Beginning the Ending

Today was my first day of my last year of school.

It feels so odd to write that. Even in my other higher-education years, I was always conscious of this dream to attend conservatory. Nothing was ever this final -- I always pictured myself applying to music schools and once again sitting down in a classroom, ready to learn. But now, I'm embarking upon my last year of classes. The last batch of fresh notebooks and new boxes of pens and pencils are sitting in my drawers, waiting to be streamed gradually into my bookbag. I still harbor occasional wisps of wanderings toward D.M.A. or D.B.A. (Doctorate of Musical Arts or Doctorate of Business Administration) programs, but I think that has more to do with my scheming about how to be a perpetual student than with any concrete professional goals.

It's been a good last first day. This semester is rather light for me from the academic standpoint; I'm taking all performance classes. Today was Voice Repertoire (the companion class to last semester's repertoire class) and Studio Class.

In Voice Rep, we listen to and read about lots of art song literature. The class is comprised of both singers and pianists, and we all perform various songs for each other. The goal is to make folks familiar with a swath of useful repertoire across the voice types. This semester, we'll focus on early art song (Renaissance and Baroque), as well as German Lied (18th and 19th centuries) with a dash of Italian and French.

Studio Class is the one hour each week where members of my voice teacher's studio get to perform for each other. Today, we heard the full group of singers. Everyone sang one piece with minimal input from my teacher. It was a great opportunity to hear all the wonderful progress folks have made over the summer and to get to know the newbies a bit. We have one new grad student and two new freshmen. All seem very nice. I sang an "old standard" for me - Pierrot, by Debussy. After I finished, my teacher commented that the high phrases toward the end of the piece have the sort of core and volume/strength I should be finding everywhere. Looks like I'll be exploring some bigger repertoire to get there!

The picture you see above is where I ate lunch today. The weather here was gorgeous - about 70 to 75 degrees and sunny. You may be able to glimpse the little sparrows at the base of the statue. These birds were fighting over some bagel or bread someone had dropped. One would start to carry off the giant piece (which was about the size of the bird himself). It inevitably proved to be too heavy for him. After he dropped it, another bird who'd been tugging on it would attempt to steal the treasure. Nature's entertainment at its best.

Evening is melting into night too quickly. Tomorrow promises another fun and interesting class -something completely unexpected. I'll write more tomorrow night.

~Hope