A brief summation of the last two years

Well, as promised in my last post, I will make an attempt to summarize my two years in Texas. It was just long enough for me to not quite get over the culture shock of moving there from New England, but long enough so that I still had slight culture shock when moving from Texas to New York City.

I received my MM from Baylor in May. During my time there, I became a much better clarinet player. Finger technique increased drastically, as well as my consistency of sound. I had two great clarinet teachers there, Dr. Richard Shanley and Alan Olson (a former student of Dr. Shanley). I gave two recitals. The second one was more successful than the first. I played the Muczynski Fantasy Trio and the Copland and Weber E-flat concerti on the first one, and on the second, I played the Bassett Soliloquies, Kalliwoda Morceau de Salon, Bozza Concerto, and a sonata from Jean-Xavier Lefèvre's method book. The amazing Dr. Kae Hosoda-Ayer was the keyboardist for both recitals, and Cody Green, a fellow Baylor student, was my collaborating cellist on the Muczynski and as continuo on the Lefèvre. Dr. Ayer's husband is a clarinetist and teacher at another Texas university, so it was great working with her, as she knows a lot of the clarinet repertoire!

I also had some great ensemble experiences. I learned what it was like to play in a fabulous wind ensemble, as well as getting experience playing in a high-level all-student orchestra. With the wind ensemble, we played at two conventions the first year. The Baylor Symphony is going to Belgium this year, of which I am extremely jealous! As far as chamber music is concerned, I learned a lot about woodwind quintets and what it takes to succeed as a player in that particular group.

Academically, I took the following courses to help me prepare for doctoral work: Research Methods with Dr. Robin Wallace, Woodwind/Clarinet Literature with Dr. Shanley and Amy Marinello, Symphonic Literature with Mr. Stephen Heyde (also the orchestra director), Analytical Techniques with Dr. Eric Lai, and 20th-Century Music with Dr. Jean Boyd. I can honestly say that all of these professors were passionate instructors, and the material covered was essential in my preparation for doctoral study. Research Methods helped me develop the necessary resources for source discovery, paper formatting, and clear writing, Woodwind/Clarinet and Symphonic Literature were important for giving me a broad knowledge of the history of music as it pertains to me as a performer, and Analytical Techniques and 20th-Century Music supplied me with knowledge that will help me as I go about research and analysis for my dissertation topic at NYU. I will be considering the 20th-Century French concerto through the historical, sociopolitical, and theoretical lens of works for clarinet and orchestra by Debussy, Milhaud, Bozza, Tomasi, and Francaix. Modern classical music and composition are integral to the livelihood of academic music here at NYU, so I am finding that the material covered in Dr. Lai's and Dr. Boyd's classes is especially relevant.

At Baylor, my professors were very knowledgeable about their fields. I can only hope that I retain a fraction of what they know and tried to impart to me during my time there.

The summer between my first and second years at Baylor brought me to the Scotia Festival again, where I was able to play the Bartok Contrasts and Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection" symphony. It was a great experience!

Now, my next post will be a summation of things since moving to New York three months ago! That's all for now.

Wow! I must have forgotten I have this...

Since I don't have a real website yet, I've decided that I should start posting on my blog again. It appears that I went through my whole master's degree without posting once! My next post will attempt to be a summation of those two simultaneously glorious and inglorious years in Waco, TX. Baylor University was most definitely the place for me during that time, and now I am living in New York City pursuing my Ph.D. in clarinet performance at NYU. Sadly, that means that I have reading to do before class tonight, and thus, this post will be THIS short. :-)

The Crooked Child

Will you dance my young child,
With your light and graceful step?
For though the winds blow fierce and wild,
We'll fill the night with merriment...
And 'twere no pity if, beguiled
By music, you should dance a jig.
'Tis merry the heart of a child.

I am no child, and my step is not light.
I am afraid I cannot dance tonight.
Go find someone happier, prettier, thinner...
Another girl who doesn't need to skip dinner.
Can't you see I'm fat. Why do you rub it in?
It's as plain as can be I'm too big for my skin.
Go have fun without me. I'm a terrible sight;
And if I were to dance, I would ruin the night!

Why don't you dance my young child,
With your light and graceful step?
For though the winds blow fierce and wild,
We'll fill the night with merriment...
And 'twere no pity if, beguiled
By music, you should dance a jig.
'Tis merry the heart of a child.

I really should blog more often.

So I thought of something at least noteworthy, though maybe not remarkable, from my séjour in Nova Scotia. This is an interest in new music, particularly music composed for either me specifically, or for an ensemble in which I end up taking part.

One element of the Scotia Festival was a program for young composers. The composers ended up being all still in school - one just starting his undergrad, another at the end of hers, and one doctoral student. Fiona, the doctoral student, was the one for whom I ended up playing. Having been a clarinet performance major for a little while during her undergrad, a good deal of her composition is birthed out of her fiddling around on her clarinet.

Now, this piece was written for a rather unusual instrumentation: soprano, clarinet, and cello. In fact, circumstances at the festival (all the cellists were too busy) brought about an even odder instrumentation: soprano, clarinet, and double bass. Travis, the bassist at the festival, was looking for things to do, so Fiona adapted the cello part for double bass, and it worked remarkably well, especially with the different tone color that the bass has - a bit less warm than the cello. What also worked well was that with this new member of the ensemble, our trio of personalities meshed very nicely. Suré (pronounced soo-RAY) is a dear of a soprano, originally from Cape Town, South Africa, but now living in North Texas with her husband, and Travis is a nice young man from Toronto who attends university in Montréal.

It was a great experience working on a brand-new piece with people who were great colleagues and new friends, and also being able to be a part of the composer's refining of the work. Called "The Crooked Child," Fiona wrote it in response to learning about stories of anorexic ten year-olds. The text is a poem that she wrote, and she decided to set it to music for this festival. It was a great setting, and the audience response was great - it was a powerful work. I'll see if I can get her to send me the text soon so I can post it here.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with Suré, and we were talking about how we should get together and perform something since we will be living just over an hour and a half's drive from each other in less than a month. While we were discoursing, she mentioned that she had talked to Fiona, and that she mentioned the possibility to Fiona about writing a song cycle for our trio. How wonderful would that be -- having a song cycle written for your ensemble that was assembled at a music festival, and then performing it in a doctoral recital in Toronto! In any case, this is why new music is exciting to me. Eventually, as you learn music, you will work your way through all the styles, genres, and periods up through your era. Don't get me wrong -- you can rework those pieces, finding something new and wonderful in them each time -- but there's still something even more exciting about performing the music of our time, especially when it's written for you.

So, friends, this is something that excites me as much as the prospect of trying to learn as much as I can of the music already written for my instrument, in the recent or distant past. Indeed, it is what keeps music alive.

In my last post...

I lied. I read through it, and after having a couple weeks to let it all settle, I realized that I only wanted to recount every little detail of the summer music festival because I was so excited about the new experiences. At this moment, I have realized that I'm still very much the same Jesse, but my eyes have been opened a little bit more, my horizon is now a bit broader, and I made new friends through these experiences.

This is the same Jesse who now is preparing to shove as many of his most important belongings into a 1996 Subaru Legacy station wagon as will fit in order that he might make the three-hour trek back to Brunswick, NY, continuing on (with father) for another 27 hours thence to Waco, TX.

Recently, I have begun realizing how fast time really does pass, and that its pace only quickens as I age. One freaking month until I hold residence in freaking Texas?!? For sure, this seemed so far away to me as my real conversation with Baylor University started back in March. Five months? That's ages! Four weeks? That's right around the corner! But then, I have to think of all that has happened since March to make this time fly by:

I made a visit to the University of Georgia.
I applied to two summer music festivals and Baylor University.
I was accepted to two summer music festivals and Baylor University (this with an assistantship).
I accepted the offers from two summer music festivals and Baylor University.
I gave my senior recital.
I visited Waco, TX, and Baylor University.
I signed a lease long-distance on an apartment in Waco, TX.
I took my last round of undergraduate final exams and also achieved my highest-ever clarinet jury score.
I graduated! (And my diploma arrived at my parents' house today!)
I attended the Scotia Festival of Music.
I was a fellow (student) at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Chamber Music Institute.
I recommenced working, and commenced much working out and practicing of the clarinet.

Wow! That is a lot to have done in the course of three months! Now, working, working out, and practicing are basically all I do. I need to begin studying for the Music History and Music Theory graduate placement exams, though, so I can hopefully not have to take the remedial course for either of them (especially as the assistantship will not cover the tuition for these courses).

And since I started the body of this post with a comment about how fast time flies, at this time next year, I will quite possibly be about to embark on another round of trips! This will be to audition and audition at other schools for the purpose of pursuing a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts), a graduate performance diploma, or an artist diploma (depending on how much progress I make this year, of course). Talk about time flying! This is also not to mention the fact that preparation for next summer's festival auditions has to start this semester. Oi!

This post is now officially too long, especially as it has been talking about the rapid passing of time, and it possibly took too many moments out of one's day to read this (if it gets read at all :-) ).

Until I don't know when,
Jesse

So much to digest!

Okay, so there's lotslotslotslotsLOTS to talk about, and so much to digest from the past month.  I just don't have time to write about it all now, so another, much more extensive blog entry will be coming shortly.  

The concise version:  ScotiaFest and the UNL Chamber Music Institute were wonderful experiences that have inspired me to work harder and shoot higher.  I gained a little confidence from them, met wonderful musician friends that are scattered across the continent, and gained insight into who I am as a player.  Also, I think I improved more as a musician and a clarinetist since graduation, through these festivals, than I did the entirety of my senior year.

There you go.  Not very detailed, but all the important stuff is there.  Details later.

:-)

Nova Scotia, continued.

I am now at roughly the midpoint of my trip to Nova Scotia, and it has only gotten better. My quintet is performing the first and last (fourth) movements of the Brahms at a noon hour recital tomorrow, and I will be playing the final movement of the Weber Grand Duo Concertant on Tuesday's noon hour recital. Our quintet will also be playing the third movement of the Brahms quintet in a master class on Wednesday, and we hope to be able to get at least some work done on the second movement before the festival comes to an end, even if we don't get a chance to "perform" it. It's still great to get a chance to study this work. I think it is particularly great among the rest of Brahms's oeuvre a) because it is a major clarinet work, and b) because it is a later work, meaning that Brahms's compositional style had reached a wonderful maturity by the time this piece was written.

Nova Scotia is still beautiful, though it is a bit chilly. Yesterday we had a lobster boil, and I decided that lobster meat isn't worth the trouble of getting it out of the shell, and certainly not worth the money that you would have to pay for it if it weren't provided to you for free (as it was yesterday, though I guess it may have come partially from my festival tuition).

The other cool thing about this festival is this: we are given the opportunity to make friends with other folks of the same age who are serious about music, and these are friendships that I anticipate to welcome a reestablishment of whatever relationship was formed here at any time in the future. Also, it shows me that string players and wind players can get along (or at least clarinet players, anyway :-) ).

And on the location in general: my host family is the nicest one ever. I couldn't ask for anything more. They're so helpful in any way they can be, and it has been great getting tips from them about local restaurants, geography, and things to do. I've decided that if given the right opportunity to move to this area, I would probably do it. I actually prefer the chilliness to what I'll have to experience for the next two years in Waco. :-)

That's about all I have for now. More later, if you're lucky.