Experience of a lifetime

The MTNA national conference is in Denver this year and began today and goes through Wednesday. This afternoon culminated with a 90-minute master class with opera legend, Marilyn Horne. I managed to get a front row seat, from which I occasionally captured short video clips, some of which my students will get to watch. (Before lunch, we also enjoyed a "conversation" with Ms. Horne.) This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is difficult to describe, but I learned so much, and it all made so much sense - as she coached the singers (some of whom I knew), I could imagine how it would feel to sing it as they did at first and then again as she recommended. All in all, I didn't learn anything particularly new, but I processed it in a different context - specifically in the context of singers who are more advanced than I am, as opposed to in my own voice or in less-accomplished voices. And, demonstrated by a legend, these ideas took on new significance. My visual and aural mental image of these sounds/techniques is enhanced.

And afterward, Ms. Horne autographed my copy of her autobiography (which I acquired years ago, thank you very much). "To Ellie - Marilyn Horne '08"

Yes, this makes up for yesterday. I'm looking forward to the rest of the convention, though I can't imagine anything else this week will top this afternoon. :-)

Not my day.

I was already blue for no comprehensible reason. Then I got a call from a mentor stating that she did not fully agree with my assessment of my student's readiness to be cast for the Pie Jesu solo in our upcoming performance of the Faure Requiem. A few minutes later, I was making dinner and burnt my finger on the skillet. Then, I went to watch the TV program I had taped while I was busy talking on the phone and burning myself and found that the tape would neither rewind, fastforward nor play. All in less than an hour. So, not my day. Or at least, not my hour.

I own 37 pairs of shoes

At the church Valentine's social we went to last month, there was a "Newlyweds"-type game in which we were asked how many pairs of shoes we owned. I don't know why that came back into my head today, but it did, and suddenly I had to know exactly how many I have. Not including slippers or snow boots, I own 37 pairs of shoes. These include dress shoes in a variety of colors (some dyed-to-match) and heel heights, wedding shoes, character shoes, sandals, athletic shoes, crocs, and "business casual" shoes. That's a lot of shoes, I think. And I don't consider myself a shoe fanatic or anything. I think I need to go through those and get rid of the ones I haven't worn since I got married (except the wedding shoes, of course).

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Worth watching

I liked this inspirational video: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

And Eric and I watched "Dan In Real Life" today on DVD -- it's worth watching, too. We both really liked it.

Sparky

I mentioned earlier that Eric & I spent the weekend in the mountains. More specifically, we stayed at a friend's cabin in Breckenridge. The snow on their porch came all the way up to the base of the window, so when a red fox came to the window, he was level with it and able to peer in at us. Our friends have been known to feed the fox, and we enjoyed feeding him, too. We named him Sparky after a waitress that served us over the weekend.

See my videos of Sparky on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5qodtHV37c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZCaMpUhdgs

Yes, I'm still alive

I have just been so busy! I must say, I am not missing grad school like I thought I would. There are just so many exciting things going on!

My big project has been scheduling the spring auditions (contest) for my NATS chapter. This has been like a gigantic sudoku puzzle scheduling 58 judges and 380 singers into 16 rooms for 534 singing auditions. I've actually quite enjoyed it, but it has occupied nearly every free moment for the last few weeks. I finally finished the scheduling around 1 o'clock this morning. Now, I just have to get the final mailing ready to go and then prepare for the event day. Still a lot to do, but there's a huge chunk of it done now.

This will be my year to attend national music teacher conventions. The MTNA (Music Teachers Natl Assn) national conference happens to be in Denver this year, so I would be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity. That one is the end of March and beginning of April. Then, I won a scholarship to attend the NATS (Natl Assn of Teachers of Singing) national conference in Nashville this summer. I am REALLY looking forward to both of these awesome opportunities for learning and networking.

And finally, I have been invited to sing with the Opera Colorado chorus for The Flying Dutchman in April. It will not be a staged production, so we will rehearse every night for two weeks and then two performances and then it's done. I auditioned back in September and have been an alternate for the last two shows, but this time I get to sing. Rehearsals start the same day as the NATS contest, so I won't have time to rest & recouperate from the auditions, but it will be something new and it doesn't last long.

So, that's what's been up in my little world. Eric and I were able to get away to the mountains this last weekend and the time away from everything was very good for both of us. We need to get away more often, I think.