Passsion season is over

The past month or so has been one of the bussiet times of my entire life - but also one of the most productive and rewarding. I have played my first professional gig, been concertmaster on the St. Johns passion, played a concert performing pieces that I never had my teacher give me coaching on - and feeling good about it. Finally I have come to the point where I believe that I am on the brink of the profession and that is a great feeling.

The St. Johns passion performance took place in The Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich. It is amazing to be able to spend hours in this space preparing this wonderful music. Having Richard Egarr directing was a relevation. I learned so much form the experience. All of a sudden I had to be in charge of things and I felt I could do it.

Another venue in Greenwith close to Trinity College of Music is St. Alfege where the early music students had their the last concert of the academic year. I had the chance to play with our professor in that recital (see picture). It was good to perform again.

Passion season is a busy season for musicians and I was affected too though I only had three performances. In addition I had a few personal upheavals in my life. At the time it hurt but looking back I think it was all for the best. Sometimes you need the pain in order to realize things and move on the the next stage of life.

My next entry will happen once I have returned from the Spring holidays... I am leaving soon.

...and then comes exams, competitions and the first non-Trinity concerts.

Life is full of excitement.

News from the process

So my determination to update this site at a regular basis did not hold on for long. Let me therefore limit me to mention a few of the things that have been going on in my life these last few weeks.

End January my mother came to visit me. I had forgotten that having visitors takes energy so that did take me by surprise. However I really am glad that she came. We had a great time seeing London and it was good having a break from school.

Soon enough that took up my time again. By now my academic classes beging to really demand attention. The end-of-the-year projects can not longer be treated in a calm fashion - so it is off the British Library to do reading and lots of time at the desk searching around for information.

In other news I now have three ensembles that I can call established. I have spent some considerable time managing bookings for concerts. Right now most concerts come through Trinity. The school has aprogram of "off-campus" concerts where you sign up with your group. If anything comes up you then receive an email. In addition I have been contacting some churches directly about lunchtime recitals and all together I have a few bookings for the spring. In addition there are the orchestra projects run by Trinity, ensemble projects and the od gig that I get offered.

One special event was the debut of my violin duo which I run with my friend from Oberlin Sarah Titterington. We call it Oberlin Duo! The debut took place in a pub called The White Heart and it was lots of fun. Our repertoire of baroque violin duets worked really well in the setting to the surprise of everyone there. We got a really god response. The event was run by two students from Trinity. The idea was to bring classical music to a new audiences and on the program was improv. rock, wind quintet and us - very varied indeed.

Now it is only to keep things up. My other ensembles are a violin and cello duo called Duo Chorde and a trio with gambe and harpsichord that is yet nameless. We will solve that though!

To my wonderful friends

So I was thinking for a while about what to write on my blog. Realizing that I have made some very special friends I want to dedicate an entry to them.

My friends tend to fall into the two categories of music-friends and "other friends". However since coming to London the categories have started to merge. In the picture you see my two wonderful housemates Karen and Melissa. Without them I would not have been able to pull through the fall and settle in so well. We live in close quarters at no. 15. I am going to miss them a lot when/if they leave. Melissa is a flutist and having another musician in the house has been fantastic. Thank you Karen and Melissa for your kindness to me!

Outside the house I have made friends at my school - Trinity College of Music - and through old friends from the States. That way I have met my non-music friends Lizzy (picture), Hope and Melanie (and forgive me if I spell your names wrong!) It is something special to have friends who are really interested in what you do without being music students. You also understand why I have chose to live in a house connected to a church and be active in the christian life.

At Trinity a lot of my friendships grow out of chamber music. I a way rehearsing is the most refined form of social interaction. You have to retain you personality while also adapting to a wide variety of people. I enjoy all my groups from my trio with Asako and Jenny where we play mainly French music to my duo with Amelie where we experiment with performance practise issues.

Outside school I am also starting to meet musicians my age. Most important at this point however is my collaboration with my old friend from Oberlin Sarah Titterington. We just had our first performance as a duo. We have known each other for a long time and since we have studied with the same teachers it made sense that our styles would match somehow. It is also fantastic to have someone around who you have known for that long when you move to a new place.

Thanks to all the above people and others I have not mentioned my life in London has been much more pleasant that it would otherwise have been. It is mainly due to you that I have retained a positive attitude and I just want to thank you all. Special thank to David Breitman whom I met a short while ago when he was in London. It is a very special thing when a former teacher cares about your progress and musical development.

The Spring semester is now ahead. The options and possibilities are many - now it is just to see which ones work out!

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...