Addio del semestre passato

Hello from Dallas, TX! It's the point in the semester for myself (and I'm sure for my colleagues and students) where we feel like imitating our beloved cat Panda ...

 

And it's time to think, and re-think, what went great, when it was "working," and what needs to be tweaked (or tossed). 

What worked ...

This is the first semester that my husband and I have been homeowners. While this comes with the obvious benefits of building equity, being able to deduct mortgage interest, and getting a serious upgrade on space and storage, we are able to make our own decisions (small and large) in terms of decorating and even structural elements to the house. Zheng has spent some spare time building walls and laying concrete. His most recent project was to demolish and re-finish the fireplace in slate. (We have some popular DIY shows to blame for this!).

This is also the first semester (even though it's the fifth at UNM) where I have been in a more secure position with my job. Last year was a harrowing year in terms of applying for tenure-track positions, as my job (full-time lecturer at the time) was getting converted to a tenure-line. I was the equivalent of an NYC apartment in a building that was "going condo."

This year brought additional, important professional opportunities - increased work with Santa Fe Opera, Opera Southwest, my first time teaching at OperaWorks, and more opportunities with the New Mexico Philharmonic - 2017 will bring more abundance. I am continually greatful.

I joined a yoga studio (this one) and have been practicing regularly at one place since August. 

It shouldn't be rocket science to a musician that there is no alternative to practicing. 

I'll keep this up in 2017 and will adjust my teaching hours slightly to fit different possible classes into even more of a practice routine. 

(Did I just put myself before my career?) 

Another major change for me has been adhering to a strict ketogenic diet since August. I may never go back to the years of loving bread and its progeny ... not only has the weight-loss been sustainable and significant, but my chronic imsomnia is greatly improved. 

Tweaks (I'm sure more are coming ) ... 

People discuss "resolutions" and mine is a stolen one from a dear friend. It is simple - book 45 minutes per day of reading time. And stealing from another great artist in the collaborative piano field, which is to read and write one poem per day. 

Graph

I had the pleasure of guest-lecturing in someone's song literature class this past week. I've been thinking about how to represent in pictures the things which I think about often. Here is a graph of languages, ranging from dark to light, Slavic to Romantic.

I have been trying to make an effort to write more of what I impart to my students. This is perhaps a symptom of the head feeling too "full" at this time in the semester.



A friend of mine asked me what my preference was for a to-do "app." My response - a legal pad, and when things are finished, they get crossed off. One page of "done" is then ripped out and hurled into the trash!

Here's to a "low-tech" (in a good way!) end of the semester!

Dumplings for the New Year

Yesterday we officially celebrated the Chinese New Year and the "Year of the Goat." We welcomed our Albuquerque "family" to our home and were so excited to cook for everyone. 

The traditional dish for Chinese New Year (CNY) is the dumpling. It is supposed to be very fortunate and very good for the coming year. 

Aying, Zheng and I made about 800 dumplings from scratch in preparation for the gathering! Four different fillings (turkey, beef, egg, and vegan) and hours later, we were in business ... 

Happy New Year to everyone! 

In this photo, my dumplings were on the left and Aying's are on the right. She approved of my technique and gave me lessons along the way.

Notes from a Snowed-In Pueblo

Albuquerque resembles Rochester today! 

If you don’t believe me, ask the (-+) million people who call this area “home” and who have no way of getting anywhere! It makes me grateful for the Chinese New Year food preparation in the refrigerator. We have plenty of food, and all without having made the ubiquitous "French Toast Run."

(Hailing from up north, whenever there was bad weather forecast, people would go to the store and buy bread, eggs, and milk. What exactly were they going to do with all of that?)

I’m enjoying the morning, delving into a pleasure-read, Tsh Oxenreider’s “Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World.” I’ve been reading this during fringe-minutes this week. One quote from this book really grabbed me:

“It’s hard to slow down when the race has no finish line."

How many artists feel this way? Academics? Entrepreneurs? Newlyweds with big dreams and wild imaginations? People who use the internet at all?

I have fallen prey to this many a time. There are always updates to do. Take, for example, things that I must do or start this week, or there will be negative consequences. These are in no particular order:

1. Practice for upcoming concerts (March 6, 7, 8)

2. Reach out to people high-up in my related industries about opportunities or networking

3. Send out email blasts to potential audience members for early March concerts

4. Two grant proposals and an application for a conducting internship

5. Our taxes 

6. The final claims package against the *most awful movers ever* (and believe you me, when we receive our refund and the case has been completed, they will receive a very interesting online review, along with a file to Better Business Bureau in three states ...

7. Catch up on an ever-growing pile of paper correspondence (thank-you notes).

8. Finish photo editing and posting from three major photography projects 

9. Start the program notes for my faculty recital 

10. Mail Chinese New Year cards (we don’t do Christmas cards, which is a blessing because December is wrought with travel and end-of-semester. February timing works *much* better for us!).

11. Pick up where I left off on my private nutrition / personal finance business and ministry

12. Edit sound and video from three recent concert-projects ...

13. Yuan PhotoYearbook, 2014 (I do a “yearbook” of photos and quotes every year). I gave one to Zheng for Valentines’ Day last year. This year, the photo book may be a birthday gift.

I know by sitting down and making a schedule or action plan, this can all seem more tangible. Most of it this time around, I can’t delegate - or it won’t get done the way I would do it. And also, most of these items fall into the category of “I want to do something better, start something, or build something.” 

To be continued! I have started putting more firm boundaries on myself:

a) Ready for bed by 11PM

b) Up by 7AM 

c) No email-checking during the day [glance once in AM, and then respond after the work day] 

And about the slowing down? A lot of these tasks are process-oriented, yes - with a product in mind, but a lot of it is about the process (practicing, writing, photo-editing). If the process is rushed, the product will suffer. And I hate nothing more than to do things again because they weren't done right the first time. 

(Practicing and exercising are quite the obvious exceptions to this!).

Here’s to new goals, and new boundaries!

Despite the above "list" - I am going to allow myself an “Artists’ Walk” today and photograph the Winter Wonderland. For all of the big snows we got in Rochester, I couldn’t bear to go out and take a walk … and as a result, I have little winter footage with my *amazing* DSLR camera from that time! I'm not going to waste the opportunity here. 

I will take some photos with the iPad right in the house, and leave the real photography for another post.  

Until then, stay warm! 

What's all the "Chatter" about?

Yesterday was an important “debut” for me in Albuquerque. There is a unique, 50-weeks-per-year series in town, which has a tremendous following and is an institution of the highest creativity (with a little bit of “crunchiness”). 

It’s called “ChatterABQ." You can view the website here.

The organization and events which it sponsored used to be called “Church of Beethoven.” It is a one-hour event, every Sunday morning at 10:30AM. Tickets are sold on-line and also at the door (though a special guest, who I had invited yesterday, said he got the last ticket!). Performers are booked months in advance and the repertoire ranges from Bach Cantatas to Pärt or Schnittke or world-premieres. For the price of a ticket, you are treated to about an hour of music, some poetry, and two minutes of silence. The venue which hosts this, the Kosmos Art Gallery in Albuquerque, is an old warehouse which has been re-purposed as a performance venue and artists’ loft. 

The ticket also includes some pretty fantastic coffee and biscotti-pastries-croissants, of your choice. You just have to get there early to get your “free” coffee and get a good seat!

Joel Becktell, cellist and baroque cellist, had invited me to participate in a concert with him back in August, when I came to another event at Chatter. After this event, we came up with the program in the parking lot of the gallery. The past weeks have been spent working through the Schnittke First Sonata (1978) and the Bach Third Gamba Sonata, in g minor. 

I have long loved the process of analyzing music, either for the first time, or examining something again under close lens when it has been “put away” for a while. I most recently performed the g minor Gamba Sonata with Wendy Richman (a long-time friend from Oberlin, Eastman, and who is now on the faculty of University of Alabama). It was wonderful to take out the old Bärenreiter part and re-work it, thinking about different possibilities of cross-phrasing, hemiolas, tendency tones, and evaded cadences. Ah, J.S. Bach, how you continue to make me swoon ...

The Schnittke was another matter, as yesterday was its first performance for me. The piece is a bit of a “bête noire” - as Joel puts it. There are pacing decisions, texture challenges, not to mention the technical demands put upon both players. 

The audience responded in exactly the way I hoped they would. Ears have to get acclimated to the relative quiet sounds of a five-string baroque cello with a harpsichord. They were “with” us in the Bach in that way! I could especially tell during the arioso slow movement. The Schnittke brought about an entirely different reaction, including audible real-time gasps at the shocking climax of the middle movement.

I am so grateful to this institution for what it does in promoting live music, poetry, and a community who relishes both in such an “espresso” way.

PHOTOS: Aziza Murray from ChatterABQ, 2/8/15.