London-logue

Hey Neighbo(u)reenos!

Wow, after reading everyone else's blog I find that I want to blog my blog bloggishly. And so I shall. Hmmmm...been four months since the last update. The new ensemble I belong to, Tambourin, made it to the finals of the Fenton House Competition, which was surprising...as we were competing against groups from London and other UK cities. Good groups, 'young' professionals. Some have been together for years, apparently. It was so lovely to get to hang out with everyone behind the scenes. Rarely do people from Trinity get to spend a lot of time with people at RCM or Academy or Guildhall (or formerly so), so that was really cool. Tambourin is Asako on harpsichord and Anne Marie on violin, and myself on gamba. We played Rameau for the competition.

The consorting (my favorite, of course) is going well - recreational playing and professional. I really adore my fellow Sestinites - been back ta Basel once since last I blogged and we gave a concert at the Pianofort'ino gallery. Saying I know a little German would be exaggerating, by the way. (Ooh, now I want to go back and watch Top Secret. Cool people will know why.) People could cheat me quite badly in Basel, because I don't know the numbers and just nod cheerfully as people hand me change. Yes, yes, I do believe that chocolate bar should have cost the equivalent of a week's rent in London...of course! MMmmmm....Swiss chocolate. So good. And cheap from the source.

Recreationally we have had lots of playing - including an American night with Loren/Liam/Jan and I at Jan's place near Crystal Palace. Good dinner, good playing. Then a night with Jan/Loren/Ibi and I that involved the consumption of lots and lots of alcohol. Also some great evenings with Ingrid and Helen from the library and Pat. Ladies night avec Senfl, anyone?

Trinity is fine. The recital is over with and though there were bumps in the road I think the overall impression was good. I just want the degree really - solo playing isn't where it is at as far as I am concerned, and I love that I go to a school that kind of understands that everyone needs to do what makes their heart beat a little faster. And so, if anyone had a request for advice, I would say don't sweat the small stuff and do what you like. If you are happy with what you are doing and show up on time, then people will really enjoy working with you, and you will get gigs and be able to make a good show of it.

For those who might not know, I am staying one more year in London - pretty much for sure. I am job hunting now. I had the funniest interview. It was with a millionaire/author with a typically dry and bawdy Brit sense of humor. He basically called the job a 'wife without the dirty parts'. It would be an awesome job, so I hope I get it. If I do, I will probably never post about him again, as I will probably have to sign my life away against my revealing the secrets of his social life online! I just need something that will allow me to pursue a lot of the projects that I haven't had time for in the past.

Alright. This rare desire to blog has run its course, and I am ready to call it. Perhaps it was the five cups of tea I had today that perked me up. I had a house concert with three other Sestina members yesterday (mostly non-viol types in teh audience, but the aforementioned Liam and Loren were there, so we had to be on our best behavior), and so it could be that I am still coming down from that event. At any rate, I hope anyone that reads this (will there be anyone??) is doing well...

xxxJ

Wow. Haven't done a livejournal entry in half a year. Well, here goes! I will have my final recital in late May or early June - not sure when, but the time will be decided by the department. I am finding it hard to focus on school right now, because there are a number of non-school-related things that I am doing. I am hoping to stay for another year after I graduate, and just gig/gig/gig. So far I have stuff scheduled up until November - the last being a set of concerts with Sestina in Switzerland. Also on the drawing board is a group called Chelys, which is exclusively London people (Sestina is international). I am also lucky enough to be doing a lot of concerts with a new group consisting of violin/harpsichord/gamba. We are playing Rameau, Leclair, and something else that I can't seem to remember right now. I am very happy playing up high - just like cello, ya know.

I am a vagrant - a nomad - moving from one house-sit to the next. At the end of March I return to Esha's beautiful house in Greenwich. Huzzah. I don't miss my old life much, just my family and friends.

Catherine is coming on March 17th!! I have seen a real castle. I have seen Brighton pier in the freezing winter. I will be going to Paris in the springtime. Not doing conclave this year sadly - I can't afford to come back. But hopefully next year when it is in the midwest.

Okay, so there we are. This is my life. I am learning how to appropriately use xxxs.
This is officially the worst blog entry ever. Too tired to do more. Enjoy!

x Jen x

Hey all,

Well, I have been back in London now for about three weeks, and just getting settled in at Esha's place. The weather has been at times sublime, with a solid week of cold and muck thrown in for good measure. The main focuses in the past few weeks have been missing my family, applying for jobs, and practicing and working at school in the library. School doesn't start until the middle of September, and so there is not much else to do at this point!

The viol:

I am now running through a number of composers, trying to make sure that I have explored as much music as possible before coming up with a them for a recital. Here at Trinity, a clever theme and good program notes are a must for the typical audience member, and certainly for the people grading a recital. Cleverness, sans ostentation, is the rule of the day, and so I am absolutely dedicated to finding just the right pieces.

The good news is that I am feeling much more comfortable at the highest reaches of the fingerboard, thanks to the Jenkins divisions that I forced myself to play last semester. At this point chords are seeming much more natural as well, and the combination of these two things makes me like Marais much more than I ever thought I would. Just to have the tools available to play it makes things much nicer and makes me a more fair judge of its merits.

Rock:

I played with Buswell this Thursday in Swindon, and I must say that absolutely, hands down, no contest, playing with a good band is the most rewarding musical activity that I ever engage in. It beats playing solo viol in a concert, even beats playing continuo with the best players. I just LOVE sitting next to the drums, getting carried away by the beat and the blending of the different sounds. We will be recording in the next few months, and I look forward to playing with them again sometime soon.

I will also likely be meeting up with Greg B Hall to see if we are compatible musically. He gave a great performance at the Electroacoustic Club in Islington on a night that I was there with Buswell, and his innovative and tuneful music fits right in with cello or viol. Look him up on myspace, his music is definitely worth a listen.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfmfuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=106447778

Work:
I have an interview with Boosey and Hawkes on the 6th of September. Wish me luck!

Random Reflections:
*Cheese alert*
I have been blessed while(st) I have been here to enjoy meeting new people and discovering how compatible I am with them. Sometimes I marvel at how rewarding it is to not know someone one day, and then something shifts in the universe and you have a new friend... conversations are crafted out of dead space, new things are discovered, and the world as you know it is a more interesting place. Possibly it is being here, starting out with so few friends, that has made this so obvious to me. Other than playing music, I think that gaining a new friend is probably one of the most rewarding things that I ever do. Do you suppose it is possible to make a career out of moving around and making new friends? Probably not, but it should be...
*Cheese alert ended*

Catch y'all later,
Jen

Wow...it has been a long time since I blogged. I really, really regret not blogging more, and also not taking many pictures. I will never be like the people that I hang out with - people seem focused on taking pictures of their activities these days, but I do need to be better about it. And with blogging, there is just no way in one blog entry that I can relate all of the interesting things that I have been up to - all of the stressful things too...let's not forget that side of being in school.

Moving backwards - yesterday I traveled to Bournemouth on the southern coast of the UK with Ibi, Obed, Byron, and Aggie - all current or former residents of Burrage RD. The ocean was gorgeous and you could see for miles along the coastline. The sand was incredibly soft and fine, and to get to the beach you had to walk down a path on a cliff. The weather was lovely, getting just a bit chilly at about 6 or so. A lovely way to spend a day!

The day before, I also traveled south to Bognor Regis on a train and played in a pick-up orchestra for a singer/songwriter named Olly Hite. Some unexpectedly tricky cello writing made it challenging, but the whole thing was well-organized and quite fun. They even laid down some sod on the stage as part of the 'outdoorsy' effect. I liked this guy's music too, kind of Elton John/David Gray. I have put a link in my lefthand column on my myspace page if anyone is interested. www.myspace.com/jenstrings

In the past couple of weeks I have played for a number of recitals for other people, given my own recital (which went pretty well), played with Buswell again, met a few more people that are interested in collaborating with me musically, and played a few paid gigs on viol. Things are looking really good for me when I get back here, and I am excited about all of the neat things that one can do while living in a big city like this. Definitely NOT ready to come home for good quite yet!

As far as my travel plans, I will be arriving in Kansas City on the 27th of June in the late afternoon, and then driving to Madison, WI on the 12th of July. I will stay in Madison at least until the 21st, and then rent another car and drive back to KC. Then, on the first or second day of August I will fly back to the UK. I am looking forward to seeing everyone very, very, very much!!!

x,
Jen

Well, I am officially moved into Esha's house for a while (thanks Esha!!), and though it is quiet (too quiet), it has been very convenient. Right now, though, I am on the bus traveling from Victoria Station in London to Oxford. I will be visiting the music reading room at the Bodleian Library to copy some divisions out of the back of a copy of Christopher Simpson's book. According to the librarians at Oxford, the divisions are by John Jenkins and were written in his own hand. Also in the pages in the back of the book are some anonymous divisions and some other pieces in a different hand. I am really excited to get the music back and be able to play it on the viol, cause it hasn't been published before.

I have discovered that I like writing on the bus - there isn't any possibility that I will be distracted. I absolutely have to stay on the bus, and the Oxford Tube bus service makes it easy with WI/FI and outlets next to all the seats. It is a double decker bus, and it is rarely crowded when I travel. Kind of a nice feeling to be able to get any where in the country using public transportation. Very freeing. Okay, so's I haven't written in a while...I will do what I did one other time that I had let a long time period lapse between entries, and start out with topics...

SCHOOL
Well, my recital is June 7th. 30-35 minutes of music, tuning, etc. The program is as follows:

Arcadelt - O felici occhi miei (Ibi, Alison, Ali, Jen)
Ortiz - Recercada (ornamented bass line) on felici
Ortiz - Recercada Sesta
---
Sumarte - Prelude in D minor...Daphne...the buildings (unaccompanied)
---
Jenkins (the unpublished divisions)
---
Marais Book 3 - Prelude...fantasie...menuet...plainte...charivari

I just had my first performance platform, which is a prelude to the recital. Philip Thorby and your classmates in the Early Music department come and you play some of your recital, and then PT comments on the performance and makes suggestions for improvement. Mine went really well, and (pay special attention to this, those that have attended American conservatories)
I can't believe how supportive and constructive these sessions are. I am still very nervous about playing a recital after all these years, but it makes such a difference to be prepared for it in this way. It is as if they view preparing to perform professionally as a journey that one makes over a number of years, instead of being thrown to the lions immediately upon entering a conservatory! It is such a healthy way to approach a career performing that I can hardly believe it. Perhaps, as I was musing before, the fact that national health insurance makes a career more possible here encourages the British to create more realistic schooling for their young musicians.

Alexander Technique
Yes, I have finally had a few sessions of Alexander Technique and it makes a lot of sense.  For those who don't know, this technique involves learning how to relax muscles that are not in use and to use your body more efficiently and in a more relaxed manner. (Forgive my definition - I am new to it and I may not quite have the concept down correctly.)  Lots of interesting stuff to learn, but lessons ended this week, and so I will return to it in the fall, having spent the summer monitoring how I stand, sit, and play (or not play, when I am in the US!)

Concerts (past and future) subtitled 'It got busy all of a sudden!'
There have been some nice concerts recently that I have played in or attended...let me see if I can re-create a short list for you.

4 March - I played with a band called Buswell for the first time - actually, due to a van mishap, it ended up being just the lead singer playing guitar and myself.  It was a fun evening--Shaun Buswell is a great singer and it was good to get up and do some improvising after so long without it.  It is still one of my favorite musical activities.  It doesn't make me nervous at all - even though I often don't know what I am going to play before I play it.  It is just very nice to have fun making stuff up...!

13 March - A nice lunchtime concert where I played a Schenck duet with Ibi... 

17 March - VDGS meeting at Oxford.  I and some others played the example pieces for Andrew Ashbee's paper on anonymous viol music.  It was nice to meet Dr. Ashbee, and I also met Margaret Bent, who was also speaking at the meeting and played viol that day too.  Also attending were David Pinto and Liam Byrne (another viol player who came here from the states). 

6 April - I played a Good Friday service this day with Ibi, and then met up with Liz Weamer and Jill Carroll and had a good old fashioned American-girly-type afternoon which I must say was a blast.

19 April - This week and next the Trinity early music department played a concert with three gorgeous anthems by Handel, once at the college and then again at Handel's church at Hanover Square downtown, for the annual Handel festival.  


Well, I see that we are about to reach Oxford, and the view from the bus windows is amazing.  Gently rolling green hills with hedgerows, and when the road takes you to the top of the hill, you can see for miles.  No sheep, though!
This entry shall be continued on the way home, when I will tell you about upcoming things and stuff and such and such...!

Jen

3 February 2007
Well, on the bus from Milton Keynes to Coventry now, and I wanted to get in a quick journal entry before we are off exploring again. Now that I am away from the city, it is easier to relax and journal. I have been really bad about keeping this little diary up because of all of the normal stresses of graduate school (the way time is eaten up by the worry about nebulous half-finished projects and goals, so that one can’t even read a newspaper without feeling guilty that one isn’t studying). So my assignment for this weekend is to relax and let myself have free time to hang out with Catherine and see the countryside.

Yesterday I started out at school, planning to put in an hour at the library and then printing my e-ticket and travelling to Victoria Coach station in central London. But…the best laid plans of mice and men. The internet connection at school went down just as I was starting to log in to my email and print the ticket, so I had to search around for someone that still had a viable connection. Luckily, someone in IT had one up, so I was able to print my tickets and go. I arrived at Victoria station just in the nick of time, but the bus was delayed for 45 minutes – so there was plenty of time to stand around under the huge outdoor bus shelter and, along with most other people, glance up occasionally and try not to be directly under a pigeon.

The bus pulled out and the day was wonderfully sunny. I read for a while and then stared out at the countryside, eventually falling asleep with the sun warming my face. Brilliant! An hour and a half and I was in Milton Keynes, and from the coach (bus) stop I took a shuttle to the M.K. mall and met up with Catherine at Marks and Spencers (similar to Marshall Fields or any other upscale department store, but it has groceries and a café). We had tea and lunch in the café and sat and chatted for about two and a half hours, maybe three. Same activity, different continent, I suppose. Instead of Espresso Royale on State Street, it is an M&S outside of London…

We met up with Catherine’s childhood friend Melinda (a children’s social work director) at 5:00 and rode home with her to her lovely home that was started in 1750 and that she and her husband are slowly restoring with the idea of selling it in a few years for a hefty profit. Night had fallen already by the time we were on the road, and a huge orange moon hung in the sky. I could see vague shapes of hills and hedgerows, but for the most part the countryside remained hidden. Apparently the area is quite flat for England, and during the daytime people can see quite a long way.

After arriving at the house, the highlight of the evening (other than Catherine-childhood stories) was a beautiful meal of broiled lamb in a red wine sauce with sautéed onions and peppers, some potatoes, fresh green beans and broccoli, and for dessert a couple of puddings with custard. WOW. After that, some nice conversation and then to bed upstairs. There were two adorable (but loud) kittens that had the run of the house, and were playing late into the night.

The next morning Melinda provided a wonderful English breakfast (fried egg, toast, English-style bacon, fresh sautéed mushrooms, and tomatoes) and then we took a drive out to a man-made Victorian reservoir to be in the fresh air. It was gorgeous and sunny again (two days in a row!) and everything smelled absolutely crisp and fresh. Nothing like living in London to make one appreciate fresh air! After that, to the bus station and here we are on the way to Coventry, and then to Stratford-on-Avon to see a couple of Shakespearean landmarks.

To be continued….

2-3-07 (Late)
Couldn’t have asked for a more fun day! Catherine’s friend Caroline is British and her husband is American, and their kids are just about the cutest and brightest little ones that I have encountered for ages (with the exception of my little niece, of course!). We were picked up at the Coventry bus station by Caroline, and saw a bit of the city as we were driven out to Stratford-on-Avon. Coventry is quite different in appearance because it was almost completely levelled during WWII. There are apparently very few historic buildings standing today that were around before the war, consequently, the place looks more like America than any other I have seen while here.

When we arrived at the house we had a meal of a nice quick pasta and tomato and olive sauce with chicken, and then we decided to walk through town because it was still as sunny as I have seen it for a long time. The walk was absolutely gorgeous, beginning along a small canal which eventually opened up into a recreational lake area complete with waterfowl and little rowed cruise boats that one could hire. Hundreds of people were out walking in the park area, not only tourists here to see Shakespeare’s haunts but local families out picnicking.

We continued our walk along the lake and eventually ended up at the church where Shakespeare is buried. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the church to see the grave, but I have never really been that concerned with actually seeing the grave marking – just being in the churchyard is enough for me. After the church, we wandered around the other side of the lake and ended up at the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company to have tea and cake. While there, we saw the man who played the guy who died in Four Weddings and a Funeral having tea. (How’s that for a poorly structured sentence!!) He is starring in a musical adaptation of Merry Wives of Windsor there at the theatre, and was ‘mingling with the fans’ after the show.

What else……we returned to the house via the high (main) street, and stopped in at the smelliest cheese shop you could possibly imagine. Caroline and Eric generously treated us to take-out Indian, and we had a lovely dinner with everyone and then talked late into the evening.

Hi all,

Well, just sitting here a few days from the last day of the year and musing to myself after watching the new short Harry Potter 5 trailer.... The trailer starts with a slow overhead of Canary Wharf at night, looking south over the river, and the end of the trailer shows Harry flying south away from Canary Wharf.  CW is right across the river from my school, and visible from many parts of the city where I frequent, and it got me thinking about London as the city where I am living right now versus everyone's (including my) idea of London from movies, tv, books, etc.  If I was never here, I wouldn't have an sort of frame of reference for the scenery I see in movies like these.  I was watching the Constant Gardener last night, and they show Ralph Fiennes and another character riding up the escalator at the Canary Wharf tube station, and I got all distracted because all I could think was "that's Canary Wharf tube station!!!!! I saw some kid get yelled at by a disembodied authoritative voice over the loudspeaker there!!!" (that was really funny, by the way....YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW, YOUNG MAN. THERE ARE CAMERAS ALL OVER THIS STATION. DO YOU THINK WE CAN'T SEE YOU?)  I don't even think I would have the same reaction if it was a movie filmed in Madison - I think that part of the coolness is just getting to know a city that is so different, that not many Americans might even get to know outside of a tour bus here and a show and nice dinner there.  And, of course, London must be one of the most well known foreign cities to Americans - a more difficult city to live in would probably elicit an even stronger response.

Anyway, the point of this blabbing is that I am sometimes disappointed that I can't make these two Londons meet in my head, and so I fear that I won't be able to appreciate the city while I am here and occupied with the business of going to school, living on a budget, etc.  This fear that I won't understand how lucky I am to be living here until I am long gone is a small one, true, but I thought about it as I watched both of the above movies, and I wanted to share it.  I dunno - do you think that the memory of the real London that I have in my head - the people, the school, etc. should be truer than the idealized London that still resides way back in my mind?  I even went on a fabulous tour of inner London on foot with a group of people a couple of days ago, given by a very knowledgeable friend, and still it doesn't quite all seem real. 

Anyway - that's what I get for musing while I sit in front of the computer! 

I also wanted to share that I had a really nice Christmas eve and day - on the eve I accompanied Ibi to a midnight mass at Corpus Christi Covent Garden, where he was hired to play organ for the service.  The trains and busses had actually stopped running by the time the mass was over, and so we had to get a ride from some very kind people who went to the service.  Then, we spent Christmas day at a very cool lady's house (Hi Helen!) with Esha, Todd (her friend from Hawai'i), a really awesome friend of Helen's (Hi Francis/es!) where we had about three meals worth of wonderful food, had a quiz, had the traditional Christmas 'crackers' which are colorful tubes with a small charge of gunpowder (?) that goes off when you pull them apart, and that contain a prize and a paper crown (see various UK Christmas-containing movies for more info!).   

When I got home, I had some wonderful movies and pictures from my family's celebrations (I miss you guys!) :).

I must take my camera to more places!!  P.S. - Joan is coming on the 8th of January!  Catherine is coming at the end of January!
Yay!

More pics of the tour taken by another camera soon....

Cheers,
Jen

BTW - I am on the January rota (schedule) for Arches Leisure Center....will wonders never cease???


 

Howdy all,

As promised, more stories and such and such!

I miss everyone, especially at this time of year, but I do love it here. I still haven't worked a single day for the Leisure Center (truly living up to their name!). In the meantime, Esha has kindly hired me to work for the Pan-Pacific Gamba Gathering - I will be info-gathering, maintaining email lists and databases, and getting some experience with grant writing that will look great on a resume, I think. When I am not practicing or working on that, I am starting a couple of projects for school that will be due in May. I am trying to step back in to the musicology world for a bit, and I like it, though it wasn't a good career choice for me. I am reading Lydia Goehr's 'The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music' right now (should have read it a long time ago, eh?) and I am liking it so far (at least the parts that I can understand).

I am a member of the British Library now, and I have access to the manuscript rooms! There is so little time here to do all the things that I want to, but I do want to make sure and get some time to pull out some unpublished viol stuff and copy it. While visiting the library to sign up, I had a nice tour from a woman who talked the whole time about how she regretted getting a PhD in musicology, because she didn't get a job she liked, etc. etc. After the tour I wandered down to the museum portion of the building and saw some amazing stuff, including the viol table manuscript, the earliest surviving copy of Beowulf, an ancient Canterbury Tales, many huge and beautiful illuminated religious texts, personal writing of many of the royals throughout the ages, a copy of My Ladye Nevell's Book, and the Magna Carta.

I recently played my first self-organized gig here, thanks to an ad at gumtree.com. I played in the cocktail lounge for a club night, and it was a total blast! The people that hired me were as nice as could be, I met a lot of new people, and I also made some music contacts that will be important. The one that is most exciting to me is a conversation that I had with someone from ResonanceFM, an experimental music radio station that broadcasts in London on 104.4 and also worldwide on the internet. He invited me to think about preparing a one-off show on the viol, and I am thinking that I just might do it. Especially if I can use the experience for school in some way. Interesting, eh?

For Christmas, Ibi and I will be alone - my roommate Byron left at the beginning of December and Monika will leave on Tuesday. We plan on playing on Christmas eve or day at a shelter or some other such place, possibly a nursing home. Don't have anything chosen yet, but it should be good fun.

A few other tidbits...

New Media:

I have recently been introduced to several new books/tv shows, the first is the His Dark Materials series from Philip Pullman. I have already read the series twice! Interesting take on the power of the church, and in that way it kind of reminds me of the good things about Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series.

The second thing I was introduced to was the UK version of The Office. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. There are very few episodes, so grab that puppy from Netflix and enjoy!

And finally - Ray Lamontagne is excellent - if you haven't heard him sing I recommend heading over to his myspace site....

http://www.myspace.com/raylamontagne

Museum day:

John, Ibi, and I had a museum day a couple of weeks ago, and it was absolutely a great time. John was our tour guide, and we began the day at the Horniman Museum. The goal was to see the musical instrument collection, and so we had a nice look at a lot of instruments from around the world, and a few viols thrown in there for good measure.



The almost coolest thing was a set of interactive listening desks where you could select any instrument and hear samples of it. Here is Ibi getting a listen to the viol sample!



The coolest thing was a try-out room with different percussion/keyboard instruments, and though we were a bit older than the intended audience, we all had a go.

Okay - so I can't add any more pictures to this journal entry, because I saved it and came back to it later, so I will leave you now and start a new entry with more pics soon.

Cheers and a happy holiday season to you all,
Jen

Halloo again,

Ack - again, a long time since I have posted to this journal, and this post itself was started quite a while ago and then never finished. This journal-related laziness was brought on by bronchitis originally, but now I have no excuse! If I don't kick it out now, I will never start this up again and I am missing getting down a lot of stuff that I would like to have memories of some day. I think I will use categories again since that seemed to work so well the last time I had this problem. There is so much to remember, and I don't want to miss a bit of it.

1. 'Thievery' (AKA Jen was careless!): Okay, nobody is probably surprised about this, but just about the time my bronchitis showed up, I was riding home on bus and had to disembark in a hurry, and left a bag on it with my house keys, my phone, something with my address on it, a music stand, a 20 pound note, and NOT, thank goodness, my wallet! (I have taken to carrying my wallet separately now.) I realized what had happened about three minutes later and boarded another bus in the hope that they could radio and the driver could find the bag, but when he radioed, the driver said it was gone already. ARGHHH! So, I had to rekey the apartment and replace my cell phone, an expensive bit of carelessness...

However, three weeks later I get a card that says that they have my bag, and so I trek over to the lost property office (you would not believe how much property people leave on public transport in London!) and picked up the bag. Everything was there, even the twenty pounds! So, hooray for the honesty of whoever turned that in. I can only surmise that either the person that I asked to radio the driver got the wrong bus, or he got the right bus and the driver didn't really bother to look for the bag (Boo, driver, boo! I mean, of course it was my fault, but BOO!)

I suppose that one could call this little adventure the low point of my time in London so far, but, really, a happy ending is a happy ending! I have become less attached to material things since selling almost all of my stuff and coming here, so a bag is hardly worth ruining any time here - there are more important things to be concentrating on! Such as...

2. School/music: (hope you liked the segue!) I have now played two concerts with the Trinity students. The first was a concert during the Early Music Exhibition, with a program of Michael Praetorious motets. The music was incredible, and the ensemble consisted of viols, violins, sackbuts, organ, and small choir and soloists. It was exactly the sort of thing that I couldn't do in Wisconsin--one could never afford to pay that much to rehearse and play a concert with so many wonderful musicians. Not to mention the coaching by Philip Thorby, the most important ingredient. That man has so much energy and knowledge about this music. The concert was in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel....wait, a picture is in order, I think.




Mmmm...yeah, that's the stuff!

The second concert was the baroque orchestra, and again the conductor is fabulous. He is Walter Reiter, a baroque violinist himself, and he was really able to get the best out of the group and to hear even the most minute variations in playing style and correct things easily. It was amazing! And, the best part, I played violone. For those that don't know, violone is about as large as a doublebass, though it has six strings instead of four. Again, this concert was in the chapel. Fun!

Okay - instead of saving this entry to come back to later, I am going to sign off and and post several long entries over the next few days. I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, and I will be back with you soon!

Upcoming topics include my first gig here, many cool non-music-related trips to museums and other spots around London, some pics with my new pawn shop camera, and much, much more....ya won't wanna miss it!

Cheers,
Jen

Hey there,

Well, I have been away from my journal for so long, for a number a reasons, but if I put off writing any longer, I fear that I won't ever write again. So, I have decided to start today and just write small entries until I am all caught up! So, here goes...topic one:

Today I saw a young British school boy (about 11 or 12, but young looking for his age) alone on my bus as I was going home, and he was wearing his little school uniform, a blazer and shirt and tie. Why is it that everytime I see a young, angelic looking young British boy on the bus alone, I become convinced that he is the main character at the beginning of a fantasy/adventure type of book, a young serious British boy on an adventure, but trying to appear as if he is not out of school without leave, a la His Dark Materials, or any other number of books? Just one of those things, I guess. Maybe it is because most school kids ride buses in packs here, because there are no school buses.

Okay - now to why I haven't been writing. Really, it is a combination of two things. First, I have had bronchitis and it made me too tired to have spare energy to write at night. That is combined with an increase of activity and so I just haven't been able to sit down and type away. Now I am making a start though, and a lot of good things have happened, so I will have a lot to share over the next few entries.

But for our final thought for this entry, I wanted to share with you that Londoners really like fireworks, and I mean REALLY. Nov 5 was Guy Fawkes day, the anniversary of the failed Gunpowder plot of 1605, and there were fourth-of-July like displays, but there are a few people in the neighborhood who consider shooting off fireworks to be a nightly activity. My friend Catherine from Madison says that this is partly because it gets dark so early that people need to have activities after dark to keep from getting cabin fever, and after experiencing what it is like to have it get dark just before 4 PM, I can actually believe it.

Anyway, there it is, my first little entry! My next entry will be about the amazing experience I have had preparing for and performing in my first concert here, and I will share with you my experiences at the Greenwich Internation Exhibition of Early Music, happening this weekend. I will be seeing someone from A-R Editions at home, so that will be cool!

Be well and happy,
Jen

Okay - now we are ready to move closer to Trinity, so we walk along the waterfront. Right in between the two large buildings on the river, (the one we pass first houses the University of Greenwich, and the second one is for Trinity) we see a plaque marking this spot as the place where Henry VII built a palace, and where Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth I were born.




We move around to where students enter the Trinity building, on the side facing away from the river, and we get a closer look at the filming going on this week...




Finally, we are in our home building, or, actually, within the walls in a lovely courtyard.



Well, time to head home, so we walk out toward the left of our map, and toward Greenwich train station, but we take one last look back at the Trinity building, designed by Christopher Wren and built at the end of the 17th century.




And, here you are, a picture of 234 Burrage Road (the red door), and my room is on the top floor, the right-most of the two small windows.

Time for dinner and then a night out at the pub!

Okay - photos have been scanned and are ready for your walking tour of my new environs. We will start out where I started out, which is at Esha's wonderful home on Winforton St.! Below is a picture of the street, in a very nice neighborhood just three blocks from Greenwich Park, the famous playground of Elizabeth I. Below is the street...


We walk those three blocks over to Greenwich Park, and then decide to walk up to the Royal Observatory to get a better view of the layout. Below is a picture looking up to the observatory...


Now we have struggled up the hill, and we can look down on where the activity in Maritime Greenwich is centered. The first building we see when we look down the hill is the National Maritime Museum, also known as the Queen's House, complete with covered walkways between buildings. From Greenwich Guide: it was meant by King James I to be the home of his consort, Anne of Denmark. Inigo Jones was the architect, and construction started in 1616. The Queen died in 1619, however, and work was stopped until ten years later, when King Charles I gave it to his new Queen, Henrietta Maria. Inigo Jones was recalled and the exterior work was completed some six years later.

Also visible behind the Queen's House are the two domes of the Old Royal Naval College, the Painted Hall being the dome on the left and the Chapel the dome on the right.



So now we are ready to head down the hill and get a close-up view. Here I will insert a map to give you an idea about what the layout is like.




We are now heading down and we see a close up view of the Painted Hall on the left. You can see a crane at the far end, and it looks like the Painted Hall is being used as a movie set (the Chapel has also been used a number of times, including as the site for one of the weddings in Four Weddings and a Funeral.)



We look to the right and see the Chapel...




Finally, we look back and see where we came from...




Now we are ready to see the river, so we walk down to the far side of the campus, by the famous Trafalgar Tavern, where Charles Dickens used to visit. (This is the small square to the right on the above map.)



Here we look first to the left and then to the right to get our first views of the Thames.






To be continued!

These people are obsessed with movie music. There is a group at Trinity dedicated solely to the rehearsal (and one would assume, performance) of movie and showtunes. They rehearse near the early music area - but, as they play full volume all the time, you can hear them all through the college. Yesterday it was West Side Story. Previous installments have included Indiana Jones, James Bond, Star Wars, and Phantom. Given the propensity for this music to be approached only by community orchestras, it is actually kind of nice to hear it played by really talented kids. Is this develping career skills for musicians? I suppose that as far as gainful employment for professional musicians is concerned, the movie music might be a more practical choice than 16th-century counterpoint class. I am sure I coud get some argument, though...

I am gonna put in a request for Oklahoma.

Hmmm, we seem to be in the middle of the third week of classes, and I am happy to report that the classes that I talked about in previous entries have all been very helpful and practical in a way that will be useful in years to come. For example, in Philip Thorby's renaissance class, we sit and read through a five part vocal piece (the first we did was La Rossignol by Lasso) and use all ten class members in different ways to see what each combination of instruments sounds like. It is great, because the class is three hours long, so there is no feeling of needing to rush. We just take whatever time we need to accomplish our purpose. After this, we examined an arrangement of the piece for harpsichord with ornamentation, and finally our assignment (the two viol players that are in the class) is to dig in and look at bastarda arrangements of pieces and devise a way to perform them given the number of members in the class and what they play.

Continuo has been the same - we sat around today and examined passages closely, each taking a turn at the keyboard and trying to play some continuo from a figured bass line. Only six people in this class, so the experience is incredibly personalized. I never knew how many decisions a continuo player must make!
It is exciting to think that I might actually understand more of what is happening, and, more importantly, I would love to be able to listen MUCH better than I do now when I play continuo.

______

Now - on to the less serious! Kitty, Matt's black cat that he left in Madison has been happily adopted by an incredibly nice couple, and so Catherine has to give up one of the cats residing at her place - she and Karl have been saints for sheltering Galen and Kitty for so long!

About London and my new apartment: The sidewalk and street area in London is an extension of the living area for the residents around where I live. I can sit in my room at night and conversations echo in my open window, I hear people shouting, fighting, conversing quietly, basically just living. Last night there was a couple outside having a discussion and the man was absolutely in tears - you could just tell his heart was breaking. Everything echos because there is very little empty space between houses - so unless you have a radio on (I don't have one yet!) you hear everything - you can't help it!

The Painted Hall at Trinity was being used this week to film a movie with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in it....His Dark Materials: the Golden Compass is the working title. Don't know much about it, but they sure spent a lot of money on the niceties for the actors.... lots of businesses in London are based on supporting the film industry, apparently.

Anyhow - that is all I have for now. I will have pictures (finally!) tomorrow or the next day, and I will write more then about the environment. P.S. - I am meeting with a drummer and guitarist/singer on Thursday - they want a cellist in their band - SHHHHH!!! Don't tell anyone!!!! Just something to keep me occupied while I am not pursuing early music!

Take care,
Jen

Okay - I can't seem to edit the last entry. Sorry for the uneditedness of it!!

Hello again!

Well, I have been so involved with my first week of actual classes that I completely put aside writing anything down. But the week is waning, no classes tomorrow, and Esha has returned, so I am downstairs in her place now and I have a laptop, so here are some observations. I have decided to categorize my thoughts in order to organize them properly - there is so much here that I have experienced.

MY NEW HOME
Well, as of Saturday morning, I will be moving into 234 Burrage Rd, in Woolwich. This is located far enough away from school that I will have to ride the commuter train in. It is about a 15 minute train ride, though, a short one...and shouldn't be too problematic. I have a small room on the third floor, and am sharing the place with three other people - Ibi, Monica, and Byron. I have had extended visits with Ibi and Byron, and I must say that despite their ultra-Euro hipness, they are very nice and seem relaxed. I have never lived with so many non-family people, though, so I hope that I can make the transition smoothly. I have only had a chance to speak to Monica a couple of times, but she seems really nice too.

TRANSPORT
Ack - so many ways to get around here in London, and all of them expensive. And, just when you purchase this pass or that card, you realize that you could have purchased that OTHER card and spent a lot less, or that you bought a ticket for one railway, but it doesn't go to THAT stop, or even more likely, you bought a week pass, and it is already four days into it and you haven't used it hardly at all - and you figure you have to start making up reasons to use it just to get your money's worth! Just as a primer, there are four main types of transport here. The first is the tube or subway, the second is the bus system, the third is National Rail, and the fourth is Docklands Light Rail. A travel card good for all four things for a month is about £70, or 140 bucks - but a trip into the city on a day pass is about £5, and the more socializing and moving around you do, the closer you are going to get to that £70 mark - plus if you have to commute on the rail like I will, you can't afford not to have the travelcard.

ENTERTAINMENTS OF ALL SORTS
Greenwich Picturehouse has all sorts of special series, and last week - Saturday matinee - Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. Need I say more?
The markets here are wonderful too, though I can't afford anything yet! Must get a job!!! I have seen three wonderful concerts now, and Ibi has been involved in all of them. The last of these was Tuesday night, and Ibi and Alison (my teacher) and a harpsichordist played the Marais Folia variations. Ibi took the solo part, and he is truly a ROCK STAR. Never thought I could say that about a gambist, but it is true in this case.

NEW FRIENDS
Lots of great people here in the amateur viol-playing community, and they all now know me as the cat lady because of the messages that I sent to the viol list asking for people to care for my kitties. This is a good thing, as they are all cat people (some rabidly so!) Every time I meet someone new, all Ibi says is 'This is the cat lady from the list' and they all immediately know who I am - and we have long and meaningful discussions about our cats... so thanks again, Mom and Dad and Catherine, for looking out for my two beautiful kitties. I could not be doing this without you guys!!!

LONDON
This city is amazing - every day I seem to have a revelation about something that makes me like it more and makes me glad that I will have the chance to be here for a year. Today I was in class and we were listening to some Balkan music, and it hit me all of a sudden just how bombarded I have been with different cultures ever since I got here. It is truly amazing how woven into the fabric other traditions are, and it is not like encountering another culture in the U.S. - when you are introduced to a 'CULTURE.' (Brass flourish) They just exist here, and are a part of everyday life, and people don't make a big deal about them. I can't leave home without hearing at least four or five different languages in the street and even at school. You almost always hear French spoken, and also Polish, Russian, and I imagine that I have heard a number of Scandinavian ones by this point, as well. As a matter of fact, I imagine that some days I hear more foreign language than English.

I would like to try different types of world music while I am here - so much I want to do and so little time!!!

FOOD IN LONDON
Sausages. For breakfast. Burp. And, as stated before, Coke is really expensive. Trinity provides cheap meals - but most of the time I am doing the Ramen Noodles or peanut butter sandwiches. Oh, and lots of pasta!

TRINITY - GENERAL
Speaking of different cultures, Trinity is a real melting pot for cultures, though apparently all students had a meeting about required trendy mod-ish haircuts and a number of them have the same exact one! (I call it the feather duster - I will leave the rest to your imagination.) I have met students from Spain, Sweden, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, France, Canada, four other Americans, Malaysia, Japan, etc. etc.

TRINITY - CLASSES
The class schedule here is so different! Here I will attempt an explanation of how this program is set up - please excuse the fuzziness!
1. Main instrument - Students have 90 minutes of lessons each week on their primary instruments.
2. Performance projects - Throughout the year, the early music department schedules 5 or 6 week long performance projects. So, you undertake intensive work on a project and then present it at the end of that time, and then move on. The projects are categorized by period - I am starting with a Medieval, a Renaissance, and a Baroque. Later in the year will be a French Baroque, another Renaissance, a Classical, and probably another Baroque. The five week sessions are small and they include discussions about style, practical issues about performing the music, and then next week we will start playing. I don't think that they plan on getting into the serious musicological study of this music, but I imagine that is okay for the type of program this is.
3. Complementary studies - Each full-time student is required to take two electives. Some choices are Performance Practice (I think that this is about as close as we get to musicology, as it discusses things such as the limitations of notation, discussions of musical reception, and other issues that can give the performer context as they prepare their recital), Performance Psychology, Preparation of Lecture Recitals (also musicology of a sort, I suppose.), Musical Arranging, a class on creating new musical projects (in other words, leadership), and finally, a mentor class that matches the musicians with a professional group and asks them to analyze their real-world experience and learn from the interaction.
4. Critical Skills - How to use Word, how to use Sibelius, how to write a CV, how to prepare a budget for a concert series in Excel, blah, blah.

I am recording all of this because I can really barely believe it. This is soooooo specialized, and I think that for someone working the the U.K. who doesn't need to work full time to have health insurance, this must be very valuable. I think that one could quite happily live in London and make music with guaranteed income from a part time job. Then they could really dedicate themselves to pursuing a real career in music. In the U.S., there seems to be little choice about this. I have to have health insurance to be safe, and in order to do that, I have to work 40 + hours per week, leaving less energy for music. The people here that I am going to school with have such a different attitude about this. They are into building a career, and they know that they can do it here without having to be the one in a thousand to make the BIG audition. It is a little less lottery and a little more like a regular career. By that I mean...work hard, network, get a reputation for being on time and prepared, and you can reasonably expect to at least only have to have a part time regular job to make a decent living.

Well, at any rate, my ultimate goal of getting better on the instrument will be met, without a doubt. My teacher is wonderful and my first lesson was great - and even better, the peers that I am hanging out with are fantastic gambists, and I will learn a lot from them as well.

SO...there you have it. Some thoughts on this trip - many thoughts to be sure, and as of yet ill-formed, but it is nice to get it all down for posterity, even if nobody reads it.

I miss you all!!!

Jen

COMING NEXT WEEK - PICTURES!

Hello again - it is now Tuesday afternoon and the main serious meetings of induction week are over for us here at Trinity. I am a lot more informed about just exactly what this program is all about, and I hope to share it with you via this site. Be prepared for a scattered account, though, as I am just now taking in all of this information and it may be muddled.

All in all, I am very impressed by the way things happen here, and I am happy to be in the UK to learn about how faculty at a music college here pursue their careers, and how that might differ from the path that someone takes in the US. The very first thing that struck me was the number of administrators and other staff that are jointly in charge of making the Trinity experience worthwhile for students and faculty. I was blown away by this until I realized that these people were all saying, in their introductions, that they only work part-time, and play out as musicians the rest of the time. I think that this allows the college to hire a LOT of people on part-time wages, and the reason that these administrators (not professors even) can do this is a NATIONAL HEALTH CARE system. They can gig and earn money, with the security of part of the week at a regular job, without having to worry about health care. So, they hire people to be in charge of super-small segments of the day-to-day operations of the school, and those people are able to work flexible schedules and pursue other activities.

Now, what about the problem that people who want to work for a university part-time face here in Madison - i.e. the faculty not wanting to approve the hiring of adjunct faculty or part-timers to handle things because it opens up other faculty to being demoted to part-time adjunct status if they don't have enough to do? I don't know, but I will continue to observe and see what the staff thinks about full vs. part-time work. The bottom line for now, after a couple of days of meetings, is that there are a ton of people there who are working in the community professionally as musicians who are also available to me, as a student, for any number of problems that I may have over the course of my year here, and that feels nice, if not a little bit Big-Brother-y.

Now, on to the program(me). As I have implied above, the program seems almost like a year-long summer camp in its all-encompassing student care attitude. It feels very weird for me coming from the US to experience this. Part of me feels like saying "I just want viol lessons!", but there is another part that is saying "hmmmmm, let's wait and see, could be interesting..."

I am entering on the first year of a brand new curriculum (course), and it is quite different than anything I have ever heard of. The performance aspect is holistic, with analysis and improvement during group performances a large part of your credit for performance during the degree. There is a recital, but this program asks the student to take a look at realistic performance situations and work to improve performance in those situations, leading to higher rate of employment in professional jobs. Students are asked to think creatively about founding projects, working with other disciplines in order to express themselves and earn money doing what they love, and are supported in their pursuit of a professional career with seminars on professional development. Personally, I believe that this will be a chance for me to sift through all of the varied things that I have done over the years, and focus it all down to a hireable set of skills and rewarding career path. (Yeah, sure...!)

Now, in case I am starting to sound like a college ad, this all looks great on paper but I am interested to see how well everything goes this year. I will continue to keep records of what I find here, and it should prove to be interesting, if nothing else!

I miss you all!!!!
Jen

Hello again,

Well, a last Saturday of freedom before induction week, and Catherine arranged for me to meet her sister Jo in St. Albans, about a 30 minute train ride from Greenwich. During the time that the Romans were occupying Britain, St. Albans was a thriving settlement in Roman style called Verulamium. There was even a small ampitheater, seating 2000, and our first stop in St Albans was this site, and then we saw an excavated exposed Roman tiled floor preserved intact with an AD 400-style heating system underneath, all covered over with a museum building. The Romans left in AD 410, and next we went to see the Abbey/Cathedral of St. Albans, which was magnificent! The history of the people of St. Albans can be read in the church building itself, with many different styles used when adding on to the building. No care is taken to make the new parts match the old ones, but the overall effect is impressive in any case!

Some highlights include 400-450 year old graffiti, paintings and decoration side by side-yet created hundreds of years apart, a beautiful high altar...


and so many beautiful chapels that I lost count!




Of course, between the ruins and the abbey, lunch, shopping, and tea were enjoyed in the bustling downtown area of the village.

Finally - it was awesome to meet Jo. She and Catherine are pretty opposite in personality, but both are incredibly kind and super-stylish!

Cheers,
Jen