Summer, part 1

My summer was so crazy and full of different activities! I'll cover what I did in 4 separate posts.
Part 1  - Oregon
Part 2 - Colorado
Part 3 - Germany
Part 4 - France and Germany again
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My first activity of the summer was out in Portland, Oregon, helping out with a youth orchestra there.  This was part of my work as a global leaders fellow, where one travels to various youth music programs to help out by teaching and offering suggestions for more effective operation.  Despite the fact that we were there to work, we did have enough free time to also do a bit of sight-seeing!









I was traveling for three full months, but I was only able to bring one suitcase with me, plus of course my instrument.  Here is everything I took on my trip.

In Portland, we were able to do a lot of hiking.  Here we are in a typical park.  It is such a luscious, green city!

With my colleagues on a hike.

We went to the starlight parade, where were were given lots of light-up things.  So festive!

Of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Voodoo Donuts! My doughnut was delicious, but I have to say, it wasn't anything THAT special or different from what you can get at another specialty doughnut shop.

This is a picture from another hike.  We climbed up a huge rock that had been there since the ice age, and the views from the top were incredible!

We had to climb so many switchbacks to get up there!

My colleague on this hike.  The trees were so huge!

On another day, we went to this waterfall.  You can hike up to the top.  It was gorgeous, but we were having a lot of trouble capturing it on "film".  Finally I got this perfect shot!

At the top of the waterfall.

On our last day, we had some free time downtown before the concert.  We took a long walk along the waterfront and relaxed with some sangria!

Of course these photos only show a small part of my activities there, but I can't include photos with the students for privacy reasons.  We played in three concerts with the kids, gave some lessons and master classes, and helped out on two days of auditions.  We also offered suggestions for the directors of the program.

I really loved Portland, and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to visit and work there, even though it was for such a short time.  I hope someday I can go back and have more time to explore the city!

Next: Summer, part 2: Colorado!

This past week

Mainly this week was the same as the past few weeks - busy and full of auditions - so this will be a pretty brief post.  We finally went back to school after a bit of the snow melted, and just one day after returning to playing, I had an audition in New York.  Tomorrow I go to New York for another audition, and then on Monday, to Baltimore.  Only four more auditions to go!

Today was a very exciting day, though.  After teaching a lesson, in which my student (an undergraduate here who isn't majoring in music) showed huge improvement since the previous lesson, I met up with a former student for coffee.  S was my first horn student ever, who I taught when I was in high school.  Now he's about to graduate high school himself, and it looks like he'll be coming to Yale next year! It was really nice to see him, and to see what progress he has made in the past six years!  After that, I had my first lesson with A, my two-year-old student.  She is super cute.  We're learning basic musical concepts - like clapping to a beat, loud and soft, and high and low notes.  We sing lots of songs and dance around the room.  It's lots of fun!

Well, I'm sorry for the short post, but I better go.  I have to get up super early for my 11am audition, and I still haven't packed for my weekend away or anything.

Until next time!

Lauren