Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My 21st and a trip to Italy!

Wow, it's been almost all month since I posted!!!  So, here's a little synopsis of the month...

I had my birthday: Yay I'm 21!!  I went out, turned 21, had a crazy time, then woke up the next morning and stood in line for Siegfried all day :)  Siegfried was incredible.  Here's the cast:

And then... I went to Italy :)

Italy was unbelievable amazing.  First of all, you can't go wrong with 7 Italian boys, 2 Spanish boys, Luca Benucci, and me, the lone female.  :)  Not that bad of a situation at all.  This is the bunch of us that was still there in the evening for their little "first day being all together" party.
My  time in Italy was some of the best I could have imagined.  It started out a little bumpy with 7 connections to get there.  Ubahn to Schnell bahn to plane to train to italy's ubahn to train to different train, finally I arrived in Cesena, but I had no idea where to go, so I ended up walking around in Italy in the dark.  I decided that wasn't the safest choice, so I asked two people walking dogs, "parli inglese?" and one said no very strongly and the other said, "oh a little."  The one who didn't speak any ended up walking me all the way to my hotel in silence, as we couldn't really converse at all.  He was a very nice old man though!  So I got to my hotel and had a cute little tiny room with a bed and a sink and it was lovely, but cold.  I ended up having internet access though, which worked out really nicely as I checked my Facebook to see that I had a new message from Giuseppe, a student of Luca's who had recommended the hotel and said he'd help me with anything.  Then I took a power nap.  :) The two of us and another horn student, Vicente (from Spain), met later that evening at a pub in town and we chatted and they showed me around a little bit.  They also promised to meet me in the morning to get me to the conservatory!

The next morning, I woke up really early to shower, get ready, warm up, and find a place to have breakfast, all before meeting at the conservatory at 9.  I had a lovely Italian breakfast in a cafe:
Then Giuseppe and Vicente picked me up and we went to the conservatory.  I had 7 more guys thrown at me all at once and I couldn't remember any of these Italian names.  Right away I knew I needed to work really hard on the names.  I got it in a day: Giuseppe. Vicente. Stefano. Frederico. Mattia. Giullem. Davide. Emmanuele. Manuel. LUCA! and Tamino was the pianist (japanese).  

We started the day at 9 with 2 hours of breathing exercises, buzzing, and singing.  Luca uses a spirometer, which allows you to see your airflow by watching a little ball that is held up by your wind.  VERY USEFUL.  We did some breathing and buzzing together, then we would go around and he would listen individually and give us each critiques.  Then we each played an opening phrase from a mozart horn concerto (first notes on the horn), and using the proper air... wasn't that difficult or scary at all!  After all of this, we had individual "20-min" lessons.  Mine was an hour. lol.  None were 20 minutes.  I watched all of them work, and these guys were almost all new students of Luca's so they were only a little bit ahead of me in "Luca training,"  so watching and listening to them was quite informative as well.  Then around 1:30, we all went to lunch at a cafeteria nearby.  It was very yummy, I had pasta!  Then.. we go for coffee :)  They bought me special coffee.. that was absolutely delicious.  Then we go back to the conservatory and continue with lessons.  Mine was last and it was full of singing.  haha.  This was actually really informative.  He had my try a bunch of different things and then play again to see which ones really helped me sound better.  Turns out both the spirometer and the breathing bag helped tremendously and when I sung before playing, my tone was better than it's ever been.  The little buzzy thing (a circle on a stick, arnold jacobs used it a lot) did not help.. it made my sound rather harsh.  But these were fantastic realizations!  I need to BREATHE!!!!!!  
The streets of Cesena.. it was beautiful there :)

The last thing of the day was a mock audition because they had one coming up shortly.  They all played mozart 3 exposition and Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony horn solo.  Then we ranked people to see who did best.  Emmanuele won.  We got kicked out of the building at 7:30.  Yep, that's right.  9 AM to 7:30 PM with a lunch/coffee break.  SOLID WORK ON HORN.  It was incredible.  

That night was their party, Luca cooked homemade Ragu, which was wonderful and Guillem made something called a tortilla, scrambled egg with potatoes in it, also really yummy!  I stayed up really late talking with Luca about amazingly interesting, inspiring things and then totally passed out at the hotel.

The second day was basically the same thing.  We did more technique stuff in the morning and less breathing work.  He has his students work on flute vocalises for technique and a bunch of other things, horn and not horn.  Then more lessons and then we all switched off playing movements of Strauss 1, I got the 2nd movement.  We traded off playing, singing, and buzzing with the spirometer.  It was kind of awesome.  Luca's teaching is just really motivational and energized.  There's always something that happens with my playing, like a big realization that I CAN sound better or it CAN be that easy, etc.  I just need to hone in on all of those things and habit them.  It was a wonderful trip.. we ended with appetizers at a pub and really good conversation.  Luca is one of the most inspiring people I've ever met.  I mean just for life in general, not only horn.  He just understands and learns about each of his students individually so he knows what each of their personalities needs, on horn and in life.  

Playing, Singing, Buzzing on spirometer :) what a trio!

Random things I learned in Italy:
-Everyone's named Giuseppe.  The first, 2nd, and last guy I met there were all Giuseppe.  lol.  

-Italians don't speak english.  And they don't like when you do.

-Italians are not afriad to go for it.  I met a guy on one of the trains back and he started talking to me in Italian and I was like woa. Inglese. and then he actually spoke english which was a miracle.  So he started talking with me and asking where I was from and what I was doing here.  Then I got up to get off in Bologna and he followed me to the door.  I asked if he was getting off and he said no, he left his bag in another car.  The train stopped and I went to get off and he said, "Jamie, wait!" and I'm just like... "umm.. I need to get off.." and he pulls me in and says I hope that we can meet again sometime soon, and we go to do the kiss kiss on either cheek and he totally goes in for the kill and kisses me.  It was very surprising.. and then I left. lol.  Another italian on the plane from Rome to Vienna kept turning around and staring at me, so naturally I looked at him like, "what? why are you looking at me?" and then at baggage claim he come up to me, doesn't speak english, only german (he figured I was austrian) and asks me out to dinner.  I politely declined the offer.  Those Italians... fearless!  ;)

I want to study in Italy with Luca Benucci.  Not sure when this will happen, but I assure you, it will.

Well, I'll have to continue this November synopsis later, as I'm really tired.  Guten Abend!  :)
Lucaaaaaa :)


Monday, November 7, 2011

And it's only Monday!? WIN!

This monday was so epic that it deserves its own blog post all for itself.  I'll update on the other stuff later..

7 AM yoga/practice
8:30AM write more of 401 History paper
10 AM Vienna Staatsoper rehearsal of the 2nd half of Götterdämmerung
1 PM shove pb&j down my throat, warm up
2 PM (oops lesson time moved!) practice!
3 PM Music History
4:30 PM Almost complete essay for 401!!!
6PM Lesson with Luca Benucci!!!!!!!!!
7:30 PM All Bartok program with Esa-Pekka Salonon and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Konzerthaus

So, I woke up 45 minutes late, no big deal, I was up until 12 writing my paper.  Felt good, but I was getting nervous for my lesson, as usual (with a new, famous horn player!).  Also a little nervous about actually getting the lesson (I'll explain later)!  So, I had time to write more of my paper that I need to get done BEFORE my birthday when it's due!  I do not want to be writing that paper on my birthday!!!  (or the night before!!!)  At this point I've got almost 8 full pages.  I need 10.

Then I ran to the Staatsoper (literally), and get there just in time to meet Wolfgang and 2 of his students to watch his rehearsal.  I LOVE these rehearsals.  Even when they are the most angry, depressing, confusing music (Wagner), it still really calms all my nerves listening to them play.  That's how it's supposed to be.  Watching/listening to them play just gives me a few hours to forget about everything else.  I don't have to think about classes (or that paper I need to finish), I don't think about my problems, or anything that I don't want to think about.  It's just a really relaxing wonderful break from life.  I'm going everyday this week. :)  And then I get to talk shop (or anything) with Wolfgang during the pause (and he bought me coffee! nom.)  Today we talked about Wiener horn sound compared to american horns, especially Conns. He also invited me to his studio recital to see all his students that I've been meeting play solos!

So, Luca.  Luca is the hardest person to get a lesson with.  I had been trying to get a lesson with him in Italy, but my times were not really working out with any of his times, and I couldn't chance going to Italy for no lesson.  So, it just didn't look like it was going to happen.  Then, on friday night I saw Luca's fb status (thank you fb!!!). It read: "Ready to go: Wien... Heldenleben, Musikverein, Mehta!!!  Very good combination!!!"  With eyed widened and jaw dropped, I immediately looked up the Musikverein schedule, and low and behold, his orchestra was on the list for Sunday and Monday.  Right then I sent him a facebook message along the lines of "Are you in Vienna?  I'm in Vienna.  Can I  have a lesson while you're in Vienna?!"  He sent me a messaged back saying "yes, we land at 2 tomorrow" and left me his phone number.  So, Saturday at 2 PM rolled around and so I obviously called Luca.  He answered and said, "Jamie!  I'm still in Pisa!"  He had gotten the times mixed up.  So we rescheduled for 10 AM on monday.  I made one of the hardest decisions ever on sunday: Die Walküre or Heldenleben with Luca's orchestra.  Luca won.  I went to this concert, and it was incredible.  The horns sounded particularly spectacular, which I was very happy to hear!  Luca has a gorgeous sound and SO MUCH power.  It's incredible how much he can play and his endurance is unimaginable in my eyes.  I thought to myself... I must be able to do this.  It's a good thing I have a lesson with him!  I met him outside after the concert to congratulate him and meet him finally.  He is incredibly friendly and a lot of fun.  He also told me that he had forgotten about his rehearsal at 10 in the morning for the monday concert!  We rescheduled for 2 PM.  Once again, monday at 2 rolled around and I walked to the musikverein and called Luca.  He was having lunch with the horns and had a meeting at 3.  We rescheduled for 6 PM, the absolute last possible time either of us could manage.  So, at 6 PM, as the Vienna Phil's rehearsal was just ending, I was waiting at the Kunstlereingang, artist's entrance of the Musikverein. 


This was actually pretty cool.  After all of the rehearsals I've sat in on, all of the horn players not recognize me.  I said hi to one of them that I don't know the name of yet, and I actually spoke with Wolfgang Tomböck, the longtime principal horn.  He was playing first on Bruckner 4 at the first rehearsal I saw here.  He's incredible, and also very friendly.  Then Wolfgang (my teacher) walks out the door, "The rehearsal is over, what are you doing?"  "Luca changed my lesson time again, I'm waiting for him."  haha.  So I chatted with Wolfgang for a little bit and then he pulls out his keys and says "I took my motorcycle today."  WHAT!!!??!  Possibly one the most 'square' guys I've ever met, and he's got a motorcycle.  He actually pulled it around to the entrance to show me.  Most mind boggling sight ever.  He is so legit.  The coolest person I know.  Viennese (cool accent), Vienna Philharmonic Horn, looks like Tom Hanks, awesome teacher, rides a motorcycle.  He's always got something new to surprise me with. lol.  


Anyway, Luca showed up and we scouted out a free room in the Musikverein basement, which we could not actually find, so we ended up using the Men's dressing room, conveniently in use by men changing for the concert. lol.  ((sarcasm))  So I whipped out my horn and played the first 2 pages of Mozart 4 for him.  He told me I had a really nice sound and it was really good.  He also asked why I breathe out of my nose.  It's a Jeff thing to use the nose and mouth, but I really was just taking super wimpy breaths.  He showed my a breathing tool that he uses everyday and showed me how to use it and we did that basically the entire lesson with also using the mouthpiece in the breathing thing.  Then at the very end, I played the Mozart again.  Mozart has never felt like that.  Nothing has ever felt like that.  I'm not sure how he did it, but he's the first person to REALLY get to me feel the difference with real breathing.  He is an incredible teacher.  He told me that he would like to work with me more and that I came to Vienna to really change my horn playing and he will help me.  And I will follow him.  I'm going to Italy next week.  Life changing.


Immediately after all of this crazy inspiration and running around a men's dressing room with guys in underwear staring at me having a lesson telling me about Zwiebel-Brot, I met up with Ross and went to see a totally epic concert.  Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra playing an all Bartok program.  Dance suite in 6 movements, Violin Concerto No. 2, and Concerto for Orchestra.  The first piece was really awesome, I had never heard it and enjoyed it thouroughly.  The violinist was incredible.  Christian Tetzlaff.  He has amazing control, smoothness, ease, beautiful sound, crazy technique of course, and he was just fantastic.  Esa-Pekka was a lot of fun to watch.  He looks like a young conductor, he has a ton of energy, almost always using both arms fully.  He's a very rhythmic conductor, very clear.  The orchestra had a distinctly British feel to it, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but maybe it was the british brass sound.  The horns were definitely bigger horns, although I don't know what they play on.  It was a more open, less centered tone, very pretty sound.  The bass bone gliss solo was unbelievably loud.  I've never heard it that loud.  It was a really fun concert.  


This was my incredibly day and I totally wore myself out with happiness.. just beaming with happiness is very tiring. lol.  good night.

Friday, November 4, 2011

In der Schweiz!

Midterm break was spent in Switzerland!!!  The weekend was quite a learning experience in many ways.

Ross, Abby, Teresa, and I took a night train on thursday to Zurich, then hopped another to Luzern to meet Sanna (Ross's and my friend from IU who is studying in der Schweiz for a year!).  In retrospect, I don't think I will ever take a night train again, if I can help it.  It's a great idea to save time, but I barely slept and I was completely wiped all of Friday.  We didn't get sleeping cabins, so we just opened up all of the seats so they were all connected and tried to sleep like that, but I really failed at getting a good amount of sleep.

Sanna had a test the morning we arrived, so we went to her flat and dropped off our things and then went into the city to explore before we met her again.   We walked across the Chapel Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in all of Europe.  It was first erected in the 14th century!  Parts of it actually did burn down and had to be rebuilt, but parts of it are still authentic.
Switzerland is absolutely beautiful.  Although our first look at the small city of Luzern was quite foggy, its beauty couldn't be concealed.  There are also an enormous amount of swans in Luzern.  I had never seen so many in one place ever in my life!  
I had always thought that swans were beautiful, graceful creatures.. but now I just see them as giant white geese.  They were not afraid to walk right up to us as if we were going to give them food.  They also defecate all over the place, constantly.  Although some can still be quite beautiful, I'll never see them the same way. =P

We also walked along the Museggmauer, or the Musegg Wall.  It was built in 1386 and is still almost totally intact.  We were able to actually enter three (i think) of the towers, and we got a really nice view of the old city from above.  
It's still pretty foggy at this point, but it's still a great view!

This is a shot of one of the towers that we climbed up.

After meeting up with Sanna and grabbing lunch, we went to see the Löwendenkmal, the Lion of Lucerne.  It's a monument that memorializes the Swiss Guard for their battle against the revolutionaries that stormed the palace of King Louis XVI in 1792.  Over 600 soldiers died because they were overwhelmed in numbers.  The lion is 10 meters by 6 meters and is dedicated "to the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss."  The lion is impaled by a spear and has 2 shields, one with the Fleur de Lis of the French monarchy and one with the Swiss coat of arms. 
As you can see, he rests in the pretty solemn, gorgeous little area over a little pond.   It's a really nice place for some solitude.  I really enjoyed this monument.

We then moved on to the Gletschergarten, or Glacier Garden.  It was interesting, but a bit of a strange concept.  In a ticket to the garden, you were granted access to the covered area, the museum, an old house, and a house of mirrors.  It was quite strange.  but it was interesting!  At this point, I had just about topped out on energy from not really sleeping the night before, so I couldn't really soak up the information that was being thrown at me about glaciers.  However, the house of mirrors was plenty entertaining for an exhausted group of poeple!  This is my favorite pic from it:
I'm pretty sure everyone agrees, ONE Ross is plenty.  :)

We also visited a couple churches, all completely gorgeous.  Mostly baroque in style.  This is my favorite:
It said IHS up high on the alter, and I don't know why still, so I've dubbed this church the international horn society church.  I also really liked the marble juxtaposed with the white walls and the gold.  I think it's my favorite church I've seen here.  Honestly, coming from our little synagogue back in Chicagoland, I can't even imagine worshipping in a place so large and decorated.  These churches have become something else completely in my mind, they represent more art than anything else.  Even though I went to a service in Vienna, it was still more about the art and I actually went for the music because they performed a full Haydn mass.  

The second day was really all about the hike.  However, before the hike, we found an Alphorn shop and we all played some alphorn in the Swiss Alps!  
This is me busting out my trills or maybe my attempt at Strauss 1, but there were not enough notes for it.  =P
His alphorns are really nice and he makes a little design on the end.  The cool thing about the design is that he doesn't color any of the wood, he just uses different types of wood to get the colors!
The shop owner also didn't really speak english, so we were all attempting to talk shop with him in German.  We made it! 
And then we began the hike.  We hiked up Mount Pilatus, which has an elevation of 2128 meters.  I believe we got around the 1200 meter mark.  This was by far the most tiring thing I've done since high school basketball.  I am not a hiker, and it turned out to be quite difficult!  To be fair, I didn't expect it to be a jaunt in the woods.  But boy, was it tough.  We hiked for about 4 hours, with a break about 2 1/2 hours, when we reached the top of our hike.  We ate lunch, which by the way never felt so good.  It felt pretty hot for most of  the time.  We all overdressed and had our coats pulled off and sleeves rolled up.  then we reached a point where the climate had definitively changed.  There were no more deciduous trees and it felt a lot colder.  It was very chilly where we stopped for lunch.
This is the top of mount pilatus, from our highest point.

This is the view from the mountain, on our way up.
This is me, at our highest point!

Although I wasn't sure my hips, legs, or ankles would ever function again (they do, don't worry!), it was definitely worth it.  It was a great experience and then we went straight home and made very traditional cheese fondue at Sanna's house. 
This is the group (except Abby!) about to eat fondue!  The fondue was really good, but it is so filling and we probably each ate around 200 grams of cheese.  I had to stop early, because I couldn't eat that much cheese!!!  You almost need something cold to balance out all the hot cheesiness.  Nonetheless, it was a great meal after a long hike.  

I forgot to mention, we saw a ton of animals throughout Lucerne, but I met this sheep:
He was letting us pet him and clearly wanted food.  He made a little sheep noise every time I pet his head and he felt like a memory foam mattress, which was quite entertaining.  Expect he had very dirty memory foam, b/c my hand was clearly dirty from him.  I call him Temperpedic.

Our last morning in der Schweiz, we made a trip to the Wagner museum.  It looked like a very new museum because it seemed to be still having some work done and there wasn't a huge amount there.  However, it was very interesting!  
He lived here for only about 6 years (if i remember correctly) but in those years, he had a lot of interesting people visit him there.  I also hadn't realized that Wagner married Liszt's daughter, Cosima!   Although Liszt was a friend of Wagner, he wasn't happy about his daughter marrying him.  I watched a portion of a BBC video about Wagner which was very interesting.  I may have to look up the rest.  There were a lot of original scores, and Siegfried Idyll seemed to be playing endlessly. lol.  There were also a bunch of his personal belongings, piano, chair, old photos, etc.  

After that weekend... I really needed a weekend to rest ;)