I live a pretty hectic life in general, but it is nothing compared to this place. I get up every morning at 7, and I don't stop rushing until 10:30 or 11 at night. The experience is incredible though. I am learning more than I ever thought that I would.
One of the most interesting classes that I have is Diction, which a first glance is not very exciting. But, we learn IPA, which is this way to make the sounds of any language. So, it has different symbols for every vowel and consonant sound and blend. You can IPA a french word or a Russian word, or you can IPA the British vs American accent of a word. I just think that's so interesting.
The classes are all super interesting. In every single one, you're learning all the time.
Friday, we had our first recital. It was a RIDICULOUSLY long recital. 45 people sang for 5 minutes each. It was intense, but it did show how talented everyone is. I'd only been able to see a few of the people sing, and they were all really good, but being able to see that everyone was at that level was very good.
The weekend is full of all these incredible opportunities. Saturday, we got up, and we went on a boat tour of the harbor and the river in Boston. We also, got to go through the locks. They were so interesting! It was super weird too because we almost ran over a pair of ducks. :(
After the boat tour, we went back to the dorm and left almost immediately to go to Carmen. My voice teacher here is the woman who played Carmen, and she's incredible!! She is PERFECT for that role. The opera itself was pretty good. The costumes and set and theater were not the most professional, but the singing was past professional. Both leads were pretty phenomenal. I enjoyed it immensely on many levels. One of which is the fact that the opera was entirely in French. I was so excited that I was able to understand 80% of it! I felt so cool cause i understood little jokes that the rest of the theater didn't really get. :D
Today, we went to Harry Potter! It was good, but only decently. The real steal of the weekend was Rent. We just got back from seeing Rent in the big Boston theater. The cool part was that two of the original cast were reprising their roles, Rodger and Mark. It was phenomenal. It felt so much like a concert. Everyone was on their feet screaming at the end. The story of Rent touches me every single time. I don't think there were very many dry eyes when Angel died.
I apologize if this doesn't make sense because I'm really tired right now.
But, I love you all. :D
Clara
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Boston Conservatory!
Hello lovely person who is reading this!
Wow, this has been quite a hectic week. I'm sitting here in my dorm room, just finished with a stressful day of rehearsals, sight singing, diction, music theory, stage works, and yoga classes. I only have a few minutes before I go off to choir rehearsal.
It's been a while since my last post. So, when I left you, we had just been in Virginia. After Washington and Lee, we went to New York City. Our first night there, we saw this new play, still in screenings, super cool, called "The Tin Pan Alley Rag." It was AMAZING! It was all music by Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin, who, believe it or not, wrote America the Beautiful. It was about their lives on "tin pan alley." I enjoyed the show immensely.
The next morning, we got up, and we went to Juilliard! Juilliard is really interesting because it's a very small school. The entire school of about 4oo people, undergrad and grad, are live eat and work all in 2 buildings. The other really cool thing about it is that the school itself is right in Lincoln center, 60th street and Broadway, so it's in the best part of town. It's crazy cool! I loved it!
Right after we finished at Juilliard, we took a cab to Columbia, which is on the upper west side. Columbia is a really cool school. One of the parts that really interests me is this idea of the Core curriculum. It's this set of classes that every undergrad takes. They range from science to literature courses, but they are the basics that you will have to know to study there. So, because everyone has taken them, they can then be referenced in other classes etc. Plus, another aspect that I really liked was the fact that most classes are discussion based, which I would LOVE! I love arguing! Columbia was a little bit pretentious to me. I am not completely sold on it at this point. I like the idea of it; i just didn't get a great feeling on campus.
After that, we went to New Haven where Yale is. First off, Yale is now my top choice. I loved it there. I loved everything about the school. The campus was gorgeous. I was really drawn by the idea of the colleges. For those who don't know, the kids are sorted into colleges, which are aptly compared to the houses from Harry Potter. It's a really wonderful system. The college becomes like your family. Plus, they all have competitions about which can have the best food at the dining hall, so the food's great. It was pretty intense because I got to meet some students at a student forum, and one of them was talking about starting a cirque program at Yale, which means that everything I love to do is covered there! They have a really amazing theater and vocal program, and ya know, decent academics. ;) So I was, and am, really excited about Yale.
We left Yale, and we drove to Boston that night. The next morning, I was supposed to go see Boston college, but I got super sick. So, that was a no-go.
Now, on to the good stuff! The camp! I got to the Boston Conservatory yesterday. It was probably a bad time to be around because Fenway park is VERY close, and it was a game day. EEEEK! Craziness everywhere. Anyway, I moved in this nice little walk up dorm. The room is very nice, and I have 3 room mates. We had an audition during the day, and then a theory test. The audition had sight singing on it. :(
Yesterday night, we had our first chorus rehearsal. It was intensely amazing. The director gives us our binders full of music, and asks us to sight sing the music in all 6 parts. I hate sight singing with a burning passion. Needless to say, I'm not in advanced sight singing. Anyway, the piece actually sounded pretty good! It's amazing to have such a small choir with such good singers.
For today, the best way to describe it was frenetic. The class schedule was not posted until this morning due to auditions, so we had no idea where anything was before hand. I think I got to all my classes on time and in one piece. They are really interesting too! I loved diction! It started out with "what are words? Are they real? Do they exist?" Then, we went on to talk about IPA and Italian diction.
I'll tell you more about class tomorrow, but for now, I need to get my singing sleep. :D
Sorry for the novel. ;)
Clara
Wow, this has been quite a hectic week. I'm sitting here in my dorm room, just finished with a stressful day of rehearsals, sight singing, diction, music theory, stage works, and yoga classes. I only have a few minutes before I go off to choir rehearsal.
It's been a while since my last post. So, when I left you, we had just been in Virginia. After Washington and Lee, we went to New York City. Our first night there, we saw this new play, still in screenings, super cool, called "The Tin Pan Alley Rag." It was AMAZING! It was all music by Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin, who, believe it or not, wrote America the Beautiful. It was about their lives on "tin pan alley." I enjoyed the show immensely.
The next morning, we got up, and we went to Juilliard! Juilliard is really interesting because it's a very small school. The entire school of about 4oo people, undergrad and grad, are live eat and work all in 2 buildings. The other really cool thing about it is that the school itself is right in Lincoln center, 60th street and Broadway, so it's in the best part of town. It's crazy cool! I loved it!
Right after we finished at Juilliard, we took a cab to Columbia, which is on the upper west side. Columbia is a really cool school. One of the parts that really interests me is this idea of the Core curriculum. It's this set of classes that every undergrad takes. They range from science to literature courses, but they are the basics that you will have to know to study there. So, because everyone has taken them, they can then be referenced in other classes etc. Plus, another aspect that I really liked was the fact that most classes are discussion based, which I would LOVE! I love arguing! Columbia was a little bit pretentious to me. I am not completely sold on it at this point. I like the idea of it; i just didn't get a great feeling on campus.
After that, we went to New Haven where Yale is. First off, Yale is now my top choice. I loved it there. I loved everything about the school. The campus was gorgeous. I was really drawn by the idea of the colleges. For those who don't know, the kids are sorted into colleges, which are aptly compared to the houses from Harry Potter. It's a really wonderful system. The college becomes like your family. Plus, they all have competitions about which can have the best food at the dining hall, so the food's great. It was pretty intense because I got to meet some students at a student forum, and one of them was talking about starting a cirque program at Yale, which means that everything I love to do is covered there! They have a really amazing theater and vocal program, and ya know, decent academics. ;) So I was, and am, really excited about Yale.
We left Yale, and we drove to Boston that night. The next morning, I was supposed to go see Boston college, but I got super sick. So, that was a no-go.
Now, on to the good stuff! The camp! I got to the Boston Conservatory yesterday. It was probably a bad time to be around because Fenway park is VERY close, and it was a game day. EEEEK! Craziness everywhere. Anyway, I moved in this nice little walk up dorm. The room is very nice, and I have 3 room mates. We had an audition during the day, and then a theory test. The audition had sight singing on it. :(
Yesterday night, we had our first chorus rehearsal. It was intensely amazing. The director gives us our binders full of music, and asks us to sight sing the music in all 6 parts. I hate sight singing with a burning passion. Needless to say, I'm not in advanced sight singing. Anyway, the piece actually sounded pretty good! It's amazing to have such a small choir with such good singers.
For today, the best way to describe it was frenetic. The class schedule was not posted until this morning due to auditions, so we had no idea where anything was before hand. I think I got to all my classes on time and in one piece. They are really interesting too! I loved diction! It started out with "what are words? Are they real? Do they exist?" Then, we went on to talk about IPA and Italian diction.
I'll tell you more about class tomorrow, but for now, I need to get my singing sleep. :D
Sorry for the novel. ;)
Clara
Monday, July 6, 2009
Washington and Lee Plus Monticello
Hello wonderful people who are reading my blog!
These past two days have been quite busy. On Sunday, we drove all the way to Lexington, VA which was tiring on many levels, the worst of which was being up before 12, but that was nothing to today when i got up at 7:30. :/
Before going up to the Boston Conservatory Program, I'm touring some colleges. Today was Washington and Lee. The school is absolutely beautiful! Plus, I saw Will Richardson just in passing, which was a little weird to see someone from Rabun Gap without planning it... I really like it there, but it's very similar to Davidson. They're both quite big on the honor system, as is Rabun Gap. In many ways, they're all quite similar.
Then, after that, we were going to go to William and Mary, but we spent to long in Lexington. So, instead, we went to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was an incredibly interesting house. I used to be really into the whole colonial era, so a lot of it was familiar. But, I'd never really realized quite how much of a renaissance man Jefferson was. His house was totally state of the art for the turn of the 19th century. One of the things I thought was the most interesting was his huge clock which not only told the time down to the second, but the weights that ran it showed the days of the week by how unwound the clock was. He also had automatic closing doors, the first copier etc. It was a truly amazing house.
We also took a tour of the gardens which add to the idea of Jefferson as a renaissance man. He took fastidious recordings of the wind and temperature at Monticello everyday. He used this data to plant gardens, both vegetable, flowers and trees. Apparently, he viewed the gardens as a scientific experiment. He brought plants from all over the world and tried to grow them in Virginia.
Well now, we're at the hotel in Richmond and going off to dinner at TGIF. :D
Tomorrow, we're driving all day. :/
<3 Clara
These past two days have been quite busy. On Sunday, we drove all the way to Lexington, VA which was tiring on many levels, the worst of which was being up before 12, but that was nothing to today when i got up at 7:30. :/
Before going up to the Boston Conservatory Program, I'm touring some colleges. Today was Washington and Lee. The school is absolutely beautiful! Plus, I saw Will Richardson just in passing, which was a little weird to see someone from Rabun Gap without planning it... I really like it there, but it's very similar to Davidson. They're both quite big on the honor system, as is Rabun Gap. In many ways, they're all quite similar.
Then, after that, we were going to go to William and Mary, but we spent to long in Lexington. So, instead, we went to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was an incredibly interesting house. I used to be really into the whole colonial era, so a lot of it was familiar. But, I'd never really realized quite how much of a renaissance man Jefferson was. His house was totally state of the art for the turn of the 19th century. One of the things I thought was the most interesting was his huge clock which not only told the time down to the second, but the weights that ran it showed the days of the week by how unwound the clock was. He also had automatic closing doors, the first copier etc. It was a truly amazing house.
We also took a tour of the gardens which add to the idea of Jefferson as a renaissance man. He took fastidious recordings of the wind and temperature at Monticello everyday. He used this data to plant gardens, both vegetable, flowers and trees. Apparently, he viewed the gardens as a scientific experiment. He brought plants from all over the world and tried to grow them in Virginia.
Well now, we're at the hotel in Richmond and going off to dinner at TGIF. :D
Tomorrow, we're driving all day. :/
<3 Clara
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Boston Here I Come!
It's about a week before I leave to go up to Boston, and I'm quite excited. I just started packing, and I got out all the suitcases etc. One might say that's a bit premature, but at church the other day, I met this old couple whose granddaughter graduated from the Boston Conservatory. Apparently, she went to this summer camp too! So, I just started thinking about it a lot. Then, the other thing that makes this week exciting is that I'm learning some of the songs that I'm going to sing there.
Speaking of singing, today, I tried to break a wine glass with my voice. It was pretty much a complete failure. So, I'm going to say that my wine glasses are too thick.... That makes me feel better at least.
Anyway, Boston, here I come!!
Speaking of singing, today, I tried to break a wine glass with my voice. It was pretty much a complete failure. So, I'm going to say that my wine glasses are too thick.... That makes me feel better at least.
Anyway, Boston, here I come!!
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