Music for the End of Time

Well, it's official!  The first concert of my new home is officially done.

I can now say that I have 1) played on a stage full of fog, and 2) played on a stage while "surprise" bagpipers walked in from the sidelines.  It was awesome.  The piece, written by Michael Schelle, was called "The End of the World," and it also happened to include pre-recorded thunderclaps.  The fog was the most interesting, though.  We only rehearsed with one fog machine, not two, so we had no idea what the end result would be.  My roommate, Qiudi, told me later that the director said something like, "I knew it was all over when I couldn't see Aimee anymore."  We were all just playing our parts in our small bubble of fog.  I remember at one point losing count of the measure number (the ending ~50 measures repeated the same 2-measure pattern until the end).  At that point I thought, "Ok, I'll just keep playing until I can see Prof. Hill again, and hope that the rest of the ensemble has the same idea."  Thankfully, we did -- great minds think alike -- and the overall effect seemed to work pretty well.   I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the ensemble performances.  It was SO much fun, and I hope I can keep this assignment during my entire stay here at ASU.


The back story...

For my scholarship, I play piano (and sometimes celeste) for the large ensembles here.  That means any orchestra or wind ensemble (or larger chamber ensemble) piece that needs piano, I'm their gal.  It has been an awesome experience, to go from playing under zero conductors for the last few years to playing for six different ones -- it really helped me get well-adjusted again.   Not well adjusted to following conductors -- that part was easy -- but adjusted to counting rests again without cues.  (Also, it should be noted, there are not six conductors for the large ensembles -- this number includes other ASU activities also.)

I must admit, at first I was worried about the transition to playing in large ensembles again.  The last time I played in an orchestra was 2005...in the second violin section...in the very, very back.  Second violin is very different from piano in orchestra -- mostly because you have 7-11 other team-mates to help you out.  So, if you miscount, there are people to help you, including the section leader.  And, well, you have teammates helping you!  Playing piano is a little more terrifying in large ensembles.  Thankfully, it was only terrifying on the first few days -- after I got used to counting 25+ measures of rest without having the other music in my part, it was back to being awesome.  Kinda makes me wish that wind ensemble/orchestra gigs became vacant more often, instead of once every 25+ years.

Anyway...
The orchestra and wind ensemble were very strong -- everyone had worked really hard for this concert, so it was exciting to hear it all.  I only played on two pieces (plus the Messiaen).  They were spread throughout the concert.  Because of this, I didn't get to see the concert from the audience, but I did get to hear from backstage.  It was so interesting, playing on such a large stage again -- it's been awhile.

My favorite aspect about playing with large ensembles is the fact that we are such a large group of people, a team, but can also be one single unit.  When things work well together, they REALLY work well.  I love the sheer energy you can feel on stage with that many people -- it's a different kind of performing somehow.  You can't always trust your ears 100%, because if you do, you will be behind.  Instead, it's a cross between what you hear and what you see.  That takes a bit of getting used to.  As a pianist, I can't "sneak" in like I used to be able to on second violin, ha!

Now that I'm adjusted to large ensembles again, I can't wait for the rest of the music for this semester:

Schwantner's From a Dark Millennium
Missy Mazzoli's Still Life with Avalanche
Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije
Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite
Ravel's Mother Goose Suite

...I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting, but that is all I can remember at the moment. Have a happy Tuesday!

More random cooking adventures

Since school began a little less than a month ago, I have gotten into the habit of cooking on weekends so I can have food for the week without thinking too much about it. 

So far I have been sticking to simple things, but hope to soon branch out.  Last week, I made a pasta dish:  Rotini with a creamy tomato sauce (and Roma tomatoes!), with sausage and grated cheeses.  Yum, cheese.  Oh, and onions, of course -- the staple of EVERY dish I make, apparently.   It was a huge experiment that turned into a decent success.  Seriously, I just started throwing stuff in a pot and stirring it, and just kinda made it up as I went along. 

Today, I had a recipe I wanted to try.  I read the ingredients, then started my own. I didnt' look back at the recipe once! ... Oops.  Just made it up.  I didn't quite get the proportions right, but here's a general overview of what I did.  

Sautee in pan: onions, bell peppers (yellow and green), carrots (sliced thinly), and Mexican grey squash (in thin small pieces).  Added spinach.  In a separate pan I browned turkey hot dogs (because they were cheaper than turkey sausage), also in tiny pieces. Then, added cheese and stirred it all together.  I guess it's kinda like a Southern stir-fry.  

If I did it again, I would probably add many more carrots and squash -- the onion to squash/carrot ratio is a little lopsided.  I also need to figure out the smaller end of how much butter or oil to saute things  in.  I just kinda guess and always put too much in the pot, haha.

It's interesting, though, because it's amazing just how far I've come in the cooking department.  A few years ago I would have never tried anything like this, despite the fact that this is very simple.   I have learned recently, though, that I very much like dishes like this -- ones where the meat and veggies are actually together.  Otherwise, I find myself just eating veggies, or just eating chicken -- not both.  

The best part about cooking for a few hours every weekend?  I feel refreshed for the upcoming week, and am much more highly likely to actually eat the leftovers throughout the week.   The other best part is that aside from things like sushi, I feel like anything I cook is probably going to be healthier, cheaper, and tastier than store-bought food.  Side benefit: because of this fun cooking "hobby," I haven't been out to eat since early August, right after I moved here.  I haven't even gone to Subway or Chipotle, which is pretty impressive since they are both directly across from the School of Music.

This coming weekend will hopefully be more stir-fried rice with chicken and LOTS of veggies.  More Mexican grey squash (I haven't figured out how it's different from zucchini squash aside from being lighter in color), lots more carrots, perhaps more peas or some beans...and of course, more onions.

Soon, I will write stories of playing fun music with wind ensemble and orchestra, along with fog machines, pre-recorded thunder, and bagpipers.  It was definitely a good way to spend this past Friday evening, so I will try to update about that evening sometime this week.

Afternoon of Crafty-ness: Book Covering

So lately, I have been relaxing (a tiny bit each weekend) by doing random paper crafts. drawing, and writing snail mail letters to friends.  Nothing too crazy, but still, just enough to allow me to be "artsy" without the constant critique of the practice room.  Don't get me wrong, I love practicing!  But practicing is my work.  It's freeing -- the same way a performance is freeing -- to be able to do something artistic without actually critiquing yourself in the search for that elusive highest artistic performance.

Little project -- re-cover an old journal I have lying around.  It's been filled up for awhile now, so I'm not writing anything else in it, but I have at least 3 other small black notebooks just like it.  I can't even remember the number of times I have grabbed this book, thinking it was the current one.

My roommate, Qiudi, was so kind to introduce me to Rubber Cement craft glue.  This glue is awesome, because it is (obviously) rubbery enough to help prevent wrinkles when working with paper.  I never did so well with traditional Elmer's glue, or even glue sticks...so this was great!  

This was my first book-covering experiment, so it's not perfect by any means; however, it was definitely fun!

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First, my tools:  slightly tattered journal, two kinds of paper, and some rubber cement.  The rubber cement reminded me of the glue for PVC pipe, but thankfully it's not nearly as stinky.

Isn't the paper cute?

Yeah, I obviously like this paper.  It's just nice, cool tones.  And whimsical!  I like whimsical.

Apply rubber cement to each surface - then stick them together.  Super easy.  

The first corner didn't turn out quite so well, because I was still figuring out the angles to cut.  No, I didn't pay $12.95 for this small book.  I think it was $3.

From the front (of the back cover).  Not too bad.

Getting ready for the finishing paper.  It's plain white cardstock.  Next time, I will just use plain white paper.  Cardstock may have been a tad overkill.

Finished back cover.  View from inside, plus pretty paper for front.  

Prepping the front - the glue is almost dry.  You can wait til the glue dries to put the paper together, or place them together when it's still wet.  If it's dry, though, you have to put it in the right place the first time, because it won't be going anywhere.

Yeah, I got the front a tiny bit crooked.  Before arranging the corners.

Despite crookedness, the corners turned out MUCH better.

And, a finished view of the inside front cover.  No, your monitor doesn't have spots on it -- that's actually the awesomeness of rubber cement.  If you have excess around the edges, it comes off quite easily in small rubber balls.  Vacuum them up, then you have a cleanly finished book/envelope/etc. with no trace of glue or tape!  I had begun to remove the excess glue here.  This aspect of rubber cement is my favorite.  If you are a bit clumsy and tend to drop things, or accidentally paint glue somewhere it doesn't need to be, the cleanup is very forgiving.

And...

I'm finished!  Back view:

And front view:

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I would call it a successful first book-covering excursion.  Next time I think I'll try something a little more complicated.  Fun times!

Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band

Ok, so I'm more than a week late, but I wanted to write a short-ish post about last weekend's concert: Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band.  It was highly interesting, because I had never been to a show where one of the performers also happened to be an actor.  The show actually opened with some video clips from Forrest Gump -- naturally, the Lt. Dan scenes.  Then, towards the last third of the show, they showed clips from Gary Sinise's current show, I suppose.  (I don't own a television, so I had heard of the show but had not seen it before.)

This was the third concert I've attended in the last year or so that I had literally never even heard ANY of the band's music before.  And, it must be noted: Each of the three (yes, these were non-classical) concerts that I ventured out to see ended up being some of the most inspiring performances, in different ways.

Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band was no exception.  They played covers of just about everything -- so many that I can't even list them all.  And they were consistently good. Sometimes the nerdy part of me would admittedly cringe a little at some of the vocal placement or vowels used, but overall I couldn't complain.  (Besides, since they played covers from the last 30 years or so, I think I knew almost everything they played.)  There were four singers total: one male and three females.  My favorite singer was the third female singer - if there was a classically trained singer in the bunch, it would have been her.  Honestly, though, it wasn't even the music that was inspiring.  After all, the songs they played would fall into the category of "fun and entertaining," so it wasn't  really the music itself, necessarily.  (Though, the energy they all had on stage was just great.)

The most inspiring part of this was actually Gary Sinise himself.  He introduced the members of the band, but then when he introduced himself, it was always, "And I'm Lt. Dan, and I'm just trying to keep up."  or, "I just play bass, my job isn't so hard.  But so-and-so, he's amazing, isn't he?"  Always trying to deflect praise from him to his band.  He talked about what inspired him to start the Lt. Dan band, and how thankful he is for the people who serve in our military.   I learned that he has a number of family members who serve or have served in the military, and that he films his TV show five days a week, then travels to do shows on the weekends.  Everything that the band makes, money-wise, (after paying the musicians I'm sure) goes into his Foundation, which is dedicated to helping veterans and current military, in as many ways as possible...

It's just so inspiring to see someone using his resources to give to other people in the way that he does.  He could be relaxing on the weekends, but instead, he spends his limited time off raising money to help other people.  Hearing Gary Sinise talk about something that he is so obviously passionate about, the lives he has touched and the impact he knows he has made on some of the people he met -- well, it gives me a little more hope for people in general.  It's not about him -- even though he could easily make it that way given his "celebrity" status.

For that, Gary Sinise, you have my respect and admiration.  Thank you for breaking the "celebrity" stereotype and spending not just your money but your time.  Time is precious and it's inspiring the way you choose to spend yours.  I can only hope to make such a difference in this world.