My life has been full of snow as of late...I go home and the day after I get there, it snows a ridiculous amount. I come back here and they start to get flurries. Just two days ago we got quite a hefty amount of snow - at least 6 inches! I've been teased by multiple people that the snow is just following me around. :) School was closed yesterday because of the snow, and we had a nice lazy snow day. The day before, however, we still had class, so I had to walk the 15 minutes in the cold to the music building at 7:40 or so. I was extremely grateful I chose to wear a hat! (It kept the snow and freezing rain out of my ears. ;) )I'm still not used to this biting cold that makes your whole face numb if you're in it long enough.
The night before the snow day, there was a ton of snow on the ground, and about midnight, Kristen and I ran outside to the back of the dorms and made patterns in the snow of the Lucky Charms marshmallows. You know, hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and blue moons.....! I had my camera in my pocket, but in my artist's excitement and enthusiasm, I forgot it was there while I was jumping around. Hence, the poor camera is lost somewhere in the back of Oak Hall, buried in the snow. Because of this, you will probably not see much visual documentation on this blog until I replace the camera or unless I steal pictures from friends on Facebook. :)
I am quite excited to announce that I am now in the school choir! I've been thinking about joining for a while, just because I think it would be fun and because I think it will help with my large ensemble credits if I'm going to try to graduate a little early. Plus, at UMSL, you only pay one fee for being in ensembles, no matter how many ensembles you are in, so it wouldn't cost me a cent extra. I talked to the director, Dr. Jim Henry, about my almost non-existent choral experience and asked if I could maybe try out for the choir (called University Singers) anyway. He let me sing in a rehearsal, then had me sing a few warm-ups and do some pitch memory for him afterward, then congratulated me, gave me the music, and told me when the next rehearsals were. We're singing Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass...apparently I'm an alto. Everything is so new and interesting, and Dr. Henry is a really great conductor. Basically, I'm just really excited. :) :) :)
One thing I absolutely love about being a music major is being expected to attend lots and lots of performances. Going to concerts is a requirement of my academic program...how cool is that??? I enjoy most concerts for one reason or another, but some of my favorites are the ones I come away from with a sense of awe and renewed inspiration...the ones that make me want to practice as soon as I can get my hands on a viola. This past week, I went to two such concerts: one by the Formosa String Quartet, who came to UMSL, and one by the SLSO, who played Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and one of Shostakovich's Cello Concertos. The SLSO was wonderful, as usual, but the pieces they played this time especially got to me...go listen to the Rachmaninoff if you have time. It's amazing. The soloist who played the Shostakovich was brilliant, and even just the technical mastery he had over his instrument and the huge variety of colors and sounds he could produce made me long to improve so I can do that, too. The Formosa SQ was amazing because they're all fairly young artists...probably mid twenties to thirties. They were technically and musically brilliant, of course, but aside from that, they just looked like they purely love what they do. I want that to be me someday on that stage with a quartet, smiling and moving and playing like no one (or the whole world) is watching. I want to learn what it means to be an artist. I want to communicate my heart, and the heart of the music. I want to be in a team that supports and pushes each member, that expresses ideas eloquently without even needing words, that acts as one organism. That is what I love about ensemble, and especially chamber music...and that is why I want to play it for the rest of my life.
Anyway, I have to read the second half of Candide this weekend, and should probably get a headstart.
I hope you are all well.....thank you for your prayers. Keep safe, stay in the word, and remember to smile every once in a while. :)
Yours truly,
Maren
1 comment:
I don't know why you even worried about being in choir after your performance in your last blog post! Anyone can see you're absolutely brilliant. Seriously, though, you can sight read and have a great grasp of pitch. Choir is just going to be fun!
Miss you and love you lots,
Aunt Sue
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