fingerprints, paperwork, retirement, oh my! June 25, 2009

Why do I live in this part of the world??? I hate the heat!

Anyhow… Life is looking up a little bit today. Yesterday I went and turned in paperwork at the community college for my adjunct position. This included having to go to the police department to get fingerprinted yet again… This is the fourth time in the past five years. The DOJ is going to get tired of running my background checks soon at this rate. Why is it that I always feel nervous walking into a police station?

As I was standing in Human Resources at the school signing yet more paperwork, the very nice HR lady was trying to explain the differences between two different retirement programs that I was offered. If you plan to teach for a long time, go with plan A. If not, stick with plan B. I looked at her and tried very hard not to tell her how young I am and how long it will be before I can retire. I already have 3 years in plan A (STRS) from working as a substitute teacher, so I decided to cut down on the confusion by sticking with what I already have. There is really an inordinate amount of paperwork involved in being hired at this school. I guess I should probably just try to get used to it. Yippie.

I Hate Summer June 22, 2009

It sounds almost blasphemous to say, but yes, I do indeed hate summer. I’m not good at not being insanely busy, and I get depressed sitting at home for too long. I also get cranky and annoyed with my roommates at the drop of a hat. Bleh!

On top of being bored and depressed, I haven’t had the greatest summer so far… Found out a couple weeks ago that Elixir has been nixed by the old crone who holds the music department here in her iron vise-like grip. And a couple weeks ago I got an email from the summer program I’m doing next month… It was the email with the cast list. We’re doing Gianni Schicchi and Dido & Aeneas. There was just one problem… My name wasn’t anywhere on it. The retard who’s running the program “forgot” to cast me because he “misplaced” my rep list/resume… both copies of it, that is. I sent one in with my application and gave him another copy in person at the audition. So tell me, how the HELL do you lose both of them? And how do you just forget about someone you gave nearly a full-ride scholarship to? Answer: either you’re stupidly incompetent or you’re wishing you hadn’t accepted me and want me out of the program. I’m going with stupidly incompetent, because if he wants me out of the program he chose a really stupid way to go about getting me to drop it. He did finally fix it, but he cast me only for Dido & Aeneas, which he has TRIPLE cast! (Most of the people in the program are undergrads. I’m one of the few graduate students, yet I’m also one of the few who didn’t get cast for both operas. What’s up with that?) Supposedly he’s going to decide at the beginning of the second week who is actually going to perform and he may split roles up. That’s going to be a freaking mess. I really don’t want to deal with the man anymore. It will only be a two week program, thankfully, and I shouldn’t have to deal with him ever again once it’s over.

So, yes, I hate summer. And not just because of the heat.

Excited, annoyed, overwhelmed, and everything in between… April 27, 2009

I am uber-excited about some things, and not so excited about others… It sounds like we will, in fact, be doing Elixir next spring. Yay!!! But unfortunatly the tenor who will be singing Nemorino is about the size of a mountain, and he just keeps getting bigger.  Another mountainous tenor of my acquaintance recently commented that he is glad that opera singers don’t have to be stick thin, which I am glad for too, because I am not stick thin. But opera singers also need to be strong and healthy. Eating yourself to the size of Jonah’s whale is not exactly a picture of health. Breath control, stage movement, endurance, etc… All aspect of singing are affected by weight. Not to mention the fact that no one wants to see a romantic lead who looks like a tub of lard. It makes me wish Nemorino was a baritone… I know a couple baritones who would make excellent Nemorinos… If only they were tenors. Sigh.

One of my professors informed me today that I’ll likely have to take yet another course next spring… In the fall I’m taking vocal literature as an undergrad course, and now they want me to take it again in the spring as a graduate course. This is the semester I’m also supposed to be taking my theory course and possibly an opera history seminar. On top of everything else I’ll be doing that semester (like German, lessons, oh, and performing a lead role in an opera and teaching at a J/C two days a week), I’m already getting overwhelmed about next year. And I’m not finished with this school year yet! Ugh!

I suppose I shouldn’t complain… I chose to do this program, after all, and I’m glad I’m doing it and getting these experiences. It’s just all so overwhelming at the moment!

Oh! I went to see Faust this weekend… Awesome! The bass who sang Mephistopholes (Hao Jiang Tian) was fantastic! I can’t wait to read his book, Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to Met.

Frustration! April 23, 2009

It is 2:30 in the morning, and I have a recital in 17 hours. I cannot sleep!!! I didn’t think I was nervous, but aparently I was wrong. So frustrating! So right now I’m drinking a rum & coke (heavy on the rum), hoping the alcohol in it knocks me out.

So my second semester of my master’s degree is almost over. I entered two different competitions this semester and didn’t place in either one. That was disappointing. But I did make it into the summer program I applied for, so that is good. It’s a program specifically geared toward improving stage performance, which I need immensely.

I’ve also been guaranteed a role in our spring opera production at my school, although the opera we’ll be doing is still up in the air. The latest idea that’s been kicked around is Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amore, which I really hope we do, because I will get the role of Adina, which I am dying to sing! It’s my favorite opera!

Whoa! Really starting to feel that rum… Time to try to catch some Z’s!

Ach, Gott! Aren’t there standards anymore? March 20, 2009

Ach, Gott! I went to a senior recital tonight for a vocal performance major. It was painful! Excruciatingly horrid diction! I don’t know how to describe the voice other than barbaric in timbre, insecure in pitch, and sloppy, sloppy, sloppy! His manerisms made him painful to watch. Did I mention his singing was sloppy?

The only things that made the recital tolerable were 1) the amazing pianist whose antics are so fun to watch, and 2) the antics of the very gay and very opinionated man sitting next to me.

There really should be higher standards for who is allowed to continue into upper division vocal study. If you can’t sing, you shouldn’t be allowed to complete a vocal performance degree. Period! If there is no standard that vocal students must meet in order to receive their degree, does the degree really mean anything? I think not! I know several freshmen and sophomores who sing better than this guy. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This is your brain on music theory… February 9, 2009

I love the sound of the rain! It’s so relaxing…

I’ve been spending the last few hours working on homework for my theory class. I really hate theory! I might not hate it so much if it hadn’t been so long since I took my last theory class… I finished the regular theory track in 2001, and then took one other upper division theory a year or two later, but I haven’t thought about theory since then. My poor little brain is rebelling!

Otherwise, things are… hectic.

Back to School January 23, 2009

Week one of seventeen. Check!

The first week of a semester is always stressful. You get umpteen syllabi, all listing each professor’s seemingly unreasonable demands. Requirements, assignments, exams… They all get piled on top of you until you feel you will burst and want to scream at your professors, “Do you honestly think this is the only class I have!?!”

I must admit that I only had a mild case of that sentiment this week. There were moments, like when I got my vocal pedagogy syllabus, with yet another research paper required, that I wanted to drop everything and cry. Or rather, I would have cried if I were a crying sort of person. I’m not. I tend to think this is a very good thing at times. All in all, though, this hasn’t been a bad week. Of course classes didn’t start until Wednesday, so I still haven’t had my theory class (which I’m determined NOT to stress out about), and I had to cancel lessons on Thursday because of a less-than-wonderful mandatory meeting about my TA position. Next week will be my first full week, with everything but my performance ensemble. (Note to self: Meet with faculty advisor and other members of this ensemble to iron out details.) There is never an end to the “stuff” that has to get done.

Why can’t a degree in performance just be about the performance? That would be nice. Of course I totally understand the need for language, research and history classes… But I am not thrilled about having to take theory again. I am not thrilled about doing research, but at some level I enjoy it. The college is holding a Graduate Research Symposium in May. I am hoping to present a paper on vocal pedagogy. I’ve been researching Cornelius Reid, who is an interesting character. His theories are controversial, which is probably why I find him interesting. I had originally hoped to do a comparative study of Reid and Richard Miller, who are two of the most prominent American vocal pedagogues of our time, but it turned out to be much too broad a topic. Maybe for my doctorate… If I go that far.

Back in the Saddle Again January 7, 2009

This break has been long. I haven’t really been bored… I’ve had plenty to keep me busy (cleaning/organizing my apartment, planning for my 15 voice students, planning for the music appreciation class that I’ll be teaching, getting started on learning the hour-and-a-half worth of music I have to sing this semester, etc.), but I was still very glad when campus opened back up on Monday. It’s still a ghost town, but the buildings are open, the library is back up and running, and I don’t have to spend my days holed up in my apartment. I’m a bit worried about what this next comment might say about me… I realized recently that my office at school feels more like my “home” than my apartment does. So far today I’ve spent almost four hours in my office, most of that time getting work done on the above mentioned projects, and I plan to spend another couple hours. My only annoyance at the moment is that the practice rooms are locked for some stupid reason and I don’t have a key.

Next week I will start teaching lessons again. I have 15 students this semester. Yikes! That has made it difficult to find music enough for all of them (without doubling them up on literature). I am excited, though… I convinced the department head to move their “master class” to Tuesdays, so I can be there. The idea is that  will be able to (at least partially) take over the master classes and hopefully have time to start teaching them some IPA. It makes sense, since I teach two thirds of the voice majors. I’m also hoping to do an opera scenes class with them in the fall.

I was planning a recital for this semester at COS (where I teach lessons), but it has had to be cancelled. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I was really looking forward to it, but on the other hand, it’s a relief that I don’t have to worry about it. I still have to learn a ton of music. I just have a little bit longer until I have to have it all performance ready.

Oh, well… I am happy to be back at school, even if classes haven’t started yet. I know I’ll be incredibly stressed out once they do. For now it’s nice to be here and be able to get work done without feeling like a crazy person because of looming due dates.

filling in the gap December 5, 2008

Wow! It’s been a really long time since I posted. I have been super busy with school and work… The semester is almost over. After this weekend I will feel like I’m home free. I have a couple tests, one paper, and a song exam in the next two weeks. This weekend, though, I am singing Messiah. Last night was our dress rehearsal. I was annoyed. The made all of the soloists get there at 6:45, but didn’t have us sing until at least 8. Then the orchestra insisted that they had to go home at exactly 9:45. I didn’t even get to go through two of my solos with them. I was annoyed. Yeah, it was the paid orchestra (that lives locally) that had to get home, not the unpaid soloists who still had to drive an hour to get home. Grr.

The semester (thank God it’s almost done!) has been good, but really busy. I’ve been trying to get used to just being on stage again. That’s been interesting. My opera workshop performance was a couple weeks ago. It went well, but it was not an entirely fantastic experience. The director (Prof. dJ) wasn’t all that helpful to those, like myself, who were new to it, and when she was giving notes at rehearsals she could be really sarcastic and rude. So I’m trying to put together a chamber music group so that I don’t have to be in opera workshop next semester. If it flies it will be really fun. It will be me and two guitarists. I’ve found some really fun music for soprano and guitar, so I’m really excited about it. Next year my voice teacher, T, is taking over opera workshop, so I’m going to be in it then, but for now I’m going to try to avoid Prof. dJ.

Teaching has been going well, too. Most of my students are really great. I do have a couple of flakes, one of whom I’m going to ask to find a different teacher next semester. He’s lazy and doesn’t think he needs to show up to his lessons. He’s got another thing coming when he gets his grade.

I got to see La Bohème twice this semester – once in Fresno and once in San Francisco. In San Francisco Mimi was sung by Angela Gheorghiu. Where I was sitting it was hard to hear, but she was still awesome.

from “Men! Ugh!” to John Duke was evil September 24, 2008

Well, after an emotionally turbulent beginning, this week is slowly improving. My only comment on the beginning of the week is this: Men! Ugh!

Yesterday actually was really good. Mom came and visited me and we had a good talk. And she bought me a bookcase. Very nice. Mostly I think it was just nice to relax for part of a day, since I really didn’t feel like I got a weekend at all. Then we went to lunch with the guy of the above “Men! Ugh!” moment. That was interesting.

In the evening during opera workshop we had our first runthrough. I actually did pretty good, I thought. I took my tempo a bit too fast, but I nailed my recit, which I’ve been having a lot of trouble with, so that improved my mood a lot.

Today has been fine. Italian was boring, my lesson was good. But in about a half hour I have Diction. Usually I really like that class, but today we have a singing test, and I have to sing a John Duke song that is kicking my butt. I am really starting to not like it. A little while ago the above mentioned “Men! Ugh!” guy went through it with me and it was a total train wreck. Yes, I am really starting to hate that song.