I friend of mine facebooked me this week and asked how nice it must be to be at the end of term. Well, I guess I'm not commuting, but the pressure is heavy as tescos birthday cakes!
It is nice to be home for a while. Especially in this bizarre siberian weather. My little car, which has been so loyal, broke down today :( The RAC reckoned about a 5 hour wait, and suggested I try to get the kids home. Poor OJ has been poorly this week anyway, so we set off into the cold. Randomly, we stumbled across some carol singers, and a kindly priest offered to take us home. Now that's nice. Oscar got so cold, he was coughing like a loon, and when we got out the car, poor little chap was sick, just from coughing. Hot chocolate, manuka honey, bath and cuddles soon straightened him out, but my stress levels were through the roof! However, the new 'healthier' me, opted for a fresh mint tea to calm the nerves, which worked a treat.
Anyway; of the music? It's hard not to get overwhelmed, but I figure the best thing to do is write music. It gets me out of my head, and gets me closer to achieving my goals, so it's a double whammy. I am really glad to have found a time management technique that works well for me - I set my iphone timer to 25 minutes, and will not do anything except write in that time. Then I have a 5-10 minute break, where I do things like write this blog, or send an email, or check my receding bank balance! It's great. if I can get 4 or more of those in a day, I see real progress.
So here's the lay of the land;
Chroma ensemble piece - 8 minutes, due Jan
Accordion piece for Rafal - sketches asap
Animation project - due 6 Jan
Choreographer Collaboration - due 13 Feb
Oboe piece using live electronics -due 3 Feb
New projects coming up in Jan...phew
Plus gigs; choir, christmas, NYE, new solo performance venue 6 Feb. Blahblah.
Teaching is done until 5 Jan. That's a good thing!
My Chroma piece is based on a piece of contemporary Chinese art 'Shadows of Trees on Sunny Water' by Cao Jingping - taking different elements of the textures as influences for the musical material, which is working well here. It occurred to me last night, that Cao Jingping might like to know what I'm up to, so I sent an email to an art gallery inBeijing, who are currently exhibiting his work, to see if they can put me in touch with him. I hope he gets in touch. Would just be interesting...
Oh - the music theatre piece went down a storm. The snow finally abated on the Saturday, and I was able to get up to London for the performance. Fancy the first time you ever hear the music the you wrote being played at the performance! It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I have had ever! Luckily, it worked though. The singers were pleased as punch, and the trumpet player said he loved the muted trumpet part. Generally, great feedback. Crikey - what a trip!
LVP completely rocked out at Lauderdale house last week. Class gig! We had Tim Whitehead guesting on sax (we sung one of his compositions), Kenny Wheeler was there (we sung a few of his compositions), the lovely Nikki Iles trio backing us up (Yi, we sung one of Nikki's too!)
It was just a beautiful vibe in the room.
Can't wait til Sunday's gig at the 606. All our classic tunes. Will be a riot! (Oh please don't let the silly snow stop me from getting there)
Next year's performance of the Jon Hendricks vocalese for choir over Miles Ahead (Gil Evans), has been confirmed - Jon has asked us to all get a copy of the album and listen to it every day before we go to bed, and first thing in the morning. So I am. I put it on when I go to bed - think I'll have the first 3 tracks sorted, but might never get to hear the rest; am usually so exhausted by the time I finally turn in! There is a version of Nature Boy on there. My fave song of all time - I sing it to OJ every night, bless my little man.
Okey dokey - I've oer-run my 10 minute break, so it's back to work for me, next 25 minutes going on the clock...
Merry Christmas one and all.
Ding Dong Merrily on high :)
x
Friday 17 December 2010
Wednesday 1 December 2010
End of term?
Well, it is a little premature for me to be 'summing up' the term, with still 2 days to go. But it seems like the weather might have re-defined my life this week, and it seems pretty unlikely that I'll be making it into the academy any day soon.
It's in some way, a blessing, because the madness was getting a little out of hand. I was chasing my tail, feeling that I was one step behind all the way. Not having time to see the people I should see; I only had 20 minutes with the talented Jonathan, conductor; but I will be seeing him in January for sure. Spending too much time with people I shouldn't see; ah the wolves at my door! and just getting a little overwhelmed really.
I had 2 gigs on Saturday. It's funny, because the first one was (in my mind), a low profile xmas launch shopping centre gig. Solo piano / vox, 11.30-4.30. I should have spent more time going through my xmas tunes, but time was not on my side. So I turned up to the gig, looking pretty, but totally unprepared! I had borrowed a book of 'carol praise' from my student Adam, and figured I'd be tinkling in the background, do a bit of xmas sight reading, and noodle my way through some jazz...cool.
When I arrived, and there was a beautiful Steinway Grand set up in high profile on a stage (I kid you not!), I wished I'd done more preparation!
But I guess in the end, you can't replace experience, and I played well (thanks Steinway), and sung some great tunes. I guess you might say I rose to the occasion. Which I am quite proud of really.
when I came back from a break, Santa (who was set up opposite the piano), said 'look on your stool' - and there was a single white rose, with a note simply saying "like an angel". How cute is that? (especially as my angelic qualities are not my most prominent!!!)
I shared the gig with a ballon modelling elf and 2 ice people. 1 on stilts, 1 ground level doing contact juggling with crystal balls.
Now, I had some pre-conceptions about these acts, but they were blown away on the day. the professionalism and quality of the work they delivered was outstanding, and I was quite enamoured with their talents. I might be slightly miffed that the ballon modelling elf demanded a higher price than me, but I guess that's part of being a musician. Peace beyond passion and all that.
Then I went on to a wedding in the evening with Tim, Steve, Alex and the nice drummer (?), which was cool, but a mf of a get in. Oh loving your beautiful wedding venue with bridges over water to get in....but not with 2 keyboards and a PA at -2 degrees MF! Plus, it was that standard wedding blah. Running late, saying the right words, but not really giving a shit. Still, I had a nice gig, and got to hang out with my muso buddies, which was cool. Was a late night tho ;)
I have missed too much this week due to external influences. It's a bummer. Should have been at LVP extended rehearsal on Monday evening, but couldn't get into town because of tube strikes. Then I missed Tuesday because of snow. Drove in a circle trying to get home and ended back at Crystal Palace afterall. I guess I just couldn't get away!! 5 hours to get nowhere? Well, time to think is an environment that often eludes me, so I guess it was invaluable in some ways (would have been better if I hadn't needed a wee!) I didn't really want to stay out on Tuesday night, but the only place I could get to was Alex's, so there I went. At least it was warm. I watched a movie - now that's a proper treat! i couldn't concentrate on work, so in the end, I stopped pretending to work, and took the chill time for what it was.
Was glad to get home today and pick up my kids and have some normal time together. it's snowing hard, so I guess it sledges and hot chocolate tomorrow. So much for the composer. Tomorrow I am mum, and that will be nicer and less complicated than all the other things I have been this week!
I have started on my chroma composition tho, and am making headway into my accordion piece, so i"m still doing it, despite the world!
Nunight people. Tra la la xxx
It's in some way, a blessing, because the madness was getting a little out of hand. I was chasing my tail, feeling that I was one step behind all the way. Not having time to see the people I should see; I only had 20 minutes with the talented Jonathan, conductor; but I will be seeing him in January for sure. Spending too much time with people I shouldn't see; ah the wolves at my door! and just getting a little overwhelmed really.
I had 2 gigs on Saturday. It's funny, because the first one was (in my mind), a low profile xmas launch shopping centre gig. Solo piano / vox, 11.30-4.30. I should have spent more time going through my xmas tunes, but time was not on my side. So I turned up to the gig, looking pretty, but totally unprepared! I had borrowed a book of 'carol praise' from my student Adam, and figured I'd be tinkling in the background, do a bit of xmas sight reading, and noodle my way through some jazz...cool.
When I arrived, and there was a beautiful Steinway Grand set up in high profile on a stage (I kid you not!), I wished I'd done more preparation!
But I guess in the end, you can't replace experience, and I played well (thanks Steinway), and sung some great tunes. I guess you might say I rose to the occasion. Which I am quite proud of really.
when I came back from a break, Santa (who was set up opposite the piano), said 'look on your stool' - and there was a single white rose, with a note simply saying "like an angel". How cute is that? (especially as my angelic qualities are not my most prominent!!!)
I shared the gig with a ballon modelling elf and 2 ice people. 1 on stilts, 1 ground level doing contact juggling with crystal balls.
Now, I had some pre-conceptions about these acts, but they were blown away on the day. the professionalism and quality of the work they delivered was outstanding, and I was quite enamoured with their talents. I might be slightly miffed that the ballon modelling elf demanded a higher price than me, but I guess that's part of being a musician. Peace beyond passion and all that.
Then I went on to a wedding in the evening with Tim, Steve, Alex and the nice drummer (?), which was cool, but a mf of a get in. Oh loving your beautiful wedding venue with bridges over water to get in....but not with 2 keyboards and a PA at -2 degrees MF! Plus, it was that standard wedding blah. Running late, saying the right words, but not really giving a shit. Still, I had a nice gig, and got to hang out with my muso buddies, which was cool. Was a late night tho ;)
I have missed too much this week due to external influences. It's a bummer. Should have been at LVP extended rehearsal on Monday evening, but couldn't get into town because of tube strikes. Then I missed Tuesday because of snow. Drove in a circle trying to get home and ended back at Crystal Palace afterall. I guess I just couldn't get away!! 5 hours to get nowhere? Well, time to think is an environment that often eludes me, so I guess it was invaluable in some ways (would have been better if I hadn't needed a wee!) I didn't really want to stay out on Tuesday night, but the only place I could get to was Alex's, so there I went. At least it was warm. I watched a movie - now that's a proper treat! i couldn't concentrate on work, so in the end, I stopped pretending to work, and took the chill time for what it was.
Was glad to get home today and pick up my kids and have some normal time together. it's snowing hard, so I guess it sledges and hot chocolate tomorrow. So much for the composer. Tomorrow I am mum, and that will be nicer and less complicated than all the other things I have been this week!
I have started on my chroma composition tho, and am making headway into my accordion piece, so i"m still doing it, despite the world!
Nunight people. Tra la la xxx
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