Hello all...

Needless to say I've completely neglected blogging duties this past semester. Life was pretty hectic working 5 part time jobs, going to school full time, volunteering for BBBS, and working on auditions for summer apprentice programs and grad schools. But seeing as it is now 2010, I'm going to attempt to write a new blog once a week, if I have time for more than fantastic. I am also combining my other blog, my faith blog, with my sarcastic soprano blog. I decided that my faith and music are such big parts of my life that they should be together in the same blog :)

My life in a nutshell is busy....I'm studying for grad placement exams for Rice University. I have live auditions in these next 2 weeks for the University of Maryland, Florida State University, and Rice University. I'm nervous and exited for the auditions. I don't know where I will be for this summer or next year, but at this point I'm okay with that. I'm thinking, "Okay God, I've filled out all the paperwork (literally), just show me where to go." So it's scary but exciting at the same time. I'm anxious to see what happens.

Frank and I are doing well. He was able to come up and visit for about a week and a half over Christmas/New Year's, so it was really nice to have time together. Long distance just flat out stinks. But it is nice to know that we are both capable of doing long distance, especially with the career paths we've chosen. I think the next time we will get to see each other is over my spring break :(

In other news I've taken up journaling again, here's hoping that I stick with it longer than I usually do. It is very therapeutic, but I find that I get so busy with things in the semester that it just doesn't seem to happen after a while. I'm reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. My parents have been a huge fan of it for years and I decided to give it a go for my next devotional. I really like it thus far.

Anywho, I'm absolutely beat and I need to get some things done before I have to teach a lesson tonight, so I'm off. Have a good night!

Hello all!

I'm sorry it's been so long sing my last post and I've had a great deal going, so here's a quick catch up for you all. Last week I went to go study with Alan Held in Philadelphia!!! It was an amazing experience and I learned so much!!! I had two 2 and a half hour lessons with him and I can definitely say I was exhausted after each one of them, but in a good way :) We coached/ worked on my audition package and also talked about graduate school possibilities for me. All in all a fantastic experience and now have a lovely contact for some opera help, alright!

I'm currently still working on my audition package and getting ready for WSU opera auditions in a few weeks. I'm reworking my Despina material a bit and also learning the role of the story book princess from L'enfant et les Sortilege for the audition.

I really don't have a whole lot to share...I could have gone into some crazy detail about my work with Alan, but I guess the only person who would find it interesting would be me, haha. But on a random side note, I just came across this commercial the other day, I just about fell out of my chair laughing, hope you enjoy!

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?

Buonjorno!





Life is, big surprise, ridiculously busy!!! Ahh! But it is fantastic at the same time. I have set all of my literature officially for my recital in October, so big yay for that being done! And most of my music is already learned, I just need to memorize it...ha ha. The only set that will take lots of time, although it will be completely worth it, is my Respighi set, Deita Silvane. It's gorgeous! I have one piece down, 4 to go for that set. I have to finish learning 3 arias for my trip to see Alan Held and then one other aria and a duet for my recital. Shouldn't be too bad all in all.





Ballet is still whooping my butt, but the time now flies, which is a huge plus for my aching quads and calves! I decided to put off the lap swiming until July when my class is over. But I am working on my own little opera project. I am desperately trying to expand my knowledge of opera literature this summer, so I have been hitting the WSU Library and checking out videos to watch at home...so far so good :) I have 2 more to watch from my last expedition to the library, Le Rossignole by Stravinsky (Natalie Dessay in the production, yea!) and Peter Grimes by Britten. It should be a fun weekend :)





I've been baking in Wichita. It's been in the triple digits and it's only June! Plus the humidity has been insane too!

So I've now officially started my ballet class....needless to say my skills are still the same....can't balance, can't straighten my legs out all the way, not flexible in the least! And did I forget to mention that I kinda look, for lack of a better phrase, like I'm taking a dump when I plie? I've decided that I will be the comedy relief for the others in the class, ha ha. I know that I'm not a dancer, I just have to take this class for my degree. I'm a singer, but hopefully taking this class will improve my posture and "gracefulness" on stage. But I'm the short "curvy" girl in the class in comparison to all of the tall twigs that are in there.



I've been working out lots thus far in the month of June. My ballet class is for 2 hours and then I lap swim for about an hour directly afterwards. So hopefully by the end of the month I will be more toned and loose a little of weight too. I've also been refreshing my languages via The Rosetta Stone software. It's been helpful, but not quite what I was expecting. In other news, just learning new voice literature. I have a lesson with Pina on Friday, so big YAY! My lessons are the high points of my week, I just love 'em! I always feel better about myself after them.

It's been a little warm here in Wichita the past few days, but the evenings are beautiful! About 70 degrees with a cool breeze. I love sitting on my porch in my wooden swing and reading a good book with a glass of wine....it's the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day. I also am being eaten out of house and home, but love it at the same time. There is a family of finches that live just off to the left side of my porch. I bought a bird feeder a few months ago and it has to be refilled about every 2 days or so. They are so fun to watch hopping along the wire bars :) And I bought myself a shrubbery...okay, it's not a shrubbery, it's a vine to be accurate...a Mandavilla. It looks like it could have a few blooms any day now! I just love seeing and watching the beautiful nature around me. It the little things that I enjoy so much. They are God's little gifts to all of us, we just need to take the time to see and enjoy them. I'm off to bed because I have ballet tomorrow...eek!

Hi all :)

I have a few updates since the blog. Today was my last day of my summer presession in womens' studies, Women In Popular Culture. It's an entire semesters worth of material crammed into 9 days for 4 and a half hours a day...ew...I loved the readings, but as much as I hate to say it....not the brightest crayons in the box were in that class....for example:

The first day the professor always wants everyone to get to know one another/ her/etc. She is an African-American woman with an accent, so logically she could be from Jamaica or Africa. She asks the class, "So what do you want to know about me?". A girl in the back of the room shouts, "Where are you from?". The teacher repsonds, "Oh dat is a very good question. Where do you tink (not a spelling error, just an accent attempt in typing) I'm from?". "Well she thinks you're from Jamaica." says the girl as she points to a fellow female on her left. The teacher replies, "I didn't ask her, I ask you. Where do you tink I'm from?". "Well I don't think you're from Africa". "Why do you say dat?"....."I dunno, I just don't think you're from Africa." The teacher tells everyone, "Well actually I'm from Nigeria." and here's the kicker......The girl responds with, "See I knew you weren't from Africa!"...........Crimeny! I have never felt so intelligent in my life! I've also never had to struggle so much to keep a straight face.

So now that that is over, I have finished yet one more requirement for my degree, yay! Now I'm on to my regular summer course.....Ballet...dun dun dun :( I have absolutely no physical rhythm and I also inherited my father's hamstrings, so this could very well be a catastrophe. I have to go buy a leotard this weekend. The last time I wore one of those was when I was about 4 years old...yeesh.

I also had my first church choir rehearsal for St.Andrew's Lutheran (my directing job). I didn't know what kind of turn out I would have and I had been told that there was little to no musical talent there. All I have to say is that God is absolutely incredible! I get there and I have a fabulous accompanist, and 8 choir members....4 men and 4 women...2 basses, 2 tenors, 2 altos, and 2 sopranos.....HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! And a huge plus is that they can sing the 4 part music I picked out! I initially came to WSU as a music education major, but they changed it because I couldn't receive a scholarship unless I was a performance major...then I did my first opera and the rest is history. But I had forgotten how much I LOVED choral music, especially the idea of directing one. It's a wonderful opportunity that has literally fallen into my lap and I'm loving it thus far. As a musician, we kind of need to be a jack of all trades...and directing would certainly qualify as a trade. I think I might even be able to give them some more pieces in addition to the music they already have.

Other than that I'm going to jump into learning my new audition arias and senior recital material this coming week. Life is busy, but it's good!