25 Things Before 25

Updated post here!

Welcome to the relaunch of my blog! November 30 was my 24th birthday, and I realized that I have settled into quite a boring routine of practice, study, eat, sleep, repeat.  So I decided to do something to spice it up.  I made a list of about 50 things that I want to do sometime, that I've never tried before, then narrowed it down to the 25 things that I will try to do before I turn 25!  Here they are, with some comments about why I want to do it (in a completely random order):

1. Start a blog and keep it going regularly. I have had a blog in the past while I was traveling, but I haven't ever kept it going regularly.  I'll be updating with random tidbits from my life, interesting links I've found while perusing teh internets, and my cooking adventures, in addition to updates about these 25 goals.  I'm hoping to update the blog at least once per week.


2. See the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I've heard about this and it sounds crazy.  While I'm not sure if I would like it or not, it is definitely something I'd be interested in going to.  Maybe that's what I'll do next Halloween?

3. Watch all six Star Wars movies. (Part I) I think maybe I watched all of these at some point when I was a little kid, but first of all, I didn't understand what was happening, and I don't even remember if I saw all of them.  People reference it all the time and I never really fully understand what they're talking about.


4. Get a facial. I bet this will be good. My friends who have had them say it kind of hurts but your skin feels so much better afterwards.


5. Play paintball. I have wanted to do this since I first found out what it was by watching 10 Things I Hate About You at a sleepover.  I know people who have told me it kind of hurts when the paintball hits you but it seems super fun!


6. Eat sushi with raw fish in it.  I've eaten sushi before, but only the vegetarian rolls.  I'm interested in trying sushi as it's meant to be!


7. Try a gluten-free diet for a month or more. (Part I) I just want to know what this is like!  It will definitely be a huge challenge, since I'm a carb monster.


8. Attend a service at a Universal Unitarian church.  Since leaving my childhood church, I've been looking for a new congregation to join, but I don't want to be told what to believe by the church elders or whoever, so UU sounds like it might be a good match.  But I don't really know much about it.


9. Get my Master's degree.  Hopefully, I will be graduating this May.


10. Create a successful summer camp.  I've begun work on the McLean Chamber Academy already, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to recruit enough students and therefore pull it off.  You can check it out here. Do yoga.  Unfortunately, my summer camp plan fell through.  You can read more about that here.  So I decided to amend this thing to be something more achievable that I have never done before.  My dad has been doing yoga at least five days per week for about fifteen years, so I can just go one day with him and see what it's all about.

11. Eat lobster. When I was little I thought it seemed gross so I always refused to try it.


12. Run a 5K. This will make me get at least a little bit in shape.  My friends are training to do a half-marathon but I know that would unrealistic for me.


13. Set off a firework. I think pretty much everyone has, but due to my mother's paranoia when I was younger, I haven't even been close to one.


14. Do 100 push-ups (Part I). Along with running a 5K, this will make me get in shape (and give me great Michelle Obama arms!).


15. Cook something on the grill.  Another thing pretty much everyone has done except me.


16. Go to a professional conference.  This would be a great experience musically, professionally, and being-an-adult-ally.


17. Get a manicure.  I've only gotten a pedicure before, and usually my nails are really ugly - either really short and mangled from chewing on them, or with remains of a failed home manicure.


18. Read Moby Dick. I love "classic literature" but this is one I've never even cracked open.


19. Go to a casino. This is the quintessential experience of a 21-year-old, so I will do it only a few years late.


20. Perform a piece of music written for me.  I've always dreamed of doing this, and it will be a reality at my recital on December 9!

21. Be actively thankful for one thing every day for a month.  It's easy to forget how lucky you are for everything you have, so I want to appreciate the opportunities that I have had every day!


22. Donate blood (and find out my blood type).  This is a good thing to do to help out those less fortunate than me.  Plus, it's a good idea for me to know my blood type in case of an emergency, and apparently they can tell you what type you are when you donate blood.


23. Try using a menstrual cup.  This is maybe TMI, but suffice it to say I've been interested in trying one for a while.


24. Walk the full length of Broadway in New York.  I have been enchanted by this idea since about six years ago, when a friend mentioned to me that her sister did it.


25. Do a juice cleanse.  A lot of people I know swear by these so I'd like to give it a try.


I hope you'll follow along as I try all these things out this year!

Semester Summary and Upcoming Plans!

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.

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.

Coaching the intermediate group

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!