Back to London

So I am now sitting in my room trying to write the first major assignment of the year. I have to finish it today but it will be fine by now.

I am very happy to be back in London. The first week of classes has been fun and invigorating. I had a fantastic lesson with my teacher Walter Reiter. It was one of those lessons where I turn up tired but totally forget that I am by the end of it. My academic classes were also exciting and things are getting quite busy with lots of performances planned for the spring semester. Indeed the first is comming up in little more than a week. We are performing core pieces from the 18th century orchestral repertoire at a lunchtime concert at Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich on Tuesday 22nd at 1pm. (It is really at 1.05 or some such but that is hard too remember.)

In other news I have moved rooms in the house where I live in Kentish Town. I still share a room but we now have more space which is really nice. It is also warmer since we have double windows! I am getting started on lots of new repertoire and things are looking good. I really hope I can keep this positive. It makes such a difference.

3 month revisited

So I never got around to writing any more in 2007. I willtry to give a little survey of what I have been doing since I stoppd writing in October.

Early November at Trinity College of Music means "Greenwich Early Music Festival." I saw a chance to get a my first payed job at this occasion and I thus ushered for the entire 3 days of the festival - both for the instrument exhibition and for various concerts. I also performed in a concert in the Royal Naval Chapel with the other early music students... Pretty busy.

Trinity College is sometimes turned into a film set so one fine day we could see the following from our rehearsalroom...

The rest of the fall I was very focused on writing a thesis proposal which was part of my application for the DMus program at Royal College of Music. Right now I am waiting to hear from them. If they take me on I will be very happy but if not I have other things I can do - I can continue my studies at Trinity but I am also considering just taking private lessons and getting a part time job as a music teacher... Time will show.

My housemates were very kind in letting me use their computers at lot. I turned in the thesis proposal right before I left for Denmark for the holidays so there were some hectic times in December.

My travels home were rather uneventful and I was expecting to have a quite few weeks at home. Indeed my stay started out that way but...

One day I was reading a local paper where I learned that a production of New Years Concerts were being put on in Rønne (the biggest city on my home island). I called my old highschool music teacher to tell her that if they needed more violins I was around...

Turned out they did and the very next day I had a call from the conductor Mogens Dam. Right before christmas I got a big stack of music and peace was over.

I spent the rest of 2007 (from 26th and on) in rehearsal and performance and I must say it was a great initiative. The concerts took place in the old "electric plant" which is very beautiful but has been neclected. The team hehind the procution had transformed the space into a concerthall and built a stage and podiums for audiences.

Apart from the orchestra a choir, professional opera singers, local dancers (children, adults, folk), jugglers and dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet took part in this huge production. There were 4 concerts and all were close to sold out (the first two were). It was great fun.

Now I am getting ready to go back to London for another semester. It looks like I am going to be rather busy with lots of concerts and projects for classes I am taking.

I am also going to visit the U.S. (Oberlin and NY.) in early April about which I am excited and hopefull for the next term

Finally back

Dear all.

So I am finally sitting in front of a personal computer again after almost two month of begging my housemates to let me theirs for just looking at emails. It has been really hard loosing my computers. Expecially since I had my thesis proposal due for the application for a doctorade program at Royal College of Music. I maneaged though and I learned a lot from the experience.

I am now happily at home with my parents preparing for Christmas and the rest of my life so to speak. Yesterday I bought this computer and some security measures so potential theeves - forget about it! You have two of my computers anyway...

I will try to write about special things in my life in London in the next weeks so you all get updated about what has been happening apart form my computers being stolen. I have played in my first public concert in London, been a steward for the Greenwich Early Music Festival, gone to concerts, been on a trip to Oxford and just enjoyed life in the big city and with my new friends at no. 15.

Hope all of you have wonderful holidays and I will get back to you all soon.

Anne Marie

Studies and other things

So I have been in London for almost four weeks now. This means that I can give a clearer picture of student life as it is here. The picture shows my school building (King Charles Court) which is Trinity College of Music.

It took quite a while for my school to figure out my schedule but after a week of induction and a week of classes I finally got my (almost) final schedule AND I got into the classes I wanted. These are proving to be interesting and quite different from my previous experience. The most important difference from Oberlin is that there is no such thing as set reading assignments. The course descriptions come with a list of recommended readings. There are some projects to be done and by the end of the year there is an exam! I have just started the recomended readings!

My most exciting class so far is Public Presentation and Performance. We meet once a week and work on giving speaches to the other class members. In the first class we were "given" a word and we then had to talk about it for a minute. I had to talk about trees! For the next class I have to prepare a 5 min speach but I am only allowed to note down 5 words. That should be interesting.

My lessons with my new teacher are going very well. I am really exited. It is all so new but it was the right thing for me to do. Walter Reiter has a very interesting way of teaching. He will ask the student to imagine the music in their mind and then copy what they hear. It is quite fustrating at first in a way but it makes you so much more aware of what you are really doing. It also brings out the personal interpretation very strongly which is what he is after. He has already put me into an audition and an in-school competition so I not idel!

Outside school I have been exploring London a bit. Last weekend I went to Covent Garden and Notting Hill with a girl I met in the church I go to. This weekend a friend from Oberlin called me and we went to chinatown where we tried some restaurants and walked around.

The church which runs the student house I live in is really wonderful - and not just because they allow me to practise there! I have met so many nice people. A lot of the congregation consists of people who are studying in London or have come here from such countrie as: Brazil, U.S.A., Germany, Filipines, Finland... There are also a few musicians and I think we will have a small string-group playing in the service soon. I am also getting into various ensembles at Trinity so I will be busy. I am having rehearsals with two different groups next week...

London life

So I have finally moved to London and I have settled in quite well. It has been an interesting experience moving over here.

I came to London on Monday September 3rd. The weekend before I spent with my parents in the Copenhagen area. I did all the driving and in one day we did 200km which is a lot in Denmark and for a novice to driving. It went quite well though and we had some very nice days together before I took off.

My travels to London went all smooth untill I arrived at the Liverpool Street Station in London. I then learned that almost all the London tubes lines had been closed due to a strike! Luckely the line I was to live by was one of the two not closed down - but my future roommate who was on her way to meet me got stuck in transit. We ended up getting home rather late. The problem was getting from Liverpool St. to a stations that had the Northern Line passing through.

Since then I have spent quite some time settling in and it is working very well. I live in Kentish Town in a house run by a Lutheran church. There are three girls and two boys (and me) in the house and they are all great people. I can practise at home and in the church as well which is great. I have quite a commute to school but I can also practise there it I need to. One of the other girls is a flute player who used to study at Academy. It is great to have another musician around. Saturday one of the other girls had a party and two of her friends comming were violin teachers!

Once of the things which is really fun for me about this area of London is the number of stores on the High Street. You basically walk for 5 minutes to get there and there are 3 grocery stores, an "earth food" store, an number of specials food stores and every other store you could imagine - except fashion stores! If you go one stop further south (or walk) you get to Camden where all the biggger stores are as well as a giant grocery (Sainbury's). The house I live in is vey typical of the area. On the picture it is the house furthest to the right. The other picture is from the High Street.

I also had my first meeting with Walter Reiter who is going to be my teacher. I went to his house and we talked about repertoire and what I should be doing for the next year. He got me into doing an in-school competition late next month. I have to learn/relearn the Bach g-minor Sonata for that. It is good to have some things to get you going.

Next week is Induction week. I will then learn what other classes I am required to take, when they are and such things. I am looking forward to getting started. A few of my friends from Oberlin are comming over to study in London as well. I expected to have a great time but I had not expected to make friends and fit into the house where I live so easily.

I have also been to the church which runs the house for the first time this morning. The people are really nice and I had a chance to talk to some of them over tea after the service. Next sunday I will probably bring my violin and play along next sunday. I have been asked to do that.

It is proving to be a good experience to be here.

Getting ready and other things

So it has been almost a month since I last wrote on this blog. Amazing how time has gone by and much has happened in that time. I have eighter had not time to write or I have thought "I should wait till I have something to write about"!

I played the last of my two concert in the beginning of the month. I did not have a big audience but those who came applauded very entusiatically and I actually did an encore! That has not happened in a long time.

After that I went into workmode and did very long hours at Gudhjem Røgeri. In the last week I did something like 8 to 9 hours a day. I was often alone at the counter which could at times be rather stressful. I had to make pizza, serve meals and take orders all at the same time. Luckely the other people at work were good at comming over to help when the line go too long!

I had my last day at work on the 17th of August. Since then the focus has been on getting ready for the move to London. It is all a bit daunting at the moment - there are so many things to do. However I am slowly getting there. I have not made things easyer for myself by getting a new computer which runs on Vista. By now I have started to rather like it. It is much smaller thatn my former computer meaning that I do not kill myself by taking it with me!

I finally received my last books from the U.S. at the beginning of August - and now I have just sent them and quite a few other items off to London. I also try to get back in shape playingwise and then of course we all go for walks inthe beautiful nature and enjoy the garden which is full of fruit and flowers.

My life on Bornholm

So it has been a long time since I wrote last, and I though I had better tell a little about my life this summer.
I have been trying to do a number of things at the same time but looming large has been my job at a smokehouse and my preparations for the two concerts I am giving this summer. Apart from that I am also preparing to take my danish drivers licence and trying to get things together before I move to London in September.
I actually enjoy my job at the smokehouse. I fill almost every function possible except those which only the boss can do. We work long hours and I am pretty tired every evening.
Nevertheless I found time to practise and my first concert went really well. I also played at an evening song at a local church where the picture is taken. Playing concerts feels like comming home. I can work others jobs but when I play a concert I feel much more confident and ease even though I present a 45 minute solo program.
I also practise a lot for my driving test which is comming up very soon. I did not do very well in my last lessson so I am pulling myself together. I should start reading about the engine again. They do ask you questions about the construction of the engine and who you test if things are all right!
I also got a scholarship from Trinity College. The confirmation letter just arrived. I have to do some work for it and it is not quite full tuition - but it makes things possible and that is an important thing.
One bad thing is that all my books which I sent from the U.S. 10 weeks ago have not yet arrived. I really hope they are not lost somewhere. I have so much music and all my books from two years of study. Ohh well. I can do nothing right now. Just hope for the best.