SPRING BREAK!!!

Spring break for Longy and company started out with a Nor'easter that brought 6-7 inches of snow in the Boston area and a foot north of us. My mom says, "Well, you wanted to have snow for winter!", to which I replied, "BUT IT'S NOT WINTER! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF MARCH!!!!" I suppose I forget where I live sometimes.

Life has been interesting. A bit stressful actually. Organizing this recital has turned out to be really high maintenence. I was really excited about it for a long time. Recital's are always a lot of work - but the end result is always well worth the hard work that goes into it. Now, I'm just really stressed, and worried, wanting this all to be over with. Being prepared for the actual recital isn't going to be a problem (May 14), but being prepared for the pre-recital jury is a little sticky. My original date for my pre-recital had to be moved up by 9 days which resulted in two less lessons at my disposal as well as only having 3 lessons left until the *new* jury All of my piano accompanied pieces (my Mozart aria, Wolf set, and Juliana Hall set) are in good shape and memorized - woo-hoo! However, I have two sets that are collaborative sets - 1 set of three Handel German da capo arias for voice, harpsichord, continuo and obligato instrument (I've chosen violin for 2 of them, and flute for the other), and then a set of 4 Bartok pieces for 3 voices. The problem is that 2 of the Handel were coached last semester, 1 hasn't be coached at all, and NONE of the Bartok have been coached. I know, I know... this is my own fault for doing a recital so full of collaborating projects! But, I love working with ensembles - and sharing something like my recital with others can be a lot of fun. That's what collaborating with others should be about, right? So, the problem is fitting in those ensemble coachings in, in the next 3 weeks.
Then comes big blow to the recital #2. My accompanist, who've I've been collaborating with now for almost 3 years has an injured right hand! Poor Naoko - she woke up Sunday with pain in her wrist and couldn't open up her hand. A VERY bad thing to have happen to a pianist. She's not sure what is wrong with it but is going away for 3 days to play in a recital in S. Carolina, so can't get in to a doctor this week. She is going to rest it as much as she can - and depending on how bad it is she may (MAY) have to cancel everything for the rest of the semester. She said she will decide in the next two weeks. This means I either postpone the recital or get a new accompanist to learn all of my music in record time - in time for the recital hearing.
So, this is what is going on in the life of Rachael at the moment. If you haven't heard from me recently it's because I'm either never home or dealing with too much stress to want to talk to anyone. :-(

On a happier note - I'll add pics from our St. Patrick's day escapade Saturday night. The girls and I had a lot of fun - being our weird and goofy selves.
It is spring break and it's nice not to have classes or coachings this week.

On to tackle life...