The Berlin Bläserquintett comes to town!!!

Today was one of those days that starts off horrifically, and then escalates to beyond your wildest dreams.
I couldn't go to bed until late due to the nap that I NEEDED to take yesterday. And then I guess was stressed about all the happenings of today and didn't sleep well on top of that.
So it started when I got up at 6:30am.. which is early for me, and biked to a hospital of which I was unfamiliar with the location. I found it after a few wrong turns. AT&T your 3G network could be faster...
At the clinic I had the privilege of undergoing the obligatory tests that women have when they turn 21.. if they haven't already. I can't tell you how much fun that is. Joy incarnate.
Then I showered and crashed for 30 minutes until my favorite class, piano. (ps. my least favorite class actually.....) But this is how the story gets better and better.

I found that my current grade in piano is passing, which really was joy incarnate. I don't know how I have such a good grade, it's magic.
Then straight to my "Islam and Sexuality" course. It's lame, most of the kids just sit there and nod as the prof. talks, no one actually does the reading... and the prof. is catching on. lol
I enjoy that class if only because it encourages discussion, though my eagerness for discussion I think is often off-putting to the prof. as I don't always agree and have strong points to make.
Then I ran to bassoon master class which was being lead by Marion Reinhard the new bassoonist for the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, or as I remember from my German class "Bläserquintett." Jawoll!!
I got to play for her before the end of class, and though I felt like I didn't do that well I must have fooled everyone else. She never stopped me during the first movement and then asked for the second!! I was actually shocked, dead serious. But it was fun, she kicked my rear by playing stuff I could barely do 10X better when she sight read. It's crazy. CRAZY AMAZING!!! Anywho, it's all due to Leah's banana bread that kept my blood sugar at a normal level. Thank you Leah!! 
Then I ran to music history lab where we listened the mice on steroids and called it music. Thank you Milton Babbitt, you can go where the other goblins of the underworld unite. Maybe there your music (which is more than 12 years old) will find some appreciation and autonomy. Hey, no one's gonna touch it down there, and you can get it out of our universities thank you very much.
I was proud to turn in my jazz composition for that lab with piano accompaniment. Here's the lyrics;

"It's a Monday, Monday Monday moo

My man Mikey, asked me what to do

And I told him, it's just a Monday moo."

No one else may be able to appreciate it, but I laughed. The back story is, I had a lame jazz composition due the next day (Tuesday) and had been asked by my friend Michael to come watch a movie.. which of course I had to decline in order to write this composition.
So that is the backstory to my 12 bar blues lyrics. True blues. :p

Then I had a lesson immediately following lab where Ms. Jensen gave me the thumbs up on my performance in studio and then I had to attempt some "basic skills" that we get tested with for midterms and finals. I had been so caught up with recording for Meg Quigley that I hadn't been working on them. Ps. finally got my application and recordings submitted for that. WOOHOO!!! Oh to be DONE!!!

That evening I went to the performance that the Berlin Phil Quintet did. It was amazing.

I've never seen such liquid awesomeness on stage in front of my very eyes. Frau Reinhard has the craziest big German reeds I've ever seen!! She's got this sound that fills the room, you can almost touch it because of it's amazing presence!! Then something really cool, she let me get a picture with her, which was Laura's idea, and a good idea too! If and when I get that photo it will be directly below. SHABAZAM!!

from left to right: Me, Frau Reinhard, and Laura Miller

This day started with ick and ended with SICK!!!

I love UT Austin. End of story.

Junior Recital

So bassoon over here at UT is really kicking off. Placement auditions went ok, the summer camp I taught at this summer, UT Long Horn Band Camp, was a great experience. I feel like I learned so much more from teaching all the middle and high school kids than I could have ever taught them. But that has come and gone all to fast and now I'm currently full swing into the semester with two competitions on my plate and two ominous papers coming up.. I don't mind the competitions as much, but papers are such a waste of valuable time!! lol
So things have generally been crazy, I am not sleeping due to midterms littering my schedule and the insane amount of preparation needed in order to make acceptable recordings for this first competition. I'm glad not to be doing my Junior recital until next semester, that will give me some time to prepare the Tango Sonatine that I really want to do. Yay!
The Trio I'm in is fantastic, we gel really well and though our repertoire choice is "easy" we're really making something out of it and having great time in the process. The large ensemble I'm in is New Music, and I have to admit that new music is not always my fav.. especially when there is contra bassoon involved. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear contra in the hands of a real contra player.. but that would not be me and so I don't love hearing it as much.. hahaha ps. New Music is really harrrrrd
more later, I'm exhausted. Ciao!

This is a really cute/funny reed making "how to" video, I don't agree with all the steps, but it's amusing nonetheless! 

A whole 'nother year

Since the Capitol Quartet has officially disbanded for the summer, I am reclaiming my blog for my own personal use.

I had just finished watching Paris Je t'aime when I looked out of the window to see the sun beginning to creep through the thick clouds giving a pinkish hue as it began to set. I was overwhelmed with nostalgia as I remember a day very similar in Rochester when I had to leave Eastman never to return. Getting in that taxi cab saying goodbye to Luke and his wonderful mom was probably one of the saddest things I had to do. As I sat in my apartment in Austin thinking of that goodbye it struck me that the weather now was almost identical as it was that day in Rochester, slightly overcast but not cold. It also struck me that this is the one year anniversary since I left Eastman and it summoned memories that almost brought back tears... except no tears happened, which is too bad as that would have made this paragraph more interesting. XD

However, now whenever I start to miss Eastman and all the wonderful people there I try

to remember why I uprooted myself to come to Austin. As I contemplated all the stuff that happened this year, how much I had grown as a person and a bassoonist, I find myself exceedingly grateful for the wonderful opportunities and experiences that have

literally been thrown in my lap since I came here.

I looked to my iPhone (another wonderful thing that happened to me since I came to Austin) and went through the pictures and videos that I would like to share.. it's a small snapshot of everything I saw this year. Granted, all of these things hold a different amount of significance to other people than they do to me, but hopefully these images and videos will communicate some of their precious meaning to the reader in a way similar to my understanding.

This is the pastor from All Saints Presbyterian Church in Austin, he runs a bible study called "Hill House" because it meets in a building over a century old that is a land mark in Austin. Cool guy, reminds me of Sean Connery in the way he speaks. Very interesting bible studies. I def. recommend.

This vid was taken while I stood through the sun roof of Paul's car, I cannot tell you how exhilarating the rush of wind through your hair is at 40mph.

On the left we have a large grasshopper that I got excited about, though I doubt too many people will sympathize with my fascination of a grasshoppers clinging to glass randomly.

Something I think the world should be able to appreciate

is Amanda's sexy s'more picture. This was a little random, we were in a shop, got s'mores and decided to send a taunting picture to our dear friend Matt back in Rochester. The sad thing about Rochester is that there is literally nothing to

do, so it was unkind to send this picture to poor Matt who was probably bored out of his mind, but is sexy no?

This happened on a little excursion downtown with Michael. He had a rain cloud over his head so I did the kindest thing I thought to do and pulled him into slightly sketchier alleyways in Austin where he felt so uncomfortable that he forgot how miserable he was. Notice my attempt to camouflage with the green trash cans.. events later that night included going to East 6th, being harassed by the homeless, frozen yogurt, and a bizarre event where a hippie lady that we didn't know forced us to hold hands in a chain until we had reached our destination...

yay for hippie love?

Contra bassoon reed thread! JK it's actually just some colorful wiring that was being used in construction of the music building.

This takes place in the reed room and is indicative of what happens everyday in that room. The pop music comes on and we get our reed making groove on. Thanks to Leah for being a sport, I think the vid only made her a leetle uncomfortable.

And this post wouldn't be complete without an appearance from the male spectrum

of the Capitol Quartet, Michael (up close, and who didn't write his blog post nudge nudge) and Pearson (on the far end)

Amanda and I met a horse on the drag (the local term for Guadeloupe st.) The drag is in no way what its name implies, as it is one of the most interesting streets one might ever have the opportunity to traverse. There is literally no knowing what you will see next out here. This is just one example of the interesting things you might see. However, he's not a police horse, or a carriage horse. I'm not even sure what he does, though I do know that he was part mule and it was nice meeting him. hahaha

On the UT campus it was hilarious to see how my tuition was being spent. Thank you large yellow signs, I have noticed.

These were some cool looking 'shrooms I saw on a bike ride, they looked more orange in person and made me think of UT. Hook'em!

On the drag, just an ordinary sunny day.

The capitol at night.

Amanda and I got spruced up for a shopping excursion to the mall, it was spantastic!!!

Another reed room movie

Caught Bevo struttin' his stuff by the stadium

And finally some End of School Studio Class candid Vids!! I love my studio!! Featured teacher and performer are Nathan and Nicole. Congratulations to both as Nathan is graduating with his PHD and Nicole just finished her first semester. It was Nathan's task to help Nicole in her interpretation of Bordeau's Premier Solo through his interpretive dancing skills. UT laughs boldly in the face of convention, we don't have time for that in Texas.

PS. We will really miss you Nathan.

Capitol Quartet Update #3

My apologies for taking my sweet time in uploading this post, it was due exactly a week ago!

-Katie

After two days of blogless granting the Capital Quartet has decided to resume our blogging and keep the rest of the world informed of our Houston activities.

Tuesday was a low key day for us. We had initially planned to attend a Rice bassoon studio recital, but it was canceled so instead we spent the majority of the day at the University of Houston shaping cane, working on reeds, and rehearsing our quartet music.

In our spare non music time we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and gazed in wonder at prehistoric fossils, rare gems, and mollusks. It was awesome. After getting our science fix we walked to a nearby park and enjoyed the sunshine. The nature inspired our bassoon playing, as did the science.

Wednesday was more eventful. We were coached by UT alum TK Dewitt, who is now the second bassoon in the Houston Grand Opera. Working with TK was great and revealed a lot about our quartet. We mostly focused on line and bringing out parts that were more important than others. Essentially we finessed our performance. Thanks TK *thumbs up*

Before our coaching we wandered around a museum-rich neighborhood. Our first stop was the Rothko Chapel, self described as a place of art, spirituality, and human rights. We thought visiting this museum would provide interesting insight to spiritually connecting with our music or whatever it is that “artistes” do. Katie was frightened of the Rothko Chapel though and didn’t stay long. Next we took a stroll through Houston’s photography center. Fun. Finally we took some time browsing through the Menil Private Collection, one of the finest private art collection in the United States.

After gallivanting through museums and bassoon coachings we decided it would be fun to spontaneously go to Kemah Boardwalk… so we did. And we were right, it was fun. We didn’t do anything at the boardwalk other than stroll along the ocean and take in the sights.

Thursday our day began yet again at our favorite spot in Houston, The University of Houston. We worked on our quartet music before jetting over to the Hobbit Café, a middle earth themed lunchtime getaway. While Katie was disappointed that the food was not authentic Hobbit food we still had a great time. Afterward we rushed over to Jones Hall to be coached by the Houston Symphony second bassoon Elise Wagner. Elise focused on our phrasing and exaggerated musicality. A nice aspect coupled with TK’s coaching the previous day.

After a hard two hours of coaching we vegged out and did some very important shopping at the Galleria.

It was a good day.

-Pearson

Capitol Quartet Update #2

We have finally arrived in the magical land of Houston! It was magical and it was rainy. We almost didn’t make it because of the torrential downpour and strikes of lightening that threatened our drive. Luckily, Katie and I had Pearson, the strong, courageous driver and his trusty Ford Taurus, to guide us through the storm.
After navigating the maze of pavement and anxiety we finally came to rest at our super shwanky hotel, the Alden of downtown Houston. We were quickly beckoned away however by our 2 o’clock appointment with Cheryl and Benny Huddleston. Only to be stopped yet again by the raging traffic of Houston.

“And when we say stopped, we mean LITERALLY STOPPED” –Pearson.

Lady Gaga and Rhianna brought us through the cars and debris to Cheryl’s house where we were greeted by her smiling little

5-month-old son, Benny. For 2 hours Cheryl walked us through the steps of Herzberg style reed making.

She provided us each with blanks and taught us how to scrape and test the reed. We all found this new style of reed making very unique and beneficial. The Herzberg style really stresses the importance of response, intonation and a core-centered tone. I am lookingforward to using these new methods in my personal reed making time.

After leaving Cheryl’s house we were lead by the GPS to a botanical garden… only to find it was a playground.

The little kid park turned out to be quite pleasant and we sun-napped, swung and talked about black-widow spiders. Thanks to our resident quartet black-widow

expert, Katie.

Back downtown again we found an overpriced parking garage and wandered around only to find more overpriced food. We settled on a nice little Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant and filled up

on chicken, shrimp, rice and jugs of Hoisin sauce.

We sauntered back to our hotel rooms ready to practice, relax and take advantage of the 24-hour fitness room. And now we are currently planning our day tomorrow!!! Hopefully tomorrow will find Pearson relaxed enough to drive again. I’m not worried though because he is taking a stress bath tonight.

~Leah

Capitol Quartet Update #1

So this was our second rehearsal with the Capitol Quartet, and it's super exciting to see how we are coming together as an ensemble. Our first rehearsal I think we were kind of clueless as to what to expect or do, but we are starting to blend and work together.
Finding how the leading role in the music shifts from one person to another is also something I think we started to touch on. Though contrary to popular thought, the leading line isn't limited to the first bassoon part.
The whole idea of contributing your line tastefully to make the whole group sound good, and not thinking of yourself constantly as a soloist I think is so cool. I guess you could call it passing the baton from one bassoonist to the next, and not hoarding it for yourself... so like teamwork. It's so cool. I could say it's so cool all night.

Also, the idea of making "music" out of bassoon quartet music isn't as easy as it seems. As a bassoonist, my personal opinion is that the bassoon isn't always that aesthetically pleasing to the ear all the time. However, the key to making it worth your time is making music out of the line you have with the tools you have. Wow. It takes an immense amount of creativity and attention to detail. Plus, bassoon can't play fast interesting lines like the flute, violin, or clarinet... so that means one more limitation.
Yeah, it's not an easy job but it is very rewarding to do it successfully. I think our quartet is capable of creating truly interesting music through our teamwork, that can rival even the prettiest instruments. We have the soul, they have the good looks... it's all in what you're looking for I guess. (those of you who play pretty instruments.. no offense intended)

Tomorrow we have our COFA meeting where we'll brainstorm ideas for our project, it will be exciting! We'll probably follow that with a rehearsal in preparation for a few coachings we'll have with Ms. Jensen next week.

Ok, time to study for tomorrow's music history quiz... *sigh*

laterz

The Capitol Quartet is going to Houston!!!!!

So y'all may have remembered from the last post that I and some other bassoonists, collectively referred to as the "Capitol Quartet" managed to win the grant to go to Houston!!!! W00T!!!!!
This was such a fun group effort, just because there is so much bassoon love within our quartet. Working on writing our application and collecting all the paperwork just to submit the necessary materials to be considered for the grant has already brought us a lot closer together than we were before.. can't wait to see how things are after the trip... lol
But one of the requirements of this travel grant initiative is that we have to blog about our activities and experiences. I volunteered my blog since I had one and it was already (supposedly) about the bassoon. So heads up for those of you who normally read this blog for ulterior reasons, this blog is about to be filled with stories, project details and our learning experiences.

:D

I am SO EXCITED for this!!!!!!!!


So, we filled our paperwork, created our budget, tweaked our resumes, contacted famous bassoonists in Houston and are currently working on hashing out our schedule. The people we intend to study with are famous bassoonists such as Cheryl Huddleston, Elise Wagner, TK DeWitt, and Ben Kamins.
So far the plan is to stay in a decent hotel (which may even have a pool!!), Pearson will be our chauffeur as he owns the car (yay for road trips!!) and we'll try to catch some dress rehearsals/concerts while we're down there. Sadly this travel plan initiative is supposed to happen over spring break, and that appears to be dead time for a lot of the performing centers, like the opera and ballet. However the Symphony is doing a pops concert, and that will be fun. Since we're musicians, we're hoping to catch some rehearsal.. it is invaluable to see the process of art as it is being cooked, it helps to inform our understanding of how to deal with problems and issues that invariably come up for musicians.
I remember when I was studying with Valentin Martchev full time, he made a mistake while sight reading my etude to show me how it was supposed to be played. That mistake opened up a whole new world to me, it made me realize that as amazing and untouchable professional musicians are, they screw up too, they are also imperfect! It gave me hope that one day I would be able to attain that level, since I knew that my playing would never be perfect. But seeing rehearsals is just inspiring like that, it gives you hope that one day you can become like this, because you see the human side of things rather than the shining bravura that musicians put on to impress their audiences.

But anyways, Pearson and I met for lunch last Saturday and tried to work our schedule out. We'll probably meet again at some point soon with Leah and Michael to get more solidified. There's supposed to be a meeting that we'll all attend, but that date hasn't been released yet... that being said we should probably find some bassoon quartet rep... haha
I'm not worried yet about things, as of now we kinda have a head start, but the ball needs to get rolling a little faster.
I found one thing written for sax in C, so that should work, and it is a transcription of something Villa Lobos wrote for his bachianas brazillieras, so it will probably super sexy on bassoon.. just because bassoon is 10X more sexy than saxophone... oh yeah. ;)

AHH!!! This is so exciting, I can't wait for this trip.. but until then I need to start working on the basic skills reqs that Prof. Jensen has us do... it's tough stuff man.

ok laterz.

Little things?

Life is so unpredictable. Earlier today I had made plans to go to the grocery store. I planned to pick up some basic food items, including some oatmeal. On the way to the grocery store I decided that it would be yummy to add apples to the mix and have apple oatmeal. That was plan change number one. It was small and insignificant, but aren't all decisions that way? I then planned to cook the apple oatmeal and store it away for the rest of the week, which was fun.

-I'm in the process of reading the book of Mormon, and related articles. It is an interesting experience.

-I then crashed for a nap around 5 and got up at 6:30pm still feeling exhausted from an unproductive night previous where I was haunted by nightmares and sleepless from 4-5am due to intense cold. There isn't too much heat in my building...
But after napping, I dragged myself out of bed and went to this brief lecture/Q&A about premarital sex and marriage. I learned that the rate by which marriage has been happening is decreasing rather than increasing with population growth. We discussed reasons why that may be, and specifically how difficult it is for christian (chaste) women to get married. There was a lot of panic going on it seemed and proliferous wringing of hands with little to show for it.
My attitude is that if God has decided that you will be married, it will happen and there is no use worrying about it. Not that I'm a fatalist, I just don't get the wringing of hands and wailing. Maybe because I'm cool with the idea of being single.

-Then I got a call from Leah who invited me to hang with a bunch of musicians that evening. So much for homework.
On the way back home we decided to crash the mormon dance party, it was fabtastic. Everyone was wearing pink at this dance, and though I had not planned it, I too was wearing pink. It worked out well and I had fun getting sweaty with the mormons.

I'm in this weird place mentally, it think it's called "transitioning" but I would not be an expert. Things are always in flux.
I find myself dipping my toes into waters of different temperatures, which is progress for someone with such a feline attitude towards water. It does however create a whole new set of problems.
A new concept that I've been dealing with is the idea of "being true to one's self" ..most of the time I know what I want and I find a way to get it. Being unable to get what I want ironically brings uncertainty of what I want and it is tortuous. I make it a point and quite literally every effort to make things work out. If they can't it drives me crazy.
However, backtracking somewhat, I have recently questioned if I know what I really want. I'm trying to be objective and see things from a more "obvious" kind of view. This involves stepping back and coldly analyzing facts. It can be helpful. Not always but usually. Transition points aren't always fun I'm guessing. But up until now, I have been seeing things in a very binary sort of way, until I realized that binary is bogus. Just because you can't see a 3rd or 4th (or more) options, doesn't mean that they don't exist. I'm starting to see more, and it's like a tidal wave.

Ok ok bassoon stuff. I love UT and Ms. Jensen. My studio is incredible, but y'all knew that. The Capitol Quartet, comprised of some studio mates, has applied for a grant to go to Houston and study with some of the best bassoonists evAr over spring break. We'll see how that turns out. I'm learning 5 sacred trees which is a bassoon concerto originally written for Judy LeClair. My teacher Valentin also played it and I have memorized every second of that recording. It is golden. But strangely enough I have never heard Judy's rendition. I need to do that before I perform it. haha My placement audition went a lot better this semester, I placed into the top orchestra on principle for Tchaik's Romeo and Juliet.

Somewhat unrelated (but not really), I would like to point out that part of creativity is realizing that hitting bumps and being wrong on occasion is actually good for you. It can show you what not to do. This is called process of elimination, and usually how I live my life. haha
But it is also how creativity is born, Picasso didn't get every painting "right."

Like every one hit wonder there are several duds that go with it, until they find that one recording. Most of us are too scared to make the mistakes necessary to find the right answers, but there is no respect or honor in being too scared to move. I learned this from dancing, and strangely it applies to most everything. It's funny how little things really are everything. It's the difference between reality and perception... another concept I'm learning from music.

This blog is getting out of control and needs to be raked in. I don't know how I turned a bassoon blog into philosophical steam, but I did. In future there will be more bassoon stuff. For example: click here for bassoon things!

This is Ms. Jensen's website, it's totally free and it's a great learning tool. There are few people I would trust more than Ms. Jensen to guide a young bassoonist to creating healthy expectations and practice habits. So, check it out if you haven't, it's hot stuff with tons of fun activities. Totally awesome in this cyber world we live in.

Peace and love!