I'm chillaxing! I guess I can afford one day off. Especially after my concert at Carnegie yesterday (I'm full of myself at the moment, haha!). I'm at my friend's in CT, we had a very healthy breakfast WHICH I DIDN'T TAKE A PHOTO OFF... hate my life... then I had my
Daily Practice:
About an hour, most of Kurt Robinson and Kelley King's vocalizations and sang through all of my songs.
We'll go for a nice italian or japanese (haven't decided yet!) dinner later on tonight!
On the down side DAMN IT I was suppose to have my good deed/live performance at a house for elderly today but it it got cancelled NOOOOOOOOO. At this point, I'm really worried about my charities events... it's only a week to go and I still have 3 to do! Blaaaahhhhhh!!!! Need to find something like... NOW!
Btw, do you know anyone who got raptured yesterday? Haha! IN YOUR FACE CRAZY PEOPLE! Never try to guess these things, you'll fail every time!
I'm just about to on the stage. Im not going home afterwards so I'll update my blog now, more details to come later!
Daily practice:
30 min of vocalizations and dancing through life
UPDATE:
So it's sunday already but it's only now when I can actually get to a computer. I'm visiting a friend in CT. No photos yet, I don't have my laptop with me... Will add them in my following posts in a following days!
Yesterday was awesome! I had a long lie-in (loving life...) and then took off for a National Festival Chorus rehearsal. The very last one before the one with an orchestra.
It went quite well. 2h in total, not too long. Then I run back home, had a dinner and went to Carnegie Hall for a final rehearsal. What can I say... Carnegie acoustics do not forgive anything. We're in a deep trouble, whether you sound bad or even can't turn the page quietly! That turned out to be a challenge for many of the choir members, including me, so I was a bit frustrated.
So then the concert started, we got to listen to the first half. I sort of enjoyed it. Dort of, because as much as I liked the choirs, their song selection didn't seem too appropriate for Carnegie Hall stage. Oh well, maybe I just set my expectations too high! And then, within few seconds as it seemed, it was our turn to take the stage!
What can I say, we were amazing! Everyone was much wiser after the final rehearsal on the stage and knew exactly what to do. I loved singing with this 120 people choir, performing this amazing requiem. We also received a standing ovation which also seemed like a very good thing! I took a moment for myself just then. I stood on that incredibly famous stage, where thousands of breathtaking concerts took place, where every singer wants to be at least once in their lives and gazed at the fully lit auditorium, gold dripping off every surface and tried to absorb all these emotions and made sure that I will remember this moment till the end of my life. And I had quite a lot of time to do as, as it takes a lot of time till it's your turn to leave a stage if you're standing in the middle of humongous choir and have to stand facing front till it's your turn to go.
Few things this experience taught me or cemented:
musicality, emotions (talent?) = technique
That's what Maestro Ellingboe said and I couldn't agree more. You do have a whole spectrum of emotions and emotional experiences within you but once you're singing, you can't burst into tears only because you're singing extremely sad song. Your throat naturally closes up and you're unable to do anything properly. You create the appropriate sound, timber, volume and diction using what God gave you- physically! By using more or less air, by correct larynx, tongue and lip positioning- understanding your body and pretty much basic acoustics that people tend to do correctly naturally while speaking but need a bit (well, more then a bit...) of a practice when you have to sing the words. And then people would (hopefully) come to you and say, wow your performance was so musical, so emotional, you're so talented. And then you reply, thanks, and think- wouldn't have had it without about million hours of practice and drilling! And talent is how fast you can actually learn to do all these things.
Anyways, I'm not there yet! But I'm working on it!
Therefore, we had another 4h rehearsal with Maestro Bradley Ellingboe. It such a pleasure working on his beautiful piece... WITH HIM! Today he explained every single movement, what it means and how it was created and I was like... wow... His requiem sounds amazing on it's own but with all the "backstage" stories it's even rounder and really speaks to me, as to a performer as well as a person.
We rehearse here (it's a conference room at Park Central Hotel just by Carnegie Hall)- all these chairs are taken by choir once everyone's there!
That's my annoyed face in the rehearsal area, when a camera didn't want to work and then snapped a photo when I least expected it...
Me with Maestro Ellingboe!
Daily Practice:
30 min, vocalizations and "Dancing through life" (never mind that 4 hours choir rehearsal!)
Fitness:
Contemporary Ballet with Darrel Grand Moultrie (don't have a photo, I was already late for ballet... I'll take a picture of my ISVP card later on)
Ballet with A. Silantiev
Tap with O. Ben
Healthy Meal:
I had plenty today but didn't take any pictures damn it...
After all today's madness was over, I went to audition for a benefit concert for Japan. It went quite well, I only wish my choreo to "All I need is the girl" was ready to be shown. Instead I just sang and stood there like an eejit. I also dancer my "Narrowback" which actually turned into an improv after about... 4 bars! Tremendous!
Classical piece of the day:
Something nice and easy to contra yesterday's Penderecki!
George Gershwin Piano Concerto in F, 2nd movement
My favorite bit starts around 3min, it gets better and better from there!
Ok, my bed is actually singing to me... and it's a sweet song called "don't you dare coming near me before you take a shower".
So, the day started at 8, then I ran to Zara to get my trousers (or pants, as I should say being in the USA!) and to the usual choir rehearsal, 1.5h.
Then The very first rehearsal with National Festival Chorus, pretty much different choirs from different places all over the US! 120 people in total. 4 hours rehearsal of Bradley's Ellingboe's Requiem, conducted by Mr. Ellingboe himself. An amazing experience! The best is yet to come! We sound really well together! I obviously can't hear much from where I'm sitting but Mr. Ellingboe was quite pleased with today's rehearsal and he wouldn't have a reason to lie about it.
I came back home and decided to do absolutely nothing. My hip is acting up damn it so I took a rest from dancing today. I cleaned up my room, did my
Daily Practice: 50min of Kurt Robinson and Kelley King's Vocalizations and "Dancing through life".
then laundry and
Healthy meal: Took ages to prepare! I had a salmon (in honey my own "soy sauce, lemon, garlic, rosemary and drop of olive oil" sauce, let's call it Bear sauce!) with broccoli, asparagus and spinach cooked also with rosemary. Amazing. Stunning. Delicious! I love my life.
That's it really!
Now my own extra:
Classical piece of the day! I missed it yesterday so you get 2 today!
K. Penderecki 3 Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano movement III
That's what I played at my diploma recital, graduating from Music High school on clarinet. Good times! (not)
And today, as I spent over half a day with a choir, my ABSOLUTE favorite choir piece! Ave Verum Corpus by W.A. Mozart
Today it all started with my alarm clock at 10am! I loved my rest. it's unbelievable how much I depend on sleeping! I am definitely getting old, haha! About 2 years back in Salzburg, on Wednesday, I would have classes from early morning, get on a train to Nürnberg at 2, study hard on board Grundlagen der Musik Pädagogik, teach DANCING for about 4 hours, get back on the train to do my homework (usualy Deutch als Fremdsprache), get to my apartment at 2-3am, get up at 8 being absolutely all right to do my voice lesson and other classes later on that day! I so do not see myself doing this right now!! Anyways, back to the challenge:
Healthy Meal:
Whole grain, organic wheat biscuits with Cinnamon plus I added honey! Not gonna lie here, tastes like shit but it's good of you apparently so...
Daily Practice:
Daily Vocalizations, about 40 minutes. I went pianissimo possibille on them today, just to make sure I'm not applying my (poor) classical training on it. I listened to the recording of my last daily practice and I hated it... As much as I believe in an importance of classical training, I want to get a bit more "casual" right now. Thank you Kurt Robinson and Kelley King for making it easier for me! Love you.
New Song:
That should be here yesterday actually- "Dancing through life" from Wicked by S. Schwarz. Never done anything like that before but I'm super excited and guess what I'm listening to right now! Yes, you guessed it, thank you youtube.
Ok, later on that day,
Fitness!
1. Ballet with J. Salmon (who totally looks like Tilda Swinton!!)
2. Theater with L. Munro, amazing as always! We did this really funny choreo. I even got a shout out at the end for doing a part of it well! PRAISE THE LORD! Speaking of the devil (Sorry!! Haha, how inappropriate is it! couldn't help myself, haha!) I absolutely fell in love with todays quote! That pretty defines my life.
3. Tap with G. Salsberg. I'm doing beginner level and it's not as challenging as it used to be! About time... I will try to move on to Adv Beg soon!
4. Theater with J. Cooney, hard as you like! But very enjoyable and rewarding! We've worked on chore we started on Monday and that's exactly what I wanted. I need to be doing his classes regularly!! So we did this dumb seagulls number. Difficult but so much fun. An amazing cardio too! I think photo pretty much shows it!
There also was the challenge meeting where few things got explained or clarified. We could also ask questions and learn more about how to get our demos, auditions, performances done so that was super helpful! I'm quite unsure what AND WHERE I want to record... bring on the riddle!
I think that's pretty much it! Well, I bought myself really nice blazer for carnegie gig (as I didn't bring anything appropriate with me from home). And why is it that you need to know this? Haha, peace out!
I woke up at 7, couldn't open my eyes, it was pissing from the heavens outside, my room was freezing and I hated my life. I went to kitchen, to meet my hangovered flatmate drinking tap water and going back to bed, and realize that I was too busy to do my groceries yesterday so I'd have to have tomato mushroom pasta sauce if I wanted breakfast on this fine early morning. Passsss... I also failed to print out my resumee. At that point I started a debate with myself wheter I should leave the house today AT ALL! But I had.
Went to staples to have it printed out- 30 min waiting time. Well, Im gonna have starbucks next door. So I collected it at 9 and went to Pearl Studios, also next door.
Audition: It seemed surprisingly empty and quiet. How wong was I then! When I got to the actual room, it was FULL! I put my name on the list... as 283rd... I so wish I havent had that starbucks!!!! So i waited for an hour there for the start and find out something more maybe. Didnt really happen. So after another hour I went (again next door) to RG studios for my:
Daily Practice:
30 min of vocalization and working on my audition song- come with me. I pimped the choreo a bit cos I just felt like it. it looked to stiff... Its crazy now and there's no way Im gonna do it right at the actual audition! I left the studio and there was a guy sitting outside. I was packing my stuff and he said- did you just sing "come with me"? I replied yes, he then said he's looking for a singer like me for a Broadway Sweeney Todd renewal and he'll take care of my visa. We'll I wish he have said that... instead he said "you should drop the key of the song" I felt like saying your mother needs to drop the key but I said- yeah I know. That didnt help me!!! Anyway Im back at Pearls, its almost 2pm and i've been yere for last 5 hours of my life. There's still over 100 people ahead of me. Girls mostly, as its girls audition day and Im here cos I couldnt come yesterday. What can I say- its loud here. At the Radio City Hall audition, just for men, it was also busy but quiet. It seems like every single girl here's got something extremely important to say to ANYONE and EVERYONE in the room. Never mind the humming, lip rolls and other vocal warm ups. Im not exactly sure what Im doing here! Im missing all the classes at school and even if a miracle happens I cant take the job cos I dont have a visa. So unless my future wife is somewhere here in the room, it seems like an utter waste of time. Well i learnt one thing, radio city hall spoiled me and I have to come for my audition at least 2 hours ahead of time. Ok, im starving, I'll get a sandwich next door (!!!).
Few hours later:
So its 3.45 and I just finished! Im so glad its over! It think went pretty well but it doesnt matter what I think of course! Choreo went OK but I blacked out totally so dont remember what I did exactlt. My pianist screwed up (im not blaming her though, its a difficult one!) so we werent exactly in syncing but its over now! That's what matters! Shrek audition- done!
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I'm back at home now! It's almost 10pm and I am exhausted. Haven't done much physically but I think I'm generally over-used. Therefore A quick update on the rest of my day! Private Voice Class:
with Kurt Robinson. Thank you so much for the lesson, Kurt. For your advices and support. That means a world to me!
Later on, a bit of shopping so I don't starve myself tomorrow again. Then:
Healthy Meal:
Pasta with mushroom/meat/garlic sauce.
Classical Piece of the Day:
I'll go easy on ya today! Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky. It's well creepy though!
It all started with an early morning (I hate them...) and a Healthy Meal:
Poached eggs on whole grain english muffins, toasts, tomatoes and red pepper plus a glass of pulpy orange juice!
Then! A race across the city to make it on time to:
Good Deed:
3 hours of helping at a soup kitchen, at Church of the Holy Apostles on 28th Str. and 9th Ave. I enjoyed it a lot I've got to say! I was there with 3 of my friends from Broadway Dance Center, Chanel (who organized it for us!! THANK YOU!!) Pasqualino and Marina. It all started with a casual cup of coffee and collecting an apron, gloves, a hair net and a "classy hat" as it said on the box. Other people took photos of these, I'll upload them as soon as I get them! Then they've told us what we're gonna be doing. I was at the bread station! Spreading butter on bread, buns, rolls and bagels and then giving them to people, for about 2 hours. I was amazed how different people's reactions were! Some were very grateful, other absolutely... "whatever" and others just dangerous! Haha! Anyway, once I've finished doing that, I grabbed a cloth and started wiping tables, helping Chanel who was doing that from the very start, attracting attention of those who were peacefully trying to have their meals!! After the madness was over we all got invited for a dinner. It was actually very tasty! I love schweet putatossss :)
Later on, I picked up my new class card at school and raced back to my place to get some work done (Requiem) and then I raced again to see:
Private Voice Class:
my voice teacher Mdme Maria Zhorella-Fedorova. An hour. We've mostly working on a breath support together with soft pallet lift and calming the tremolo in my voice down to a vibrato- fail. Then we sorted out my "Shrek, the musical" audition I'm doing tomorrow (Come with me) and practiced A bit of earth. And then I told her I saw "The Fantasticks" and it all went down hill from there. I said I really enjoyed how this guy, more less my age, was singing, how easy it seemed and stuff, then started over sharing how frustrated I am with myself, started asking questions I shouldn't have asked and though she's absolutely lovely, she's also very straight forward. WHICH IS GOOD of course but truth hurts sometimes. I don't want to get into details but let's say- I hate my life. Moderatly, haha, because I THINK I really am getting better at
Fitness:
Theater class with exceptional Jim Cooney. Well, it's started with a calypso across the floor fail but then we've worked on a Seagul song from "The Little Mermaid" and I did quite well! I didn't look at the clock to check how long this humiliation gonna last for at all! The very first time! I obviously still couldn't remember it all but I knew what's going on and I think if music was (much)slower I could actually dance it! We'll continue (damn it... IT'S GONNA BE EVEN LONGER) on Wednesday. Which is PERFECT! I'll have a chance to review what we've did and who knows, I might be a king of the floor!
Later on, the class was going for a good bye party of one of the girls from school but I couldn't go :( First of all I have this audition tomorrow morning and then I was also carrying this MASSIVE Ikea bag full of stuff for my apartment. I mean it was embarrassing to enter the dance studio with it. Can't imagine going to a club with it!
Oh, but even before that class I had a 2 hour rehearsal of Bradley Ellingboe's Requiem with Bridges choir. Loving it!!! So:
Daily "Practice":
hour private voice class
2 hours choir rehearsal
Anyways, then I came back to my place, at 10pm, had a dinner (no photo damn it), wrote this note and had a mother of all cramps again. Plans for next 30 min, shower, few pages of a book I'm currently reading and BED after 12am! Let the madness begin tomorrow at 7am!!
Classical Piece of the Day:
The girl with the Flaxen Hair by Claude Debussy.
