food

I read this article in the NYTimes, and I thought it was cool. It has long bothered me that one of the primary reasons for obesity in this country (in my opinion) is that it is simply so much more expensive to eat healthily.

heroes don't need to hold low eflats for 16 beats before an intense solo, anyway.

I heard this story on NPR today, and it piqued my curiosity. I don't think anything's wrong with Peter & the Wolf, but this sounds like fun, too.

On a different note, I enjoyed Ein Heldenleben with AYS. But I wish that the low Eflat hadn't stopped in the wrong spot so I had to come back in again audibly. I was really nervous, mainly because I took time off last week and wasn't feeling completely back to shape, but it generally went well besides that. It's a lot of fun to play.

Ironically, I have become hooked on a different hero theme: the TV show, Heroes. Season 1. Several friends warned me via facebook that it all goes downhill from there. Oh well, I will enjoy it while it lasts.

i needed a break, so i took one!

Last month I had a bit of a frustrating audition experience. I felt very well prepared for an English horn audition, although when I arrived and found that they were asking both oboe and English horn in the first round, that threw me for a loop a bit. But I said OK, I can do this. I think I played a pretty solid audition. It wasn't spectacular, but it was pretty accurate, and I made no major mistakes. My Brahms Violin Concerto had a bit of an airy tone to start, since I had just come from playing William Tell (who makes people do that on an audition???? That would never EVER happen in real life. And I double on oboe and EH a lot). But other than that, it was a decent audition. And yet I did not advance, despite the fact that people who made many more mistakes than I, still advanced. They always say that your first round has to be so accurate, when here it was not the case. People say these auditions are a crapshoot, and I know this, but when it actually happens that you cannot understand the actions of the committee, it still feels pretty awful. I also had another tough time with summer festival auditions (why do these ALWAYS creep up on me?) and have already gotten some rejections. So I have been taking some time off the oboe, and my friend Kim visited me from Chicago and we had a little spring break celebration. We did some fun LA stuff: the beach, Noshi sushi (yum), Montana Ave and 3rd Streed Promenade in Santa Monica, the Coffee Bean, Upright Citizen's Brigade comedy, Point Dume in Malibu, biking along the beach in Santa Monica, LACMA, Hotel Cafe where we heard The Jane Doe's, and dinner at El Cholo (again, yum). Before I go back to work this weekend with (gulp) Ein Heldenleben, here are some pictures from Point Dume.

cool rock

another cool rock




waves on the beach

view of the point from the beach

waves crashing below the point

moon in the sky

soaring hawk

clouds over the Pacifc

the beach from the point

yellow flowers on the point, overlooking the Pacific

pizza-eating people

An article I was just reading had this quotation:
“Pizza-eating people have representation,” Mr. Singh said. “Burger-eating people have representation. Bagel-eating people have representation. But roti has no representation.”
I just thought it was funny.

here's looking at you, kid

For Valentine's, I went to Casablanca with a group of friends, and loved seeing it in a theater! Also, when we were on our way into the theater, we saw Madeleine Stowe with her family on their way out. It was an odd sensation for me, because when she went out she kind of looked at me and smiled, and I had this feeling like, "Do I know this person?" It took me a second to realize that no, I do not know her, but I have seen The Last of the Mohicans so many times that her face has become as familiar to me as that of someone I actually do know. Anyway, I am so glad I got to see Casablanca!! Next time I see it, I think we should do a drinking game--drinks for the following:
•anytime they play or say "As Time Goes By"
•whenever Bogey says "Here's looking at you, kid."
•when someone in the movie has a drink (wait, then maybe we would all pass out by the end of the movie . . . nevermind)
•whenever Ingrid gets a soft-focus close-up with slightly teary eyes
•for "Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects!" and "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." to finish things off.
•I'm open to further suggestions!

supermetronome returns, and MBAs

So a little while a go I posted on the idea of a supermetronome. I didn't see until just the other day, but someone very kindly posted a most helpful reply. If you are at all interested, I suggest you check out Brendon's comment. I just made myself one in GarageBand and practiced with it this evening! It was quite beneficial, I think.

Also, I went biking to the beach on Sunday with my friend Kate from Northwestern (who randomly lives 3 blocks away from me now!). Kate is currently working on her MBA at UCLA, and during the course of our conversation, we discovered that despite what one might think, there are actually some strong similarities between getting an MBA and an MM. In both programs, your summer plans are important. For most serious music students, every winter includes a slew of auditions and tapes for summer festivals. For MBA candidates, the winter includes a slew of interviews for summer internships, which can affect what kind of job offers you might get when you graduate. While summer festival attendance does not affect a musicians job opportunities, there certainly is pressure to get into the prestigious festivals in order to study with good teachers there, play chamber music with other talented musicians, or participate in high-quality orchestras with good conductors.

Also, while getting my MM, I took music history classes that had regular reading but no homework assignments, so that technically you didn't have to read the assignments until the midterm or final, which would inevitably result in me (and most of my friends) CRAMMING like crazy for these tests, because of course we hadn't done the reading until we HAD to. Apparently, there are MBA classes just like this, and students who do just the same!

We also get a little burned out for similar reasons. By the time a person does a masters, in anything, they've already gotten an undergraduate degree, which means they are probably a little tired of school. They are also probably getting a masters with a particular goal in mind (ie, a job). Therefore, when the degree itself actually seems to impede one's ability to get a job, internship, audition, etc. a person can get frustrated. Just as classwork takes away from time musicians would rather spend practicing for auditions, even though it probably helps us learn important information about our field of study, classwork takes away time from MBA students who would rather be preparing for interviews, even though those classes are also pertinent to their field.

Anyway, it was a very interesting conversation. I spend so much of my time with musicians, it's really nice to have a good chat with someone who is not immersed in the music world! Plus, a bike ride on the beach is so wonderful, it helps me survive and destress here in LA.

cover letters

I am considering taking an audition for which they ask for a cover letter in addition to a resume in order to apply. While I have heard of orchestras asking for this before, I've never taken an audition that has asked for a cover letter, so I was asking friends' advice on what to say. My friend Tim's suggestion:

"I would like to play in your orchestra because I need money. I am the greatest English hornist on the planet. You would be stupid not to choose me for this position. Also, I'm dead sexy."
Sincerely,
xxxxxx


This made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. Somehow I don't think that my cover letter will include any part of that suggestion.