We'll miss you, Rostropovich

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/27/cellist.dead.ap/

The Fog of Recitals

This may be a bit condensed, as I have a meeting in 1/2 an hour:

The International Society, a group that hosts social activities and language courses for international students, celebrated their 40th anniversary last night. It's rather important, as they are (according to their brochure), the 1st organization of their kind. As they are a couple blocks from RNCM, we were asked to provide a concert in their honour.

I was asked to contribute 15 min. of music, and I agreed, having 1 piece with piano and 1 without. I was assured the school would find me an accompanist.

That was 3 weeks ago.

After a week of inquiries, when the school was still on break, I finally found out Monday who my pianist was. I learned in fact, that it was the person they had told me it WASN'T. He said he was gone all day, but we could look at the piece in the evening.

(BTW, this isn't completely uncommon; the accompanists tend to look at the music, shrug, and then perform. When I recorded for Falcone, my pianists was literally sight-reading during the recording - and he got it spot-on!)

After trying to run through it, he said NO WAY, and recommended I just find 8 min' of unaccompanied music(!) overnight, perfect, and perform THAT.

In the morning, I found the International Director, Tatyana, who insisted it would have to be the piece with piano, because the programs are already printed. I didn't point out that it wasn't uncommon to change music, but instead she insisted we approach the accompanying chair and see what he thought.

Here's what we got:
A recently retired accompanist who's considered "The GOD of brass accompanists", who's played just about every brass piece ever played, and had his own copy of Ito's "Fantasy Variations". We took 1/2 hour to run the piece, pick out a couple tricky spots, and then I saw him at the concert.

Everything went alright.

Recital Plug

Degree recital: 31 May 4:10
But before that:
International Society Recital (today - eek!)
Quintet Recital - Liverpool - 5 May
Whitworth Art Gallery Recital - 13 May
Quartet Recital - St. Ann's - 16 May

Ahh! and countless other things too!

More Later?

As Liza said, the procrastination fairy makes her rounds more and more this time of year, and she's able to appear both in England and the US. It seems to me that more and more school has taught me not to write better essays, but to write essays quicker. Although I am not waking up at 3 to write my essays anymore, I still lay sedentary until the last minute. I am actually organizing the essays though, so that should count for something (unlike this post)

I've intended to write about Virgina Tech., and I hope I can get the post out later this week. It's incredible to see reactions here. People are upset of course, but I get a feeling that it's separate, allowing for more reasoned analysis (of course, still plugged into people's own biases and interpretations). You'll have to wait until you get the full skinny on my site though; until then, read Connor's.

Nixon in the 21st century?

Just a thought

From My Brother

Connor, I hope you don't mind I'm putting this on the site truth be told, I got it from Mom:

Directions


Enjoy! (esp. #26)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Dear Dad,

I'm sorry this has fallen a day late. And I'm sorry there isn't a birthday cake clip art like last year (the site I hot-linked it from wasn't too happy, then). Anyway, I want to wish you a happy yet belated Birthday (Birthday Boxing Day, as Catherine said), and you should expect a phone call today! I hope all is well, and I suppose I'll find out soon!

Love,

Cody

Back Home (?)

In as much as this is my temporary place of permanent residence (as possibly a permanent place of temporary residence), I'm home. I got back earlier this week (Wed. Morning, about 12:30 was when I was officially out of customs and on UK soil), and am extremely grateful to Catherine and her Mum for picking me up at such a god-awful time; then for having to wait OVER AN HOUR until I got out of the queue; then allowing me to "explode" at the airline having lost my luggage; then at heading BACK to Luton after the airport called and said someone else had picked it up and brought it back; then, finally, driving for hours on end back to their home in Cheshire. We got in at 4:30. Phew!

Anyway, as it is break, I need to take the time to catch up on past posts. Perhaps I'll list these at the side so you can keep tabs on me and make sure I don't forget anything. But, of course, I need to also:

1) Practice. 3 recitals in two months
2) Compose
3) Academic Work
4) Find Professional Work for next year (Sep.)
5) Find an apartment (nothing gaudy, a 1 bedroom near Manchester for under £400 a month)

All this in 2 weeks? No problem!