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!!!)

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

Pictures from the past year:

Capital Group at Homecoming in October;
Arlyn, Michelle, Mike and me eating in Salem;
Birthdy outing with girls at Finale in Harvard Square;
Ashley, Angela and me on our mini pub-crawl in August;

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