That sure went quickly! A month goes by very fast when one is having fun and not a slave to researching and practicing (although I should have been - bad Rachael!!). In short I spent the past month with the fam, spent time with friends and all the babes, got hooked on House (thanks Sarah!), laid on an operating table and gave the best "humming" performance of a lifetime (of which I have no memory), and brushed up my right-hand piano skills on scales and arpeggios (lucky me!). Needless to say, I was able to get by all last semester and all break without a sore throat, runny nose, and one of those "tell-tale" sneezes. But as fate would have it the day before I left to come back to Boston I was attacked by an evil, evil virus! What a joy it was to drive back 14 hours with this special little friend. So special that I got to miss the very first day of classes.

So now I'm back, not unpacked at all and already have so much to do it's unbelievable. No research classes this semester, but an audition and recital to prepare for. Classes for the semester include: Vocal Seminar, Alexander Technique and Feldenkreis in Conjunction, Vocal Improvisation for the Classical Musician, Words and Music: Analysis of Song, Art Song Repertory, and applied voice lessons as well as my Master's Recital (May 17 !!!). I think my favorite new class so far will be the Vocal Improv class. It's probably also the scariest for me as I am an avid improver ONLY in the privacy of my own room and/or shower. However, there are only 6 of us in the class, I love the prof teaching the class, and the first day was already a lot of fun and really not so scary. The first 6 weeks of the class will focus on jazz/standards and the last 6 weeks on Baroque and then we'll have a class concert as a culmination of the course. Hey, who knows - I may come out of this whole grad school experience as a highly successful improvisitory lounge singer! Now that would be a sight!
Other things that are beginning to pile up are the usual SAC (student advisory council) stuff and I'm back to work at Harvard doing my thing at the circulation desk (that would be being very helpful to the patrons, and doing homework in front of the computer). In addition I have agreed to help out two students at Tufts University with their master's thesis "Music and Reading Subskills in Kindergartners". For the music portion of the study they are using the MAT (Music Aptitude Test) which was created by my dear friend Katie (that's DR. Katie Overy) who also suggested me to help them out with the test scoring and Kindergarten observations. (Many, many thanks to you Katie if you're reading this!). So basically, I score the rhythm tests taken by the kindergartners as the tests come to me and will eventually go into two different schools, at least one that definetely uses the Kodaly concept, and write up an observation of that lesson adhering to some specific guidelines of what to look and listen for. It's like music ed observations all over again!! It's nice to be doing something with music and using knowledge from a degree I've already earned as well as the opportunity to earn a little extra $$ on the side! (again... thank you Katie!)
Well, alas, the fun of blogging must end for the evening as scales and arpeggios are calling me! If anyone has suggestions on how to learn melodic minor scales easily pleeeeaaase give me some hints. I'll take anything at this point. Pics with this entry include: Me being attacked by darling little children (can you see me? i'm in there!), Me and Seth and Aria, and snow from our porch (can't really see much, but it's def. snow!!!)