Longy's Commencement




With one of our favorite teachers, "Mr." Brian Moll. As Bree said - this picture sums it all up! Great face! Oh, the stories we have...
Now... the nice photo.

Beach Day

The day before Bree moved out she and I spent some fun last roomie time together at the Beach. Oh - and the dogs came too! Simon's first trip to the ocean!

"I've got all my sisters with me!"

2004

2008

Bree leaves on Thursday to move back to Texas so we held a little farewell dinner this evening at John Harvard's - our last night out together . We decided to reenact our "where it all started" photo from 2004 when we were all just Boston babies. Notice the signs of maturity and natural aging beauty 4 years later.

In other news - I'm looking for a subletter for the months of June, July, and August and then someone to join the lease in September. Any takers?

The Stratus Ensemble Weekend Adventures

Yhasmin and Deirdre

Yhasmin and Deirdre showing their instruments to young audience members.

The Stratus Ensemble

Lindsay Albert, piano; Yhasmin Valenzuela, clarinet; Rachael Chagat, soprano; Deirdre Viau, flute


The Stratus Ensemble is a chamber ensemble featuring winds, piano, and voice. Stratus came into existence in 2006, as a wind trio formed by three graduate students at the Longy School of Music to explore the often overlooked chamber music repertoire for winds. Later the group evolved to include piano and voice. The ensemble performs eclectic programs which include traditional classic works, as well as contemporary music and Latin music. The Stratus Ensemble performs in public and private concerts throughout the Boston area, and gives educational clinics at schools.

Lindsay Albert
Lindsay Albert received her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Boston College in 2005, with majors in Music and French. Upon graduation, Boston College awarded her their distinguished Father Barthes memorial Award, given in recognition of artistic and academic excellence. During her time at Boston College , Lindsay appeared as both soloist and collaborative pianist with the Boston College Chamber Music Society, the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and the Boston College University Chorale.
In 2007, Lindsay received her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano from the Longy School of Music. During her time at Longy, Lindsay collaborated extensively with vocalists and instrumentalists in solo recitals, performance classes, and chamber ensemble settings. She continues to work closely with students at the Longy School of Music, serving as an accompanist for performance classes, vocal chamber ensembles, and private voice studios. Lindsay has had the privilege of performing in master classes given by Sondra Kelly, Martin Katz, and Warren Jones. She is a student of Wayman Chin.

Rachael Chagat
Rachael Chagat, soprano, earned her Bachelor’s degree at Capital University in Columbus, OH in music education. She continued her studies at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary where she earned a Certificate. Rachael graduated from the Longy School of Music with both a Master’s with distinction and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Vocal Performance with distinction. While at Longy, Rachael was a 2005 Honors Competition winner and a finalist in the 2007 Concerto Competition. In addition to being a member of the Stratus Ensemble, she is active as a choral conductor in Worthington, OH for a summer choral camp she co-founded.

Yhasmin Valenzuela
Yhasmin Valenzuela, native of Peru, earned her Bachelor’s degree at the Lima Conservatory “Josafat Roel Pineda” in both clarinet performance and music education. She continued her studies in the United States at Texas Christian University where she received her Master’s Degree in Clarinet Performance. In 2005, she obtained a Graduate Performance Diploma with distinction in clarinet at the Longy School of Music. She has performed in ensembles in Peru, Mexico and the United States, including Lima Symphony Orchestra, TCU Symphony Orchestra, TCU Wind Ensemble, Musica Anatolia Contemporary Ensemble. Currently, she is a member of the Stratus Ensemble and clarinet faculty at the Westwood Public Schools and Beaver Country Day School.

Deirdre Viau
Deirdre Viau received a Graduate Performance Diploma in Flute from the Longy School of Music. She studied flute with Julia Scolnik and Vanessa Mulvey, and jazz improvisation with Peter Cassino. Ms. Viau was a featured performer at SeptemberFest 2006, demonstrating free improvisation and participating in a panel discussion. She performed chamber music for Longy's Modern American Music Department concert series in February 2007. Ms. Viau currently performs chamber music with the Stratus Ensemble. She teaches flute at the Longfellow School in Cambridge.

Spring is Coming, Spring, My Joy

Choros #2 for flute and clarinet - Heitor Villalobos (1887-1959)

Three Browning Songs, Op. 44 - Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

The Year’s at the Spring
Ah, Love, but a Day!
I Send my Heart up to Thee!

Sonatine for flute and clarinet - Andre Jolivet (1905-1974)
I
II
III

As It Fell Upon A Day - Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Contradanza - Paquito D'Rivera (1948)
arr.Juan Fernando Ruiz

Ganymed - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

Sonatine en Trio op.85 for flute, clarinet and piano - Florent Schmitt (1870-1959)
Assez anime
Assez vif
Tres Lent
Anime

Fifth Avenue Apple Store


FAO Schwartz fun...


They had a Harry Potter section - I almost fainted from excitement! I'm desperately hoping that the Sorting Hat will place me in the House I want "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin".

A likely suitor who is my height!

Michelle's birthday dinner on Fifth Ave.

Michelle is SOOOO excited!

Times Square on the way back to the bus station.

Spring is Coming, Spring, My Joy

The Stratus Ensemble

Lindsay Albert, piano
Rachael Chagat, soprano
Yhasmin Valenzuela, clarinet
Deirdre Viau, flute

Works by Villa-Lobos, Beach, Schubert, Copland, Jolivet, Schmitt, and D'Rivera


Friday, May 2, 7:30pm
St. Theresa Parish Church
35 South Main Street
Sherborn, MA 01770


Sunday, May 4, 2pm
Shirley Meetinghouse
Shirley, MA 01464

For more information go to the Shirley Meetinghouse website: http://www.shirleymeetinghouse.org/events.htm

11 years ago - WOW
My very first year in Chapel Choir and my very first Chapel Choir Tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did it! I was completely slothful with my Sunday and started AND finished the 7th Harry Potter book. Well - I was not totally slothful - I did do 5 loads of laundry while I was reading. Had to take a break on the eyes you know....
Couldn't put it down - probably cried or at least teared up at least 3 or 4 times. I can't believe it's over. Can someone convince JK Rowling to write more??!! I'm pathetic I know. At least I have 2 more HP movies to look forward to.

If you haven't already - READ THEM!!!!

I'm doing it. For all those Muggles out there who have tried to get me to read the Harry Potter books - well I'm well in the thick of it as we speak! I've seen all the movies a gagillion times and I read the first two books several years back but stopped because classes and practicing got in the way. When I got sick at the beginning of the month I decided to pick up the third and haven't stopped since. I'm 1/2 way into Year 6 and it's an adventure because it's the first book I've read where I don't know what's going to happen. Oh the suspense... AND it's completely consuming my life at the moment. I get to my lunch during the day and I can't decide "Practice or Harry Potter?! Practice or Harry Potter?! No, Rachael, you HAVE to practice - no no no no - HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER HARRY POTTER!" I've now had to force myself NOT to put the book in my bag in the mornings when I leave for work because I wasn't winning that battle.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!
I have a new love in my life! Wait for it! Hold your breath! Bet you can't wait to find out who it is! :-)
It's the Z-pack! Yes - that's right! Azithromycin! The five day antibiotic which has me up and feeling much better. Oh - and yes I can't leave out the second new love which is Advair - an inhaler which has stopped my wheezing and made my breathing much much easier.
So I'm sick again. Something entirely different and new. I gave up and went to the doctor on Monday and it's mostly likely a bacterial infection now since the two illnesses were so close together. Argh....
But - it's a Valentine's Miracle!!!!!!

 

 

This weekend Bree's friend Allie was visiting the East coast to audition at several schools in the area. We took her to Longy's annual Gala on Friday night. As always it was an absolute blast - have danced like that in ages. Not like there's ever an opportunity to anyhow. Couldn't asked for a better night - great friends, free alcohol, and I got my inner horrible dancer out on the dance floor!

On the Up n' Up

It's been a whole week and a half and our household is looking a bit brighter and feeling a lot healthier than last week at this time. I went back to work on Monday, sang for the first time yesterday and actually felt 85% better today (although Bree told me I feel 95% better). This virus/cold/flu crap has sucked the life out of us for almost two weeks now - but we are prevailing. If you haven't contracted it yet, pray that you don't.
Tonight I met up with 3 ladies - all graduates of Longy - Deirdre (flute), Yhasmin (clarinet), and Lindsay (piano) (don't you love how i associate their names with their instrument??) We have formed a quartet and spent this evening discussing repertoire and rehearsal times and will be looking for venues to perform in for the future. We'll be performing chamber pieces in several different combinations - clarient/flute, clarinet/flute/piano, voice/flute, voice/clarinet, voice/flute/clarinet, voice/flute/piano, voice/flute/clarinet/piano. Any suggestions for a group name??? I'm really excited about working with these gals - they are all very talented, artistic and musical, and a lot of fun! WHOOT!

That's this week's update. I'm excited for the weekend!

Happy Groundhog Day!

It's official -
6 more weeks of Winter...

A Tale of Two Sickies



The picture you see above is that of two lovely, healthy ladies taken several months ago. If I were to take a picture of the two of us now, at this very moment, we would be unrecognizable. Pale, coughing, stuffy-faced messes. I admit, I am to blame. I came down with it first. Two and half days later the roomie contracted it and it was all downhill from then on. Whatever this virus is - it's awful. I missed Monday and Tuesday at work, my boss sent me home on Wednesday, I made it through all of Thursday, but couldn't even make it in today - Friday. Bree and I have been quite a sickly pair. We both commented earlier how we don't think we've ever been sick together at the same time and certainly not this sick in a long time! I don't think I've ever watched so many tv shows and movies nor just laid around completely lethargic for a week in years. I cannot wait to get out and get running and training and to get back to practicing. I was on a roll there for quite a while! Ah.... the best laid plans of mice and men.....
So, currently we are on our 4th movie of the day - Harry Potter V. Perhaps this will cure the cough and aches and pains. It certainly has made for quality roommate time! Our conversations have most recently consisted of "cough cough cough!" Quite stimulating if you ask me! :-)