Kyrie on the Thesis

Tomorrow morning I am turning in my thesis back to my teacher.  

Today Chamber Choir sang in a concert.  I had the pleasure of conducting them on a piece.  They sang loudly tonight and I should have demanded more quiet from them.  Other than that, most things went very well.  Lots of expression, great soloists.  Overall very pleased.

Except I am also not feeling well.  And this is the busiest week I have had since starting graduate school.  More on that in a couple of weeks.

Over the next few weeks, I plan on writing information about my recital pieces.  Be ready!

Learning Never Stops

The past two weeks and the next few weeks are some of the busiest I have ever had.  I have went from morning to night while teaching- and this is almost just like that.  Except when I was teaching, I was leading and delegating.  Now I am following up and producing items (such as thesis drafts and presentation material).  It's a different type of busy and exhaustion.

I turned in the second draft of my thesis on Monday.  It is completed with the exception of an Appendix that I finished this morning.  I will print that off and get it to my teacher so he can review it.

The past two weeks I have been working on a portion of Beethoven's Mass in C.  I would love to finish up the work this semester, but my teacher said I should finish King David.  I feel like I have been working on King David forever.  My teacher is right when he said it's the hardest piece I have ever conducted.  Combine that with the fact he has conducted it multiple times and has clear opinions about it (that do not always agree with mine), and this piece of music is taking forever in lessons.  It's true... I should finish King David.

The Women's Chorus is making good progress on music that is the toughest I have ever programmed.  Here are a few things I have learned this semester about tougher music and the women:

1) I have to be so firm in what I want the music to sound like (and I have to know all the notes and rhythms perfectly).  While I already knew this and always have things prepared, it has never been more evident to me that it is important to do this.

2) Because of the music difficulty, rehearsals have to be fast paced.  My bag of tricks has to be full and deep, and I need to diagnose issues quickly.  The Women's Chorus is the strongest it has ever been, but it is important that I keep them on top of their focus.

3) Meeting once a week on a Monday evening is not enough time.  But it has to be.  

4) I need to help the singers be less stressed as the concert nears, which means I need to assign part testing now on music.  So I have been assigning music for them to learn and know and be able to sing in small groups.  

5) My section leaders need to be stellar.  I lean on them for attendance, for feedback about specific singers and their needs, and their leadership in the choir and in leading sectionals.  

6) I love what I do.  

7) I am a much stronger teacher and conductor now than I was 18 months ago.  I am excited to keep pushing myself.  Learning never stops.  

Thesis Revision and Dentist

I am revising my thesis.  My second draft was due last Monday, but I received my first draft with corrections on Monday... so my teacher said to turn it in on Tuesday.  Doing graphs and making things clearer.  It's actually really exciting.

In other news, I went to the dentist today.  To avoid thinking about the pain caused when my jaw is open (it always becomes sore and painful fairly quickly...), I was reviewing music in my head.  That helped a lot.  Until the dentist told me I had five cavities.  I have been to two dentists I like.  But I have been to many more that make me uncomfortable and wary.  I'm on the fence about this dentist.

Working on: recital pieces and Beethoven's Mass in C.  So busy.  More later.

Recital Semester

Last night we recorded "I Hate and I Love" by Argento.  We sang it over tour and my teacher thought it would be a good idea to record it.  I agree- I think we sing it well and I am glad we recorded it.

I also had my first Women's Chorus rehearsal.  It's going to be the best group yet.  I need to spend a lot of time preparing this weekend.  This is the largest discrepancy of skill I have ever had in Women's Chorus (some AMAZING readers and singers and some with lots of talent but little skill).  It requires a lot of planning.  Today I will do a little conducting of my lesson stuff (both King David and doing some preparing Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Mass in C).  Then I will be spending a lot of time on my recital repertoire.

I was asked to present at a Medieval/Renaissance conference on campus.  I learned how to pronounce a piece in Middle English that my women are singing.  To do this, I spoke to an English professor who helps coordinate the Medieval/Renaissance conference.  He asked if my girls might be interested in singing and if I might be interested in giving a presentation.  Exciting!

Also, one of the women on my thesis committee asked me to come in and talk to her class about Brahms and his women's choirs.  Since this is what my thesis is on, I am very happy to prepare something!  I will put together a powerpoint presentation and go in to talk about Brahm's Frauenchore.

I would like to write a post on each of my recital pieces.  They are octavos so it may not be dissertation length (exaggeration in that sentence, by the way).  But I think some of you might find it interesting and it would be good for me.  So be ready.