Some more pictures:
Ceilidh Band at International Night;
Me and Ang at Top of the Hub;
Shelby group at Phillip's;
Michlle, Arlyn, me and Lorena at International Night
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Well, the first semester has ended and now it's almost the end of 2005! Where has the time gone??!! I can't even believe that Christmas has come and gone already. Let's see if I can give a short summary of the past four months, and then be better about keeping in touch as the new year and new semester begins!
Classes began in September and right from the get-go things just started right in. That's the difference between being a first time student and a second year student - no trying to get settled in at the beginning of the school year. One other important thing I learned was when a course is a pre-requisite for another there is a REASON for this! Trying to take both in the same semester is insane! I don't know how I made it - but I did and it was very rewarding and I feel like I grew soooo much. Classes this past semester included: Performing Bach (amazing!!), Research and Materials (the bain of my existance), Independent Study (a ton of work - but found my nische in being a researcher-in fact my advisor commented that she thought I had a second calling. I'm a little freaked about this), History of Art Song, Art Song Rep., Vocal Chamber Ensemble (I was placed with a saxaphonist and we worked on a very moving set of pieces by the composer Lori Laitman entitled "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" - poems by the children who were held in the Terezin Concentration Camp outside of Prague), Vocal Seminar, and voice lessons. In addition to these courses I am the Global Awareness Chair on the Student Advisory Council. My first job began before the semsester started when Hurricane Katrina hit the south. Myself, Michelle (President), and Bree (V. Pres) drafted a letter proposing that Longy be willing to host a music student from Loyola University in New Orleans. Both of our schools are accredidated music schools and we wanted the option to be there in case there was Loyola music student who needed a home for the semester. Our administration was open to the idea, and although we never got any requests we were just happy that our school was willing to reach out in this way. The other very successful event that I was in charge of this semester was the International Night. This year I invited all of our International students to host a table from their individual countries. These tables included food, drink, pictures, maps etc. as well as many people performing music (vocal and instrumental) and teaching dances. Being Scottish myself (not!) I taught 2 Scottish country dances compliments of my dear Katie who taught us so many while we were in Hungary. I had the music too, so we had a live Ceilidh!!!
The SAC also hosted a trip to Salem this past October during Halloween weekend. We had a great group of people that went. We hopped on the commuter rail and got to Salem just in time for the first snowfall of the season! It was a heavy, wet snow so by the time we left (4.5 hours later) we were all quite wet and really cold!!
On to more Academics..... the topic I chose for my Independent Study was "The Presence of Folk Melody and Rhythm in the Song Arrangements of Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly". I researched all semester and then gave a lecture-recital at the end of the semester. In doing my research I found a guy named Gabor who teaches Hungarian Dancing on Friday nights over at Boston University. Angela and I went most Friday evenings and had a blast. Of course, when it came to my lecture-recital I didn't feel like I was competant enough to teach on my own and I needed a male to help teach the male part so Denes came to help out. It was a lot of fun!
I was very lucky to have a great group of girls help me out in singing some ensemble pieces for the recital too! Thanks guys!! :-)
Non-school related activities this past semester also included my continued work at the Harvard Fine Arts Library and singing in the Christ Church Cambridge Adult Choir. I've also joined the Harvard Graduate Christian Fellowship and that has also been a blessing during the hectic semester. My group of friends and I have also started a cooking club. We meet once a month at someone's house and cook a dish according to the theme. For example, our first month's theme was "Recipes our mother's taught us". It was soooo much fun. What was really special was the fact that every single dish was homemade, not store bought. We also have a rule that every dish that comes to the event must be fully cooked - no cooking allowed at the actual event. We stress the point that we meet to eat, not too cook!!! :-)
Now that the semester is over and it is the holidays I am enjoying some time in Ohio with my family and friends. It's been really enjoyable so far and quite relaxing... but the relaxing will have to stop very soon as I have loads of practicing and studying to do for when I get back!
I'm going to try and post some photos but don't know if it will work straight away as I'm knew to this blog site. Cheers for now! xxxx
Classes began in September and right from the get-go things just started right in. That's the difference between being a first time student and a second year student - no trying to get settled in at the beginning of the school year. One other important thing I learned was when a course is a pre-requisite for another there is a REASON for this! Trying to take both in the same semester is insane! I don't know how I made it - but I did and it was very rewarding and I feel like I grew soooo much. Classes this past semester included: Performing Bach (amazing!!), Research and Materials (the bain of my existance), Independent Study (a ton of work - but found my nische in being a researcher-in fact my advisor commented that she thought I had a second calling. I'm a little freaked about this), History of Art Song, Art Song Rep., Vocal Chamber Ensemble (I was placed with a saxaphonist and we worked on a very moving set of pieces by the composer Lori Laitman entitled "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" - poems by the children who were held in the Terezin Concentration Camp outside of Prague), Vocal Seminar, and voice lessons. In addition to these courses I am the Global Awareness Chair on the Student Advisory Council. My first job began before the semsester started when Hurricane Katrina hit the south. Myself, Michelle (President), and Bree (V. Pres) drafted a letter proposing that Longy be willing to host a music student from Loyola University in New Orleans. Both of our schools are accredidated music schools and we wanted the option to be there in case there was Loyola music student who needed a home for the semester. Our administration was open to the idea, and although we never got any requests we were just happy that our school was willing to reach out in this way. The other very successful event that I was in charge of this semester was the International Night. This year I invited all of our International students to host a table from their individual countries. These tables included food, drink, pictures, maps etc. as well as many people performing music (vocal and instrumental) and teaching dances. Being Scottish myself (not!) I taught 2 Scottish country dances compliments of my dear Katie who taught us so many while we were in Hungary. I had the music too, so we had a live Ceilidh!!!
The SAC also hosted a trip to Salem this past October during Halloween weekend. We had a great group of people that went. We hopped on the commuter rail and got to Salem just in time for the first snowfall of the season! It was a heavy, wet snow so by the time we left (4.5 hours later) we were all quite wet and really cold!!
On to more Academics..... the topic I chose for my Independent Study was "The Presence of Folk Melody and Rhythm in the Song Arrangements of Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly". I researched all semester and then gave a lecture-recital at the end of the semester. In doing my research I found a guy named Gabor who teaches Hungarian Dancing on Friday nights over at Boston University. Angela and I went most Friday evenings and had a blast. Of course, when it came to my lecture-recital I didn't feel like I was competant enough to teach on my own and I needed a male to help teach the male part so Denes came to help out. It was a lot of fun!
I was very lucky to have a great group of girls help me out in singing some ensemble pieces for the recital too! Thanks guys!! :-)
Non-school related activities this past semester also included my continued work at the Harvard Fine Arts Library and singing in the Christ Church Cambridge Adult Choir. I've also joined the Harvard Graduate Christian Fellowship and that has also been a blessing during the hectic semester. My group of friends and I have also started a cooking club. We meet once a month at someone's house and cook a dish according to the theme. For example, our first month's theme was "Recipes our mother's taught us". It was soooo much fun. What was really special was the fact that every single dish was homemade, not store bought. We also have a rule that every dish that comes to the event must be fully cooked - no cooking allowed at the actual event. We stress the point that we meet to eat, not too cook!!! :-)
Now that the semester is over and it is the holidays I am enjoying some time in Ohio with my family and friends. It's been really enjoyable so far and quite relaxing... but the relaxing will have to stop very soon as I have loads of practicing and studying to do for when I get back!
I'm going to try and post some photos but don't know if it will work straight away as I'm knew to this blog site. Cheers for now! xxxx
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