So I finally had my wisdom teeth out yesterday....both of the lower ones were impacted, joy and rapture. It went surprisingly well...I was in there for less than a half an hour, which was amazing! I woke up this morning with hardly any swelling and only a little pain on my lower left jaw side, but that was the hardest tooth to get out apparently, so all in all...I AM SO GRATEFUL!

Even more on the upside of things, I should have my jaw completely recovered in...get this....5DAYS!!! God is good, need I say more? So I should be able to literally get right back to practicing in about a week or a little more :)


I made the decision to have my BM recital in April instead of the initially planned October. I need to be running my entire program memorized by early September if I want to have the recital in October. I know I'm capable of putting it all together in a mere 2 months. But...I love the music I'm doing so much, and they aren't simple pieces what-so-ever, thanks to Schubert/ Respighi/ Cannon/ Jake Heggie/ Menotti and/or Floyd. If I "threw" this together in 2 months, the quality of my work would not be at it's best. I decided to dedicate more of my time to these, as we call them, white dead guys, haha. The legacy they've left in their music demands time to explore the emotion, the notes, and the musicality. I want to do them justice, so I'm giving them the time they deserve to have spent on their music. AND I'M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!

That's pretty much all I have, I'm off to finish my liquid breakfast of slimfast, wah wah. I've also been watching some fabulous Strauss opera productions via WSU DVDs. Can I just reiterate how much I LOVE Strauss?!?!...hope you all are doing well!

Well, I have to admit that I completely stole this link from Joyce Didonato's June 29th blog post, but I absolutely have to make sure that as many people hear this speech as possible!

Robert Levin's speech at the Curtis Institute of Music commencement:
http://instantencore.com/MusicDetails.aspx?PId=5037339

Please take the time to listen to this, fellow aspiring musicians especially!!!

I've been working on new audition arias as well as new literature for my upcoming BM recital in October. Sometimes I feel so lost as to what to do to better the piece, to make it stand out...the answer is simple, make it new! Have something to say with every note and rest! This speech was just the kick in the pants I needed to get my pieces in gear. We have to make our music relevent to society today, otherwise it dies. We have to share our love of this art and show how much it has to say. We have to make it matter! So many people do not understand the magic of Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Handel, Respighi, Josquin, Ockagham, Brittin, Offenbach, and the new composers such as Jake Heggie and Mark Adamo.

As musicians, we are translators. I'm not talking about the language of the literature. We translate the situations, plots, and poetry from these memorable composers by expressing them with the same emotions that have been shared by all mankind in past, present, and future. No the social situations, classes, and structures will not be the same, but the passions felt by all people will still remain. They are forever preserved in these great musical works. Now where do we come in as musicians? Music and performing arts are unique art forms. Our art is expressed in something that cannot be stopped...time. In visual art you can still look at the painting or sculpture years and years after it has been formed. But with the perfoming arts we are given a small amount of precious time. We can not live in the past or in the future, but only in the present. Time is fleeting and those precious moments where we are given the priviledge to share these wonderful works, we must make them meaningful to our audience. It is a challenge to us all....are you up to it?