Anatomy of a Recital, Part 1

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Horn, Recital

I’ve been MIA for a bit. Not only has school been crazy but I presented a recital as part of my degree requirements. I’ve got four of those suckers, total, and this was the third one.

Also, recital was designated a solo recital. No chamber music. No collaborations, other than with my fabulous pianist. Me, standing up, not sitting, for 55 minutes worth of music. Knocking knees and all.

So I thought I’d write a bit about some of the various components of last Monday, starting with the most important part.

The dress.

Awesome, no?

And it was a last-minute dealie, too. I was hunting Marshall’s for a flashy top of some sort to pair with black suit pants and flats – nothing terribly interesting, but it works for me. I found nothing. Nothing hit that balance of a little bit of flash, flexibility for breathing, formality and not too much flesh. Horn players in recital shouldn’t be flashing too much cleavage. Or maybe that’s my old-fashioned upbringing talking.

So I decided to check out Dillard’s, a place I’ve never been. It kind of reminded of The Bay, maybe a little bit of the long-gone Eaton’s. But a little less focused and definitely not Canadian. I searched the whole stinking place and the  I spotted this. Keep in mind, I wasn’t looking for a dress, I was looking for a shirt. A top. Something that stops somewhere around my hips, possibly an inch of two lower. Not a FULL-LENGTH, FORMAL EVENING GOWN.

But I found it. And it was perfect. And it was on SALE! I thought it was too good to be true. It couldn’t possibly be comfortable, could it? It was. I couldn’t breathe in it, could I? I could. Did I look awesome? I DID.

There were two great things about this dress: ruching and a knit lining are apparently every horn girl’s best friend. A close third? The length. I wore flat, not so pretty sandals hat nobody could see (or hear – they were stealth shoes) and it felt like I was playing barefoot. Bonus.

All this add up to one thing: I looked good and felt great. I didn’t feel restricted but I did feel special. And did I mention it was on SALE?

 

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Urban Farm Extravaganza! OK, I might be overstating that a little.

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Container, Garden

 

I would love to have a garden. A real, honest-to-goodness vegetable garden like the one my Mum had at our first house. She fed us, my uncle’s family, my grandparents and anybody who strayed over to our house, summer upon summer.

Until we moved. From the Prairies to Ontario and the town/city where we lived was a 15 minutes drive from the vegetable basket of Canada. So, no more veggies (excepting some half-hearted rhubarb and asparagus patches) and in came lots of pretty flowers and shrubbery.

Not that I minded, but I really wasn’t interested. Belly first!

So even though we live in the desert and my thumb is at best a blackish sort of grey, we decided to do a little bit of container gardening. I wanted the Little People to see that food doesn’t randomly and generically appear at some supermarket. Some things were spectacularly successful and some things were spectacular failures.

This was one of the successes:

Who’da thunk that carrots would have worked in a container? Not I.

We also discovered that basil, lemon thyme and swiss chard were desert container garden superstars.

Our flubs? The lettuce got burnt by the sun and was so peppery as to be inedible. Blech. We also had some pollination issues over at our house. Apparently all the bees hang out in the pond at the front of our house and not at the back. Not cool enough for you, eh? Both varieties of tomatoes (cherry and patio sized) grew well and made lots of flowers, those flowers didn’t always bear fruit. Same story with our japanese cucumbers. By the time I found out how to, erm, hand pollinate my cukes and tomatoes, it was kind of too late in the season to do so. That, and I couldn’t stop cackling long enough to find a q-tip.

So we live and learn and know what to do next year. In the mean time, the Little People and I have had fun watching the little buds come up from the soil and decorating the pots with sidewalk chalk and watching it all get drenched in the monsoon rains so we could do it all over again. Regardless of what worked and what didn’t work, it was a good growing season.

 

 

Sometimes I let them paint (but not often).

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Art, Education, Experiment

 

I love art. I love my kids. I love it when my kids do art. Or so the theory goes.

But I hate cleaning up after “art time”. It makes me bonkers. And therefore, I rarely let them paint. Unless it’s outside and I can hose them and the grass off afterwards. And then they can air dry.

We did some painting and print making last August and they did these beautiful greeny-bluey potato prints. Then Little m decided that it would look better to paint the potato before using it to print. Little c decided it was much more fun to just shmear the whole thing around. And As I was watching them, I was kicking myself (yet again) that we don’t do this more often. What better way is there to learn what the color blue is than to have your hand covered in blue paint?

I don’t lack for ideas, but some days (like today) I lack for energy and the impetus to get the ball rolling. I personally believe that kids need free-form art expression for everything from math skills to science experiments to emotional outlets. Being a musician, I want them to sing while they do it, if they like. By art, I also don’t mean just a colouring book or page, although they have their uses.

I’m not a neat freak, but I’ve got to get over this art=mess business. It’s antithetical to my belief system and makes me a crappy mom. Or at least a mom who hates washing towels…

 

 

Current Auditions – September Edition

Tags

Horn

Here’s the latest from the AFM:

Cleveland Orchestra

Fourth Horn

Resume Date: October 1, 2012

Audition Date: January 14, 2013

Start Date: Employment of the successful candidates to begin on a mutually agreed upon date during the 2012-13 season.

General Information: The Audition Committee reserves the right to dismiss immediately any candidate not meeting the highest professional standards of The Cleveland Orchestra. Repertoire will be posted on our website:www.clevelandorchestra.com

Contact Information: Please send a one-page resume by fax, mail, or email to: The Cleveland Orchestra Auditions Severance Hall 11001 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106

Fax: 216-791-4150

Email: auditions@clevelandorchestra.com

Website: www.clevelandorchestra.com

Illinois Symphony Orchestra

Horn II

Resume Date: Sept 14, 2012

Audition Date: September 29 – October 2

Start Date: visit website

General Information: Alastair Willis, Music Director Announces the following vacancies for the 2012-2013 season

Contact Information: Send resume & $25 Audition Deposit by September 14, 2012 to: Auditions Illinois Symphony Orchestra P.O. Box 5191 Springfield, IL 62705 Phone: 217-522-2838 Fax: 217-522-7374RChambers@ILSymphony.org

Phone: 217-522-2838

Fax: 217-522-7374

Email: RChambers@ILSymphony.org

Website: www.ILSymphony.org

Assistant/Utility Horn

Resume Date: Sept 14, 2012

Audition Date: September 29 – October 2

Start Date: visit website

General Information: Alastair Willis, Music Director Announces the following vacancies for the 2012-2013 season

Contact Information: Send resume & $25 Audition Deposit by September 14, 2012 to: Auditions Illinois Symphony Orchestra P.O. Box 5191 Springfield, IL 62705 Phone: 217-522-2838 Fax: 217-522-7374RChambers@ILSymphony.org

Phone: 217-522-2838

Fax: 217-522-7374

Email: RChambers@ILSymphony.org

Website: www.ILSymphony.org

Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Associate Principal 3rd Horn

Resume Date: November 2, 2012

Audition Date: February 23-25, 2013

Salary/Benefits: 2012-13 Salary: $69,000.36 + EMG (Signatory to the IMA), Benefits and 7.63% AFM Pension

General Information: Employment begins at a mutually agreed upon time. Repertoire will not be given over the phone. No phone calls please.

Contact Information: E-mail resume to: auditions@nashvillesymphony.org Or post two copies of your one-page resume to: Audition Coordinator The Nashville Symphony One Symphony Place Nashville, TN 37201-2031 Visit our website for more information: www.nashvillesymphony.org/auditions

Email: auditions@nashvillesymphony.org

Website: www.nashvillesymphony.org

San Antonio Symphony Orchestra

Associate Principal/3rd Horn

Resume Date: October 1, 2012

Audition Date: November 5 & 6, 2012

Start Date: Position to start at candidate’s earliest availability beginning January 2013

Salary/Benefits: see website

Services: see website

General Information: The San Antonio Symphony is an Equal Opportunity Employer For complete details visitwww.sasymphony.org

Contact Information: Highly qualified candidates please e-mail a one-page resume (PDF or Word) by deadline to: Auditions [Horn]- San Antonio Symphony auditions@sasymphony.org

Email: auditions@sasymphony.org

Website: www.sasymphony.org

Related articles

• Current Auditions – August Edition (lifecomposing.wordpress.com)

Will it chip? Part 2.

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Brussels sprout

My son doesn’t eat veggies.

This is really embarassing to admit. We actually eat a variety of healthy food at our house. Local and organic when possible or feasible. Little M is the epitome of a fabulous eater. She will try everything and continue eating about 99% of it. She cleans her plate and never complains.

Little C is definitely his own person. But I digress.

We have had enormous success feeding him veggie “chips” or as he says it “tsips”. And this was no exception.

Brussels Sprouts!

He loves these like dogs like rolling in smelly things. They’re that good.

We’ve tried these a few ways: low and slow, high and quick. I think it depends on how much moisture you have in the sprout leaves and how much crunchy versus chewy you go for.

Here’s what we did:

Remove as many of the outer leaves from your brussels sprouts as possible. This might require cutting the stem periodically. Wash and dry thoroughly. Preheat oven to 300F. Toss with good quality olive oil and lay out in a single layer on some parchment paper on a baking sheet. Dust with salt (or pepper or herbs or parmesan cheese: you get the picture) to taste. Bake for 20 minutes, checking to see if they’re getting too brown too quickly. If so, turn the heat down and possibly increase the time. Testing one or two chips is always an option to know where you are in the scheme of things.

Verdict: Not quite as crunchy or delicate as the kale chips, but still quite delectable. Devoured by all. It chips!

The best stuff on earth. If you’re a four year old.

Growing up, we always had homemade playdough. I think, because my mother was a kindergarten teacher and a frugal one at that, it was cheaper to make at home in the quantity she desired and then she’d always make extra for us. Emphasis on the cheaper part.

This also appeals to the cheapskate in me. Not to mention, have you recently smelled commercial play dough? It’s like huffing glue or sniffing gasoline. I’m not sure I want to know what chemicals, preservatives, stabilizers, etc, they put in there.

So, periodically (i.e. when I remember) I make some playdough for the Little People. For them, it’s like Christmas. And it’s so easy to do. I use pretty much the same recipe my mum used all those years ago.

Here it is:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 cups boiling water

food coloring of your choice

glycerin, to add shine (optional)

Essential oil, to mask the odor, if it bugs you.

Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. Add boiling water and stir as best you can. Add food colouring and a couple of drops of glycerin/a couple drops of essential oil, if using. Mix again. It’s will be ugly and sticky looking. Let the dough cool until you can handle it (a few minutes at most). Knead on a flat surface until all the sticky/lumpiness has gone away and you’re left with a smooth, soft dough. If it’s still sticky after all that, lightly dust with flour and knead again.

Cool the dough a little more and divvy out to happy little hands for lots of fine motor skill development, otherwise known as play. It should keep in a sealed, airtight container in the fridge for at least a week or two. Feel free to toss what gets eaten or dropped or shmeared on the dog.

You could also add glitter to this. Just sayin’.