It has been a while since I wrote for myself and not for my Colombia project, and a lot of things have happened during this time!
The CornoColombia project went pretty well for the most part, but I don't know if I will be able to find funding to continue the project in the future. I'm keeping my eyes out for lots of project opportunities, and I've already found some other kinds of community program funding that I may be able to use for a project, though most of them are limited to within the United States. I'll keep updating as I find out more!
I also heard back from all the graduate schools I applied for. Ultimately, I decided to attend the Yale School of Music in the fall, where I'll get my Master's in Horn Performance. I'm really excited about going there. I'll be studying with Bill Purvis and I really enjoyed my trial lesson with him. So I'll also be updating about how things work out there! Really, though, I'm not going there to get my Master's degree. Really, I want to get a job, and if I get one before I finish my studies, it's going to be a tough decision which to pursue immediately! I haven't found about any autumn auditions yet, except for two at the New York Philharmonic, and I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do that or not.
Anyways, that's all stuff for the future! Right now I'm more focused on the end of my time here at NEC. After the end of classes, I was still super busy with a variety of gigs, last minute solfege tutoring before exams, working in the admissions office, and practicing. Now that even those things are done, I'm frantically packing up all the stuff I've accumulated over the past four years into cardboard boxes before my parents arrive for commencement events this weekend. It's amazing how much stuff I have, even though I don't have that many clothes. I think most of my stuff falls into the realm of books, what with the three boxes I already filled with textbooks and music. Packing is extra complicated, though, because not only am I packing up everything I own; I also have to separate out things that I won't be taking back to school in the fall, and which things I will be taking with me to Brazil this summer.
Speaking of Brazil, let me share with you my schedule for this summer! I get back home on May 23 after driving all the way from Boston to DC... and then I have a week of various appointments and time to hang out with friends from high school and unpack a bit, before I leave for Salvador on June 1. I will be living there and working for NEOJIBA until late July, when we leave for our tour of Europe! Working for the orchestra basically means coaching the horn section and giving lessons as needed, but I will also be performing with them this year, so it will be just like being a permanent member of the orchestra would be. The European tour, as far as I've heard through the grapevine, will be in Berlin and Geneva, but nothing is official yet. I'm really looking forward to it regardless! This whole summer I'll be doing my best to blog regularly, but since it hasn't been 100% established yet where I'm living, there is no guarantee that I will have internet access at all. Even if I don't really, I can still post a little bit using the internet at the rehearsal space, but I won't be able to even check my email regularly.
Anyways, I just wanted to post a quick update on how things are going. As I said, I'll try to update regularly from Brazil this summer.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
CornoColombia: Days 8-10
Our last days working in Colombia were spent at the National University's conservatory. I worked with a variety of students through two afternoons. On the first day, we warmed up together, and completed various technical exercises, such as on articulation, scales and arpeggios, and other standard concepts. Then two student ensembles played for me.
First, a fairly advanced group sight-read a quartet. We discussed together what could be done to improve the performance and then after some work on having the same articulations and intonation, they gave a mini-performance. In addition to discussing how to fix these things in this situation (as in, in a rehearsal setting), we also talked about how to fix things in the context of an orchestral rehearsal in which you don't know the other players in the section and don't have the opportunity to rehearse independently from the ensemble. So we discussed how to adjust your intonation to match other people's, and how to make the same stylistic choices without having to discuss anything verbally. Watch this video of their second reading!
Next, a group of less advanced students played. They told me they are the basic level, which I believe means they were in kind of a conservatory training program for older teenagers who weren't yet ready to enter the university. In this group there was a huge range of levels, from some who could only play a few notes to students nearly on the level of the university players. They played an easy quartet for me, and then we practiced making the note lengths the same across all parts and registers.
To finish the day's work, a number of students then played for me in a master class format. I tried to give general comments, however, so the students observing the class could also benefit from the ideas that I presented. The horn professors at the University were watching my class and asked that I continue discussion of two specific ideas in my class the following day.
The second day, I worked with all the students on these two ideas. First, there is an exercise that my teacher loves called Path, which aids you to find the center of the note and play with more stability, without missing notes. It also allows you more flexibility, since it develops smooth transitions between registers. This easily segued into the second idea, about adjustments in mouthpiece angling between registers. The teacher asked that I work on these ideas because he was not familiar with these exercises, though of course he had been working on the problem with his students in other ways. At the end of the class, I answered lots of questions from the students, about everything from my personal warm-up routine to who my favorite horn players are, and what I think about different alternate fingerings.
With the work in Colombia concluded, we were able to embrace Colombian culture by going out on the town that night. The next day we traveled back to our respective countries.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunities doing this project presented for me. I feel like I was able to help a variety of students in this country, not just by teaching, but also by just sharing my ideas with them as a contrasting viewpoint to what they had been exposed to before. I was also able to bring many books about horn playing to them that they had never seen before, or that were nearly impossible to find there.
I learned that in the first two programs I worked for, the main problems are difficult family situations, which make it difficult for the students to focus on their music making; and an inadequate student/teacher ratio, so that some students had major technical problems that had not yet been addressed on a personal level. At the Universidad Nacional, the students were not publicly funded so some of them had difficulties buying things like oils to maintain their instruments. Overall, however, the biggest problem was the lack of access to sheet music and high quality recordings. Everywhere I went, everyone was amazed by the music that I brought and begged for the chance to copy them, even some books that were entirely in English. The most popular books were the horn ensembles; Yuli, my host, told me that it's nearly impossible to find good arrangements for horn ensemble in Colombia.
I hope that I can continue my work for CornoColombia in the future. I will seek further grant funding to buy books and other materials to send to these programs and the teachers that I met there, and possibly to return to Colombia to work more with all of these programs. While I was there, I also learned about an international horn festival that will be taking place in Bogota this September or October. They will invite a variety of international faculty members and guest soloists and I hope that I might be able to attend!
First, a fairly advanced group sight-read a quartet. We discussed together what could be done to improve the performance and then after some work on having the same articulations and intonation, they gave a mini-performance. In addition to discussing how to fix these things in this situation (as in, in a rehearsal setting), we also talked about how to fix things in the context of an orchestral rehearsal in which you don't know the other players in the section and don't have the opportunity to rehearse independently from the ensemble. So we discussed how to adjust your intonation to match other people's, and how to make the same stylistic choices without having to discuss anything verbally. Watch this video of their second reading!
Next, a group of less advanced students played. They told me they are the basic level, which I believe means they were in kind of a conservatory training program for older teenagers who weren't yet ready to enter the university. In this group there was a huge range of levels, from some who could only play a few notes to students nearly on the level of the university players. They played an easy quartet for me, and then we practiced making the note lengths the same across all parts and registers.
 |
| Coaching the intermediate group |
The second day, I worked with all the students on these two ideas. First, there is an exercise that my teacher loves called Path, which aids you to find the center of the note and play with more stability, without missing notes. It also allows you more flexibility, since it develops smooth transitions between registers. This easily segued into the second idea, about adjustments in mouthpiece angling between registers. The teacher asked that I work on these ideas because he was not familiar with these exercises, though of course he had been working on the problem with his students in other ways. At the end of the class, I answered lots of questions from the students, about everything from my personal warm-up routine to who my favorite horn players are, and what I think about different alternate fingerings.
With the work in Colombia concluded, we were able to embrace Colombian culture by going out on the town that night. The next day we traveled back to our respective countries.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunities doing this project presented for me. I feel like I was able to help a variety of students in this country, not just by teaching, but also by just sharing my ideas with them as a contrasting viewpoint to what they had been exposed to before. I was also able to bring many books about horn playing to them that they had never seen before, or that were nearly impossible to find there.
I learned that in the first two programs I worked for, the main problems are difficult family situations, which make it difficult for the students to focus on their music making; and an inadequate student/teacher ratio, so that some students had major technical problems that had not yet been addressed on a personal level. At the Universidad Nacional, the students were not publicly funded so some of them had difficulties buying things like oils to maintain their instruments. Overall, however, the biggest problem was the lack of access to sheet music and high quality recordings. Everywhere I went, everyone was amazed by the music that I brought and begged for the chance to copy them, even some books that were entirely in English. The most popular books were the horn ensembles; Yuli, my host, told me that it's nearly impossible to find good arrangements for horn ensemble in Colombia.
I hope that I can continue my work for CornoColombia in the future. I will seek further grant funding to buy books and other materials to send to these programs and the teachers that I met there, and possibly to return to Colombia to work more with all of these programs. While I was there, I also learned about an international horn festival that will be taking place in Bogota this September or October. They will invite a variety of international faculty members and guest soloists and I hope that I might be able to attend!
Monday, April 4, 2011
CornoColombia: Days 5-7
After two days working in Tocancipa, we had a day off on Monday because it was a national holiday in Colombia. However, we weren't really able to do anything because the weather was terrible, so instead we went to see a movie.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked at Tocar y Luchar. This is a nucleo modeled after the Venezuelan "El Sistema" pattern. In Venezuela, however, most of the program's funding comes from the government. In Colombia, the way the government is set up makes it very difficult to receive sufficient funding. Therefore, this program is instead funded by CAFAM, a corporation devoted to social growth. CAFAM sponsors a number of secondary schools (called colegios), providing the students with everything they need, from uniforms and shoes to paper and pencils. Located in a pretty impoverished neighborhood of Bogota, the colegio we worked at is one of the CAFAM schools expanding into the sphere of music education. Most of the students had been playing a little less than a year, though there were also a lot of complete beginners. CAFAM provides the students with the instruments and music that they need, as well as all the supplies needed to maintain their instruments in good playing condition. Though the program was started about a year ago, they have only been playing together in orchestra for six months.
Because the students have school in the mornings, we were only working in the afternoons and evenings of two days. On the first day, I began the workshop with breathing exercises. I know from my own time learning in group classes in elementary and middle school that often fundamental problems of playing come from being rushed into playing without sufficient warm-up time for beginners and early intermediate students. After about half an hour of work on expanding lung capacity, articulations and how they relate to respiration, and taking rapid but full breaths, we then moved on to playing with a very thorough warm-up routine designed from a variety of early method books. Afterward we spent the rest of the day going through one by one and fixing any problems they might have in their playing. The problem is that at this program each teacher has on average five or six students of sometimes very different levels, so it is very difficult for them to give much individual attention to any one student. Each played one or two notes (or a scale if they were advanced enough) and then the whole group discussed what strategies could be used to fix the problem. For example, one student had a somewhat muffled tone. Some of the more advanced students hypothesized that it could be from a closed position with the right hand, but we soon established that the real culprit was a raised tongue.
The second day, we again began with a thorough group warm-up. Then one of the teachers took the beginning students to do some work with them, while I worked with the intermediate students on more difficult flexibility exercises and range extension. In the third part of the afternoon, we worked on their orchestra music. They were studying an arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, which is originally for two horns, and it was really difficult for them because three people were doubling every part, which made the intonation extremely difficult. Finally, I worked a bit with the beginning students, on how to change notes, and how to control whether they move up or down in pitch. (Like I said, they were very much beginners!) Then, as a surprise, the whole orchestra gathered to present a performance for us of Beethoven! It was their first time playing this piece together. I was impressed by the quality of their performance for such young musicians! Because of privacy concerns, I was asked not to post photos or videos of the students in a public forum, such as this blog or on YouTube, but I have uploaded an audio clip of their Beethoven. Enjoy, and check back soon for information about the rest of my trip!
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked at Tocar y Luchar. This is a nucleo modeled after the Venezuelan "El Sistema" pattern. In Venezuela, however, most of the program's funding comes from the government. In Colombia, the way the government is set up makes it very difficult to receive sufficient funding. Therefore, this program is instead funded by CAFAM, a corporation devoted to social growth. CAFAM sponsors a number of secondary schools (called colegios), providing the students with everything they need, from uniforms and shoes to paper and pencils. Located in a pretty impoverished neighborhood of Bogota, the colegio we worked at is one of the CAFAM schools expanding into the sphere of music education. Most of the students had been playing a little less than a year, though there were also a lot of complete beginners. CAFAM provides the students with the instruments and music that they need, as well as all the supplies needed to maintain their instruments in good playing condition. Though the program was started about a year ago, they have only been playing together in orchestra for six months.
Because the students have school in the mornings, we were only working in the afternoons and evenings of two days. On the first day, I began the workshop with breathing exercises. I know from my own time learning in group classes in elementary and middle school that often fundamental problems of playing come from being rushed into playing without sufficient warm-up time for beginners and early intermediate students. After about half an hour of work on expanding lung capacity, articulations and how they relate to respiration, and taking rapid but full breaths, we then moved on to playing with a very thorough warm-up routine designed from a variety of early method books. Afterward we spent the rest of the day going through one by one and fixing any problems they might have in their playing. The problem is that at this program each teacher has on average five or six students of sometimes very different levels, so it is very difficult for them to give much individual attention to any one student. Each played one or two notes (or a scale if they were advanced enough) and then the whole group discussed what strategies could be used to fix the problem. For example, one student had a somewhat muffled tone. Some of the more advanced students hypothesized that it could be from a closed position with the right hand, but we soon established that the real culprit was a raised tongue.
The second day, we again began with a thorough group warm-up. Then one of the teachers took the beginning students to do some work with them, while I worked with the intermediate students on more difficult flexibility exercises and range extension. In the third part of the afternoon, we worked on their orchestra music. They were studying an arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, which is originally for two horns, and it was really difficult for them because three people were doubling every part, which made the intonation extremely difficult. Finally, I worked a bit with the beginning students, on how to change notes, and how to control whether they move up or down in pitch. (Like I said, they were very much beginners!) Then, as a surprise, the whole orchestra gathered to present a performance for us of Beethoven! It was their first time playing this piece together. I was impressed by the quality of their performance for such young musicians! Because of privacy concerns, I was asked not to post photos or videos of the students in a public forum, such as this blog or on YouTube, but I have uploaded an audio clip of their Beethoven. Enjoy, and check back soon for information about the rest of my trip!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)