Things are going well here in Tallahassee. We are a month into the Spring 2008 semester. January was a hard month for me emotionally. When people asked me how my Christmas break had been, my standard answer was, "Too good! It was so good I didn't want to come back!" It just gets harder and harder each time to say goodbye to my husband. Though I continually miss him tremendously, I think I'm moving past the low spot I found myself in after Christmas. What's helping is that I'm getting immersed in the preparation for my upcoming recital that will be held on April 10th, 2008. This recital fills one of four recital requirements for my doctoral degree: 2 solo, 1 lecture, 1 large ensemble (orchestra or opera). Then it will be 1 down, 3 to go!
I'm also taking a French Literature Survey course (the one they told me after my diagnostics I needed to fill the gap in my knowledge). These two activities (recital and lit class) eat up all 9 of the credits for the semester that my Grad Assistantship affords me: 4 cr - voice lessons, 2 cr - recital coaching, 2 cr - recital performance, and 1 cr - French Lit. I told someone the other day, "If I had more to do, I'd get more done." So, I'm looking for and finding different ways to structure my practice and rehearsal and study time so that I actually do get the important things done. It's weird to not have an external structure imposed (read: somebody else telling me where I'm supposed to be and for how long each day), so an internally imposed structure becomes even more important. I'm learning...
I'm also taking a French Literature Survey course (the one they told me after my diagnostics I needed to fill the gap in my knowledge). These two activities (recital and lit class) eat up all 9 of the credits for the semester that my Grad Assistantship affords me: 4 cr - voice lessons, 2 cr - recital coaching, 2 cr - recital performance, and 1 cr - French Lit. I told someone the other day, "If I had more to do, I'd get more done." So, I'm looking for and finding different ways to structure my practice and rehearsal and study time so that I actually do get the important things done. It's weird to not have an external structure imposed (read: somebody else telling me where I'm supposed to be and for how long each day), so an internally imposed structure becomes even more important. I'm learning...
I'm really excited about my recital repertoire. The first half of my program is all Franz Liszt in three different languages: 4 French, 3 German, & 1 monster Italian. The second half is the song cycle "To Be Sung Upon the Water" by Dominick Argento. This cycle has 8 songs which I am falling in love with, I have to say. It is written with very clear 20th century compositional techniques (don't roll your eyes...) that are entirely palatable and soooo accessible because they seem so tonal -- EVEN the 12 tone row song. It's pretty amazing. I'm learning some very important things about my voice too that I'm sure people have been trying to tell me for some time, but they are finally all lining up in a very different sensation in my throat. I'm grateful for the time to focus on "finishing" the training of my voice; that's "finishing" in the sense of refining and polishing or making something that is already good even that much better, though I do wonder sometimes why it has taken me so long to figure these things out. But then I remember, that it has happened in just the way God intended it to be, and I'm really fine with it all.
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