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Just the other day, I went to my great uncle's 70th birthday bash. It was at a modern-esque pseudo-fancy Korean restaurant in Buena Park, right next to Knott's Berry Farm. Just about everyone from my dad's side extended family came, minus my parents since they were tending to the restaurant. It was a festive occasion as we saw slideshows and heard speeches and not to forget eating. The food was ok I guess, nothing special. But the highlight was getting together with a lot of family because I hadn't seen a lot of them in so long. Some of my cousins I actually hadn't seen since I returned from Germany several months ago. It was nice to catch up with them but I didn't have enough time to catch up with everyone. I'm hoping I can continue catching up in the next few days.
I'm down in Southern California this week because of this birthday party and secondly for the annual Bakersfield Conducting Workshop. Yes, this probably marks my 5th year attending, only this time I'm just going to watch. I didn't really want to fully participate this time because I just feel like I have a lot on my plate this summer so I didn't want to have yet another thing to worry about. That being said, I do want to meet up with old friends there and pay my respects to the faculty there.
After the workshop, I'm heading straight back to Berkeley where the madness will begin. I'm auditioning for a conductor position with the SF Civic Orchestra in their summer workshop for strings. That's happening on May 30th and I have to conduct the Holst St. Paul's Suite. I remember that piece from high school. It was the first "real" piece that I had played ever in orchestra. Hopefully I'll still remember how it goes haha. It would be cool to be teaching in a workshop setting. I get to see how far my string knowledge will stretch finally. Sucky thing is, it's sort of inconvenient to get there. Oh well...
Anyway, that's it from me. I go to see the dentist tomorrow. =( Never a fun thing.Current Mood:  tired Current Music: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in c |
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ok, this is the second time now and i'm fed up with it... who the f*ck took a shit in the men's bathroom in morrison next to the sinks?! it's so freakin ass nasty. PLEASE STOP!Current Mood:  disgusted Current Music: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade |
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it has come to my conclusion that i am in fact a slow-learner. since i've moved my electric piano back, i've started to do more practicing on the piano and have delved into several chamber pieces and concertos. a lot of people have found my recent obsession with the rachmaninoff cello sonata (damn you carlos) and it's been quite a trip. i've been starting with the slow movement because it's so gorgeous. i hadn't really heard of this piece until a couple of weeks ago when i was in NYC for my competition. carlos would be playing it constantly in random spurts and it grew on me. once i looked at the music, i realized that it was actually pretty hard and so i started to pick away at it. to even get through the first 4 bars was hard enough, let alone tackle 3.5 more pages of it. so i put it aside and then came back to it a few days later once i returned. then all of a sudden, something in my head clicked and i was starting to play more and more. thankfully, much of it resembles rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto, which was written right before the cello sonata, so i was able to attribute a lot of it to the sonata. but that's the thing, it was only after some time that something clicked.
another example is the 1st brahms violin sonata. years ago, i had tried to attempt reading it. but everyone knows, brahms is not sightreadable. i had picked away at it then and to no success. i had also tried reading the piano quintet but that was impossible as well. i came to the 1st piano concerto and for some reason, that was more accessible. but after almost 4 years later, i've returned back to this violin sonata expecting the same disasterous attempt that i had before. only thing was, the music on the page looked way less intimidating and some of it actually seemed "readable." suddenly i was able to learn the 1st mvt in about a week. again, something had "clicked."
a lot of other pieces that i'm digging out are having similar affect. it's weird but when i let something sit in my head for a while and come back to it a long time later, i can suddenly have a better time with it. it's like i was mentally practicing all that time in between or something. i sort of feel this way about my recent experience with la mer. i hardly knew it before the competition. i spent an entire month preparing for it and only towards the end of the month did i feel any real comfort with it. and the same thing happened, something clicked. but i feel that if i were to revisit that piece years later, i'll have another big epiphany and the piece will make much more sense than it did to me a month ago.
i'm not exactly sure why this is and i'm not sure if people have a similar experience. i have friends that can learn pieces so quickly that it's to the point where it's disgusting. i know other people that will take 10 times longer to learn pieces than me. and of course everyone's process is different and unique.
i guess it basically boils down to experience. the more time you have exposure to something, the more familiar you are with it. and after all this, i think i'm going to tackle some more rachmaninoff.Current Mood:  pensive Current Music: Rachmaninoff, Cello Sonata Op. 19 |
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Man, I tried to adjust to the 3 hour time change but it doesn't help when your friends stay up until 4 am hanging out!
On Saturday, I woke up at 1 pm local time and studied a bit. Then Carlos's roommates came home and they started playing Gamecube. They were playing Mario Tennis and Soul Calibur II, both are which games I had owned and knew well. They were playing and offered me to "try" and they found out right away that I was a new challenge for them and so we played for a while. Later that evening, a bunch of us went to Koreatown to eat Korean BBQ, which was ok, and had drinks at some club/bar place afterwards. Of course, we came back for only more Mario Tennis and Soul Calibur. Haha. By the time we were done, it was already 3-4 am...
I woke up this morning/afternoon at 12 pm. More Mario Tennis and studying basically. I went to a local deli for some food earlier and it was good. It was called the "spicy special." It was a hero sandwich with grilled onions, thin slices of cajun turkey, bell peppers, lettuce, tomato, and their special spicy sauce. It was big and came with a free can of soda. Wish we had something like that at Berkeley...
So most of the day was study study study. I'm not quite sick of La mer, but I'm sure once this is over tomorrow, I'll have to set it aside for a little while. Going back to conducting class repertoire will be a nice change of pace.
Well, competition is tomorrow at 9 am. Just a couple more hours of Debussy and I'm calling it a night. Thanks again for everyone that helped me prep for this: USO, David Milnes, all my friends and family who have been supportive. Wish me luck! See you on the other side!Current Mood:  anxious Current Music: Debussy, La mer |
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So I ended up sleeping really late last night because I wasn't quite adjusted to the time change. I had slept on the plane way too much so I didn't really have a chance to adjust. When I woke up this morning, it was noon. I guess it's not SO different than when I'm in Berkeley though... =P
After finally getting up, I got myself ready to head out into the city just to reacquaint myself with it. I walked up to the City College to see where the building was this competition was to be held. I found it pretty easily and was happy it was just a short 20 minute walk from Carlos's place. Soon after that, I took the subway down to 59th St. to hit up Patelson's music store which is right next to Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, they had nothing I wanted there and with many things overpriced. I was somewhat pissed coming out of there but I thought maybe I had a chance elsewhere. I hadn't eaten for quite some time, maybe something like 36 hours since I had eaten lunch during my layover in Cleveland the day before, so I hit up none other than Carnegie Deli. I know, people say Katz's deli is the place to go for pastrami but my first experience with pastrami in NYC was with Quelani last year and we had Carnegie deli so it has a special place in my heart and stomach. =) To my surprise, it was only half-full inside so I sat down right away, ordered, and already began eating. It was still gargantuous as I remember with the side of unlimited pickles. Mmm... even though it was good, it wasn't as good as I had hoped for some reason. I think it's because I was eating alone. A lot of my recent culinary experiences have been with Quelani and the sheer joy on her face and mine when we eat these glorious foods is half of the experience. But this isn't to say that my sandwich was bad at all. I'm so hooked that I plan to go back there before I head back to Berkeley and order myself a pound of pastrami to go for my own lunches for a week. =)
After lunch, I checked out Carnegie Hall's calendar and unfortunately there weren't any concerts that I really wanted to see this weekend so that was kind of a bummer. I then headed back to the subway to go uptown, 1 stop, to Lincoln center. Anyone that knows my visits to Lincoln center is dangerous because I end up spending a whole crapload of money on music, books, CDs, and/or DVD's. But as Carlos told me last night, Lincoln center looks like shit because they're doing construction around there. Sure enough, it did look like shit and everything was restricted to small walkways. To my dismay, the Juilliard bookstore was closed for renovation and won't open until the day I LEAVE. WTF. And then, on top of all of that, the Tower Records was gone. I knew it went out of business but still. That Tower was huge and had everything in classical section. Boo. Plus, I was hoping I could grab a poster of Anna Netrebko there. AUGH. So much for that. I checked out the Barnes and Nobles across the way but their selection was meager and couldn't find the DVD I was looking for... that la mer DVD of Abbado. Still haven't seen it yet and it looks like I won't see it until after this is all over. That's ok, maybe I don't want outside influences at this point.
With my head down in sadness because nothing seemed to go right today, I headed back home to go study. I'm somewhat determined to do this from memory but have had no luck so far. I fell asleep somewhere after 7-8 hours and suddenly woke up from it all. The piece made sense! Unbelieveable. It's always like that with me. Some people will understand things so quickly from just a short time of study. But I've always had to let it sit with me for long periods of time. It was that way with afternoon of a faun. That piece took me 7 years for it to FINALLY make sense. 7 years... crazy. La mer has taken about a month and just in time too. With the competition only 3 days away, I wasn't feeling so up to it but now I feel like this is something I can tackle.
Tomorrow should be pretty uneventful. I'll probably hit up a cheap eat tomorrow and do some more studying. It's not a very touristy trip this time but at least I got a piece learned out of it. Woohoo!Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Debussy, La mer |
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After weeks of frustration and doubt, the piece finally makes sense to me now. I dunno what happened, but I had just woken up after 8 hours of studying, fell asleep, and then I suddenly had this vision.
Weird...
Anyway, I feel a lot better about going into this now. Come Monday, I should be ready. Woohoo!
Mar. 30th, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
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| » travelling once again |
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I'm in NYC right now, staying at my buddy Carlos's place. He lives in upper Manhattan, on 125th and Broadway and it's a pretty nice area. It's cool because it's right near the subway stop and it's right near the City College, where my audition is.
So for the uninformed, I'm currently in NYC this weekend for the Besançon Conducting Competition. It's a pretty big competition as it's an international thing and the grand prize winner will be set for a few years, as far as their international career is concerned. Big names like Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, and Sergiu Commisiona have won this competition and kick started their careers. So it seems that I'm trying to do the same, but the competition is fierce.
I'm not expecting much from this really. It's not to say I'm not excitied about the competition or that I have no hope though. I just want to be able to do the best job that I can possibly do and with that, I can't ask for anything more. Doing La mer for 4-hands piano in front of an international jury for anywhere from 5-20 minutes is quite daunting but I have to make the most of it. I feel that I'm as prepared as can be. Not many of the applicants were probably as fortunate as I was in terms of preparation. I was able to read the piece both with 4-hands piano and orchestra. I'm sure not many get that opportunity. Many thanks for USO, David Milnes, Miles Graber, and Arkadi Serper for their help and support. I wouldn't be here had it not for those people.
Anyway, I shall write more about my experiences tomorrow. Apparently, Juilliard is undergoing construction so visiting won't be so fun. PLUS, the bookstore is shut down through Apr. 2nd, which is through my stay here. I'll have to hit up Patelson's in the meantime but I'm not complaining. At least there's places to go for some music sheesh. Not many interesting concerts this weekend though which is a bummer. But that's ok, since they would distract me from Debussy.
Time for bed. I've been flying across the US all day today so I'm a bit disoriented. More tomorrow. Peace.
Mar. 29th, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
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| » a thought from the past... |
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I was thinking the other day of when we all started to get on the livejournal bandwagon several years back and it occurred to me that we've lost our great memorable posts. So in light of bringing back old traditions, I have an age-old question for us all:
What is talent, anyway?
=P
Mar. 19th, 2007 @ 02:22 am
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| » Summer Symphony 2007 |
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I need ideas for repertoire this summer. I'm thinking excerpts from Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 & 2, though it is rental...
Maybe Death and Transfiguration? Or Till Eulenspiegel? Ideas people!
Mar. 11th, 2007 @ 04:04 am
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| » A moment of silence... |
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I was just informed that our long-time composition and orchestration professor, John Thow, passed away a couple of days ago. It comes as quite a shock since those of us in orchestra just saw him on our Thursday night dress rehearsal.
I audited Prof. Thow's graduate analysis class and was kind enough to allow me and Kumiko to come in after 4 weeks into the semester. We didn't really involve ourselves since there were about 5 other grad students in there anyway but he was great. He had great stories and knew a lot about a whole lot of things, not just music. I never really spoke to him much but I knew from his teaching that he was a kind, generous, and knowledgeable man. Those of us that were around long enough remember the piece that accompanied our Beethoven 9 concert. It was titled "Of Eros and Dust" and fitted well with Beethoven's monster work. Everyone I knew had much respect for Prof. Thow and there is no doubt that those that knew him and even those that only knew of him, will surely miss him.
Thank you Prof. Thow for enlightening and enriching us through your teaching and your kindness. We will miss you dearly.
Mar. 5th, 2007 @ 10:52 pm
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