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!

Dinner with the Rudys

In September, I had the opportunity to meet my scholarship sponsors, Alan and Stephanie Rudy.  I told you all about them here.  They are seriously wonderful people.  Since meeting them, they have spoiled me.

In October, they picked me up for a dinner at Laudisio, a really great Italian restaurant here in Boulder.  On Wednesday night, they treated me to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and a Metropolitan Opera Broadcast of Turandot (which was amazing).

In addition, they came to the University Choir Concert that I performed in, and plan on coming to our Opera Scenes program. (Shameless plug: If you aren't doing anything on the evening of Tuesday, December 1st, come up to Boulder for an opera scenes program featuring both graduate and undergraduate singers.  It's in the basement of the music building and is free).

They have invited me to their house for Thanksgiving and want to take me to more operas.  They rock.  In addition to helping me, they are both very, very active in the Boulder community and donate hours and hours and hours to community service projects.  I hope they keep me!  They are fantastic!

In other scholarship news, I was given an additional $6500 in scholarship for next semester.  It will allow me to stay in CO.  When I know more about it, I'll let you know!

Random happenings...

Still no time to write a real blog.  Instead, you get snippets of what's new and exciting in my life these days:

I offically have a work schedule for my work study job at the Center of the American West as a Student Assistant.  Basically, I do whatever they want me to do: ship stuff, copy, database, answer phones, etc.  Definitely not hard.  I can only work 6-7 hours a week because of my work study status, but that's fine.  It's decent money, so I like it.

I've officially been job searching for another part-time job for a couple of weeks now with no luck.  Six hours a week just isn't going to cut it.  Wish me luck.

Today was Honors Convocation.  I got 2 little certificates explaining my scholarships.  Yay for scholarships, but boo to the Convocation that took way longer than it was supposed to.

Tomorrow night, I'm singing in a talent show for my church.  By singing, I raise $100!  Yay!  Cody Guy Garrison, who went to school with me in Jamestown and now is going to dental school in Denver, is coming up to accompany and then we're going out for a few drinks.  Yay!

Katie Ryan is in CO visiting her parents, and I get to see her on Saturday!  Yay!

Jettie Wold, a friend from Medora, is coming down next weekend during ND Teacher's Convention.  Yay!!!

All of my friends are really busy this week, getting ready for the opera performances next week.  Kind of sad...

Oh!  My piano teacher told me on Monday that I should have tried to test into a higher class.  I looked at her like she was crazy because I've never had a piano lesson in my life.  It was exciting. 

I think that's all of the random information I can cram into one blog.  Keep checking back for a "Quote of the Day," probably something about the talent show and Katie visiting, and information on Studio Classes.

Adopt-a-Student

When I first received my financial aid package from CU, I was offered zero dollars in scholarship. That's right. Zero. The goose egg. Nil.

You get the picture.

Then, I came and sang for my studio placement audition. Later, in a meeting with Professor Mason, I was informed me that they would be giving me $1000 in scholarship for the year. Hallelujah!

A few weeks later, I looked at my tuition bill, and suddenly had $1750 in scholarships for this semester alone, including a $500 "Adopt-a-Student"
Scholarship.

The program is awesome. Patrons of the CU Music Program donate a couple (or a couple hundred) thousand dollars to the program, and their gift is given to a student (or students) with similar musical interests.  We are expected to inform our sponsors of our performances so that they can attend. Sponsors, in addition to giving us the scholarship, can be expected to do anything from inviting us to an opera to letting us do our laundry at their houses. We are expected to do as much as we can at their invitation. I love the concept of having a sponsor who really cares about students!  Some students really need that kind of influence in their lives!

Tonight, we all were invited to a dinner to meet our sponsors. Alan and Stephanie have donated $1000 to my education, and I had the opportunity to meet Stephanie tonight. She was awesome. Both Alan and Stephanie are retired and contribute to the Boulder community in many capacties. I don't think that I could ask for better sponsors.

Stephanie offered to let me wash laundry at their house, and invited me for lunch next week so that I can meet Alan. She also has asked me to accompany them to a broadcast in HD of a Metropolitan Opera production at the movie theatre here, and is very excited to hear me sing. Awesome, awesome lady.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know these people better, through this awesome program. The scholarship's value isn't huge, but the non-monetary portion of the program is going to be very rewarding.

Just another reason to love this place. And to be thankful.