Week 15: Famous Last Words

This week I finished up my portfolio! I did some small revisions to each of my stories and made sure that the portfolio index was clear and easy to navigate. 
I am so grateful that this class has introduced me to one of my new all-time favorite literary characters. I definitely plan to keep looking into the character of Amba, in all her various forms, to discover more about her portrayal across different sources.

I also finished up several of my other classes. I will never attend another flute studio class, which was a very bittersweet realization; studio has been a bit of an oasis in the dessert of music school, and my professor is a truly lovely human who can make any terrible day better. I love my colleagues in the studio and am so grateful for their friendship -- I wish I didn't have to leave them! However, I'm excited to see the direction that the studio is heading in and I know that we are only going to continue to improve.

We also had our last concert with El Sistema! As always, concerts are stressful, exhausting, hectic, but SO WORTH IT. Every single ensemble played brilliantly -- by far the best all year. We also got to feature several performances from smaller chamber ensembles and I know that those students will cherish that opportunity to display their skills on a more individual basis forever. We even had a guest STUDENT conductor on one of the pieces. Next week, we will have a recital featuring all of the works my students have been composing this semester! I can't wait for their hard work to to validated during this experience. Some of my students have found a real love for expressing themselves through original compositions and I am so excited to see them grow and develop as musicians and as people with important things to contribute to our world! I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful organization. 

An El Sistema orchstra; Source

Week 14: Famous Last Words

This week I read Twenty Jataka Tales, which was a really cool break from my obsession with the Mahabharata! I picked three favorites for each reading diary, and then three bonus tales for my extra credit reading. It was really neat seeing how the stories were similar to the nursery rhymes of western culture. There were so many parallels in some, right down to the cheesy moral of the story and the "happily ever after" line that ended every single story. One story, about a hare convinced that the earth was breaking apart, reminded me of a way cooler, more interesting version of Chicken Little. Animals misinterpreting the natural actions of trees as the end of times must be a common theme in many cultures, haha!
Others, however, were entirely new stories, and those were actually my favorites! Some struck me as a little odd and seemingly pointless (like the one about sailors trapped in a goblin-town saved by a random winged horse), but I'm sure many western fairy tales and fables inspire the same feeling in those who didn't grow up with them.

Outside of this class, the big event for me this week has been my second senior recital! I presented a lecture recital on the topic of Darius Milhaud's Sonatine pour flûte et piano. The piece was one of the first instances of "authentic" jazz used in a classical setting, and includes a lot of Milhaud's unique version of the futurism movement in music, so doing all the research was really fun and interesting. It was a great experience to try something new as a performer, since I've never given a lecture recital and only ever attended a few as an audience member. I'm super grateful for the opportunity to grow as a musician, expand my knowledge, and challenge myself as a student of music! 
With all that being said... I'm so glad it's over. It was crazy stressful to have to prepare a recital on two very different fronts. Not only did I have to do months of research into the historical context of the piece, then analyze it structurally and theoretically for the influences that the research pointed to, but I also had to prepare the piece itself and perform it. It was a lot to try to fit into this crazy part of the semester, especially just a few months after my other senior recital. I wouldn't recommend the experience of trying to do more than one of those in a 3-month span to ANYONE, haha. But, it's over and it went well, so I'm happy!

Source

Darius Milhaud, the composer I've devoted the last two months of my life to

Week 13: Famous Last Words

What a week!
In this class, I read The Five Tall Sons of Pandu, which was a really quick and easy-to-read version of the Mahabharata that focused on the five Pandava brothers. It was interesting to read the same stories with almost all of the mystical or spiritual elements removed; it was very much grounded in a possible reality. To be honest, I found myself missing those more fantastical elements a bit. I wouldn't have guessed it, since I'm a huge history nerd and not typically big on fantasy, but I really felt like they added a unique charm to the epics.
I was also able to wrap up my trilogy on Amba/Sikhandini/Sikhandin with my story about Bishma's death and Sikhandin's reaction. I really loved going in depth into this fascinating character in all of her/his various lives. It's also been neat reading the comments from classmates, most of whom didn't seem particularly stricken by this character throughout their readings of the Mahabharata. It's nice to think that my obsession may have led someone else to reconsider the role of the character in the various stories.
I also learned from a friend that I had been pronouncing "Mahabharata" REALLY incorrectly throughout my time in this class. I guess that's the pitfall of an online class! I was really grateful to learn and correct my mistake, even if it happened a bit late in the semester.

Bhishma's death, from my final story

In my other classes, it has been a very stressful week musically. I had my second Recital Preview -- where you play a bit of your recital for your entire area faculty, and they say whether or not you're ready to give the recital on your preferred date. Since I am double majoring in two separate music fields, I've had to give two senior recitals this semester, which has been INCREDIBLY stressful. Happily, I passed, and my second and final recital is a go! I will be presenting a brief lecture on Darius Milhaud's life and influences, exploring in detail his associations with jazz and futurism, and then performing his Sonatine pour flûte et piano. I've never given a lecture recital before, so I'm nervous but excited about this new experience.
I also performed with the OU Symphony Orchestra yesterday for the last time ever! Throughout my time at OU, I've played in pretty much every large ensemble, but the Orchestra has definitely been my favorite. I'm so grateful for all that I've learned and pushed myself to achieve from being in such a high standards environment, surrounded by mostly grad students!
I am also performing with the OU Civic Orchestra on Tuesday night. I'm excited to play a really great program with some inspirational colleagues -- most of the members of Civic are non-majors or community members who have decided to keep up their life in music.

Week 7: Famous Last Words

This week was a crazy mic of exciting and exhausting! Just looking back on everything that happened is making me tired again, haha.

I had fun this week revising the Mahabharata from a different perspective. My favorite character, Amba, got a depressing but awesome starring role in Sister Nevedita's version, so I was pretty stoked to read more about her incarnation Sikhandin(i), and to get to write about her again. I tried a more traditional prose approach this time, since a lot of the comments on my previous Amba story said that the more poetic, stream-of-consciousness style was a bit confusing. 

El Sistema had their mid-winter concert on Wednesday -- concerts are always SO stressful from the teacher standpoint, because when you have 220 children divided into three orchestras, things tend to get a little hectic. Luckily, the logistics behind the scenes of this concert were amazingly smooth, so things ran just like they were supposed to. Most importantly, our students played AMAZINGLY! We were so proud, and even more excited for the future of our program! At our staff meeting the next day, I was notified that I will be getting a promotion after spring break, so things ended on a very happy note after all of the stress.

And finally, the rest of my whole life this week has been dominated by the OPERA. Woof. This has been such an exhausting activity. The opera is three hours long, which is a long time to be sitting in a dark pit (literally, that's where the orchestra goes). Add to that the fact that we've had dress rehearsals or performances every single day since last Sunday, and you can see why I'm happy that it's over. However, I have to admit that it was a great opportunity and I know I came out of it a better musician... just also a very tired musician.

If you came to see Eugene Onegin last week, you heard me! Hope I sounded okay!

The poster for OU's production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin