Concert Marathon - The last week of AIMS

The last week or so went very well, although packed full to the brim with rehearsals and coachings. On the 6th, I sang in the Spanish Song Concert in the Erherzog Johannes Hotel. It must have been a five star hotel. And although the audience was small, they were very appreciative and I had lots of fun. I got a lot of encouragement from faculty afterward - Gustavo Halley and Sylvia Plyler (who I later learned is the head of the coaching department at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music - I am glad that I didn't know that beforehand!). It was well worth singing the concert, not only for the fun of it and the positive feedback, but because of the buffet afterward! There is always a themed meal after concerts in the hotel, and so Spanish / Mexican food was on the menu. It was great.

On an interesting, but completely unrelated sidenote, I went to a club later that night to see a friend of mine DJ. John Tetelman is his name, and he is the real deal - he lives in New York and has a job mixing and splicing up music as he goes. He is so serious about DJ-ing, he even brought his equipment along with him to Austria so that he could keep practicing. It payed off, and he got to DJ a couple hours that night. It was fun!

But after that little break from work, we were thrown into numerous dress rehearsals for our Liederabend Concerts. By the end, I practically had every song from Myrthen memorized! I still get them stuck in my head even now. :)

The first concert was in a small church very close to the school, but which we had never seen before. The acustics were very live, and it was decorated in an Ars Nouveau style. The concert was very well attended. It was so packed that some people even stood in the back. I felt bad for those people, because the concert was SO long - 1 & 1/2 hours at least. I was pretty nervous for the concert, but I was able to keep that under control, and I don't think that it showed or affected my singing. Of course, I will never know, because at that moment, as someone was going to use my recorder to record my pieces, it decided to stop working. :(

Well, luckily there was a repeat of that concert the next day, just in a different venue. I thought ahead enough to make sure that someone recorded me, and they actually recorded me with a flip, so it is in video, too. Even better.

Now that hall was less singer friendly, and I did not feel like I sang AS well, but I still felt like I represented myself well. I have not seen the video yet, but I guess that will tell me truly how it went.

The poetry teacher, Wolfgang Lockemann, was at this concert, and he gave me very good compliments about my interpretation. He told me that he truly felt like I understood the poetry and that something was happening, communication was happening, while I sang; and this, he said, is few and far between. Coming from him, that is an AWESOME compliment.

On the topic of the German Poetry class, I am glad to say that I did grow to enjoy that class very much. It was actually my favorite class by the end. I quickly learned what he was looking for, and adapted to that. I also found it fascinating how he disects the poetry in order to interpret it well and give it life when it is read. After a majority of the class ditched, he also became more mellow and easy to get along with. I really learned to like him and the class.

Thinking of how much I like him and my other teachers, and how much I learned from them, I am becoming very sentimental and sad. I hope that I can remember everything that I learned and always use it whenever I make music - ALWAYS. The friends that I made here, will also be greatly missed. It was so wonderful to come to AIMS. Words cannot begin to explain how meaningful and worthwhile the experience was. Thank you!

I am now in "the god city," as my voice teacher Barbara Kierig would call Vienna. Tomorrow I am going to visit as many houses of composers (Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, etc.) as I possibly can. I have already been to their graves and honored those geniuses buried there. It is remarkable to be in the center of european-musical culture. This is where it all happened.