Hi!!! I know it's been WAY too long. Well, let me catch you up real quick.
This semester has been really super uber busy. Short story version: I needed 3 classes to graduate in May. They were all only offered in the Fall. So I had to take Music History Review II, Performance Awareness through Movement, and a theory elective, plus a chamber ensemble credit, plus lessons. So I had 11 credits, which by the way is a TON for a music grad student. My theory elective ended up being Music Theory Pedagogy, a class where we talk about different teaching strategies for theory. There was a ton of reading, writing papers, assignments, and article/book reviews. Plus planning a 14 lesson syllabus and a final paper about my theory teaching philosophy. Yuck. I really like the class, but it was soooo much more work than what I bargained for. As many ppl know, I am not very scholarly and hate writing papers. I also had to write papers for my other 2 classes. Also, my chamber piece took up the whole first half of my semester....the Caplet Masque of the Red Death. It was an amazing experience, but there was a ton of rehearsing to do since it is a very hard piece. So between rehearsing for the Caplet, and doing all my other class's assignments, I hardly had any time to practice this semester...which is bad because my recital is coming up in April, two of the pieces for which I am also doing a competition in June. Plus, I am auditioning for the Chicago Civic Orchestra in March and that is going to take a lot of time as well. Crossing my fingers that I get it, that would be awesome!!!
So there it is....my semester in a nutshell. The only good thing about this semester is that I am officially DONE WITH CLASSES!!!! That's right....all I will have to do is my big recital. No more papers, no more reading, no more tests....just practicing all day long. Woohooo!!!!! I am really excited for that part.
Well, besides being so incredibly busy and often stressed out this semester, it is finally finals week and I will be driving home with my harp next week. Provided it doesn't snow and close down the roads. Then I have to wait. But hopefully the roads will be clear enough to drive without problems. I am a seasoned winter driver now, being up here in the midwest for so long, so I don't think it will be too bad getting home. Again, fingers crossed!!