updateage

So instead of practicing this week, I have filled my evenings with updating my blog site!  I have gotten my own domain, which is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now.  So now my blog is at www.sandyclarinet.com!  Woo so exciting!  I have also posted my resume, and I figured out how to post some recordings of myself.  I only have a couple pieces posted that were recorded from my dress rehearsal of my ESM recital back in January of '09.  I'm going to dig around for some more recordings that I think is decent enough for posting, but I think most of what I had was lost from when my hard drive committed suicide back in December.  Wah.  I also hope to post some pictures and video of this past weekend.  As soon as I get them from various people!


I know it doesn't look like much, but I have spent a lot of time perfecting the site...and it has forced me to get back into coding and stuff (I was an expert at html back in college, but I have long since forgotten most of it) which has been pretty fun.  And annoying at the same time, because I'm a perfectionist!  For now, since blogger is dumb and won't let you make a "home" page, I'm keeping it mainly a blog site.  But I think its useful to have other information about myself and what I do other than my daily musings.


Anyway, enjoy sandyclarinet.com!  

Trip to Colorado and recital

Wow!  The last week has gone by in a flash!  I had such a great time in Colorado, I really didn't want to come back!  Actually, if my husband wasn't still in NY I probably would have stayed!  

I arrived in Denver after a very smooth trip; the only delay was in Rochester because  a bird ran into the plane on the way in and they needed to "clean up" and inspect the plane (it ran into the actual plane, not the engine)...but I still arrived in my connecting airport early!  My sister and her husband came to pick me up, along with her friend (and now my friend too) Courtney.  I had quite an entourage.

Wednesday morning I went to breakfast with my sister, my brother in law, and my mom to Lucile's, which is like, the best place to have breakfast in Foco.  Just saying.  After that my mom let me use her truck (I know, shocker!  I'm almost 28 and she finally trusts me to take one of her vehicles, LOL) and I went to Greeley to meet with my friend Adele, who was playing the Poulenc with me on my recital.  We ended up rehearsing the Poulenc for a little bit and then talking and playing other duets for a couple hours!  It was great fun.  But then I had to get going to get my hair cut...my ends were quite gross - it had been over 10 months since I had it cut last!!  Obviously I really like my hairdresser since I let my hair go for months and months until I can make it back to Colorado, ha.

Mmmmmm Lucile's

Wednesday night was the whole reason that I came at this particular time: my sister was having her last concert with her a capella group, Curious Gage.  My brother in law has been in it for awhile, and right when I moved to NY she had auditioned and won an open spot in the group.  So I've never heard her sing in the group!!  And this was my last chance to see her, and I am so happy that it worked out!  I seriously was so blown away by how much she has improved her singing and I was so proud of her, I thought I was going to cry during the first song!  The concert was Halloween themed, and I totally wore my tinkerbell costume!  All the members of the group also dressed up - Kristi being a vintage Barbie of course!

Thursday and Friday were spent mostly preparing for my recital on Friday night.  I had enough time to go for a run with my mom and also have some good quality time hanging out with my mom.  It was really nice!  Thursday night was my dress rehearsal.  I won't go into details, but it ended up being a little frustrating.  I'll be honest, it ended up not being the quality that I hoped - I have been so spoiled with Eastman pianists!!  Rehearsal ended up lasting almost three hours without a break...I was so pooped at the end!  Luckily Kristi was armed with cupcakes, so I felt better!  

Luckily my reeds changed very minimally in Colorado, but I am glad that I got the slightly softer strength, they ended up being just perfect!  I hardly needed to work on them, which was nice.  Also, my breathing adjusted very well to the altitude.  I had to re-do some breaths in the Poulenc that were on the verge of being impossible in Rochester and became entirely impossible at 5000 feet, but other than that I didn't need to adjust anything!  

I also had a slight wardrobe emergency.  The outfit I planned on wearing was a long skirt and a shirt that I ordered from this Chinese company about 3 weeks ago.  I paid for 7 day shipping, thinking that it would be here in plenty of time.  Well, it didn't actually arrive until last Tuesday (the day I left for CO) and it needed a signature confirmation...I was at work and Ben was asleep when the guy came to deliver it.  So he left a nice little note that stated that it would be available to pick up at the post office after 9am on Wednesday.  Well that sucks!  I was leaving that night!  So Ben had to go pick it up for me, and he overnighted it to me at my parent's house.  Which was fine, it was better than trying to find a new shirt.  (Although now, a $15 shirt ended up costing me almost $50...)  Well when I finally opened the package on Thursday night, it ended up being WAY to small (I had ordered a medium, but I guess I wasn't thinking in "asian girl" sizes, ha!).  I tried to stay calm, not panic...we can fix it.  And I showed it to my mom in the morning...and she fixed it!  There were only little buttons that fastened the shirt closed, and and all we needed to do was move the buttons!  It ended up fitting perfectly and looked fabulous.  Whew!  

The recital was held at Magnolia Music Studio, which is owned by Cynthia Vaughn, who used to teach voice at CSU.  Basically, she is awesome, and I loved playing in her space!  It was very intimate, which I liked, I felt like I could really connect with my audience because they were right there. 

The actual recital went very well.  I don't think I could have played better considering the time frame that I had to prepare.  The turnout was great too, almost a full house!!  I have a feeling that the pianist went home and practiced a bunch on Friday because it was so much better than it had been on Thursday night.  And I actually spoke to the audience without feeling like I made an ass out of myself.  Win!  Unfortunately, I had a projectile spit event on the Sutermeister, but I recovered the best I could.  It happens.  

Everyone LOVED the Debussy that I arranged.  I was really surprised by the reaction to it - many people said it was their favorite piece of the concert.  I think it was mine too, actually!  

Saturday, my parents hosted an open house for me, so that my friends could come see me, instead of having to stress about making sure I see them.  That was really fun, a lot of the same people who came to the recital came to the open house too.  It was nice though, because I could chat with them more at the open house since it wasn't as crazy.  

On Saturday night, I went to the Zombie Crawl in Fort Collins with Kristi and Courtney.  We got all "zombied out" and had a great time.  Kristi was a zombie bride, and Courtney and I were her zombie bridesmaids.  

Trying to eat my dad's brains (and he's also being attacked by golden retrievers)

Saturday night was so much fun, but I had an extremely early flight the next morning so I definitely paid for that fun.  I think I went to bed around 1am and I got up at 3am.  My flight was at 6am out of Denver, gross.  But I made it, and luckily the flight back was even smoother than the flight into Denver.  I slept almost the entire way.  Oh and then I taught a clarinet lesson that afternoon...that's how desperate for money I am!

It was kind of sad to be back in Rochester after having so much fun in Colorado, but it is what it is.  Back to real life!!  At least I have Ben here, and we are going to be leaving soon.  Although I would love to move back to Fort Collins, but its just not in the cards, unfortunately.  But somewhere other than Rochester sounds real nice right now.

Coming up, I am forcing myself to take a week off from practicing (seriously forced - I keep wanting to get my horn out!), then I am going to start preparing for the Navy Band audition in January.  I met with my recruiter today, and he is totally excited for me to audition for the band.  Apparently, if I win the job, I will outrank almost everyone in the office after I get out of basic training.  Ha!  So crazy.  I was hoping to repeat my recital here in Rochester, but it looks like I won't be able to afford it (I really don't want to charge for tickets).  So I'm going to focus my efforts elsewhere.  I'm still hoping to maybe work something out with the Medical Center and their concert series, but nobody seems to be getting back to me.  Whatever.  

So I'm going to enjoy my week of no clarinet!  Maybe I'll try to be productive....

Updated site

Just a quick update...this weekend I was able to completely update my blog site.  Now you have access to my bio and other information, and I hope to have my resume and other features up very soon.  Yay!  Closer and closer to a real website.  I'm hoping to reformat it to the logo my dear and talented sister made for me...someday.  (shameless plug...if you ever, EVER need graphic design services, she is the one to go to: www.kristisiedowthompson.com - I highly recommend her, and not just because she's my sister, she rocks at design!!)

In other news, one more day of Rochester practicing before my recital.  I am leaving tomorrow night!  I had a chance to play the Poulenc yesterday at the Eastman House during the Ad hoc concert.  It went pretty well...although I'm so thankful to get in a performance of it under my belt, it really showed where I'm weakest!

Now I have to figure out some notes so that I can speak a little about each piece.  I need to work on my public speaking skills, and what better place to do that than at my own recital!  My goal is to not speak too much, because I really hate when people go on and on about the piece they're going to play.  Get on with it already!

And if you are wondering, this is the final order of the program:

Bolcom (Eb piece)

Sutermeister

Poulenc

Debussy

Finzi

I decided to go ahead and make the Finzi the last piece...seemed to make more sense to me even though it doesn't end big or anything.  So that's it...I probably won't have time to blog while I'm in CO, so I'll see you on the other side!

the home stretch...

The last couple weeks I have been practicing like a mofo...seriously.  My aspirations are getting the best for me again.  Literally Monday through Friday I practice 2 1/2 to 3 hours after work...and somehow I am still finding time to work out!  I can’t really do anything else though, and I’m feeling exhausted by bedtime.  Its ok, it will be totally worth it.  My recital program is really starting to come together! It will be ready by next Friday...I hope.  I’m so excited!  Hopefully my reeds won’t freak out because of the dryness and altitude.  Lots of practicing will take place in the few days before the concert to make sure I adapt well!


Right now I’m fighting with figuring out an order for the recital.  I have 4 out of 5 pieces that end softly and anti-climactic, and the the 5th is really short.  I have to think of what makes sense for the audience and myself (since I’m using all three of my instruments).   I’m thinking of this order:


Bolcom - Little suite of four dances (Eb clarinet & piano)
Sutermeister - Capriccio (solo A clarinet)
Finzi - Five Bagatelles (Bb clarinet & piano)
Debussy - Syrinx (solo A clarinet)
Poulenc - Sonata for two clarinets (Bb clarinet)


The thing I’m fighting with is whether or not to switch the Poulenc and Finzi.  Neither are good closers in general, but they are the best closers relative to the group of pieces that I have.  Hmmmmmm...I’ll take a week to think about it.


Anyway, in other news, I’ve been invited back to play with the group Ad Hoc again. (Check out their website, www.adhoc-music.org)  We are performing the Mozart Serenade (again - we did it in the concert series back in August) at the Eastman house this weekend.  I’m playing the 2nd part again with the same clarinetist as before playing the first part.  There are some new players, so it feels like a different group - better actually.  I’m also playing the Poulenc duo with the other clarinetist on the concert, which is great because I will get some practice performing the piece before the real deal next week.  We worked on it last night; it was the first time that I played the piece with another human being and it felt pretty good.  I think we play really well together - its great when you just click with another musician.  Unfortunately, I’ve had more of the opposite situation, where we are mismatched and it takes a lot more work to achieve the same result. Its so refreshing when things come together so easily.  Our playing just flowed very well together, it was nice.


Last night I also had a moment where I felt so grateful that I played such a cool instrument, and that I’m actually really good at it and this is what I’m going to be doing as my profession!  I truly love playing clarinet, I really feel like myself when I’ve got my instrument in my hands.  I can’t imagine myself doing anything else and being as happy!


It really feels good to be performing again.  I feel lucky to have stumbled upon Ad Hoc, and its beginning to open up some doors for more performing here in Rochester.  I’ve been focused the last couple years on auditions and its refreshing to be playing for people who isn’t critically judging me!   I hate auditioning, but I love performing.  Maybe that’s why I don’t do that great at auditions sometimes....ha.