Crunch time!

Well, in the passing of 24 hours, I went from an okay perspective on practicing to a goal of three hours per day. A number of things have caused this:
1, the oboist that dropped out of the Monday night orchestra has mysteriously reappeared. I don't know where she went (I barely know her at all, so I didn't think it was my business; she said she hadn't played in a while so who knows what had happened). All I know is she's doubling first and I consider this a massive infringement on my personal territory. Naturally, this makes me unbearably competitive, and I therefore am on a practicing spree.
2, an acquaintance/friend of mine who played at All-State was accepted to Jacob School of Music and was invited to play on From the Top on the radio. I'm a little envious, sure; who wouldn't be? But, I've always admired him since I played second to him in seventh grade (seventh for me, eighth for him), and I more or less view it as an "Okay, if you work at it, you can be as good as he is, no problem." So, therefore, more practicing.
Third and finally, I've decided to audition for the Juilliard pre-college program, even though it'll only be for my final year of high school. I've been feeling pretty 'left in the dust', and so I'm applying to four camps and have recently (a.k.a., maybe eight hours ago) decided to audition for it. I've been thinking about it for a while, and as my friend said, I have nothing to lose. Why not? All I'll get is audition experience, another thing to practice for, and possibly a chance to attend Juilliard. I'm not planning on going to a music school in Manhattan, unless I fall in love with Juilliard or something, so I may as well go while it's there.
So, all in all, I've been practicing like mad. After a brutal two-hour rehearsal yesterday, I came home and did a full hour or more on English horn. Today, I got about an hour on both oboe and a little over on English, although I'm not quite sure as I had dinner in the middle of the oboe hour and I wasn't keeping track that well at all. Either way, my hand is sore and my embouchure is a little on the tired side, so I'm feeling good.

I dunno, I thought today was okay.

This isn't musically related at all, but I found it somewhat amusing. People on Facebook don't generally care, twitter is too short, and not many people see my tumblr, so I figured I'd post it here.
Today is, of all days, my birthday, and I was looking through the newspaper and saw "Today in History", and proceeded to get an enormous kick out of the quantity of black humor I found there. Allow me to explain: (The following dates and events are copied, for the most part, verbatim from the Journal News; I don't claim for them to be mine.)
On today's date in 1749, England's King Charles I was beheaded.
On today's date in 1798, a brawl broke out in the U.S. House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat in the face of Roger Griswald of Connecticut.
On today's date in 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
And, finally, on today's date in 1948, Gandhi was fatally shot in New Dehli by a Hindu extremist.
So, all in all, not one of the most peaceful and pleasant days to apparently be born.

Routine Sunday Update at 9

Christ, I just noticed I had almost 100 pageviews yesterday. Dang, guys, I didn't know I was that interesting. (Or, does just one person find me really entertaining?... Eh, I'll stick with believing I have a decently-sized audience.)
Anyway, today wasn't much, musically. I had a lesson today, as opposed to the usual Saturday. It went well; apparently my teacher has played the somewhat-bizarre quintet music we were given yesterday (Malcolm Arnold's Three Shanties for Woodwind Quintet), and he says he likes it. At least that's giving me some amount of optimism that maybe it was just our sight-reading that made the first movement sound so strange. The second was plain and seemingly event-less, but the flute was absent, so all we got to hear was the background. I like the third; lots of Latin-style rhythms and the like. I faked my way through one rhythmically challenging passage and actually got it right. I ought to have more faith in my rhythm. Honestly, I just did it by feel, but apparently I have a pretty good sense of it.
Huh. I still managed to mess up the sight-reading from yesterday, though. Audition pressure, I'll warrant.
[Thinking about it, I find it funny how less stressed I am at NYSSMA auditions than others, like New York Youth Symphony, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, or various non-NYSSMA things like that. Maybe because I've been doing them (NYSSMAs) since god-only-knows-when, or that I view them as an evaluation rather than an audition. Either way, I find it frustrating. If I managed to have the same confidence I feel at NYSSMAs at standard auditions, I think I would have been accepted to the programs or merely less shamed (I'm still somewhat embarrassed about some auditions I've done) at prior auditions. Something to conquer, I guess.]
Other than that, nothing happened. (I mean, stuff happened, but nothing musical and I'm trying to cater to a specific audience here.) I went to the city and saw Alan Rickman in Seminar - it was fantastic, beyond words; mostly because I was in the same room as Alan Rickman, the thought of which still causes irrepressible grinning - but then went home, worked on homework for far too many hours, and am now treating myself to a Next Generation marathon, hopeless geek that I am.

So far, so fair

First and final summer program audition today, the rescheduled NYSSSA audition. Overall, I think it went ... well, I have no idea. Nearly every negative was countered by a positive or a more-positive way of looking at it. I botched the sightreading at one point, but stayed in time and jumped right back in without messing up the rest of it. Some notes failed to speak (something that only seems to happen at audition situations; rather frustrating) but there were other sections where everything sounded great. 

All I can say, I haven't the faintest idea how I did in the eyes of the judge, and I doubt I'll find out until I'm notified of whether I got in or not.

Terrifying, I tell you.

I did manage to slip in, when he asked what ensembles I have played in and programs I did, that I played in All-State on English this past December. Hopefully, even though he never heard the horn, he'll take that into consideration and maybe use it to give me a little bit of a boost. I also mentioned that I like playing English horn more than oboe. Looking back, I probably should've kept my mouth shut about that. Just one of the several times I want to smack myself, but instead settle for saying "I just need to shut up."

Quintet rehearsal later today. Ordinarily, this would be a concert. But, of course, quality and reliable attendance shot out the window as the date grew nearer. Our clarinetist had a matinee for a show he was playing in (Les Miserables at a local theatre) two (three?) weeks ago. Our horn was in Pennsylvania for Horn Day, or something along those lines, and I was supposed to have my NYSSSA audition then. I can blame myself somewhat; I was told if I didn't go there would be no rehearsal, so I decided to stay home, hermit that I am. I don't know what my exact reasoning was; I think I just decided I had planned on staying home that afternoon. I'm a stickler for keeping plans and getting in a mood when something comes up last-minute. But anyway, as I found out from the flute the following Monday at orchestra during break, she and the bassoonist both showed up and there was a duet quintet rehearsal. 

Feelin' like a slacker? You can bet your life on it.

Procrastination at its finest

I think the fact that I spent two hours practicing and then oiling and polishing my English horn and oboe rather than studying for my midterm in US History speaks volumes about me as a person.
There's not much else to say for today.
Hope you all are having a good week!
Edit: my theory class was unexpectedly cancelled, a plus. I consider my day because of it to be a good one, rather than just "not bad".

Conductor Rant, the first of many

In an attempt to avoid thinking about the tragedy that was the English midterm I endured today, I figured I could spend some time dwelling on the tragedy that was last night's rehearsal. With it being the first rehearsal of the second part of the season, I didn't have high hopes, fortunately. (It really wasn't as bad as it sounds; I'm just still feeling a sore spot from the selections of repertoire we're going to be doing.) The pieces we should be playing, if I remember correctly, and Wikipedia will help me here, are Offenbach's La Belle Helene Overture; Beethoven's Turkish March (not sure what opus, I don't trust Google); Bellini's Norma Overture; Berlioz' Hungarian March; and something else beginning with "Erin", whose composer's first name is Ernesto, but Google is failing to help in this endeavor as well.
There are a couple things from last semester that are still in our folders, none of which I'm terribly thrilled about. There is one, though; A Gluck overture that I've become fond of despite myself. I can't remember the name, though, and even Wikipedia's lengthy list of Gluck's operas isn't triggering any bells. Once I remember, I'll update this post and edit this section.
I think that to an audience, the pieces aren't that bad, save the Ernesto thing that is fine until it gets to a fugue-like section that just makes me want to cry. If the audience wants oboe solos, however, they'll be sorely disappointed. A little one in the Offenbach, and that's all. I'm slightly disappointed after last semester, which was more like an oboe concerto concert than an orchestral one. I was getting used to the attention. (And yes, I realize how narcissistic that sounds, and I've decided that I don't really care.)
We had a complete train wreck during the Berlioz, but everything else went fine. I had a passive aggressive moment during (I think it was) the Offenbach, after having started and stopped and started and stopped so many times it seemed like he was turning into my school orchestra conductor - which is not a good thing. He, after a seeming-eternity of this, he decided one section wasn't clean enough, and slowed us down. I normally wouldn't complain. It was pretty sloppy, what with how many flutes and clarinets we have (an abominable number). But, we already were going really, really, really slow. Taking it down to grave, and then gravissimo as there was a slight pull because it was so damn slow, was just a mite excessive. Then, he slowed down further, to the point where the skeletons and corpses in everybody's closets were complaining that it needed more vivacity.
I retaliated by playing every note I had a half step higher than written.
He never noticed.

Why I'm not sure about the Music Ed degree

This isn't related to anything that technically happened today, but I think it's a well-deserved rant, and a warning to anyone considering taking music lessons:
Pay your teacher.
One of my two current students (I'm not sure whether I should consider her a student at this rate) has had only two total lessons, due to insane and inconvenient scheduling, courtesy of our schools. They were both a few weeks apart, but she has still so far failed to compensate monetarily for her usage of my time. Mate, I'm not going to listen to you play a plastic oboe on a store-bought reed for no cost. I want something to make me understand that I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart, as the goodness of my heart is rapidly waning.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that $25 an hour is a ridiculously low fee. Because, um, it is. Therefore, I'm not seeing what the huge issue is with paying me. I don't bite unless you bite me first; I'd just like to be able to have some spending money without having to ask my parents for it. Self-sufficiency is a marvelous thing.
My mother is of the opinion that she (the student) is now embarrassed and afraid to approach with the money, or maybe there's an issue with her parents or something. In either case, she ought to come up to me and discuss it. I sent a very civilized (and I am a civilized person despite being a double-reed player, I'm neither exaggerating nor lying) message to her, and got no response.
Hmph.
At this point, every single ball I own is in her half of the court, and I'm willing to wait to see if she does anything with them. I'm not going to do a middle-school-teacher-esque hounding for what's due. You pay, you play. In the meantime, I'll just go and try to get rid of some of the irritation with English horn. We'll see how that goes.

I am now officially a Guy Braunstein fan.

I went to a concert he was featured in today, and oh my Mozart was it fantastic.
To fill you in, here are the details from today's performance with the Habsburg Symphony Orchestra: Jeffrey Tate was conducting, playing Vaughan Williams' Overture to Aristophanes' Comedy The Wasps, followed by Brahms' Violin Concert in D Major, op. 77, with Braunstein as soloist, and after intermission, Dvorak's Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, op. 70.
And let me tell you, it was great.
I actually had no idea I was going to any concert at all today, and only found out from my father after leaving my lesson (that had been rescheduled because of the audition that was cancelled and all that beeswax that I'm not going into again). Naturally, I was irritated, as I had had plans of going home, wearing a horribly clashing outfit of my heinously yellow Seussical t-shirt and grey and pink yoga pants, and watching Star Trek all afternoon, all of which were now dashed. But, I'm glad I sucked it up and went, because it was well worth it.
I have to say, I was a little alarmed by Tate initially, and I feel terrible for it. But, all skepticism was instantaneously removed once Wasps began, and I was decidedly impressed. One thing I noticed, though, was he is one of the types of conductors that conducts just a moment ahead of the beat, something I can't quite imagine having to follow. I suppose it's a type of thing where you look for beat one from him, and then play with everyone else to keep time (something, that with all the somewhat unsteady conductors I've had to follow (to sound rather ostentatious), I consider myself familiar with). I don't quite see the advantage of doing so, however. The only possible reason I can think of is when you're as lost as an elephant in the Pacific ocean, having "one" from the conductor slightly ahead of when it should be played gives you a chance to gather your brains and fall back into place.
Other than that, I'm still unconvinced it's a better idea.
At one point during the violin concerto, I remember thinking to myself: "If he"-meaning Braunstein-"isn't sweating yet, I'm thoroughly impressed." Sure enough, a while later he pulls out a decently-sized towel out of somewhere (I'm still not totally sure where he was fitting it) and mops his face. I found it kind of funny, but I'd bet there was someone in the audience who went "Ew, gross!", most likely one of the several white-haired ladies in the front of the orchestra section.
Despite the somewhat immature trains of thought running through my brain as to funny things I noticed (like how a bassist strongly resembled the sous-chef from Ratatouille), I managed to enjoy the music. Braunstein seemed to turn into an excited, extremely talented child through the music, excepting the more somber movements. That might sound like an insult, but I swear it isn't meant as one. Neither is the fact that I instantly judged that he was either pompous or very grounded, neither of which I've been able to figure out (I'm fairly sure, from various hard-to-describe events during bows, that it's the latter).
Speaking of children, the second bassoonist looked remarkably like my friend's younger brother who's in the eighth grade - in terms of appearance and in age. The other bassoonist looked like Keith Olbermann to me, but I wasn't wearing my glasses, so you don't have to take my word for it.
All in all, it was a really thrilling and engaging concert. The music was beautiful, and it was well worth the initial irritation that I experienced. (By the way, if you're wondering, the lesson went well. I'm finally decided on my NYSSMA soli for this year. Vaughan Williams for oboe, ironically, and Wolf-Ferrari for English horn. I'm, for once, excited.)

Winter Blues, Part II

Well, since it's way past noon and I haven't left the house since yesterday, you can guess that my audition was cancelled. I'm not entirely sure "cancelled" is the right word here, but the weather was far too atrocious to drive in (and it still is, which is why I'm here), and so we decided not to go.
Leaving me with absolutely nothing to do.
After the would-be audition, I had planned to go over to a friend's house for a while before going to the final show of Sound of Music. Well, the weather is still too lousy to even drive across town, so that's also been cancelled.
Leaving me with absolutely nothing to do.
I would practice, but it's too cold on any floor to think of doing such a thing. There's nothing to cook, play, make, read, anything. I just downloaded Wil Wheaton's Memories of the Future: Volume I off of Amazon to the kindle app on my computer, so I figure that will likely be the entirety of my afternoon right there.
The final show of SoM is still on, however, so I may actually get out of the house today (what a revelation). We'll just have to wait and see how this goes.

Winter Blues

Tomorrow, if everything goes as scheduled, I have an audition for NYSSSA somewhere upstate. (Don't ask where, I don't know. I'm not driving.) Unfortunately, however, Mother Nature finally decided that she'd had enough of this spring-weather-tease, and is actually giving us a winter storm.
Supposedly.
In any case, it's been already screwing with my schedule. The pit at the middle school (whose show didn't go as badly as anticipated, despite a total of twenty awkward moments ranging from forgotten lines to fuses blowing, plunging the pit into darkness during scene changes resulting in an early intermission) has a new, absolutely bizarre and ridiculous schedule. Tomorrow's matinee has been rescheduled. ... for this coming Monday night.
Who on earth would go to a middle school show - ANY show, for Pete's sake - on a Monday night? On a Monday night after a snowstorm?
Absolutely no one, that's who.
Already, I, along with a violin, flute, trombone, and the entire potential audience, are unable and unwilling to go. Some are more iffy, saying they can but that they'll bitch and moan about it the entire time (especially to the director). I can't honestly say I blame them. I'm skipping that show (even though I find being in the pit really rather fun, even if it is somewhat difficult to stay and listen to the singers at some points) for orchestra rehearsal. The pit conductor let me, after hearing from my friend that I would be missing seeing my boyfriend at the orchestra rehearsal. I honestly don't think it's that big of an issue, but that's my true non-romantic self coming out, yet again.
Whatever happens, I may be able to send in a recorded audition of myself to NYSSSA. If it needs to be videotaped, that just sucks the "metaphorical dick of life", and I'll probably have to go out to somewhere down on Long Island to do it.
Unfortunate, but I'm guessing all this insanity is just something I'll have to get used to.

I just love great music days.

Today was absolutely fantastic musically.
From around 11:30 to 2:15 or so I just straight practiced and played. I actually sounded really good, despite the fact that I was listening to playbacks of myself from the "Voice Notes" app on my iPhone. While the tone wasn't that great, I sounded good technically, and was feeling confident for today's recording.
I wasn't confident enough. I sounded absolutely fantastic.
Not only that, but the guy whose studio I recorded at agreed, he says that I ought to try for the concerto competition he's heading, and that he plans on giving my name and number to people looking for an oboe or English horn player for paying jobs. Tell me that doesn't sound spectacular.
He also said that while most oboe/Eng. horn doublers are merely "mediocre" at English horn, I have a really beautiful sound and am quite good at it.
This post is incredibly short, but, to sum it up, I've had an enormous ego and confidence boost. Plus, the recording overall sounds really damn good. I'm pretty proud. There are some glitches and stuff (all of them mostly nerves' fault) but then again some parts of the audition just sound pretty spectacular.
Had a great day.

My Personal Hell Week

This week has once again been a terrible week for my inner musician.
On the plus side, I've at least been playing - unfortunately, I'm not playing the stuff I ought to be.
Monday and Tuesday, in addition to tomorrow and Friday will all be pit rehearsals for the local middle school's production of Sound of Music. The pit as a whole sounds great so far; I can't say much for the singers. They all sing so quietly - not a single exception - that I honestly don't have an idea as to what their singing voices sound like.
Makes me wonder what I sounded like at that age.
One of my oboe student's younger sister is in the cast as a child, and heard me playing at yesterday's rehearsal while the children were singing "Do, a Deer" and "So Long, Farewell". According to her, I'm "amazing" and I "make [my student] sound terrible." I only wish there was a way for me to describe the expression Jessie, my student, was wearing as she told me this during band class today. It was singularly hilarious, but I have no words for it. (She agreed that what her sister had said was true; my outer humble self stayed modest, while my inner egotist laughed maniacally.)
Going back to why this week will be known in my memory as "My Personal Hell Week", I have a recording session either this coming Saturday or Sunday to make a CD for various auditions for music camps for over the summer. This, ordinarily, would not pose a problem at all. It does, however, when I find myself without a single minute of downtime between 7 AM and midnight. Every day. Without fail. This entire week.
I only decided on the pieces I would be playing this past Sunday. I, for some absurd reason, decided I'd pick something I'm slightly rusty on; I figured, I assume, I'd be able to prepare it in time.
Boy, was I wrong.
I'll only leave it at the sole fact that I am dreading this recording session with a passion.
[By the way, the concert this past Monday went fabulously. I think the month between the final rehearsal and our concert actually benefited us: even the slackers in the back of the violin section paid attention to whatever the conductor was doing up there, and we stayed in time and just sounded, quite simply, better than we have at many a rehearsal. I went through a somewhat awkward and (I believe) unwarranted one-on-one session with the conductor, literally 45 minutes prior to when we would be onstage, going over the solos I have and various other nitpickings he decided I ought to know. I think I ended up doing everything well, though. As per usual, I feel as though I could have played louder; but, I'll see how I actually did once the recording comes.]