to hear back on my mark (awful singing to a room with

three people scribbling at a table at the back of it), but on the whole felt good about my performance. Got to sing some music that I really love to some people who I care a lot about (my parents even flew out from NJ!), and my teacher and coach were happy. Thus, I count it as a success even if my mark doesn't end up reflecting it. Never could have sang most of this stuff when I first arrived here two years ago, and so to do ALL of it in one programme, successfully, feels pretty good. Just for the music geeks amongst you, this was the programme:

• Handel 'Non disperar chi sa' from Giulio Cesare
• Berg Sieben Fruhe Lieder
• Bizet 'Me voila seule ... Comme autrefois' from Les pecheurs de perles
• Previn Three Dickinson Songs
• Barber Op. 10 James Joyce songs

Took a minute and a half break after the Berg, otherwise straight through for just under 45 minutes. And even after months of prep on this stuff, I still love the repertoire. Good sign I'm doing the right thing with my life.

For the other big news...

2. I'm moving to Chicago at the beginning of September! Happy to announce that after my crazy weeks of US auditions back in February (I'll post that as-yet-unpublished blog post at some point), I've accepted a place at the Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University, to study opera performance for the next two y

ears. Very, very excited to join their programme and to get to know the music scene and general creative life of the city of Chicago. Of course, get extremely teary every time I think about what and who I'm leaving in London, but thankfully there are planes that let me come back as often as I can afford (assuming lack of volcanic activity...)

So, those are the major updates. I could also write about an amazing two-week-long exchange with students from RAM and the Blair School of Music in Nashville (another unfinished post), the frustrations of London's inability to deal with snow in January, my last opera scene, and my debut as a soloist with the All Souls Orchestra... but those things will wait for now. Getting nostalgic and reflective these days as I near ends of things and look forward to next steps, so I'm sure those thoughts will get on here before too much longer.

For now, I'll leave you with a pair of photos from this past weekend. To celebrate the successful recital and my parents' trip to the UK (the only time I've had both of them here at the same time since I moved!), we went on a road trip. These pictures are from Sunday, with two of the stops in the trip: Canterbury Cathedral and the white cliffs of Dover. Enjoy.

Ceiling above Altar, Canterbury Cathedral

Break in the clouds, Dover cliffs

Opening the Composer's Workshop

Ok. Time to forgive me for a rather geeked-out muso post. I composed this response after an amazing two-week exchange programme. It's perhaps a bit more serious/philosophical/job-specific than my usual descriptive posts, but gives a good sense of some of what I'm doing over here, and the things I'm thinking about and learning.

From 1 – 11 March 2010, I was privileged to be a part of the bi-annual RAM-Blair School of Music exchange programme, this year focused on ‘opening the composers’ workshop’. During the first week, four students and two composition professors from Blair travelled to RAM to participate in afternoon workshops and other artistic and cultural activities with the RAM team, after which four students (including myself) and two professors from RAM flew to Nashville to spend a second week continuing the work begun in London. Because it was an extremely busy period of time for me with important auditions and other concerts, I was worried about whether or not I’d be able to join effectively; however, I am now very grateful to Peter Sheppard-Skærved for convincing me and twisting the schedule a bit for me to be able to attend. The programme ended up being beyond formative and thought-provoking, to say the least.

At the start of the Blair-RAM workshop weeks, I was excited about the opportunity, but still had many reservations in the back of my mind. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, what we would be doing, who else would be there, or if I really had the time or energy to participate as I wanted in the midst of a particularly busy time for me. Thankfully, I jumped in headfirst anyway, and the rewards were massive.

Even though the first week in London was a bit of a blur for me, jetlagged and travelwearied after two weeks of auditions and flights all over the US, the time I did get to spend in workshops in the piano gallery provided a breath of fresh air. Having the physical and mental time and space to discuss and think through issues ranging from extended technique piano playing to expanding a student composer’s beautiful musical sketch, I started being reminded of why I decided to be a musician in the first place. Escaping from the hectic rat race of lessons, coachings and singing classes in the buildings on Marylebone Road, I got to sit and breathe the music in. Talk over musical philosophies with mindful musos. Laugh. Try things – some of which worked, and some of which didn’t. And laugh again when they didn’t. Or when they did.

Perhaps that was the most useful part of the two-week journey: learning to let go of my fearfulness of not doing things ‘right’, whatever that means. Giving myself the grace to try things that might fail… or that might just lead to something really interesting. And being surrounded by people who were supportive in allowing that process to occur.

There were two main ways in which this ‘letting go’ process took place. The first was in a four-hour-long mega session with Peter Sheppard-Skærved, reading through some of Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments. Not having been able to learn notes ahead of time, and not possessing perfect pitch, I was terrified at trying to sightread pieces that would have been difficult to get together even with a lot of prepwork. But having an encouraging partner in the process who urged me to aim for rhythm, shape, and character without worrying about the notes made me less frantic (particularly after a midpoint coffee break), and in the end led to far more interesting music making than if I had worked it all out ahead of time. And, according to Peter, I even started singing (most) of the right notes. Because as a singer I would normally have sat down and learned all of the notes first, before rehearsing with a violinist, this forced me to run my usual rehearsing process almost completely backwards… and it led to a new sort of freedom in the rehearsal for me.

This was the second major liberator of the exchange: being the only singer in the group. Because singers tend to have a very pre-determined, specific way of learning, coaching, and talking about music, I tend to forget that there is any other way of addressing what it is we’re trying to do (even though I started my musical life as an instrumentalist). Having two weeks of musical discussions in compositional and instrumental language was fantastic. I already like to think of the voice as another equal instrument rather than as some sort of ‘Other’, and the workshops opened that up in myself and my singing more than I had been able to before. In everything from the Kurtag, to workshopping composers’ new pieces, to a particularly engaging and helpful one-on-one session with Dr. Rose on some Andre Previn songs, I stopped thinking so much like a ‘singer’, and more like a complete musician. How I should be singing and thinking all the time.

Feeling thus inspired, now I simply endeavour to keep these influences a more constant part of my daily practice and performance.

That is, of course, the struggle!

in the 'workshop'

the 'Geode Collective' - the RAM student representatives

Whirlwind Update

And once again it becomes clear that I'm really horrible at updating this blog, or even at remembering that it exists. Maybe I'll start writing shorter entries, more frequently. Would be more fun for both me and you that way.

Do I even attempt to update the story on my life since last March? A little can't hurt, I suppose.

The rest of the last academic year went extremely well, really. Got involved in a few really interesting and successful education projects (co-devised and performed a piece at the Queen Elizabeth II Hall for OAE and the Sinfonietta, sang a children's opera at King's Place, etc.), technique that Diane and Nick have been teaching me really started to sink in, and I even got a Distinction on my end-of-year singing exam at RAM.

Had a relatively relaxed summer. Spent as much time as possible on sunny days in Hampstead Heath, my new favourite place to spend a nice day in London. Even went swimming there. Found a house to move to, and moved to it. Had a brief visit to the States for Gram's birthday, and some time back in Ocean Grove.

Then the start of autumn again. Played viola on a couple of All Souls Orchestra tours, including with Keith and Kristyn Getty. Performed 'Mrs. Spencer Waits' for the OAE again. Technique really started sinking in, and my voice seems to have just about doubled in size. With absolutely no added effort to sing - less, really. Huzzah. Sang a scene from Barber's Vanessa, as Vanessa. Had an incredible master class with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and coached both of the 'Contessa' arias from Mozart's Figaro with her.

Got ridiculously busy. Sent out a ton of applications for programmes for next year. Had 3 auditions in the UK, and will hopefully have 5 more in the States, and at least one on the Continent. Sang two performances of Handel's Messiah as the soprano soloist at Blenheim Palace, including one for the Duke of Marlborough himself.

Had loads of random visitors come through London, both family and friends. And family friends. Reconnected with people from home, Princeton, and Oxford. Strengthened bonds with Marshalls and RAM students, even as some ties change. Made new wonderful friendships. And a new wonderful 'framily' in my 4 housemates, as well as the ones who have switched out since I moved here. Feeling more settled in the city and in church here. Putting down more roots. All at the same time that I wonder if I'll still be here less than a year from now, depending on how applications and auditions pan out. The excitement and the stress of such an international profession. Will I ever have a real 'home' in the world again? Hope so. But probably won't be all that soon. Difficult realization, really.

Far from ending on such a fraught note, however, I have to state that I've been really happy in the past months. I feel more centred, more settled, and more confident that I'm doing what I'm meant to be doing, and that I'm even starting to do it well. Always more to learn and more progress to be made, but things are looking up, I think. Not bad for a girl who wasn't singing even close to full time two years ago.

Here's hoping it'll be less than 8 1/2 months until the next time I write here...

Settling

Time keeps ticking on.

Concerts have come and go, friends have visited and left, rainy days have come and come and come and went and came back again... (at least spring seems to have arrived, albeit with some brief reappearances of rainy winter weather every once in a while). And through all of this, I'm finally feeling considerably more settled in London.

The new term has, in general, been a lot better to me than the last - both in my programme and in life outside of it. I'm singing better, and keep making progress in improving what I'm doing and learning a lot of new repertoire and information. Still have a ways to go, but that's why I keep studying. At least feeling a lot better about my work here. Also, have made a few really solid friends who I can trust, talk to, and feel eminently comfortable with. It's amazing what a difference that makes in feeling at home somewhere - not to say I didn't have made some good friends last term, but having a few really close allies makes for a far more grounded existence.

Of course, there are always things that remind me that I'm not at home. The weather. The extreme habit of understatement. The reservedness. The lack of reliable public transportation. Wait a minute, considering NJ Transit and the MTA, maybe that's not so different, after all...

But, on the whole, I can honestly say that I feel at home in this city now. People stop me on the street to ask for directions, and I can point them in the right direction. I know where to go for which groceries. I have a couple of favorite cheap restaurants. I have to think twice to use American terminology, as the British words for things are what come out of my mouth first. And, most importantly, I know where to stand on the Tube platforms that I frequent so that when I get back off the train at that particular door, I will be directly in front of my next platform's exit.

Some of the most exiting developments have been in music (perhaps unsurprisingly for me). Sang in a really wonderful production of RAM opera scenes at the end of January, playing the title role in a duet from Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix. (No, there were no ski slopes in the opera. Sorry.) Then this past week, some of the best stuff yet: sang in the chorus for a mass performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, conducted by Sir Colin Davis in a joint project between RAM and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Getting to sing on the stage at the Barbican - to a completely sold-out audience - was an experience I'll not soon forget, nor the deafening roar of said audience after the final chord. Also got to sing on the stage of the Wigmore Hall (London's pre-eminent recital hall) for an education project performance there this past Saturday (even had Mom here visiting for both of those concerts!). And, get to play viola in the Royal Albert Hall in a week and a half. Things are looking up.

Perhaps most interestingly, I have discovered the art and joy of jazz performance this term. Got sort of dragged along to a meeting for a new Jazz Club here at Goodenough back in late January, and turned into a series of fun rehearsals, then a pair of gigs at Goodenough (after-party music for a Vagina Monologues performance; then a real gig as the entertainment for a champagne tasting that went well into the night!). Really loving it and seem to be doing well with it, have found a rhythm section I adore, and the 4 of us are now trying to 'make it' in the London jazz scene, putting together some sets to play in some jazz clubs. Should be an exciting new chapter in the musical adventures here, at any rate - and who knows where it'll go?

By the end of the week, I'll have made it through the end of my 2nd of 3 terms for the year. Amazing how time flies. Especially now that I'm really having fun. :-)

An American in London

Disclaimer: I realize this is now getting posted extremely late... this post got mostly written and abandoned a while ago, but I still wanted to get it up here!

My fellow Americans: we have a new President.

The honeymoon period is passing now - which is a good thing for all parties involved, I think - but I thought it might be worth looking back at the day Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, from a slightly different perspective. Being in the UK on inauguration day was a very interesting experience, actually. As much as I felt some twinges of jealousy of my friends back in the States that day - and particularly those in DC - it was very enlightening to observe the whole thing from this side of the Pond. Newspapers here had been featuring his picture and news about the ceremony and those who would be in attendance for days and even weeks in advance, and sometimes it was easy to forget that it wasn't a leader of the UK being celebrated. Because of the close relationship between the two nations, and because of the general animosity and apathy towards the outgoing US leader, this was very big news for everyone over here. In fact, Londoners in general (at least, those I know) seem a lot more 'in the know' about the details of the American political system than the average 'Joe sixpack' in the States. They understand the whole electoral college system very well, know a lot of the ins out and outs of the two parties, are familiar with the key people and offices, and generally seem better informed than most of the people in the country who should be more concerned about these sorts of things. Perhaps this has something to do with the self-selecting group of people with whom I spend most of my time, but in general, my British companions seem to be a very well-informed bunch on the subject of American politics.

The mood that day was quite high, as well. Perhaps not quite as high as the Americans I know here, many of whom were wearing red, white, and/or blue, possibly with Obama t-shirts and buttons, and most importantly were sporting rather huge smiles (we are talking about Americans abroad, remember, who are a far more liberal sub-group of American citizens in general... and, let's be honest, Obama had the highest approval rating of an incoming President of anyone that anyone can think of). Still, there was an excitement in the air. People were talking about it all day. I received congratulations and high-fives from people throughout the day, regardless of how well I knew them. And, in the words of one English friend I asked about his attitude towards the whole thing, 'The way I see it, we've got a new leader of the free world. That should be exciting for all of us.'

As part of that excitement, Madame Tussaud's even had a special deal for American citizens on inauguration day: free entry for US citizens to celebrate the new President Obama wax statue. Considering the fact that said institution is about a 2 minute walk down the street from the RAM, I ran over with a couple of other Americans and we ran through to take a picture. (Didn't stop to really see anything else - sort of entertaining place, but definitely not worth the high price of admission, I don't think). They had a huge screen with a projector working to broadcast the BBC's coverage of the inauguration ceremony, and a huge line of people waiting to stand behind the desk in the 'Oval Office' to take their picture with 'President Obama'. We did it from the side, instead. Interesting to be in such a commercialized version of the political celebration, though, as well as to be surrounded by US accents for part of the afternoon!

In Madame Tussaud's

In terms of actual inauguration-watching, however, I ran back to the packed-to-capacity common room where the flatscreen TV was broadcasting BBC's coverage of the event. And their coverage was great, except for the commentary that talked over a lot of the MC's announcements about what was going on so we sat in a moment of silence not knowing what it was for, and had extremely irate student musicians yelling at the commentator when he kept speaking through the beginning of the 'Simple Gifts' performance, talking about how beautiful it was. (We'd know how beautiful it is if you'd just stop talking.) Students were everywhere in the room to watch the proceedings - on couches, over couches, on each other, standing in corners, on the floor, etc. To be sure, a lot of the people in the room were the Americans studying there (there are a few of us), but it was amazing to see how many students from elsewhere were glued to the TV, as well. With one notable exception. (Perhaps the most memorable moment of the day for me.) At one point, a student walked nonchalantly through the common room door, and then stopped and did a double-take at how many people were in the common room. He looked confused and slightly annoyed, then peered his head around the corner to see what we were all watching. Recoiling in disgust, he stood and faced all of us, and yelled, 'I am Russian. I do not care about this. We do not care about your country!', and then stomped out of the room. An interesting reminder that just because the Cold War is over, it doesn't mean that the old attitudes have ended with it for everyone.

For the most part, though, election time felt like being an American in London made one a celebrity. My amazingly well-informed, optimistic, excited non-American friends had so much goodwill towards now-President Obama and the change he represented. The glow's certainly gone now, but let's hope that the goodwill remains towards the country as a whole.

Starting Up (A Term Late)

So, seeing as most of my friends who are now graduated (like me) and transplanted to various parts of the globe far away from their homes/schools/families (also like me) have been keeping blogs to record what they're up to, and to communicate their experiences with friends and family, I thought I should jump on this bandwagon. So, I hope that this blog not only helps me to remember what it was like to embark upon this particular journey, but also to share with you a piece of my daily life here in London.

To start with a basic introduction to what I'm doing here: I graduated from Princeton with a degree in public policy and a certificate in music performance last June, and moved to London at the end of August to pursue a Masters of Music (MMus) degree in 'Vocal Studies' from the Royal Academy of Music. I am honored and blessed to be doing so with the help of a Marshall Scholarship, for which I am indescribably grateful. Eventually, I'm hoping to concentrate more specifically on opera - possibly with cultural diplomacy - but the degree I'm working on now is a broader singing degree, helping me to build a foundation in art song, oratorio, opera, and most areas of what we refer to as 'classical' singing. Since my undergraduate degree was definitely not a music performance degree, this broader foundation seemed like the smartest move for me, and it's definitely what I need to be doing right now. Classes range from subjects like acting and movement to Lieder, English song, and French song, and I also have a one-on-one lesson and coaching each week with a singing professor and coach at the RAM. I'm very lucky to be working with a pair of extremely challenging and supportive mentors. Professors are also wonderful, as I continually feel I get to work with the best the UK has to offer for what I'm studying. And although it's a very challenging programme (I think a lot of the time I may even be busier now than I was in my undergrad... which is hard to imagine), it's also an extremely supportive place that truly works to help its students achieve the best they can achieve. And, having homework that consists of practicing and learning gorgeous music sure beats problem sets and long, dry, policy paper reading assignments. :-)

I live in a private hall for international postgraduate students called 'Goodenough College'. No joke. Named after William Goodenough. (See more here). It's in a wonderfully central location, close to Russell Square and King's Cross Railway Station, and the facilities are quite nice for central London. I'm also surrounded by a lot of fascinating people, studying at every London university imaginable, in hundreds of fields, and hailing from over 90 countries worldwide. Also hang out with a few other American Marshall Scholars ('Marshies') who live here, and it's nice to have a connection to 'home' that way. Because, as adventurous as I normally am and as much as I love living and studying here, I do miss home.

Still, I'm thankful to have made some good friends here already, between RAM students in my programme, the Marshies, and also some wonderful people from All Souls Church, where I've become involved in music ministry and in a weekly student Bible study. A chord of three strands of friendship, as it were. So I can be grateful for having a pretty comprehensive support system!

So what am I up to now? One term down, and the next starts on Monday after a lovely 5-week winter break (amazing). Preparing to dive back in. As time goes on, I'll hope to include some pictures from my life here, and I'm sure more information about the time already passed will be referenced and included. But for now: looking forward to the next term!