Spring!

This morning, after a colossal few months I feel like I finally have stopped. Stopped rushing, stressing, working, thinking. After waking up to a gorgeous text message praising the amazing weather I finally felt relaxed. 

It has been a very intense semester that seems only now to have finally let up, with two weeks to go. So much has happened! I realise today, now, how much the weather has played a part in my mental wellbeing. And I wonder if today being the first day of 20C and blazing sunshine in six months has something to do with my new found serene state of mind. 

The hectic rush from one thing to another has only been compounded by the blast of chill winds while walking to and from Uni or around campus. And the snow, still falling and accumulating 4 inches only 4 days ago, persistent in its icy grip, has only now finally abated. The elusive spring has played hard to get these last few months. Teasing us with brief, brilliant sunny days (all below 8C) only to hide behind another snow storm or sheets of freezing rain.

So it has been for about 2 months. Waves of possibility that spring might soon arrive, that crash and blanket us in cold again. 

But it seems spring has finally sprung, and with that the world seems ripe for the taking. Trees are blossoming, lawns full of irises are budding and the birds are singing. And suddenly the work, the toil doesn't seem so oppressive. Today I'm shedding the blankets, the coats, scarves, gloves and beanies, and with it the stress of this recent time. I'm going to lose my shoes and to stand barefoot on some green grass.

Hallelujah!

Falling into winter

Food Adventures

As seems to be the pattern, my updates seem to be unpardonably erratic and far too infrequent, so I apologize. I’m now sitting in my living room feeling hungry while old episodes of Julia Childs are playing on free-to-air TV.

Food

Food has been a fun inspiration/distraction/activity for me more and more recently, and I’ve enjoyed the cathartic process of cooking. In particular, I’ve been voraciously pairing and consuming as many vegetables as possible and feeling wonderful for it. I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post about the great co-op nearby whose garish coloured produce endlessly entices me. 

I was also given the wonderful gift of a juicer for christmas. As a result I’ve been enjoying fresh vegetable and fruit juice every morning including plants as diverse as kale, oranges, parsley, cucumber, carrots, apples, clementines, collard greens and tomatoes. There have been some fairly technicolour conconctions - from bright purple to deep green - all delicious. 

Here’s one example:

The coffee quest continues

I’ve continued my obsessive coffee quest with fervour over the last few months, travelling by public transport across the city in search of a good cup. The vast majority of experiences have been positive, and there are some really great roasters, shops and baristas here. My favorite all-time place is still the one I first visited on my arrival - Kopplins - but I have to give props to Urbanbean, Spyhouse and Dogwood who are always excellent and consistent. 

They also sell great beans for me to keep having a go myself with my machine at home. 

Photographic treats

My time outdoors with my camera has, like my blog posts, been infrequent but comprehensive. The winter here provides so many opportunities and beautiful spectacles that I’ve just never seen before, and feel compelled to capture. Whether it be frozen river banks, icicles on houses or snow-dinosaurs in peoples front yards. 

Uni

The semester started off with great speed and somehow half of it has already passed. I am currently taking classes in Alexander Technique, Wind Conducting Seminar & Lab, Research and Issues in Higher Education and Gamelan ensemble. 

I chose to focus my subjects this semester on the area of awareness and this has helped me develop greater self-insight, reduce and better understand my stress and generally be more centred. The ideas explored in gamelan, Alexander Technque and my Sunday morning Tai Chi class are all connected and I am enjoying seeing parallels between these fields and synthesising what I’m learning. 

Part of my Teaching Assistantship also involves helping out at the rehearsals of one evening band and helping teach the beginning conducting course. All this has given me plenty to think about, reflect upon my own conducting learning and consider how I might eventually like to design and teach such a course. It has been a great learning experience being able to work with the students in this class. 

Campus Band

We had a great first concert in early March, performing:

Invercargill - Alex Lithgow arr. Laurendeau

Mock Morris - Percy Grainger arr. Kreines

Llwyn Onn - Brian Hogg

Puszta - Jan Van der Roost

It went very well and now we are preparing our next program:

Tilbury Point - Nigel Clarke

Moonscape Awakening - Joni Greene

Muerto por Tango - Ed Fairlie

A Jazz Funeral - Christopher Coleman

With any luck we will be performing the Fairlie with live tango dancers, just as I did in 2010 in China. 

Wind Ensemble

The wind ensemble performed a magnificent concert of all-Grainger on March 9 with the incredible singers of Vocal Essence. As the resident holder of an Australian accent I had the fortune of being involved in the pre-concert talk with Craig Kirchhoff and Vocal Essence director Philip Brunelle. I was happy to be able to add to the conversation by at times describing the Grainger museum, his houses, childhood and personality. I also provided this program note.

The evening featured everything from the original, wordless version Australian Up-Country Tune for a capella voices with the 32-voice singers to the epic Marching Song of Democracy with full wind ensemble and 130 voice chorus. The entire program was wonderful but the highlight for me was the best performance of Lincolnshire Posy I have ever heard live. Very stirring. I think Percy would have loved it.

Minneapolis Update #4

It has again been a very eventful time here in Minnesota. I feel especially guilty for not keeping in better touch with everyone back home, but just as in Oz the end of the year seems to rocket along particularly quickly and before you know it it’s New Years Day. 

Since my last update, way back in October, a myriad of exciting events have taken place. 

Vocal Essence Havana concert

On November 10 I had the opportunity to attend an incredible concert put on by VocalEssence - the premier vocal ensemble in this state saturated by great choral music and ensembles. They had invited a Cuban choir from Havana called Schola Cantorum Coralina to perform in an arrangement that had taken many years to organize. 

This performance was one of the most enthralling concerts I have ever been to, if not THE most enthralling. The performance began with a single tenor singing from the front stage who was unexpectedly answered from behind the audience and throughout the song the choir rhythmically processed through the church. In the second work just as I thought the whole choir was now assembled onstage another group of singers called from the upper back balcony in an amazing antiphonal call and response piece. The remainder of the program explored many other amazing spatial effects and included the most haunting, exquisitely quiet rendition of Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium I’ve ever heard. They were just wonderful. 

Frank Ticheli residency

In November we had a great time with Frank Ticheli who visited to rehearse and conduct several of the University ensembles. It was great to reconnect with him and hear him talk about his work Songs of Love and Life. This work for soprano and wind ensemble is incredibly beautiful, moving and touching and set to four different poems. It was just a joy to hear this work being rehearsed for a few months with great musicians and an amazing soprano, student Jennifer Olsson. The piece is now definitely on my ‘conducting wish list’. 

Campus Band concert 

I’ve had a great time conducting my campus band this semester and exploring music they’ve likely never played before. The highlight of our second concert was performing Jodie Blackshaw’s Whirlwind in a quite unconventional way. We learned the whole piece from memory and ended up performing from the side balconies of the audience without music or conductor in what was an amazing surround-sound experience for the audience. It really put the players way out of their comfort  zones but I think that they learned a lot from the experience and grew as musicians especially in expanding their listening and musical memory. It was very surreal to sit in the audience while my ensemble played around me completely independently - and it was very elating!

Recital

I had my first conducting recital on the last day of classes in early December. I was lucky enough to conduct the Strauss Serenade in Eb Op. 7 and the Sinfonia for Winds by Donizetti with members of the Wind Ensemble playing. The rehearsal process was different to anything I’ve experienced with any other group of musicians and required a lot of reflection, adaptation and learning in a short space of time - exactly what was intended I think! While there were great moments throughout the Strauss was some of the best music-making I have ever been a part of. I felt like I knew exactly what needed to happen musically and was able to completely connect with the players in the moment and make those things happen and really shine. It was a very special performance!

Marching band

After several games it was time to farewell the Marching Band season, but not before the last game of the season. It was -5C that day and as (mad!) protocol dictated we were required to remove gloves, beanies and coats to actually conduct. It was a fairly sobering experience and my little fingers were very painful! There was a bit of extra ‘vibrato’ in my conducting that day!

Winter

That brings me to winter. It’s been pretty cold here! We’ve had one big snowfall in the last few months and a few additive dustings since. Mostly the temperatures have been sitting between 0C and -10C. Somehow you miraculously adapt to these freezing temperatures and suddenly develop a tolerance for them. When it goes above freezing as it has for the last couple of days as all the snow has melted you feel as if you could almost go outside in a tshirt! That said there have also been some brutally cold days including New Year’s Eve when it plummeted to -19C and I foolishly endured a 1 hour walk home after celebrating. 

Nearby street after the first big snowfall

The spectacular weather has also prompted a lot of photo-taking to the point where I've entered some photos in a contest called 'Capture Minnesota', which you can see here. 

Chicago

After exams and recitals were over Erin and I jetted to Chicago for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. As usual it was a jam-packed, exhausting affair but we heard some good concerts and some interesting sessions. It was just excellent to hang out with all the Aussies who were in attendance and in particular to show support for the fabulous Aussie women presenting clinics: Jemima Bunn, Jo Heaton and Jodie Blackshaw. They did us very proud!

After surviving the Midwest madness and sadly saying goodbye to our fellow Aussies we flew to New York. Having both been there before we didn't feel compelled to cram lots of things in. However we did visit some cool neighbourhoods including Brooklyn & Greenwich Village, have a requisite Reuben Sandwich at the famous Katz's Delicatessen, see Picasso at the Guggenheim, walk through Central Park, see Avenue Q off-Broadway, visit the International Center for Photography and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!

Brooklyn Bridge

Coffee adventures

In my last update I mentioned the coffee machine I’d just bought - a La Pavoni Europiccola. Well after months of trials and tribulations I’m starting to get quite good at using the thing after finding some good local sources for freshly roasted beans. Here’s an example of some of my creations:

My snazzy machine and an early home-pulled latte

Whilst in Chicago and New York we also explored some great coffee places that served excellent espresso including Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Bowery Coffee and Joe the Art of Coffee. In Chicago we mainly hung out at a few different locations of Intelligentsia Coffee and Toni’s Patisserie. We’ve also found another cool place here in Minneapolis called Angry Catfish. 

I’m really looking forward to getting into this second semester and also getting home in May to see everyone that I miss so much!

xo

Minneapolis Update #3

Lots has happened over the last few weeks - of course. Apologies for the infrequency of updates. 

Homesick

I’ve been missing home a lot more recently - people, places, and things Australian. Today I looked up if I could buy Tim-Tams online - they’re $7 a packet! A delicacy. I think I’ll be waiting till I get some visitors from home, or alternately a care package!

Visitor from home :)

It’s strange being surrounded by foreign accents. Having my dad here 10 days ago - if only for 24 hours - was a wonderful reunion with home and Aussie-ness. It was also really comforting to be around someone who knows me really well. Even though I’m making wonderful friends here we are still getting to know each other so it was great to have some easy familiarity for a while. In that short time we managed to take in two amazing restaurants, five excellent wines and a St Paul Chamber Orchestra Concert! It was fun discovering local delights with another person and being able to order many small, interesting courses from the menus at Meritage in St. Paul and Signature Cafe near my house. 

Coffee, baristas & coffee machines

I also had someone who understood the barren coffee landscape here compared with Melbourne. I know I’m going to sound like a coffee snob now, and I’m not compared to many people at home I know. However, my requests are meagre, not for a ‘god shot’ or an exceedingly complicated order. All I seek is a latte - coffee not burnt, milk not burnt. 

Baristas here seem to be intent on making scalding milk with no froth and burning the beans. Each time I buy a coffee filled with hope, only to be disappointed. Albeit the cafes on campus are limited (Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and Dunn Brothers) but these people are supposedly trained! 

Ordering any kind of espresso coffee here is unusual as everyone drinks drip coffee, and you add your own milk. So perhaps these peoples shortcomings are due to a lack of experience. A milk thermometer wouldn’t go astray though. I did try ordering a coffee with ‘milk not too hot please’, which was a better experience, but the coffee itself was still average. So now my order is an espresso to which I add cold self-serve milk and gulp it down. Have to make sure though that it’s not half-and-half, which is half cream - this happened yesterday and it was not nice!

I have found one excellent cafe called Kopplins, about a 15min bike ride from home, that does the kind of coffee you’d get at a pretty good Melbourne cafe such as Mr. Fox in Malvern or Liar Liar in Hawthorn. (But not on par with Campos, St. Ali etc.). However, with the distance and a busy schedule this is a once-a-week proposition that involves bringing work with me to make it worthwhile. Tomorrow may be the day this week. 

However, my travels may soon come to an end as I’ve bought a very exciting coffee machine online - a second-hand La Pavoni Europiccola - which I am very much looking forward to learning to use. For a funny video on how they work see this from the gals from Seattle Coffee Gear. 

Uni, concerts

Uni’s been busy. I’ve had several exams, essays and tests and have a big mid-term for my Bach class this Thursday. 

Craig Kirchhoff’s Wind Ensemble had its first concert last week playing:

Giovanni Gabrieli arr. Robert King - Canzon (can’t remember exact one)

Salvador Brotons - Sinfonietta

Jules Massenet trans. Verne Reynolds - Le Cid (Music from the Ballet)

David Maslanka - Traveler

Arturo Marquez trans. Oliver Nickel - Danzon No. 2

It was such a fun program. If you’re a band person and you don’t know these works, particularly the Maslanka and the Marquez, check them out. The orchestral version of the Marquez was made famous by Dudamel and the El Sistema orchestra in performances like this.

The other works are for non-standard instrumentation but you really should listen to Le Cid (sample) as well (no saxophones) - just gorgeous (and not because of the lack of saxes!)

My band

My band, the North Star Campus Band, has its first performance this Wednesday evening. We’re playing:

Giuseppe Verdi arr. Leonard Falcone - Prelude to Act 1: La Traviata

Frank Erickson - Toccata for Band

Michael Colgrass - Old Churches

David Maslanka - Rollo Takes A Walk

Rehearsals have been going well even though there are a few danger spots in Rollo, but it will be really fun. The hall is very resonant and will really contribute to the atmosphere of the Verdi and the Colgrass, but will make short articulations in the other two challenging. 

Should be a blast, I’m looking forward to a performance after my last on August 19 with the Frankston Symphony Orchestra. Whilst only two months ago it seems like a lifetime!

Marching Band

Yesterday was my second time on the infamous ladder conducting the Marching Band on game day. I was happy I didn't fall off! Ingrid 2 - Ladder 0! 

All four of us conductors were there as it was Homecoming, where all of the alumni are invited back to the University. It was miserable and raining and the team lost, but when I get a video I'll post it so you can see it all in action!

Minneapolis Update #2

(Update #1 was sent in an email and its content doesn't make sense to repost here)

Weather - getting cooler

Well it’s been another busy few weeks here in the Twin Cities! Since I last wrote the temperature has begun to drop substantially - whilst a month ago it was hitting high 20s to mid 30s it’s now ten degrees cooler on average. Yesterday was an anomaly - a bright and warm 27 degrees. I have given up learning Farenheit and use the BBC website instead!

The local neighbourhood & grocery shopping adventures

I’ve been getting to know my local area, and found a marvellous co-op food store about 10mins bike ride away. Of course, this necessitated breaking out the bike, which had been languishing at the end of my bed. I have never been a big rider, so hitting the road (figuratively!) has been new and fun. Luckily, Minneapolis is pretty flat, but of course my house is near the only hill for miles! (The upside to this is that 5min walk from my house is a gorgeous panoramic view of the city. )

My first trip to the co-op was a little over-ambitious in terms of what could fit on my rear rack. After tipping my bike over I had to push the bike and carry the groceries home! As a result I’ve now fashioned my own set of cheapo panniers from old bags from the second-hand shop ‘Goodwill’ and some bits and pieces from Menard’s (the equivalent of Bunnings mixed with Kmart and random processed foods thrown in).

I’ve been cooking to remind myself of home. This has meant recipes from the blog www.trotski-ash.com that I’ve been a fan of for a long time. I made their newest recipe, muesli cookies, last week which were a total hit in the conductor’s office at Uni. Highly recommended.

Shopping

Today I had to make a second pilgrimage to IKEA to pick up chairs as I am having people over for dinner and until today only owned one chair. I didn’t feel bad paying a bit though, considering I got an amazing desk and TV Cabinet for FREE from Craigslist last week. I can report that Ikea hot dogs are the same the world over, although the coffee in Melbourne Ikeas is, unsurprisingly, much better. 

To get to Ikea I had to go to the Mall of America station. The place is nuts and I didn’t stay there long. I think Chadstone is not that much smaller to be honest - but it is lacking the indoor theme park aspect!

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra & Maria Schneider

Yesterday I went to a concert of the famed St Paul Chamber Orchestra, held in a largish church in St. Paul. For those who aren’t flash on their Twin Cities georgraphy, the CBDs of Minneapolis and St. Paul are less than 10km apart. My place is almost halfway between the two, in a suburb called Prospect Park. The concert venue felt quite intimate and...homey. Everyone was seated together on hard pews and all the usual church adornments were present - hymnals in front, hymn numbers stuck on the walls. It reminded me of Frankston Symphony Orchestra concerts back home. Needless to say the players were amazing. 

I went for one work in particular, the Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories by local composer Maria Schneider. She was guest conducting the work, which is for soprano and orchestra incl. piano and based on writings by the Brazilian poet of the title. Maria has been artist in residence at the School of Music this past week and has been one of the most inspiring women I’ve ever encountered. She first spoke at the ‘Convocation’ - a welcome event by the school of music. One of her works for big band was played, she spoke on a panel about the future of music careers (hot topic!) and was awarded an honorary doctorate. The passion with which she spoke about the necessity for encouraging individuality, valuing expression and providing support during a students music education was electric. 

The next day we were able to watch a rehearsal for a recording session of the above piece with the SPCO and Dawn Upshaw, soprano. This was what fuelled me to jump online and get my $10 (!) ticket for last night’s concert. Maria is speaking again tomorrow at Uni as her last event, and I’m hoping to meet her in person!

You can here a 2008 performance of the amazing piece here. 

Uni work, Conducting & Repertoire

Meanwhile academically I have been continually challenged. After completing in depth analysis on Holst’s Hammersmith these last two weeks I’m now working on Beethoven’s Octet in my conducting lessons, as well as the Octet of Stravinsky. In conducting lab we’re onto another movement of the Mozart Serenade in C minor. Conducting seminar, during which we discuss pieces, professional issues, general conducting challenges etc. has been focussing on ...and the mountains rising nowhere by Joseph Schwantner. This is a mindblowingly complex work, but we are being guided by the best in Craig K! For those who know these works you have an idea of the workload!

For those of you who are ‘bandy’ people you’d appreciate that some fun questions in seminar have been:

• Name 10 Symphonies for winds
• Name excerpts or movements of orchestral works that are written exclusively for winds
• Name all the Pulitzer prize-winning composers who have written for wind ensemble and their works
• Name your top ten works for Wind Ensemble (1 per part)
• Name your top ten works for winds of all time

You can imagine we’re getting into some good debates and my knowledge of repertoire is expanding exponentially!

I’ve also confirmed I’ll be doing a recital in December, where I will conduct Richard Strauss’ Serenade Op. 7 and Donizetti’s Sinfonia. 

All this plus a concert with my campus band in a few weeks and another before the Semester’s out. 

I’ve continually been meeting lots of great people too over the last few weeks including colleagues in Music Therapy, Choral and Orchestral Conducting, as well as performance majors. 

Americana #1

Well it’s been a few weeks since my arrival in Minneapolis and amongst the uni work, moving, cooking and marching band I’ve been assailed by both the minute and radical differences between American culture and that of home. 

Everything seems different. 

Back to front

Here, in the northern hemisphere, everything has been turned about or is upside down, back-to-front. Take light switches for example - where in Australia we flick a switch down to turn lights or power on, for Americans down is off, and up is on. Some taps also seem to turn the opposite way to what I’m used too, though I haven’t been caught out with a wet front just yet.

Doors here are a complete enigma to me. Every time I approach one I am expecting it to require the opposite motion. I think it’s a push and it’s a pull and vice versa. Though I have been prone to this at home, I’ve had my fair share of walking heavily into closed doors this past few weeks. 

Keep right, obviously a carry over from the native driving system, also extends to pavements (footpaths), stairwells and corridors. This has been very hard to get used to. I’ve inadvertently walked in the way of many pedestrians and cyclists and had quite a few run-ins going up and down stairs at uni. 

On the road

Keeping right is a problem getting about town. Crossing the road, a seemingly simple activity, becomes perilous when traffic is coming from the opposite direction. This has resulted in a crick in my neck as a result of nervously and hastily turning to the right to look for oncoming traffic. I keep repeating this motion in moments of self doubt!

Pedestrian impatience at traffic lights is aggravated by an electronic voice saying “Wait” every time you press the button to cross. No more the irritated constant mashing of he crossing button! 

However a lot crossings don’t have this feature, and have no button at all. Unfortunately though, if you assume there’s no button you’ll be left waiting for a long time because the “green man” - white in America - will never illuminate. I’ve been left waiting at lights a for several light cycles time, reticent to cross without permission, as there are signs everywhere on campus advertising the $178 fine for jaywalking. One particular crossing that I use often has had the traffic pole removed on one side removed though, meaning you have no option but to jaywalk when coming from that side. 

On the plus side, Minneapolis is an incredibly bike-friendly city, with bike lanes snaking through the city in all directions, riverside pathways and old train tracks turned into green bike corridors. Once I feel confident in negotiating the road rules I’ll be on my bike! (As a side note hardly anybody wears helmets here as it is not a legal requirement. Apparently this is because everyone should have the ‘freedom’ to choose if they get a traumatic brain injury or not). 

(NOTE: Since initially writing I have been on my bike, but not game to take any left hand turns at multiple lane roads yet, as you can imagine, slightly intimidating being between cars!)

Difference of scale

Everything here is BIG. Go to a fast food outlet and what we call a ‘small’ or ‘regular’ size does not physically exist. Their ‘small’ is our medium, or even large. American large means a soda (soft-drink) cup the size of a bucket and fries to match.

The university campus itself has the same size footprint as the entire Melbourne CBD (see like). With 45,000 students it’s a slightly forbidding place. Many of the buildings are

And fast food is EVERYWHERE. And it seems that there is nothing but. No nice sandwich places, no sushi. It’s all pizza, burgers, fried chicken, variants of Subway and mexican. Whilst some of the mexican options appear healthier the servings are still king-size.  

Supermarkets reflect the ‘bigger is better’ mantra. Small fresh produce areas skirt the enormous inner aisles filled with more junk food, soft drink and rubbish than I have ever seen. Shelf upon shelf of technicolour ‘soda pop’ taking up multiple aisles and only 3 brands of mineral water to show for it, almost invisible languishing on a top shelf. 

Luckily I’ve found the local co-op where just about everything is organic and great quality. Because normal food is so cheap here, organic works out to be the same price as regular supermarket food in Oz.