And, one last update

I know I've been really bad about both blogging and keeping in touch this semester... as usual, school has been crazy, and life in general has been as well.  I've been to both France and Wales this semester, and a quick trip to Germany is probably going to happen before next semester starts.

In the middle of all this, I've actually changed my major.  While I was working on an orchestra masters, as of next semester I'll be doing a pedagogy masters (but will still graduate on time, with a little effort).  This decision came after serious thinking, but my teachers and I have decided to use this masters to get what is arguably the most useful degree the school has to offer (orchestras never hire someone because they have the degree, but music schools will look much more carefully at someone with the teaching degree, and often even require it).  If I was doing what might be considered the "normal" thing in Zürich, this might not matter so much, many people do more than one masters at this school, so there would be time for both.  That said, the current plan (and of course plans change often and without giving much notice) is that I will leave Zürich in two years (so after this masters) and pursue an old music masters.  Since natural horn is what I currently do best and enjoy the most, it seems like the best option.   This was a big decision, but I think everyone involved currently feels like it's going to turn out to be the right one.  I know I do.  :)  Hopefully by the end of this degree, I'll have some practice teaching and the certification, and I'll have managed to make contacts in the old music world, and will be ready to take that step.

So, for anyone who's a bit unclear about what this "old music" this really is, it's basically exactly what it sounds like.  Its the idea that the music of Bach should be played on the instruments that existed when Bach was alive, and that we should do our best to learn the stylistic aspects that went with each period.  There are many books written by players of these time periods detailing how they felt pieces should be played, and old music students study these for information on things like ornamentation.  The fun thing about old music is that you get to play a lot of different styles and instruments.  The not so fun thing about this is having to potentially carry a few instruments to school every day.  When I go to Germany in a few weeks, I'll be taking some lessons with a very well known natural horn player (if anyone wants to give me a lesson for Christmas, that could be cool).

I leave you with a few pictures:

 This is what my locker looks like with both my modern and natural horn.  I can just barely make them both fit!

This is a picture I took of the natural horn this week.  I'll put it up again with pictures of a baroque horn, as soon as I take some.  :)

Bülach, and My New Room

I think everyone knows that I moved (again, I'm getting really tired of it).  My new room is in a two bedroom apartment in what is either a large village or a small town called Bülach.  It's a very sweet place, I really like it.  I'm living in the old city, which means adorable shops and houses, and everything within walking distance.  Within three minutes I have city hall, a new book store, an amazing used bookstore, a bakery, a whisky shop (haven't been there yet, haha), a yarn store, a library, and I'm sure much more.  Last weekend the Christmas market was here, which was good, but dangerous.  Lots of good food and cute things to buy!

 This is the tower of the church I can see from my bedroom.  Yes, the clock is correct.  If you look closely, you'll see a brass band on the tower.  This was the first weekend I was here.

 This is a bit of the Christmas market right before it opened, so the crowds hadn't appeared yet.  It was much cuter at night, but getting a good picture was hard.  Just imagine everything dark, and the trees and the stalls glowing. 

 And, this weekend it snowed!  This is the view from my window.  The used book store is the window on the right.

 Same view from my window.  

 My desk and bookshelf.  I'm sitting here now writing all this...

 My bed

 My couch and clothing storage (yes, I have a couch.  You have no idea how cool this is!!!)

Another view of my bed and the window and stuff...

It's so good to have my own place again, and to be unpacked and mostly organized.  There are still a few things that are mysteriously absent (would anyone happen to know where my Brahms Horn Trio is?), but this is more settled than I've been since June.  My flatmate is lovely, and she has two adorable cats (pictures next time they come inside, they're out in the snow right now, I think).  

Wales

As a few of you may have heard, I went to Wales at the end of October.  Here are a few pictures from the coast, were we spent a nice, sunny, cold Saturday wandering around and enjoying the views and the tiny village.

France, Vichy

Last night was our final concert in Vichy, France. I felt sort of bad for the audience, there were a lot inside jokes added to the opera between the orchestra and the singers, but I'm sure the audience didn't get most of them. We, on the other hand, had a bit too much fun. It was awesome. I also got to play first horn on the overture, which includes a big solo. It made me quite nervous. Today we pile back on a bus, which will take us to Lyon. From there I have a train back to Zurich, I arrive this evening. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I won't see these people again until November when we get to play the opera again in Versailles. I really don't want this tour to end, don't want to go back to the real world. But... I guess I'm looking forward to sleeping in one place for more than two nights... And practicing something else will be fun. So, thanks for reading! Next stop is San Diego on Friday, and then Colorado on August 6th, so I'll see you all there!

Lots of concerts later...

It's been forever, I'm sorry!! Our first concert after Pavia was in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The city was so pretty, and full of dragons! The hall was small, but very nice. We were broadcast live on Slovenian radio, but the link they gave us so that people could listen online didn't work, which was sad. From Slovenia we drove to Venice, where we hopped a plane to Marseilles, where we got a bus to Aix en Provence. The hall there was amazing. It has a wonderful acoustic, and holds almost 1400 people. The concert went really well, which was good, because the festival in Aix is a big deal. Today was a short travel and concert day. We are now in Perpignan, where we played an outdoor concert. My roommate thinks we should call our concert tonight "the revenge of the singers" because they got to make up their own staging. One of our singers hurt himself last night shortly after the concert, so he couldn't walk, thus everything they had practiced had to be changed. Honestly, I think they were secretly happy that they could do what they wanted. It was very, very funny. There were a few minutes when the orchestra was laughing so hard we weren't sure we could play. Unfortunately we had mics, which mean the audience could here the giggles. Oh well, they were laughing too. Tomorrow we travel to Vichy, where we have our last concert (which is on my birthday). We are all so tired, it's going to be good to go home... But I'll miss everyone so much! This tour has been amazing!

Romania, Bucharest; France, Montsapey; Italy, Pavia

The concert in Romania was quite difficult to play. The outside temperature was 39c, and inside it was also quite hot. This would be a problem for most orchestras, but on period instruments it is even more difficult. I think by the end of the concert our pitch was nowhere near where it started. After Romania we flew back to France and then drove to Ambronay for a much needed day off. Yesterday we then drove to Montsapey for a concert. Montsapey is a little village in the mountains. We had to drive (in our coach bus, haha) up 9km of hairpin bends to get there, but once we were there, the view was just beautiful. The concert itself was in a sweet little church. It was too small to do most of the staging, so the singers could do what they wanted to show the story. This actually made them better, and gave the whole performance a lot more energy because everyone had to ready for the unexpected. There were a couple small children living in the village, and a few went around after the concert asking us to sign little notebooks. They were so cute!! Yesterday was a bus day, so now we are in Pavia, Italy. Our concert tonight will be outdoors, which means everyone will take a bath in bug spray first. The best part of tonight is that Irene and Niki are coming. They should be here in a few hours!!!

Namur, Belgium and Bucharest, Romania

Exploring Namur turned out to be quite fun. There was a beautiful cathedral, and another nice church, as well as a lot of very sweet little shops. Unfortunately it rained some that day, which made wandering the city center a bit harder, but that's okay. Yesterday was a travel day, and it was a long one. We drove the the airport, waited forever, and the finally flew to Bucharest, Romania. The city is really pretty. There are a lot of really big buildings, and coming in, everything was getting lit for the night. I really would love to come back here someday and see more. We have our concert in a few hours, and then tomorrow we take an early flight to Paris, after which we will drive to Ambronay. Tomorrow is going to be a long day...

France, premiere, and Belgium, Namur

We had our premiere in Lyon last night. The audience was great, and it went a lot better than our dress rehearsal, which was good. The church was really sweet, and the festival had amazing food. After the premiere they brought us champagne, which was nice too. This morning at we all piled into a bus and drove... More than nine hours on the road later (with a few short breaks) we arrived in Namur, Belgium. I haven't seen much of the city yet, but we have some free time tomorrow before the concert, so I'm hoping to explore. Until them, I'm really looking forward to some sleep. That's all for now!!!

France, dress rehearsal

Yesterday was our dress rehearsal, which means tonight is our first concert of the tour. We're playing in a small church in Lyon for a festival. It's really nice, but the acoustics are quite difficult to play in. So much echo we have to be really careful with the sound when the singers are singing.  Tomorrow we leave Ambronay for Belgium. It's going to be a day spent on the bus, fun fun.  I'm really looking forward to seeing some new places!

France, I totally forgot today is a Holiday back home!!

I didn't remember today was the 4th of July until a minute ago. There's a big concert here tomorrow (not ours though) do there's a lot going on around us. It's kind of crazy, lots of people and rehearsals, and they've built a big stage in the parking lot. If anyone wants to come to our last concerts in November, here the link. It's going to be really fun! Nothing else is new here, I'm sorry! Writing about rehearsals gets really boring after a while. But the fun starts on Saturday!

France, day I don't remember

More of the usual today. We moved rehearsal venues, and the singers are now using most of their props. Sometimes the orchestra laughs when we see what they have. Some of the costumes are truly entertaining. Our schedule has shifted so that we still have about six hours of rehearsal, but we don't start until 2:30. This means that dinner is not until 10, which leads to a rather alarming cookie consumption during rehearsal breaks. But it means we have mornings off to practice, which is nice. It's finally stopped raining, which is nice. Means the clothes I washed on Sunday are finally almost dry too. Yay! We have another day off on Friday, and then the real fun begins. I can't wwait for the tour, it's going to be so fun. Ands exhausting. But mostly fun, I hope.

France, day off

I've been here a week as of this afternoon, which is crazy. Today is our day off, which is nice, but it's raining. The rain is nice since it got really hot the last few days, but we wanted to go to the lake, and that looks unlikely. I'm happy right now though because there is thunder. This morning some people made pancakes, which was nice. Lots of work though! There was a party last night out in a little courtyard in the abbey. It's sort of strange to be drinking in an abbey to bad techno music. It was fun though, cool people to talk to and a chance to relax a little bit... And the party was more interesting than the local bar... Or the whole town, really! My roommate Nienke and I are still getting along fine. She has been making a lot of oboe reeds, not that that is surprising. The last few days were not nearly as intense as the first days here. Yesterday we just did one rehearsal, a complete run of the opera. We have a lot of coordination work left to do, I think. But it will be good. We have another complete week to work out the kinks. That's all for now!

France, day 5

I'm writing this while listening to people react to what's going on in the Italy/Germany soccer game. Listening to the reactions is really more entertaining than watching the game!! Today was a pretty easy day. Either that or it wasa normal day, and I'm just used to crazy rehearsals, I'm not sure. Msre sectionals, and then full rehearsals, and then a few hours with the singers... But everyone is tired enough that we only have 4.5 hours scheduled for tomorrow. Some things mom thinks I should write about. This summer program is a training orchestra, but many people here are already semi-professional. Most are either working on a masters or already done with one (or several), which makes me young, if not the youngest. Most of the people here have chosen old music as a specialty. This program, from what I can tell, is one of the better summer programs for old music. The people here are from all over, but I think everyone has a european residence. Old music schools like Basel and the Hague have a larger presence than normal schools like Zurich. Some people here are starting to feel a little trapped in this small village. I guess the two years I spent at Interlochen trained me out of feeling cooped up in small towns. I'm completely happy with just my book, a cute area to run in, a little playground, and limited internet. It's turning out to be a nice break from the outside world. The food: is made by a few really good cooks. They haven't repeated anything. It's always two courses--a salad course, which is usually a leaf salad and some other kind of salad plus a little appetizer like toast or stuffed grape leaves, and a main course, which is generally a grain, a veggie, and a protein. They always have a vegetarian option, and by the second day all the cooks knew all the vegetarians, and serve us accordingly. I'm not as tired my last post sounded, I promise, I just don't always know what to write about!

France, day 4

Today was mostly for sectionals. We did winds in the morning, chamber music in the afternoon, and full orchestra in the early evening... Now everyone is watching the soccer match, which was somehow important enough to get our evening lecture canceled. In the meantime, I really want a massage... Too much horn!!! That's all for today, sorry i don't feel like writing more, or have more to write about!!!

France, day 3

Another full day of rehearsals has me pretty tired. I guess the good news is that the schedule was wrong: we only had 6.5 hours of rehearsal again today, not the 8 that were planned. That was a bit of a relief. Tomorrow we are supposed to go up until dinner, but we get an hour break, so it will be okay. That said, there may be no time to blog tomorrow because of the schedule. We'll see. Apologies in advance if that happens. So, as promised, I shall write boringly about how many keys the horns are in. Since we're playing natural horns, we have to change part of our instrument to match the key of the orchestra... We have six keys in this piece, but a lot more changes. The conductor is quite bad at waiting for us to change if he jumps. We also end up having to re-tune for every key, which we forget a lot, and then it sounds bad... But we're learning... For anyone keeping a list, we need c basso, d, e flat, f, g and a for this opera. But not in that order. That's all for today i guess.. Middle of nowhere France does not give me a lot to talk about. I'll write more if people ask questions. :)

France, day 2

Rehearsals officially started today, which was fun. We're working on a little opera by Rosinni. It's the usual comedy about arranged marriage going wrong. The music is sweet, and fun to play. This morning a few of us decided to go for a run after breakfast. We ended up pooping out pretty fast, but it was fun anyway. We had 6.5 hours of rehearsal today, with a good amount of time for lunch. The food here is quite good. The town of Ambronay is very small. There is a bar, a pizza place, a tobacco store, and a pharmacy. The church and cloister where we are seem to be the same size as the rest of the town, but that's okay. The area here is very pretty: green and hilly. My roommate is really nice. She's an oboist from Holland... :) Tomorrow we are in for more of the same... I'll probably run out of things to write about here pretty quickly. Maybe tomorrow I'll explain what keys the horns are in during the opera or something else riveting. I still don't know how to post picture from my iPad on my blog... Sorry!!

France, day 1

Hi everyone!! I'm going to do my bestest to keep my blog relatively up to date while I'm in France and on tour. Right now the Internet situation is such that for the next two weeks, regular updates should be easy if I have time. I got to Ambronay today. It's about five hours from Zurich, but the train ride is pretty, so the trip was quite easy. I think I packed too much, getting my stuff up and down stairs has not been fun. But I have no idea when I'll next see a washing machine!! Today is an easy day. Just hang and unpack and meet people. Tomorrow is when rehearsals start. I can't wait, really!! We're staying in part of an old convent. Very cute rooms, I'll try to post pictures later... Except I don't know how to post pictures from my iPad. That's all for now. Stay tuned!!

New Pictures and New Horn

I bought a new horn this month. A natural horn that I've been borrowing for a while. I also had some new pictures taken for programs. Here are a few of my favorites. :)

Interlaken Region

I decided to run away last week. I was sort of at the end of my sanity rope, so I looked around for open hostels within a few hours, and left. I can travel anywhere in Switzerland free after 7pm with a handy train pass called a Gleis 7. I figured I might as well used this to my advantage, and booked a hostel for one night in Interlaken, and for the next night in Lauterbrunnen (25 minutes by train up the mountain). Here are some pictures!

Lake Brienz, one of the two lakes Interlaken is between

The Japanese Garden and Catholic Church in Interlaken

View of the Jungfrau, which finally came out of the clouds

Train station in Lauterbrunnen, amid heavy snow... :)

The waterfall

A bit of the town with the church

The snowplow they attach to the front of the trains

A little Chalet in Mürren (another 25 minutes up the mountain)