Holiday Update

As I write this I'm at Len's house in the GTA where I will be spending the start of the Christmas holidays. This will be the first Christmas I haven't spent at home but so far so good I suppose: I've had to spend the last two days by myself! :P Lenny's been working at a job continued from the summer and his family has been busy too. I've had a good time playing with their dog, Dakota, though, and have spent some time running, practicing, and watching TV. It has been a most welcome break after a hectic fall semester.

School

School has gone fairly well. While it has been busier than I anticipated, it has been so wonderful to have Len's support through everything. Italian has been a good challenge but it's been very helpful with my music studies too. I'm very thankful that my French background is as strong as it is -- it's definitely been helpful!

My business class was called "Compensation" and dealt with various forms of how employers can communicate their values to employees. It was more interesting than I anticipated but in spite of feeling like I learned a lot, my marks haven't really well reflected that. Hopefully my final mark (still not out yet) will turn out OK though... the final exam did go really well thanks to a lot of studying.

I've been really enjoying the graduate "seminar" class where we've been learning all about the different types of scholarly resources available. It is taught by someone who has been teaching for a loooooong time and I love the stories. It's been a while since I've had a more seasoned professor, so it's been a good experience.

My contemporary techniques class has been interesting. I've mastered flutter tonguing and have been doing OK at playing multiphonics. Right now I'm working on a Xenakis piece called Anaktoria and a Chris Weait solo piece. I'm a little anxious about the concert in February but hopefully I'll get some good practicing in between now and then.

Lessons have been going OK. I'm not very motivated to work on solo rep these days -- there seem to be so many other things to work on and my solo recital seems so far away (early March). My chamber music rep (piano trio with flute, bassoon, piano) has been consuming the majority of my practice time as I much prefer the ensemble-y stuff. Ditto with orchestra and chamber orchestra. I got my bassoon repaired this past weekend and also purchased a new Bona case. Already the sound has been SO much better that I'm feeling more inclined to play. Hopefully my reed adjusting goes well... It's definitely time to finish a few new ones.

Work

Work for the school has been pretty rough. It's taken way more hours than I bargained for and so I've committed to cutting back for the new year. I will continue my website master duties which I do really enjoy. Work at the convenience store has also been going ok although I will be very thankful for the day when I have a steady, well-paying job, and will be able to put my chocolate-bar-selling & clothes-folding days behind me.

I'm currently teaching the Bassoon Methods class for music education majors. It is a second and third year course and I have about 14 students per semester. It was a lot of work to set the course up (making handouts, preparing a lesson plan, creating tests and exams) but it has been a pretty enjoyable experience.

Future Plans

I'm still not very sure about what my post-masters life will consist of although I'm increasingly hoping to move to Toronto. I'm not exactly sure why but today, I think I'd like to get an HR job at some sort of music organization here -- maybe the TSO, or the National Ballet or something. I've toyed with the idea of doing a Masters thesis and doing a critical edition of some sort of harmoniemusik. David Bourque seems to think doing something like this would take at least 1000 hours. That is a lot... I'm kind of thinking of backing out and just doing the second solo recital option instead of the thesis... Decisions decisions.

Well that's probably enough for now. Perhaps I will post again sometime over the holidays -- we'll see how entertained I aim now that Lenny's all done his work now :)