Notations

2009-06-04T01:10:00.001-07:00

(A little bit of regret for the neglect...)

The End of Another Era Part I

Now that I am 'done' with school now, or at least for the time being, reality is setting in: I will be joining the 'real world' soon, although my July is so packed that I at least won't have to face it until August.

I attended my commencement last May 15th, but honestly, I wasn't all that excited to walk. I told my mom this and she said, "OK. Whatever you want to do." Then I called my grandmother and told her that the reason I hadn't bought my cap and gown was because I didn't want to do commencement. She then proceeded to call up my mother and ask her why I wasn't attending the ceremony. So then my mom asks me, "If I fly out there, will you walk?" "Well, off course I will." So I went and paid the $30 late fee to get my cap, gown, mortarboard and master's hood and left it in the plastic until the day before.

It wasn't until I got to school on commencement morning, seeing my friends in their caps and gowns, when I started getting into the moment. And I ended up having a great time. After my mom left, I started thinking about this 'real world' that I'll rejoining. It's not like I've never been in it - I worked 30 hrs/week and had 15 units/semester for my first six years of college and I still managed a decent GPA. I even worked full-time for two years before coming back to school.

I still remember that one day, sometime in 2003. I was working at Great Earth Vitamins in Hillsdale Mall. I had just opened the store and had yet to have one customer. As people walked by (mostly elderly mallwalkers) I thought to myself, "Is this all there is to my life? This can't be it. It can't be." Through a weird twist of fate, my application for the Grad Asian American Studies degree was denied (I turned it in late and was hoping for a waiver) so, thanks to my good friend Steven H's advice, I decided to audition for the music program at SF State so I could be a choral conductor.

That summer was a wild one. My uncle, himself a classical voice alum of Indiana U, gave me two songs to learn: "Where E'er You Walk" and "Vittoria, vittoria." I coached with him once on the pieces, and didn't even bother to learn the translation of the Italian. Two weeks before the audition I went to Hawaii for my uncle's wedding and partied hard: I knew that if I got in then I'd have to treat my voice better. In fact, I think I smoked almost a pack a day that week because I knew that I would need to quit if I was going to get lessons. So I showed up to my audition and sang "Where E'er You Walk" fine and then screwed up pretty badly on the words for "Vittoria." I think that if the faculty had not known me I probably wouldn't have made it in. But I had paid my dues singing in the choirs there at school so I think they let me slide. As soon as Dr. Habermann told me I was accepted, I made the vow to quit smoking (Up to that point I was a smoker, averaging about 5 a day, sometimes more if the traffic was bad). I figured that it would be a waste of everyone's time if I was taking lessons but undermining the teaching/teachers by smoking.

Speaking of lessons, I was pretty bummed that as a Music Ed student I did not have the option to take jazz vocal lessons, because I surely felt more at home singing that style. Instead, I had to join the classical singers and their stuffy, snooty, stuck-up world. Luckily, I adapt/mimic/copy quickly. You could almost say that my first voice lessons were trying to copy the sound of this fabulous tenor in my chamber choir (his name is M Miller). I rarely practiced my rep (except for maybe the day of) and didn't take the lessons all that seriously. I liked my teacher and thought he had great stuff to say, but in all honesty, I was going to school to be a choral conductor, so yeah, it's nice to have a great voice, but I was failing to see the connection of the voice with conducting (though I'd yet to actually have one conducting class/lesson).

Because I didn't take the lessons seriously I was still trying to memorize on the day of my first jury. I think I sang "I'll Sail Upon the Dog Star" (which is still one of my bread and butter pieces - I will use that as an audition piece in a heartbeat) and then "Im wunderschonen Monat Mai". As I walked by the steps at Burke Hall I can remember dry heaving - I was that nervous. But it all went well in the end. The next semester was more of the same - practice an hour before my lesson, do everything my teacher told me to do as I was in my lesson (I started noticing that he was correcting the same stuff every week), and then not think about all my vocal rep until an hour before my next lesson. The choir went to Germany and Prague, and then I sang my spring jury - "If Ever I Saw" and something else. After the jury was done, Dr. Deeter asked me, "So tell me again why you don't audition for opera scenes?" I promptly answered, "Because I'm not a performance major." (This was my auto-response regarding anything to do with solo vocal performance).

However, I figured I had nothing to lose by auditioning, so next semester I showed up for the audition and sang "Le Violette," another of the Italian greatest hits that I learned (without learning the translation.) She even let me stand behind the always wonderful Steve Damonte just so I could finish the song (I was majorly screwing it up). So far, I'd been 0 for 2 in auditions at this school. And yet, probably because I'm a tenor, and I'm not stupid, and also because I'm good looking (a stretch?) I was cast as Remendado in the Carmen quintet.

And all of a sudden, my schooling world turned down a new, previously unknown and unforeseen path...

Part II next time

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2009-03-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

I feel like this column has been a neglected child, but yes, I am still alive here in Chicago. My semester is winding down and it's getting closer and closer to crunch time. My recital is in 20(!) days, and I'm beginning to feel some of the pressure. Now my time and thoughts are filled with putting together ensembles, scheduling rehearsals, reserving rooms, and being on top of all ~70 minutes of music.

On top of that, my midterm is coming up, I have two opera performances, and right after I leave for spring break. Then I come back to Chicago for a weekend, and then it's here: the week of my recital.

I felt a little scared sending out the recital invitation on facebook. Scared because once I click on the 'Create Event' button, it meant that people were going to know about, and that I have no choice now but to actually HAVE THE RECITAL because people are going to be coming.

It felt like the first time I wrote a first and last month's rent/deposit for my first apartment. I wrote 1, added 3 zeros after it before putting the decimal point, and thought, "Damn, that's the most zeros I've ever written after a whole number."

I feel that the program is pretty good. I have two 35 minute halves, and I tried to pay good attention to not only attitude and tempo of songs, but to the text and also to the feel and flow of the sets as a whole. Luckily, I have recordings of most of the songs and made a playlist of my program, and I must say that it does flow pretty good, not only between songs, but between song sets. I start it off with a bang (Handel); have some fun (Mozart); get sappy, shlurpy romantic (Donaudy); add a little 'arrogance' [ala Rick "The Model" Martel"] (Offenbach); get dreamy-eyed (Koechlin); pay tribute to my Filipino ancestors (Rafal); and then end it with another bang (Rossini).

I'll definitely be back a lot sooner than I was last time and give you my pre and post recital thoughts.

Til, then

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-12-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

Home for the Holidays

I am now home in the Bay for most of this winter break, and it's damn good to be back! This past semester had its ups and downs, but it is now done and: it's time for the home stretch; I'm rounding third and headed for home; it's just me and the goalie/defender; it's time to go to the second ending (okay that last one is pretty cheesy, but hey I'm a music major.)

A quick rundown of my semester:

Two more roles to my résumé [Leader (Weill) and Bill (Barber)]
Subbing with a professional Chamber Choir (Bella Voce)
Networking with other directors/conductors/singers in Chicago
Finishing my research paper
Experiencing my first sub-zero (-5) temperature BEFORE adding in wind chill (-23) -- and going outside into it (okay, not my best decision; it was really freakin' cold; my breath froze on my beard and on my eyelashes)

Anyway, I'll be HOME until January 19 studying/learning music for my recital, maybe temping and hopefully seeing as many of you as I can.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-10-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

Midwest Dealings...

So now it's definitely fall here in Chicago - the temp is dipping into the 40s, football is on the brain and the leaves are turning cool colors.

I bought myself those faux earmuffs that wrap around the ears and then the back of the neck, and a pair of leather gloves (Walgreens $7.99 specials)
I'm digging in the closet to get out those winter clothes (you CALI folks have no idea what seasonal clothes mean, except for you Sunset and Richmond district and Daly City folks who see fog and overcast-ness all year long)
Finally went and got myself some contact lenses and luckily I don't need different prescriptions for each of my eyes. This means: I can wear contacts for performances and when I'm playing team handball
Speaking of handball, I watched our local Chicago Club Team play in its own tournament. The Chicago Inter Handball Women's team kicked some major @ss. They went 4-0, including two victories over the US Women's National Handball Team! That's right, the NATIONAL TEAM! I was actually pretty embarassed for the national team, because some of their players tried to use intimidation and physicality to make up for their lack of handball skills. More than a few times I saw the national team players deliberately shoving their shoulders into the Chicago players as they walked past. This threw some of the Chicago players (who grew up playing the sport) off of their game, because they're not used to having to deal with over agressive play to compensate for lack of skills.
In the flip side, the NY men's club team, apparently made up of former Olympians, used very physical play to beat a much younger and fitter team from West Point Military Academy. The difference from the national team is that the NYers had handball skills, just not the quickness and conditioning that the Cadets had. It took a while for the Army team to adjust to the physical play and they were able to string together scoring spurts when they combined the physicality with their exceptional conditioning. It wasn't enough, however, as they adjusted too late, and it was enough for the NY team, who had incredibly talented players.

In other sports....

The Niners fired Mike Nolan on Monday, which for some people, is about 10 months and seven games longer than they thought. I admire Nolan's stubbornness and optimism (trying to find that half full glass of water is like finding the needle in the haystack some weeks), his outwardly professional demeanor (wearing of NFL approved suits, including a 49ers tie, in honor of his father who coached the Niners in the 70s), but what's really admirable is that, according to Mike Singletary (the new head coach), Nolan (already fired and on hiw way out of the 49ers HQ) told Singletary that to not take the job would be idoitic.

And yes, believe it or don't...I'm going to see NKOTB on friday.

Don't hate, you know you're jealous.

Beeyotch.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-09-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

In lieu of reposting my annual 9/11 blog, I came across this today at school and had to stop and read the whole thing...

THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVILEGE...

You may not agree with it at all, but I hope it'll at least make you think

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-08-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

GOINGS ONS

I sadly and reluctantly boarded a plane at SFO for my flight back to Chicago on July 23rd. Though I didn't want to leave the Bay, I had many things to look forward to upon returning to the midwest:

A chorus role in Georges Bizet's forgotten One Act Opera, Djamileh
Chicago Humidity
Midwest Thunderstorms

A quest to find one practical (and by practical I mean not placed on the INSIDE of a court) tennis wall/backboard in this huge city
Hanging/hosting visitors from back home

One thing I did miss, which I regret a lot, is the 1st Annual SF Filipino American Jazz Festival, which took place this last weekend, August 8-9, at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Some pics from the festival, courtesy of 37degrees.

I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible oustide exploring Chicago. Feel free to join me if you are so inclined.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-06-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

CA your son is returning....

So my first year of grad school is done and now that I'm sans job I'm trying my darndest to spend the least amount of money. This means that unless I'm riding around on my new bike (which is not actually new and in reality the bike of a certain Louisiana gal) I'm staying inside the house watching flicks or playing Guitar Hero.

This will be my first time 'going home for summer' that I've ever had in my 18 years of life (plus 14 more. It feels kinda weird. This also marks the first time in 5 years that I haven't gone touring with one group or another, and I'm a little sad. But this also means that hopefully I'll get a temp job or two and make a little money this summer.

Highlights of the year:
- a new Chicago 'family'
- seeing Ozomatli live and free at Millenium Park
- meeting some of the Pin@ys here
- living in the snow
- yelling "I'm walkin' here!" to a car
- doing the moonwalk in an opera
- doing the Hulk Hogan pose, the worm, crushing a beer can and giving the shaka sign in another opera
- exploring Chicago on bike

I'll be HOME soon y'all. See you there

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-04-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Crunch

As we near the end of the semester I thank whoever it is that made it so choir ends in five days. Not that I hate it, in fact, it's just the opposite. We're doing Beethoven (although it becomes a bit of a scream fest, especially when everyone gets excited.)

So, I'm slowly catching up on my school work (a couple of presentations, 2 papers, 3 performances) so I should be good by the beginning of May. I'm looking forward to the summertime, which I'll be spending here in the Midwest. Yes, lots of humidity and sun, but I hear the bike ride north on Sheridan from downtown to Evanston is supposed to be bad@ss.

In the meantime, I found this clip of someone jumping off the top of 'Spitting Cave' in Portluck, near Hawaii Kai, Oahu. It's at least 30+ feet and actually pretty scary, as the video shows. My friend's ex-BF brought us there, filling our heads with stories about how he used to get drunk in HS and jump off. It seemed like forever before I hit the water and then, the second time I jumped it, it seemed even longer trying to get back to the surface because the water at that point is especially deep.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2008-02-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

Eat it BOSTON! or 18-1*

As I ponder what just went down Sunday night, I thought to myself, "Dang, I've witnessed three of the greatest super bowls ever (XXIII, XXV and XLII)." And I'll be damned if the Giants didn't pull off another upset in their typical style (smash-mouth, ball-control, virtually mistake free). And I'll be double damned if Eli Manning didn't just 'bring it' with that drive -- that's gonna make for some great tag-team ribbing with Peyton at dinner on Turkey day (Archie never won one).

And now that the Patriots 'bid for immortality' is ended, hopefully those full of it Boston fans will shut the hell up for once and take that whipping with some backbone. Because, face it, your 'team of destiny' had their train derailed from the opening drive, when Eli drove the Giants down the field and ate up almost 10 minutes off that clock.

Now, I'm not a NY Giants fan, oh no, in fact I am not a NY sports fan at all (nor Boston, for that matter). However I do take offense to the fact that I can think of at least one or two teams who could have beaten this Patriots team, and yet if the Patriots won that game, they would have the 'right' to be considered the greatest team of all time (no, I'm not a Dolphins fan either -- yeah they went undefeated, but they played only 14 regular season games, and I can think of a whole bunch of teams that could have beaten them too).

Man, it must feel like crap, eh, to be only the third team to ever go 18-1, yet not win the super bowl? But let's face it, for all the stuff you talk, remember that your 'magic' 2002 season was made because of that god-awful TUCK RULE. I mean, c'mon! I'm not a huge Raider fan, but I hate to see a team screwed like that (yes, NY, I do recall that playoff game with the 49ers -- Okeafor tackled that dude and should have been called for pass interference)

Still, as the game ended, and I sat there watching the scene unfold, I could not believe that I, a lifelong 49er fan (Niner Empire) rooted against:
a) local boy Tom Brady
b) fellow PINOY Tedy Bruschi
c) one of my favorite LBs Junior Seau

Actually, I do know why. I'm a little bitter because that team was going to be ranked higher than any of the Niner super bowl teams (I'll give 'em '81 and '88, but them's fightin' words when it comes to the '84, '89 and '94 teams!)

Now the bitterness can go away. I feel better now. The Patriots can go ahead and win another, and another, and another, shoot, Brady's only 30, and that offense is still bad @ss. Just lose one game, alright, and you won't have the pressure to be perfect. 18-1 isn't all that bad. And you get the Vince Lombardi trophy too!!!

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

p.s. And in case you're wondering who the best team of all time is...click here --> USA TODAY Greatest Team Ever

I almost forgot...perhaps this happened in an alternate reality?

2008-01-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

Back to School...

The second semester of my graduate studies quest started Monday with a snafu in the class schedule. It seems that my "American Art Song since 1950" class was originally scheduled in November on MW 1100-1215 (the correct time), changed to TTh 1230-1345 (wrong), changed back to MW (right) and then, about 3 weeks ago, it was again listed on TTh (still wrong). So a lot of us didn't show up at 11, only to get an email later in the day saying that the class schedule was wrong in saying TTh.

Rehearsals for Haydn's "Il mondo della luna" have picked up again and we've already begun staging. One of my goals this winter break was to be off-book (a difficult motivation since I'm only covering) for the whole opera. The bad news was that I wasn't able to be off book. The good news is that because I set the goal for myself, I did get work done and was able to be off-book for about half. I also set a goal to memorize my solo in Purcell's "Fairy Queen" -- which I did.

So work's begun and the weather here's been crazy. Yesterday it went from about 40F and pouring rain to 4F and blowing snow! Today is a nice and sunny 6F (with wind chill a breezy
-15F)

And I promised a friend I would go get my physical and blood work, etc., done when I turned 30. But I basically put it off for two years. However I finally went in yesterday, and so far all's good (EKG normal). I'll get the results of my bloodwork by Friday. I'm anticipating good news.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

Finals Week

Everything is coming to a head out here. I just finished a paper (late!) and have my vocal jury tomorrow (4:50pm CST) with a final in my "Opera as Drama" class on Wednesday morning (9:30am). Then I'm done, I'm free, I'm.......................................very busy during the break.

But first things first. Tomorrow I plan on going to school and absolutely knocking out my jury pieces before doing some final studying for my Wednesday final. Then I'll wake up, ace my final, and then head to my weekly church gig rehearsal to prepare songs for Xmas Eve (yep, I'm flying home to CA on 12/25) before heading back to town for some fermented sugar fun at a friend's party. Then I'll head back to school for one final coaching and a last shot at the music library before washing my hands of my first semester as a graduate student. Then I have five days, count 'em five days, to romp around my apartment and do what most people do when their roommate is out of town -- cavort and prance around in whatever clothes you wish (or lack thereof.)

I'll probably clean the house, straighten my room and do some last minute gift shopping before flying home on Tuesday. But I have no rest for the next three weeks. I have molto musica to learn: Haydn and Purcell off book; Faure melodie; Mozart lied; all of Schumann's Dichterliebe; et al. Not to mention a lot of catching up to do with my Yay Area buddies.

Overall, there were a few setbacks, but I've been able to roll with the punches, and in the meantime make new friends both in and out of school. But damn, it's starting to get HELLA cold over here (21F at the moment)

And now for some pics

my street

my house

fall in Chicago

the window I find myself staring out of during class (not taken during class -- though that would have been ballsy)

first snowfall

a happy snowy tree

Enjoy!

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-11-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

CFAFF

So I was fiending for some silog stuff and was surfing the web trying to figure out if Chi-Town has Filipino stores over here and I came across the website for the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival. Since I basically only know one Filipino guy here from school, I thought that this would be a great way to meet the community over here. So I emailed the contact and offered to volunteer, which is where I'm headed to tonight. And so I went to a volunteer meeting last night and broke out of the shyness shell so I could introduce myself to some folks. It turns out that one of the girls I met last night is originally from Illinois and moved to SF for her undergrad, at SFSU. And she lived in my neighborhood, the Richmond District.

Woohoo! Can we say 'get invited to Filipino parties and eat some home cooking?' But I've been trying my hand at cooking out here and made pork and peas (pork guisado for you guys keeping score). I was so yearning for longanisa and tocino that I'm almost considering making it for myself, if not for the fact that I did end up finding a grocery store out here that I hope will sell it. Since they're really big on sausage out here I figured I would find some Deli that would stuff the meat into the casings for me!

Makin' Mine Music in Chi-Town

~No Tations~

2007-10-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

I got a 'C' on my first paper written as a music grad student. I'm really super pissed/depressed/frustrated right now.

I have to keep telling myself, "You're not an idiot," though I basically presented myself as a dolt in the paper.

Sigh

~No Tations~

2007-10-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Frustration

Don't you hate when you go to perform and your nerves get the better of you, resulting in a less then stellar presentation of your creative talents?

Me too.

Oh well, gotta keep on working.

Makin' Mine Muisc

~No Tations~

2007-10-04T16:17:00.000-07:00

Midwest News

I got my financial aid finally and have commenced to start making my house a home. My roomie Lo bought us a futon, TV and DVD player; we just hooked up internet plus home phone; and we just discovered this cool thing called FreeCycle. Most big cities have one. It's a mailing list built upon the fact that it's much better for your soul and for the energy in the world if you give things away that you don't need, especially if there are people who can use them. You can post messages either offering or wanting things, and if someone has it or needs it, there's a good likelihood you're wish will be granted.

I was able to get a full size box spring/mattress, bookshelf, dresser and end table. Of course there was a little bit of a drawback. The dresser is kinda blah, so I'll need to either paint it or strip the paint and then stain it. And the bookshelf was missing a shelf. And the mattress was so used that you could feel the metal bar in it. However, I plan on going to Home Depot for the missing shelf and went to overstock.com and got myself a memory foam cover for the bed.

Now all I need is a computer desk and wireless router, plus maybe some rabbit ears for the TV (gotta watch Heroes and NFL) and I think it'll be all set.

And for y'all, another pic of the beautiful French coast...

Chateau Gombert at Night. Courtesy Gary Cruz (www.garycruz.com)

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-09-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

TGIF in the Windy City

Slowly life in Chicago is starting to feel 'normal'. I went to LA two weeks ago and when I was checking in at the counter for my return flight the attendant asked me, "Going home?" And I had to stop and think about the answer before I said, "Yes." It's not quite home yet, but it's definitely the place where I'll be spending a couple years at.

Practicing the bajo/guitarron in Chateau Gombert, Marseille, France. Photo courtesy of Gary Cruz (www.garycruz.com)

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-09-06T09:37:00.001-07:00

Midwest Greetings!

School started yesterday. It's a pretty easy schedule actually. My earliest class is at 930 on Mon/Wed and 215 on Tues/Thurs, with no class on Friday. How awesome is that? I better get good at this singing thing with all that time to practice eh?

On the bad side, my financial aid is stuck somewhere in the place between limbo and the netherworld, and a check that was supposed to come from SF State in July still hasn't showed up in my mailbox.

But, on the flipside, I got a free CTA (Chicago's MUNI equivalent) pass, which is as if I had a card in the Bay that lets me ride bus and BART for free. This weekend I'll be in Burbank for a wedding, with a flight courtesy of a good friend who has Southwest hookups.

On a sadder note (well for me, that is) the celebrated tenor Luciano Pavarotti passed away today in his home in Modena.

He is best known for his rendition of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma", but what made him a household name within the classical voice community was his ability to sing what is considered (among us light Tenors, at least) to be one of the signature tenor arias (it contains nine High Cs), Gaetano Donizetti's "Ah Mes Amis". Fast forward one minute in and you'll hear the high Cs.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-08-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

And I'm Here!

I got here to Chicago on Tuesday night, where my new roommate LoLo met me and helped me with the luggage. She came here in late July to secure the place and then moved in on the 15th. My room is a cozy one with high ceilings. Not terribly big, but I won't
In a brand new city,

Makin' Mine Music,

~No Tations~

2007-06-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Goals

I've decided to update my Joe's Goals once a week so here goes

2007-06-16T02:39:00.000-07:00

And the winner is....

Chicago! Yeah, baby! That's right, I will be attending Roosevelt University in the Fall. I'll be in a two-year program that puts me on track to graduate in Spring '09 with the Master of Music in Classical Vocal Performance. I had to take out a li'l bit of loan money but it's all good.

My life the past few months consisted of performances, performances, performances.

Like...

Orpheus

Choir Performances

My Recital...

Click for Slideshow (courtsey of Edwin Leynes photography)

and finally, Carnaval...

I've also moved back to my parents' house until mid-August, where I'm still looking for some temp work and as well as trying to figure out a way to go to both Chicago and Cancun/Cuba in the same week -- all before coming back to a good friend's wedding on the 28th or July.

We'll see

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-04-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Big Decision

This past month I've been both looking forward to and at the same time dreading a certain date -- May 1st. That's the day that I need to send in my letter of intent to determine which Grad School I'm going to. So after the audition run here are the results:

Boston: No
Peabody: Yes
Michigan: No
Roosevelt: Yes

I sorta feel the dumpee in a relationship, bitterly telling myself that the 'other' is missing out and I know I'm better than that. Oh well, I made a few friends at Michigan so I'll probably go over and visit. Anyway, my decision comes down to a few things:

Peabody
Big name
Medium City
$31,500 tuition
~$8,000 scholarship
Need own car
Networking/Connections

Roosevelt
Small Name
Big City
$24,000 tuition
$14,000 scholarship
Reliable Public Transportation
Networking/Connections
So now I need to figure out what I'm going to do and need to do it soon. Oh yeah, and Orpheus in the Underworld is showing at SFSU. It plays this week and next week. Here's the official info for Orpheus in the Underworld

I'll be playing Pluto, King of the Underworld on 4/26, 4/28 and 5/5, all at 8pm.

And if you go here's a link to get a 2-for-1 ticket

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Ugly, the Bad and the GOOD!!

The Ugly

Saturday, March 31st, was supposed to be the night of my Senior Recital. This recital is the culmination of all my years studying music. I had a real nice program ready. I even flew my brother in from Texas. But about a week before I developed a horrible cough that caused my vocal folds to become swollen. All weekend I was hacking and coughing and being miserable. And when school started that week I even went on 'vocal rest' which meant that I wasn't supposed to talk - wasn't even supposed to phonate (which would include laughing, whispering). And I stayed pretty good too. I also took loads of herbal cough syrup and expectorant, in addition to drinking gallons of tea. All in the hopes that, on Friday 3/30, I'll be able to impress my voice teacher enough that the concert would still go on. But alas, as soon as I finished my French aria, he shook his head and said, "I still hear a lot of swelling. I strongly recommend that you postpone your recital." Despite my protests I had to admit it was for the better. So I went home, sent out tons of emails and made lots of calls, and just basically hung out with my family. Now I need to reschedule but now it looks like I won't have a chance to do it on campus.

The Bad

In addition to finding out that I had to postpone the recital, I also received a letter via snail mail that informed me of my rejection from Boston University's School of Music. What sucked was that I thought that Boston was my second best audition that I did. So then the whole weekend I started having doubts about my ability and talent and started entertaining thoughts such as a Plan B in case I don't get in anywhere. Since I didn't get into Boston with a pretty good audition, then it didn't look good for schools such as Peabody and U of Michigan. So for four days I thought about the rejection...

The GOOD!

Already reeling from one rejection, I called my dad today to see if the letter from Peabody came. As he looked through the mail he said, "No, but here's one from Chicago College of Performing Arts." I quickly asked him to open it. Over the phone I heard a lot of paper shuffling and he was taking a lot of time. So much time that I thought he was trying to figure out a way to break the 'bad' news to me. Then he said, "Blah blah blah, Congratulations..." For a second I couldn't believe my ears. The Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) of Roosevelt University had accepted me. Not only that, but they awarded me $14,000 annually in scholarship money (tuition is about $22,000) a year. So I would need to cover about $8,000 a year, which is way better than trying to cover $22,000 a year.

I still have two more schools to hear from, but even if I don't get in to those, I at least have one option for sure!

Makin Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-02-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

I'm Back...

Overall it was a pretty crazy week. I started in Baltimore, then went to Ann Arbor and finished in Chicago.

The 2nd day of my two-day Peabody Conservatory audition consisted of a Graduate Assistantship Choral Conducting Audition. There were about 6 of us auditioning for the job (and there were 7 the day before). The choir, which consists of all instrumentalists, are preparing a piece by Franz Joseph Haydn, who is a 'Classical' style composer. Luckily for me, I've sung numerous songs by both Mozart and Haydn, which only made it better for me at this audition. I left my practice CD at home but luckily found a website that allowed me to buy the mp3s. I woke up around 1030 to practice conducting and mark up my score (red for cues, blue for dynamics, green for articulations) and when I went to the audition I also noticed that I had the most prepared score. The woman there told us that they needed someone to not only warm-ups and sectionals, but also to lead the full rehearsals in case the conductor could not make it. So they needed both leadership as a conductor and also a person who is relaxed and easygoing in front of the chorus. I decided, after a meeting with my choir director, that my strength would be not as a conductor, but as a musician and my personality. So that's where I decided to focus.

As walked in I smiled and said, "What's up guys, I'm from San Francisco and I'm happy to be here today. Where are my sopranos? Altos? Basses? And you've got to be the tenors. Of course, it's always the smallest section!" After I said that, the chorus laughed and I noticed them giving each other looks as if to say, "Wow, he's laid back."

I then conducted the three required sections, and then after that was done, the person who was judging me asked me to go back and work a specific section of the song as if I were the conductor, and most specifically, he asked me to rehearse the 'Gloria' section of the song. This was, pun intended, "music to my ears" because in the waiting room, as another of the candidates was going through with his audition, I singled out in my mind that I would love the chance to work the 'Gloria' section. Anyway, I worked that section, and when my time was up, the choir had sung almost 100% better.

As I was walking out, he walked me to the door, and asked me about my audition - did I do it already? How did it go? And most importantly, he slapped me on the back and said, with a big smile, "I'm really glad you came in today."

Now I didn't notice him doing that to other candidates, so I know that I nailed this one good. My going to Peabody is actually dependent on this assistantship - not only does it pay full tuition for me but I think I get a stipend as well.

Next time, my adventures in....

ANN ARBOR....

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-02-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

*I'm kinda tired, so I just cut and pasted this email to one of my teachers at school*

Hi Dr. Deeter,

Just finished up my Peabody auditions. I started with 'Dog Star' and, just like the Orpheus audition, at every point in the song that you laughed, one of the voice teachers at Peabody laughed. So that was good.

Then they picked 'Dies Bildnis'. It started out okay, but then I started getting nervous, and started thinking about breath and stuff and, therefore, started having crappy breath and stuff. So the end didn't start off as well as the beginning, especially with the 'ware sie dann mein' part.

Anyway, they only asked for two songs, which was kinda strange, seeing as how they asked us to prepare 10. Then I did a reading of text in Italian, French and German.

The kicker is that I literally flew in and went straight to the school with my luggage in tow. I went into the bathroom to clean up - and while shaving, this guy came in and remarked, "Busy eh? What do you do, just go straight from audition to audition? What are you auditioning for?" When I told him " M.M. voice," he said, "Ah! I'm Roger Brunyate, the director of the Opera Program!" So when I went in for the audition he said, "Yeah, I met him shaving in the bathroom." Well, an impression's an impression right?

I'll let you know how the Michigan and Roosevelt ones go.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

2007-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

BU

So my friend Ell and I are in Boston (Brookline to be specific) and we'll shortly be on our way to the University where one friend will go first and audition at 10am. Ell goes at 1pm and I'm on at 650(!). I'll be the last one, so hopefully I can WOW them even though they're probably exhausted from listening to over 40+ auditions.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to see Boston, but it's freakin' cold -- 25 degrees! Very crisp (I always love using that word to describe weather). I'll be making a little trek around Boston because I need to track down a couple of songs for my piano accompanist -- my dumb @ss left them back in the City.

We'll see how it goes

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~