Repetition

This happens to me all of the time: Something will happen, or be mentioned, or will come up once, and suddenly, it pervades my life.  Does this happen to everyone else or am I crazy?

That's happening with me lately.  With two things: curling and emoting.

Yes, curling.  Admittedly, this is silly.  But true.  Obviously, it's because of the Olympics that it's all anyone is talking about.  Especially the fact that a woman who is pregnant is competing in the sport.  I try to defend it, saying it's SO fun, but alas, no one believes me.  And there is no curling rink anywhere near to prove it to them.

In all seriousness, though, the other frequently-occurring theme in my life is the idea of emoting while singing.  Sounds easy, right?  Just act in accordance with what you're singing, right?  Maybe for some it's easy, but I'm struggling lately, and I don't think I'm the only one.  

The more I think about it, the more ashamed I am that I'm having problems in this area.  I started acting when I was in elementary school, and won awards all the way through high school for roles in one-act plays.  I was in 3 musicals at Jamestown and was cast in a 2 one-act plays while there, too.  I obviously am physically capable of acting. 

But what's preventing me now?  I have some ideas, which may be important, but I'm going to choose not to include them here.  The fact of the matter is that it's just not happening, and it's quite frustrating.  In the past few weeks, I can't even count how many times this subject has come up for me and others, which makes it stand out even more in my mind.  I've seen it in other people's lessons, movies, and am taking a class in which we have focused on the subject for literally a month now.  Maybe more than a month.

The point of this is that I'm working on it.  Hopefully, the next time you all see me perform (which I hope will be sooner rather than later), I will have improved.  Let's hope.

Dense

On occasion, I have been known to be a little thick-headed.  In fact, one of my closest friends in high school used to say, "You're the stupidest smart person I know." 

Now, not to say that I really am stupid, but I recently became aware that I wasn't aware of what some people might be thinking of my blog...  But I might be wrong.

A friend of mine (who is a loyal reader of the blog) lives in Denver and came up to Boulder on Thursday to see me sing in the Anderson competition.  After the competition was over, we went to Old Chicago to have a drink to celebrate my having won one of the scholarships.  While there, he made a comment that I think was meant as a joke, but I interpreted it as one of those jokes with an ounce (or more) of truth.

Basically, he implied that the blog was a source for me to brag about my accomplishments.  I only had to think about it for 2 seconds before I realized that anyone who reads my blog could definitely get that impression, and I didn't even realize it or think about it that way.

Let me put it this way, kids.  I've been amazingly fortunate since having come to CO.  Things have been working out for me in ways that are way better than I ever could have expected, and I love sharing the news.  I've been lucky not to have many bad occurrences to relate to you, and really hope that that stays the same.

But in the future, I'll watch my tongue! :)

 

Anderson

I know that it seems like a random name for a blog, but really it isn't.

I don't know who the Andersons are (were?), or what they do (did?), or what their connection to the music school is (was?), but they donated a lot of money to the College of Music.  There are a lot of Anderson scholarships given out every year.  A lot.  I don't know how many.  

Okay, I'm basically uninformed, in case you didn't notice.  But not completely.  Let me tell you what I do know.  

The non-voice departments give out their Anderson scholarships in some way that doesn't involve a competition (which I don't know).  The voice department, though, gives out their three $2,000 scholarships by means of a competition.  

Last Thursday, 15 or so of us competed in the preliminary round, which was judged by CU Voice faculty.  Seven of us, including me and Kenny, were selected to continue on to the Finals, which are tonight, judged by people from the outside.  And 3 of us will walk out with $2000 in scholarship money.

I'm pretty excited to have been chosen for the finals.  The only bad part of the whole deal is that it's formal.  Very formal.  For the participants, that is.  It left me a week to buy a dress, find jewelry, shoes, hairstylist, etc.  Yeah, I didn't go through all of that, actually.  

I feel like a bride.  You know: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue?  Well, I did buy a dress (thank goodness for credit cards and having multiple occasions to wear it), I'm wearing an oldish pair of shoes that I own, I borrowed some pretty spectacular earrings, and... well, I don't have anything blue.  And I'm doing my own hair.

In any case, I'm performing first, singing the same Schubert that I sang for my studio placement audition, as well as a piece by Amy Beach, which I sang for opera auditions.  Kenny's performing second.  

I'll let you know how it goes.  Wish us luck!