March 24, 2007

Music woman

I just finished a morning of accompanying junior high string players at a music contest. That's always an adventure. I remember the days when I performed in contests, auditions, and recitals. Contests always run at least a half hour behind schedule. At the beginning of the day, the judges write elaborate comments and criticism and welcome the performer in with a friendly, "Begin when you're ready." By the end of the day, they write five words on the comment sheet and scowl at the entering student. Some things never change.

I accompanied nine students today. I am not even sure how many music books I had in my bag. I have a terrible fear of a few things happening during performances, like playing the wrong song with a student, pages blowing around in the breeze of an A/C (that's happened many times), and memory failures on their part. That's the stuff nightmares are made of.

My own piano students are preparing for a May piano recital. I think I get just as nervous now as a teacher as I did as a performer back in the good ol' days. These are my music goals after I finish grad school:
  • Become a jazz aficionado
  • Buy a decent piano
  • Learn to play other instruments (on a basic level)
I'm already trying to work on that jazz aficionado thing. I ordered a Coltrane album that I'm listening to now, Dear Old Stockholm. I'm crazy about the track Dear Lord. Now back to my homework...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to be a Jazz know-it-all. I'm sad that I haven't been able to be to any of your recitals yet! Schedule one for when I'm home in August, ok?

Oh man Kimberly, I saw John Romney today (and every time I see him I automatically start thinking about something else like how I'm going to get you two to meet), and it was really crowded in that hallway. Anyway, he goes "hey, Wendy!" and grabs my upper arm in a friendly how-ya-doin' way. Anyway, all this just to say that my upper arms are really fatty and I think I serverly damaged your chances with John. Hope that Angela's brother works out better. : )

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the help today! Guess what, I'm going to see Hamlet with a friend from last semester's humanities class. I'm excited! Free for me...