Proms Concerts

So last weekend I finally played the Proms concerts with the ASO. I was actually really surprised at what they turned out to be. It's basically a gigantic celebration of England and people are hardcore about it. It felt almost sacriledge for me to be playing in it as an American. I felt like it was something I wasn't meant to witness. The audiences were rowdy too. There were streamers and those little noise makers that you have at New Years parties. The audience was strongly encouraged to sing along. It was pretty wild. During "Hail Britannia" everyone in the orchestra was given streamers to throw at each/at the audience. Some people were making it their goal to get a streamer awkwardly on someone's instrument who had to be playing at the time. I got mine right on the head of a violin player. It was a good time.

Also, in the second half of the program, the orchestra gets to dress up in costume. It was fun. All of the women in the woodwind section dressed up as Morris dancers. It proved once again that suspenders were not designed to be worn by women. All of the brass/men in the woodwind section dressed up in some kind of military uniform. Except for one trumpet player who, for some reason, opted to wear a tux. In addition to the tux, he had a number of accessories that he changed after every song or so. These ranged from wigs to fake noses. It was crazy. The entire trumpet section decided to wear newspaper hats for a few songs. It was a good time.

However, my favorite part of the program was the Sweet Transvestite guy. For some reason, we were playing the song Sweet Transvestite from the Rocky Horror picture show. And the actor for the song was there. In full makeup. And wig. And costume. It was the most hilarious thing ever. On the first night, the orchestra hadn't realized what his costume was going to look like. He comes on with a cape draped around him (we all knew about that) and after the intro of the song, throws it off. This man was wearing possibly the shortest shorts I have ever seen in my life, heals, fishnets, and a corset-type shirt (I guess you could call it that). Half the orchestra stopped playing when we saw. We were just cracking up. It was amazing. The audience was freaking out too.

Anywho... The Proms were a really good time. I was glad to get to play with an orchestra (I miss orchestra) and I got to meet some really interesting people. The people in the woodwind section kept telling me that I will never play in another orchestra like this again, and I've gotta say, I'm pretty sure they're right. They're just so crazy. It was really fun. I was glad Stoven talked me into it, even though it tried to take over my life for a couple weeks.
Peace.

Wrapping Up

So... I think I'm just going to stop promising that I'm going to write soon because I seem to keep losing track of this blog. Sorry guys. I keep getting busy or distracted. But I'm finally sitting still in an attempt to not wear myself out for my performance exam tomorrow, so I will give you an update.

Um, let's see... My semester here in Auckland is wrapping up extremely quickly. I leave in 10 days. I am constantly busy for the next three days with various performances. Then I'm going to Wellington for five days. Then I have two more full days in Auckland plus the day of my flight, which doesn't leave until the evening. I'm actually pretty sad about the thought of leaving. While I'm looking forward to getting to see everyone in the States again, I also remember that in the next week I'm going to say goodbye to a lot of people that I will probably never get a chance to see again. Or if I do, it will not be for a very long time. I also feel like I'm just now getting settled and suddenly I'm leaving again. This semester has absolutely flown by. People told me it would. But I want to make the most of my last days here.

My trip to Wellington is going to be great. I'm so excited. I'm planning on going to a number of museums and art galleries. Wellington's known as kind of an artsy place. The botanical gardens are supposed to be beautiful. There's just all kind of stuff to do. Wellington is also the capital, so I'm going to see all of the government buildings. And apparently there is one day that you can go and watch Parliament do something. Sweet. I'm also looking forward to going somewhere outside of Auckland. I haven't left the city in over a month.

This weekend is full of performances. Tomorrow is my performance exam. Twenty minutes of rather strenuous music. Second movement of Bernstein sonata, first movement of Brahms no. 1, all followed by Raubaud's Solo de Concours. It's a lot of playing. I am currently having to actively keep myself from going to the annexe to practice more. I'm at the point where pretty much all I can do is think good thoughts and try to get a decent night's sleep. I'm well prepared but the perfectionist side of me keeps insisting that I'm not. I have become even more of a perfectionist recently, if that is possible. I think that's a good thing though. It's making me freakishly driven (in terms of music, anyway). On Saturday and Sunday, I have the Proms concerts with the ASO, finally. The music isn't extremely difficult but there is a lot of it. It is seriously about three hours of solid playing. It's supposed to be quite a show. I haven't seen all of it put together but there are dancers and random actors (like one of the guys from Rocky Horror. We're playing Sweet Transvestite, no joke.) and a choir (they're not very good though) and some interesting light effects based on what was happening during rehearsal tonight. During the second half of the program, the orchestra gets to dress up in costumes. The woodwinds and horns are dressing up as Morris dancers. We get cool hats. I'm stoked.

As for what's been going on up to now.... Just day to day stuff, generally. I keep meaning to go do stuff around Auckland but my days seem to disappear really quickly. I had my management exam today. Eh. I'm glad it's done. It reminded me of just how much I loathe essay exams. They are ick. Why would any teacher ever do them? But it's over. I happily sold my book back immediately after the exam. Good times.

AND OH MY GOSH!!! I just remembered something I forgot to write about! I got to see Kari Kriikku play with the NZSO. For those who don't know why you should care about Kari Kriikku, it is because he is a clarinet god. Seriously amazing! I have never seen anything like it ever. I don't even have good enough words to describe him. My words could never match up to his performance. It was absolutely breathtaking. I actually realised about half way through the piece that I was holding my breathe, that's how into it I was. No joke. He is so incredibly expressive. And he does some amazing effects. I'm not sure how to do most of them. It was so awesome. During intermission, Natalie, Rowan and I snuck back to the stage door. And we got to talk to him! For like a minute, but still. We were all a bit star struck. We had trouble getting out much more than, "Thank you so much for playing here!" and "We're university clarinetists. We pretty much worship the ground you walk out." We actually left out that bit about worshipping him, but we were all thinking it. It was the most amazing night. We were all so hyperactive after hearing him play. Except Kevin... Kevin was depressed because he thinks he'll never be that good. And, honestly, none of us will probably ever be that good. But that doesn't mean we're hopeless. So awesome.

I'm going to go ahead and end on that note because now all I can do is think about Kari Kriikku and bask in his amazingness. I've officially gone into nerdy clarinet mode and it's hard to get me back from that. I would say that I will post again soon but I'm not going to promise anything. If I haven't written anything by Monday, then I'll let you know how Wellington was when I get back. And then I'll be home soon.
Peace.

Franz Josef Pictures

I finally stopped being a slacker and posted Franz Josef pics! Yay! These are all courtesy of my friend, Scott. It was raining the entire time we were on the hike, so I didn't dare take my camera out of the relative safety of my backpack. As it was, everything got wet and I was surprised that my camera lived to see a new day. However, Scott, brave man that he is, did have the guts to take and camera out for a few pictures and was kind enough to allow me to have them for my own personal enjoyment and to share with other. And, two months later, I have finally posted them. I have added them onto Part 6 of the South Island Trip. So go check them out if you wish. Coming up, hopefully some posts about my doings in Auckland as of late and more pictures of various stuff, including some pics of where I live and the surrounding area, as requested by Grandma.
Peace.

I'm Alive, Really

So I haven't posted for ages, so I thought I would just let you know that I'm still alive. I have been busy with school and musical things, but nothing ospecial to report. I lost my phone at Foodtown this weekend and had to get a new one, which is a bummer. And the fire alarm went off for the fourth time since I've been here yesterday, which was kind of funny. The wait for practice rooms gets increasingly longer as it creeps closer to exams. So I've been getting some good reading in while I sit in the hallway staring down anyone who does not actually practice in the practice room that they have claimed.

I'm also planning a trip to Wellington in a few weeks. It will be my first solo sojourn out of Auckland. I'm really excited. I will post more fun everyday life stories when I have more time because I've got several but right now I need to get off to wait for a practice room and then meet up with my accompanist. Also, one of these days I will post the Franz Josef Glacier pictures that I stole from Scott ages ago.

My Birthday Weekend

What could have been a really boring weekend actually turned into a really good one. I am now in a fantastic mood and ready to start my last to weeks at university. The weekend started out with a relaxing Friday night at home curled up in several sweatshirts and a blanket, talking to Holly, watching TV, and reading (for pleasure, not school). It was just the kind of evening I needed.

Saturday was a masterclass with Michael Webster, the clarinet professor at Shepard School of Music at Rice University. I got the chance to play Brahms for him. I was informed that I would be playing for him on Friday afternoon, so it was quite sudden but fortunately exams are in a few weeks, so I was prepared enough. I half like and half disliked Michael. I warmed up to him quite a bit as the day went on. However, he encouraged me to pulse my air as a method of creating musical direction, which is a big clarinet no-no. At least with every other teacher I have ever had. His wife was there as well, doing a masterclass with the flutes. They are the most amusing couple ever. They are quite quirky. I enjoy their personalities a lot. After the "official" masterclass, Rowan, Natalie, and Fin had open lessons with Michael. These quickly turned into an extension of the masterclass. I sat in on all of them. I found them quite interesting. We covered very different topics with each person, which I enjoyed. By the end of the day, we were all pretty much in agreement that Michael is very knowledgeable about the clarinet but he does not execute very well. He is actually an average player but a interesting teacher. I don't think that I could ever study with him for an extended period of time because I don't think he would motivate me to improve very much but I think I could get something out of a few lessons with him.

We were planning on going out for a couple drinks after the masterclass but by the end Natalie and I both had horrible headaches. (We had been working on high notes for about 45 minutes prior. That will get to you.) So we all headed home. I was very pleased because Peter, a saxophone player in my reed class who also happens to be in my communications paper, bought me a present. He got me a t-shirt from the NZ music festival that is going on right now. I was so touched that he thought to get me something. I wasn't really expecting gifts. It was a really good end to the day.

This morning was a very lazy morning for me. I was considering going surfing with Natalie but I was tired and didn't have a wetsuit available, so I ended up staying home. As it turned out, the waves were no good today anyway. But I'm thinking of going out with her some other weekend and she will teach me how to surf. That's going to be really sweet. The afternoon was a concert given by Michael and his wife, whose name I cannot remember. She is a fantastic flute player. And it's easy to tell how passionate she is about music. It was very refreshing. I feel that so many professional musicians can be very jaded. She just simply loves music; it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. The concert overall was really nice. It was an entertaining program, rather than making the audience eat their vegetables as Larry Racliffe would say. There was a really cool arrangement of Debussey's Petite Suite for clarinet, flute, and piano that I really liked.

Afterwards, Natalie, Rowan, and I ended up talking to Michael for half an hour at least. He is very interesting to talk to. Like I said, extremely knowledgeable about the clarinet and music in general, he just doesn't play that well. Meeting these people makes me a bit homesick. They kept mentioning places and people in Texas that I know and I kept having the strong urge to bounce up and down saying, "I know that place/person. I am from Texas!" At the same time, I don't want to leave New Zealand. I am now at the point where I am very attached. I miss home but at the same time, I feel like there's so much more about New Zealand that I can just now get more in-depth in. I'm finally getting comfortable in Auckland, at uni, in the school of music. I'm just now getting to the point where I can say that I am starting to feel close to some of the people in the music school that I've met. But I also have a lot of things to go back to in the States. I can already tell that leaving New Zealand is going to be really bittersweet for me.

Anywho... When we finally extricated ourselves from the lobby (we were the last people to leave), we decided to go out for the drinks we didn't get last night. It was really nice. We went to a bar off Queen Street where you could actually here the people you are talking to. We sat there for at least two hours. It was really fun. Natalie is someone that I have been talking to since this first week of classes at uni but I have never really gotten a chance to get to know Rowan. So getting to connect with him was cool. He is a very nice guy. His girlfriend is currently living in Sweden, so we got to swap stories about long-distance relationships and how Skype is the greatest invention ever. It was just really great to get to socialize a bit more with them.

Upon arriving home, I realized that I had about five texts from Amanda asking me what I was up to and if she could come over. I told her that I was cooking dinner but she could come over whenever she wanted to. About 15 minutes later, my apartment was bombarded by not just Amanda but also Lorissa, Scott, Eric, and Chris, bearing cake and wine. So I did get to hang out with that crowd for a while on my birthday too. I am going to gain 20 pounds or so from all of the food people got me. There was the cake that those yahoos brought over, the cake that my roommie Laura baked for me, a king-sized chocolate bar from another roommate, Holly, and a big bag of Pineapple Lumps from Natalie, who insisted that I have to have them some time as they are a "New Zealand thing." Plus a box of Pam's (that's a brand here) nutrigrain bars from Eric. It ended up being a great weekend. A good entrance into my next decade. I am happy. Yay!
Peace.

I Know, It's Been a While

Sorry guys. It's been ages since I last wrote. I have been pretty busy this past week. I have been up to a lot of the usual in the past week. A good portion of the week was spent getting a management essay done. Those things haunt me, I swear. But it's the last major assignment of the semester and it's all turned in, so I'm a happy camper. I have had my first couple rehearsals with the woodwind quintet and with ASO. I'm especially enjoying playing with the ASO. They're not amazing but I have missed playing in an orchestra. And the woodwind section is a blast. They are the wackiest people ever. I had half of them in tears at one point tonight. We had been making jokes about the swine flu earlier and at an opportune moment during rehearsal, I made a snorting noise that only the winds could hear. They were cracking up. We were all useless for about five minutes. Except for the other clarinet player. He is the only guy in the section and he was not amused. But they are really fun. I'm enjoying hanging out with some Kiwis.

I am also playing in a wind nonet. (Yes, a nonet. Flute, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons, and two oboes.) Not permanently, we are just reading through a few things. But it is very fun. Natalie and I make an awesome team. We blend really really well. I enjoyed playing with her. At one point during rehearsal, we were comparing set ups in terms of reed, ligature, mouthpiece, barrel, instrument. And we were trading all sorts of bits of our instruments. At one point, I had my instrument, mouthpiece, and reed and Natalie's ligature and barrel. Ben was so confused by the fact that we kept switching things around. Good times in clarinet land. No other instrument does stuff like that.

Other than that, life has been a lot of work. The semester is starting to wind down, which actually means a lot of work. Tons of rehearsals, practicing, homework, reading, etc. But I enjoy being busy, so I'm good. The only downside right now... I was getting really excited to get to go out on my birthday, which is this Sunday (we were going to celebrate Saturday). However, now my friends are planning on going to Taupo because it is one of the only weekends left that they could possibly go. I have to stay in Auckland for music stuff. Not only do I not get to go to Taupo and skydive but I will probably be hanging out by myself on my birthday. Sad day. Would anyone like to fly to New Zealand and hang out with me? Anywho... That is about all I have to update you on.
Peace.
P.S. Best quote ever, in the ASO newsletter. "Definition of a gentleman: A guy who knows how to play trombone but doesn't." Ha!

Happy Mother's Day!

So, I know I said I was going to write a while ago... But I got busy. I have been trying to get going on a management essay. It is 2000 words and 25% of my final grade and is due a week from tomorrow. It's not getting off to a very good start though. I have spent most of today staring at a computer screen reading about corporate social responsibility. My eyes and my brain hurt and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. On top of that is the fact that I'm bored senseless by this topic and haven't gotten to practice today, which makes me grumpy.

Okay... The complaining part of this post is officially over. On Friday, reed class was taken by Elsa Lam, former principal clarinetist of the China Philharmonic. I think I've only mentioned it about a million times. It turns out that she also played with the Kalamazoo Orchestra, strangely enough. She was very helpful. Natalie described her as "brutally honest." I didn't think she was that brutal, just honest. I think Natalie might be a bit surprised if she does grad school in the States. Or maybe I'm just desensitized from my years with Ilya. She bombarded me with about a million exercises to do. There was one point, though, that I totally missed because she had taken my clarinet and was describing how something needs to be like golf. She had my clarinet by the bell and was swinging it like a golf club. I wanted to snatch it out of her hands and hold it close so that it would be safe. I, apparently, was making a face because the entire class was laughing at me. Overall she was very good. She actually related her comments to music in general, rather than just to the piece that I was playing, which is much more helpful in the long run. She said that I play like a typical American but complimented my playing overall, so I taking that as a win.

Yesterday, I meant to get work done but my whole day went away somewhere. I don't even know what happened to it. I did get in a good practice session, which makes up for the lack of one today. In the evening, we went to Ponsonby which is a section of Auckland, about 10 minutes away by bus. We went to this club called the Grange, which was having it's 3rd birthday, and watched rugby for a bit. I marvel at that games. The guys who play it are ridiculous. The whole thing is so violent. And they don't stop the clock every two seconds like in American football, so the players are pretty much running for an hour straight. It's crazy. You would have to be so fit to play rugby. Anywho... We walked around Ponsonby for a while but not for too long because all the shops were already closed and it was kind of cold. I would like to go back for an afternoon sometime and do some shopping. It is a really cute little area.

Today, like I said, I worked most of the day. But, I took a break this afternoon to go to a recital of the NZ Trio. It's a piano trio that resides at the University of Auckland. They were very good but played a lot of contemporary music, which I'm not always into. I can't really give you very much more than that because I kept fading out. I wasn't "listening actively" as my teachers would say. I again contribute that to the staring at a computer for hours on end thing. But it was still an enjoyable experience.

Tomorrow is my first rehearsal with the woodwind quintet. I have not managed to get in touch with Fin to get the music off him so I hope that he thinks to bring it to choir tomorrow so that I don't show up to rehearsal looking like a dope without any music. My first ASO rehearsal is also this week, on Wednesday. And sometime this week, I might be participating in an experiment being run my the economics department at uni. They pay you for it! That would be awesome. That's about it.

Happy mother's day to all those moms out there! Way to conquer the child-raising process!
Peace.