What to play?

Michael and I played the Mozart Sonata for bassoon and cello (or Euphonium - el bombardino) last year on my recital and we were joking that for his recital this year we would play the same thing but switch parts so we would play it two years in a row... but in reality it would be three due to Kathy's recital where I played the lower part LOL!

In all reality things are going very well here. We just finished our second module, celebrated by white water rafting for 5 hours and trashing our muscles while having a blast, and began our third module. I am taking Latin American Civilization and Culture. I've only had one class but it's amazing so far! We had great conversations about 'what is culture.' 

I'm coming to a point in my life where I'm going to have to make some big decisions soon... but I can wait at least until December, to apply to grad school. I want in the worst way to live and play bassoon in Spain for the rest of my life, but I have to get into school there first. While I'm in Costa Rica I'm preparing and studying with Isabel. She recently brought to me the Fasch Sonate in C major, and I LOVE IT! She also showed me a technical studies book by her old professor at the University of Kansas, Alan Hawkins. It's quite a handy book and really plays tricks on your finger brains by presenting an etude in C major, but could also be played in C# major, Cb Major, G Major and Gb Major. On the cover it's priced at $7.50, I looked it up to possibly purchase from TrevCo (fantastic company by the late Eric Varner) it was $35 :( 

I'm trying to practice more while I'm here to become a bassoon titan... one day

EM

Whats new in Costa Rica? 24/2

I will have another post coming after this one explaining my trip to Panama and my thoughts about DCI lately but for now I want you to be updated on my life!

Last Tuesday I began rehearsing with the National University Orchestra, so far we have Overture to Egmont and Beethoven symphony no.1 in our folder, I believe we will be getting 1-2 more pieces. I went to this orchestra knowing nothing of what it'd be like, I assumed relatively similar to orchestra rehearsals in the US. But first I had to get there.... So I called an Uber and he took me to the front of the University's campus.... then it was another 10 minute walk to get to the building which is fine but I had absolutely no idea where it was other than the name of an auditorium inside of a music building I was supposed to find. Thank you security guards because absolutely none of the students knew where the music building was until I got close and saw musicians with instruments (as of which I totally followed them). I arrived right on time, 6pm, which for me is late. BUT here in Costa Rica we have what is called tico time. A tico is a person that lives or is native to Costa Rica. Tico time is when everything is 'pura vida' or relaxed, no worries and typically means late or at the leisure of whenever. We didn't start playing until 6:40pm. Now you might be a little upset at this but wow I needed that time to meet the director, find a music stand, unwrap my new chair, warm up AND stop sweating. Now at this point I'm realizing I really should've looked up some terminology to help me understand rehearsal tonight but did I? ABSOLUTELY NOT! So incase you're wondering, a 'compass' in Spanish translates to 'bar' or 'measure' in english. I only got lost a few times and one of the times the director stopped, introduced me to the ensemble and said 'everyone talk to Emily a lot!' as to which I said 'yeah, Spanish isn't my first language' but it went great other than a few mistakes.

I am getting ready for fall semester, I transferred my GRCC credits to WMU and I'm on track to graduate in the fall, along with taking a SCUBA class! So I'm thinking a lot about what's next. I don't know if I want to go to grad school right away, I don't know if I want to go to Spain for grad school or Minnesota for performance and repair. But I do know that if I don't get into the Aspen music festival with a fellowship (I find out today!) I want to stay home, complete a summer intensive EMT course, go to a music festival in Maryland, possibly IDRS if I can take that much time off and just save money and live in an apartment with Michael and try to not kill the veggies I want to grow.

Every week through the Sol education abroad program we have 'immersion excursions' where we go out and take a dance class, cooking, baking, or this week on Friday we went to a club. It was definitely weird going to a club on a school sanctioned event, it also included one free drink. I had a terrible time, not to say the club was bad or anything of such but I don't really like to drink, and I REALLY dislike loud music. Guess what they had,.... REALLY LOUD MUSIC! It was a live band and it was mic'ed terribly and the mic's were turned up incredibly loud on already loud instruments, which results in a nice screeching noise. We got there at 9 and I left at 10:30p, its all I could take. I do enjoy going out with friends but typically not at night and if we're going out for a drink I'd rather go to a restaurant so we can chat than a club or bar.

On Saturday I decided to begin training for a half marathon and practice to become a titan of the bassoon world. We'll see about the second one. I had been running down here prior to deciding this and I knew I wanted to run the Borgess run but at what distance? I've always wanted to run a marathon but I don't think its feasible in my current situation with time so 1/2 is halfway there and we can do the other part later. But running her is KILLER! I live in Heredia which is in a valley with a similar elevation to that of Kalamazoo MI, so no need to worry about altitude sickness but just because we're in a valley doesn't mean there aren't MOUNTAINS to run up every turn and a very strong headwind both ways! Here I run on an average about a 12 minute mile and I think when I get home it'll shave off 3 minutes a mile LOL. I also practiced for a bit this day, hit a nice flow in my practice session. I'm trying to memorize the Courante of the third Bach cello suite, which is an awesome piece to play but memorizing Bach is DIFFICULT because he repeats passages increasing in stepwise motion or only a step off and you really could play the same thing twice and it would sound okay but its really not.

On Sunday my roommate and I went to Ojo de Agua, which is a public pool here. It's a small kiddy pool, a young kid pool and an olympic sized swimming pool with platform dives. I was so excited to swim again! and I didn't get burnt! I think I did a little over 600m but who knows.

Today begins the last week of module 2 classes. So basically its finals week but we only have one final on Wednesday. Today we had a role play which is improvising in front of the class in a conversation with a partner using a prompt and a grammar tense previously decided. I was so unnecessarily nervous for this - it went fine we all got 100%. But we also learned swear words in Spanish! I also started my first tutoring class today, I want to learn to translate for a hospital. The tutor knows all of the words and we went over the respiratory, digestive and nervous systems but he doesn't really know what they do. I guess the purpose of translating is to directly translate and not advise but I want to be able to use this in my EMT and paramedic courses as well. I guess one will learn as time will tell.

Ten un buen día hoy, y mañana!
EM

Rough day

Today was pretty good and then it was awful.

Classes went fine, breakfast was great (toast, melon, and yogurt with granola and a cup of coffee). We finished our presentations in class, which were about the best and worst moment of our life.... a little bit personal... mine were about when I went to China with the KJSO and how its bittersweet because the people in those photos, I will never be able to play with again even though they've gone on and continued their musical education profoundly. My worst moment was the entire debacle with Lukeman... and how the house made my face swell up and break out in hives for 4-5 months, how our ceiling fell on my cat, how when moving out they decided to come in early and clean everything out (including my piano) and throw it away. And how I sued them for it. Continuing on in class we spoke about future tenses of verbs, events occurring with nature in latin american countries and our final presentations.

I had a great lunch of beans, rice, some noodle salad, roasted cauliflower, and a chickpea soup. And then I went to have a lesson with Isabel, this is where I found out that my phone doesn't have data. I had no way to contact her to let her know I was at her house so I rang the bell at her neighbors, who didn't answer, rang the bell of the business next door and was able to use their phone. Had a good lesson, went really well and we're progressing.

The next step was getting home.... I stopped in a cafe to use their wifi to look up a bus route. Got to the bus stop on time, got on the right bus it told me to and I'm following it along and then it makes a wrong turn and I pull the string to get off but he doesn't stop... so I go to the front and ask him if I can get off at this Stop sign. He says no... So I stay on the bus and he finally stops halfway to Heredia... as of which I had an appointment for allergy shots at 5pm. Its now 4:30p and I have to walk to a different bus stop but I'm too far away from the bus stop to calculate the correct time to get on a bus because I'm already to late and missed it, and I can't look up another bus because I don't have data. So I walk all the way home. And I sweat through every piece of clothing I'm wearing and I get home at 4:50p... I'm not going to my appointment.

Em

No sé que quiero por un título?

We're going to Panama this weekend! .......its a 13 hour drive..... we're leaving at 2am.... BUT I'm excited to see a new place (even though it'll be pretty similar, maybe a little colder because we'll be in the mountains) ALSO!!! I bought an awesome duffel bag today for the trip AND IT HAS BACKPACK STRAPS!

Lessons:
Things have been going really well with Bassooning, last week during my lesson she assigned me to memorize Milde no.1 and the first half of the Courante from Bach cello suite no.3. The Milde isn't too bad, some accidentals throw me for a loop but the Courante is H.A.R.D, and I believe its only difficult because I'm also trying to play it in the correct Baroque style while memorizing which gives some liberty but when your memory falters it ruins everything lol! We are also continuously working on major and harmonic minor scales and the Mozart bassoon concerto (also played in the same Baroque style)

School:
I'm a little upset with school. The professors are amazing people and I would love to be acquaintances with them but when it comes to quality of teaching, organization or other incredibly important things necessary for being an educator, they lack. And it's quite frustrating that I am still paying for college credit but I don't believe I'm still getting the same quality. Pros, these classes qualify for my upper level Spanish classes, and my capstone project for minimal effort.... not sure if its right morally but never-mind that.

TTFN,
Em

End of module 1 and Deaf composers

Today we finished our first class or module. In this program we complete a class per month rather than take 4 classes at once for the whole semester. It's very nice. Theoretically we finished yesterday, as thats when we had our finals but were still required to come in today to present our final group project to the entire program (we split up into four classes based on language comprehension level). Our final group project was to tell a childhood story, like goldilocks and the three bears, and adapt it Costa Rican style. Of course we chose the three bears, and we had two 'foreign exchange' girls staying at our house. We had to explain to them the shower, as showers here are backwards, the less you turn it on the hotter it is but less water pressure, and the further you turn it on the colder it gets with higher water pressure. As well as throwing used toilet paper into the garbage by the toilet, not down the sewage system. Then the bedrooms, those are exactly the same in the states except everything is tiled instead of carpet because its easier to clean and my host family cleans the floors every day to keep the bugs out. And finally goldy chose food. First were platanos dulces, fried sweet plantain, then sopa negra, a soup made out of black beans, water, cilantro and eggs, sometimes with veggies. And finally but the most important staple of Costa Rican food, Gallo Pinto. This is black beans and rice cooked together with 'flavors' also known as onion, garlic, celery, sweet chilies, a special sauce and some 'complete seasoning' this is also typically served with a salsa of tomatoes, onion and cilantro.

Overall the production went really well and we won best comedic play.

We got out of class a little early and I went to go talk to Janiva, the SOL program director, about adding tutoring onto my class-load. I want to be tutored in both medical and musical terminology and tutoring 1-1 with a professor only costs $12/hour here! Waiting to hear back, will keep you updated.

I also had another lesson with Isabel on Wednesday (of which I had to leave my bassoon at her house overnight because I was going to get my allergy shots at the hospital in downtown San Jose, not the best place). On Wednesday we talked a lot about musicality. I'm preparing a Bach cello suite Courante and leave it to me to play everything exactly like a robotic etude. We are continuing to work on scales and she told me to move onto Milde 2  and bump up Milde 1 to 90bpm.... thats a fast boi.

I've been struggling lately with the want to practice. When I get home from school for the past few day's I haven't wanted to do anything other than nap or watch Netflix. Which is okay but I have another lesson next week that I already feel super unprepared for and I'm trying to revamp the Marriage of Figaro bassoon audition excerpt to apply to the National Music Festival by February 10 and oh lord thats super rusty.... but the other option is the Beethoven 4 mvmt IV fast solo which in my opinion is also terrible to play.... I have a theory that he wrote such difficult things for bassoon and contrabassoon because he didn't know how terrible it sounded.


Anyway I practiced for a bit today (probably only an hour), maybe we can try again tomorrow,
EM

I also wrote this without my glasses, good luck!

I'm in Costa Rica for half a year?

Long time no see? I know I'm terrible at keeping up with this but I'm currently studying abroad for a semester in Heredia Costa Rica. My 'scholarly focus' here is Spanish, I'll be taking advanced Spanish 1 and 2, a class on culture and a class on Spanish literature. They do things a bit differently here, with this program I'll be taking a class per month from 8a-11a every day and a different class in 4 weeks. But normally in Costa Rica kids are still on 'summer' break. They take their long break from school in the winter because it's cooler and during the dry season. Their school starts up in March.

While I'm down here I have the amazing opportunity to study bassoon with Isabel Jerimas. She has German training from Karlsruhe Musikhochschule and received another degree from the University of Kansas and a speciality in baroque bassoon from the ESMUS in Cataluña Spain. I basically stalked her last year at IDRS as she was one of the judges for the Fox Gillet and the Meg Quigley Vivaldi competition previously. I tracked her down and asked if I could study with her in the winter and she said yes, so we came into contact on facebook and later Whatsapp as that is the best way to communicate here. I messaged her when I arrived in Costa Rica and we immediately set up our first lesson.

Keep in mind I'm coming from not playing all of winter break, as I take it off to remain a sane human, and the first day she assigns me Milde etude 1 with her correct fingerings and venting on all tenor A,B and C's, the Courante of the third Bach cello suite and all of the first movement of Mozart bassoon concerto AS WELL AS all of my major and minor scales.

Now thats where this gets tricky(Kathy if you're reading this I totally feel for you learning moveable Do).  In the US we use this crazy thing called moveable Do, as in solfege. This is where if you play a Bb major scale (or minor) Bb is Do. But here in Costa Rica and almost everywhere else around the world (like the metric system) they use fixed Do. Meaning that Do is always and forever the note 'C' no exceptions at all. Seems cool right? Try learning it not in your native language. PLUS they don't really say Bb major scale they will say Si bemol or si sostinido bemol and so on, its a bit much to get... BUT I REALLY WANT TO!


More to come because every day is an adventure!
EM

Why Music?

Tonight I had an incredible concert experience. I am playing with the Kalamazoo Philarmonia and tonight we put on a concert titled Among Friends in which we played Overture by Grazyna Bacewicz, Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pytor Tchaikovsky with the wonderful soloist, Weiyin Chen and following intermission we played Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. I didn't play on the first piece so I relaxed (as much as I could) back stage. I tried to stay downstairs in the warm-up area but I got so anxious that I would miss my piece or they would somehow change concert order and I messed up. So I went upstairs and listened backstage, they sounded great! Then we played the Tchaikovsky piano concerto, which was fantastic, Weiyin Chen played in such an emotive way. I especially loved the third movement with the syncopations between piano and orchestra. But the real reason I'm writing this entire post was the Enigma Variations. Fourteen continuous movements that are supposed to flow onto eachother as much as possible. I had adjusted my reed during intermission as I was playing rather sharp and a sharp second bassoonist could be a disaster. So we're going along and I'm thinking wow we sound great together, Connie (principal) and I, as well as Chris on Contra. Then we got to the ninth variation titled Nimrod, its a beautiful slow flowing adagio and I began to cry. I cried because I'm so happy and thankful for everything that I've had in my life but especially that this is exactly what I want to do until the day I die and I'm so lucky that I can do something that brings me so much joy. But...... then I started to go flat so I had to reign it back in.

In another bassoon world, I just completed my senior recital last weekend (as well as subing for the KJSO - Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra). The recital was fantastic we opened with Sonata for Piano and Bassoon by Nancy Galbraith, followed by Etude No. 3 by Franz lizst arranged for bassoon by Kristian Roones (Excuse the improper 'O') which kicked my butt, then my prized posession Guttersnipe by Paul Hayden, intermission, the first ovement of the Mozzart Bassoon and Cello Sonata, and two bassoon quartets; Profkiev's Scherzo and The Wolf and Peter by the Bubonic Collection.

It was so good! The Galbraith went well, caution to all that play - the third movement is tricky and sneaky, the Lizst will always be a difficult piece, especially for unacompanied bassoon in extreme ranges, the Guttersnipe was so fun! I started in the catwalk, moved to the mezzanene, played a recording of me playing that we took earlier in the week while I ran down a few flights of stairs to get backstage, all over the staging area WITH LIGHTS COORESPONDING TO WHERE I WAS PLAYING TOO!! The ensembles were really enjoyable, the Mozart for me and the bassoon quartets for me but also very entertaining for the audience as most of them knew the excerpts from Peter and the Wolf that were quoted. PLUS we played the Grandfather solo on a Sopranino Recorder!! It was hilarious. Then we went and ate a ton of great food and drank lots of great wine and just enjoyed family and friends.

Hours practiced today ...... atleast 1 + 3 hour concert

Don't forget about yourself,
EM