Very American Sullivan

I've started to upload the other performances of our studio recital on youtube...

and there's one I definitely want to share with you... :)
It's my classmate Lydia performing "Poor wandrin' One" from a Gilbert&Sullivan operetta. It is soooo American, it just makes my smile every time I watch it again:

..blonde, cute, naive, pretty - all you need for becoming a singer :D ?

Vancouver!

Thanksgiving - holidays #2:
Vancouver, BC (Canada)

Wonderful weather (cold, but sunny, what seems to be very rare here in November) and fortunately more time than in Seattle...
That's downtown: Old and new together, and in front on what looks like a stone, a counter of the days until the Olympics in 2010. (812 days from yesterday as you can see)

Valeska, Hannah and me on a pier. Behind us you can see North-Vamcouver where you can go by ferry. (or car, if you drive around the bay)
Hannah is one of Valeska's oldest friends from Munich and she studies Psychology here in Canada. We're staying with her and her Indian boyfriend in their dorm on campus.


We found out, that it's food, what Vancouver is most famous for. They say, that the Sushi is better than in Japan, because everything is so fresh directly from the sea and so many Japanese people immigrated over the years because Vancouver is the first place in Canada where you arrive when you come across the Pacific. But yesterday I tried something else..I couldn'e believe my eyes, I found a Pierogy-place!!


It was run by Asian people too (as everything here) but the food should be Russian. Reminded my more on Krakow though:


That's the food...3 types of Pierogy at the back left and cabbage rolls on the right. You could also add sausages and sauerkraut or order Borscht.
Then we went to a market with many small creative shops, like this one just for beads...

Valeska and me in front of another eatery...


Another view from the pier. The seagulls were aggressive even tough this one looks so innocent...


Now I am really tired... it's cold here (about 0°C) and I also quite literally got a cold. (the 1st since I left Europe) Hope I can sing next week again...

My first Thanksgiving - holidays

1. Seattle

A first getting to know the American public transportation and therefore a long trip....

1: 6 AM: Getting to Indianapolis airport by car. (Valeska's friend picked gave us a ride)
2: flight to Chicago. 1 hour time-change. That's what I found at the airport: a family-bathroom!

3: flight to Seattle! 2 more hours time-change. most of the time it was cloudy, but suddenly we saw that:

Isn't this amazing? After hours of flying over endless plains, suddenly this chain of (rocky) mountains shows up - perfectly like on the map!
That must be already around Seattle:

Valeska's friend Jessica and her sister picked us up at the airport. 1 hour car-ride to ....
Downtown Seattle:

After sightseeing and eating in a Japanese restaurant, we went per car-ferry and another 1 hour car-drive to:


Jessica's parents' place! I have never seen a house like that!! It's on a island and huge and with every luxury you can imagine! But really beautiful because just made of wood and aother natural materials! She said they needed a house as big as this one because the family is so huge (as they are Mormon) and so they can have family meetings and parties...
that's an older family picture that was on the wall in the staircase: Jessica (on the left), her 4 siblings (Josef, Elise, Caleb and Hirom) and her parents, who still look like teenagers too: (and the reflections of the opposite windows)

That was before entering the house: balconies and terraces everywhere with view on the sea.


On the next morning in the little tower right above Jessica's room: (good to wake up because so chilly!!)


The view from the tower:


That's where I've slept: (Jessica's room) - Everything is built by the father and other family relatives themselves and that whole house is made of wood without using metal nails, but just wooden sticks as connections!)


A part of the "living room":


And last but not least: the Thanksgiving - table.... already pre-prepared for the huge family meeting and the typical "großes Fressen": (all of that is still the living room and you see the kitchen behind it)


Unfortunately we had to leave again at 8:30 AM on this morning (today), right after I could take these pictures.
Now I am in Vancouver! More about that as sson as more pictures are there... :)

My 1st Patricia Wise - Studio Recital

Sunday, Nov. 11th in Ford-Hall (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Here's my performance of the 2 Schumann-Lieder "Der Nussbaum" and "Widmung":

It was a nice recital... I am not completely satisfied that some of my notes still sound trembling or unstable, but I really enjoyed singing on this evening because I was not nervous at all. And I was happy that I could perform together with my friend Valeska, who played harp for the "Nussbaum". It was so different to recitals in Vienna...
we also prepared differently... I had the impression, that Ms. Wise made not really a big deal about it, whereas with Julia I had alsways the feeling, the Klassenabend is the major event of the whole Semester. And we had picked the repertory much more carefully and worked on it for a long time...

Now, with Ms. Wise we were singing new songs every week and then suddenly it was more like..."oh, by the way, next week is our recital, hm, what would you like to sing...oh why don't you take the Schumann"...
And we didn't have any extra rehersals for that and none of us could sing in the concert hall before this evening, because there was always something else scheduled there. So I was kind of surprised, that it still turned out to be a great evening even though every piece was chosen much more spontaneously than I was used to it. Maybe it works so well, because everybody is used to working much more on his/her own, as you have just 1 lesson per week and you have to pay the accompanists yourself.

(that's during Widmung I think)

In the very end of the clip you can see all of us on stage for a moment, and also la maestra herself. :) We were 15 people singing, mostly sopranos and 2 lonely guys. For those of you who are interested in the other people's performances, I'll put some of them on youtube too, you'll find them by clicking "more of this user"

But... I really missed going out after the recital together! I realised what a nice "tradition" this had become at the Kons and I really was kind of... "what, that's it?" as everybody was rushing away in different directions afterwards.
But then I found out, that almost the whole German group had come and so we went to Mama Bear's Pizza Place right across the street... that's where I got to know the American pizza. I was so happy, that at least Abby (the only one from the studio I'm meeting frequently; and through her I got the recital-setup-job) was also in the mood for joining us and having dinner.... :) So here we are, happy and hungry:

My new Job!

Recital Set-up

This Foto was taken today!! (nice weather again :)

...In front of the "Beth Methusham Simon Music Library and Recital Centre", the greatest place on campus :) There's the music library and 2 concert halls inside....and they are my new workplace! Not as a singer unfortunately, but cool anyway... I am responsible for the set-up and lights and inbetween I can listen to the ongoing recital or do anything else...
May I introduce the 3 pretty halls...

That's Auer Hall, the largest...only grad students or faculty members are allowed to have recitals there:


That's Ford Hall, Auer's little sister/brother - that's where our studio recital took place and where we have most of our solo-recitals:

And that's the old "Recital Hall" - located in the old music building (that was the only music building once and os now enlarged with the Annex on the pic at the end of this page)

The Simon building in the summer:

And that's where I spend most of the time, the MA. That means Music Annex. or mostly just called "the round building". The studio rooms are ok, they are in the 1st floor and have windows. Everything else above are practice rooms, like little boxes or cells, without windows and cell phone reception! :(
I've heard that they are planning to tear this building down next year and replace it... huge project.

The next post will be about our STUDIO RECITAL... I am just waiting for Ms. Wise's video. :)

A very normal post again

Some impressions of my day

Fall-leaves raining down the trees everywhere... this one is right in front of the Music school.

Miss Wise in our masterclass today. (during the warm-up) It was the dress rehearsal for the studio recital. Unfortunately in this not very pretty room without windows, because the Recital - hall has such a tight schedule, that we don't have a chance to rehearse there. :(

Another thing, I am not very delighted of: The sign-up list for paying the accompanist. Everybody pays $3 each masterclass.



But here comes something to cheer you up again... the entrance to Saraga Mart (oriental crocery store, sells all the yummy Japanese, Chinese and Korean products): Isn't that an offer, that sheet on the door??


No kidding! That's a serious law!.... to be seen in nearly every store.... yesyes, not everything in America is so revolutionary or open minded as you might think. :-O