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