wintergreen- coming to a close

The weeks here at wintergreen are just about to come to a close... it has been an exciting, music-filled, opportunity-filled time here at the festival. I'm also on the worn-down side, and I never thought I'd admit this, but actually miss Charlotte a little bit! It'll be good to get back into normal life, but with all of the renewed enthusiasm and energy towards music.

One of the coolest parts of this past week was getting to meet Ronald Schoenberg, the son of the famous composer, Arnold Schoenberg. He gave a seminar on growing up as a Schoenberg child... he showed a picture of his father's studio. Of course, hanging inside the room was a self-portrait, and it is a very famous painting that is featured in several college music history textbooks. He is the man in the green shirt:
On Sunday morning I ran in the 5k, and I came in 25th place out of 100 people... I had hoped for better, but I didn't realize running that distance on the treadmill is nothing compared to the same distance on mountain hills. After the race we had some free time, so a friend and I decided to go golfing at the resort, which boasts the highest elevated golf course in the state of Virginia. Since I haven't golfed in several years, and never properly learned how to begin with, you can imagine how embarrassing I looked out on the course! I didn't care one bit; I knew I'd never see these people again, and I proudly took 12 or 13 strokes just to finish a par 4 hole. The only downside was that we didn't have enough golf balls, so we lost them all by hole #12! From then on, we decided to fly down the remaining holes with the golf-kart and enjoy the ride. Here's a view we had coming back down the mountain:


Most of the concerts here feature standard works (Mozart, Beethoven), but last night's concert was a lot of fun. It only consisted of music written in the last 10 or 15 years, and some really cool included electronic music. Perhaps the most shocking piece I've ever listened to was the very final piece. It's titled "6 exercises for guitar", written by a German composer named Peter Ablinger. Each exercise consists of one thing: tune the string higher and higher, until it gets so tight it breaks. You can imagine the audience reaction after the first string broke, and they realized they'd have to sit through 5 more of the same thing. The feeling of pain and discomfort was incredible, because we all had to sit there and wonder at what precise moment it'd break. The piece is performed by Wolfgang Seierl, composer-in-residence at the festival:


Well, I may conclude my blog with this post, since our time here is just about finished. As much as I hate writing, perhaps I'll keep this up, since my journey of being a composer is only beginning and will hopefully have many more exciting things to share in the future =).

Until then!

Halfway

We've finished 2 out of the 4 weeks here at wintergreen... even though time is flying, it also feels like I've lived here a very long time, and it seems like I haven't been back home in Charlotte for years.

This past week has been a nice mix of music... some Mozart, but also some good modern works, such as Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, and pieces by composers-in-residence Michael White and Judith Shatin. We also had 2 private lessons with NC school-of-arts composer Lawrence Dillon, and it was fascinating listening to his music.

I only have a couple pictures to show for this blog-update: first, our neighbors down the street light up the sky every night with their enormous Christmas lights display... I snapped a picture as I drove by, so it's a bit blurry:

On Saturday, the entire academy loaded up in vans and drove to the bottom of the mountain for lunch at the "Austrian Heuriger"... which in Austria is a sampling of new wines- don't worry Mom, I didn't have any wine. The reason they had to take us was to feed us lunch... bratwurst and sauerkraut. They also had local folk musicians playing some Viennese tunes:


One of my favorite happenings this weekend was being employed for the evening at a fancy dinner for some of the patrons/sponsors. It was a gourmet dinner with Austrian chef Marco Krainer at $75 per plate. For some reason or another, they didn't have enough waiters, and they turned to us academy students to see if we could help out. The dinner was held at a private home on the mountain- it was a riot to get to be a waiter for the evening. On a side note, rich, older people are quite hilarious after being served 4 different wines. One lady kept running around the house saying "I've lost my goose!" The chef is amazing and very friendly to work with.. he let us taste all his food, and I snapped a photo with him afterwards--
I think that's all for now... today and tomorrow is quite busy, since the premiere of our new compositions it taking place tomorrow night! My quartet has been working hard, and I think they just might actually pull it together for the concert. And, my wonderful family is supposed to be getting here tomorrow, so that'll be nice =)

Stay tuned for more-

Wintergreen- end of week 1

It's so hard to believe that the first of 4 weeks is already finished... time flies when you're having fun! Things have swung into full gear for us, as we are enjoying concerts every afternoon and evening, as well as classes throughout the day.

The weekend gave me plenty of free time to do some composing, which is always nice... just last night I hit a streak of inspiration for my orchestra piece I'm attempting to start, and I hope to get a lot of progress on it today and tomorrow.

Some of the highlights of the weekend include seeing the famous poet Rita Dove. She came to Wintergreen to read through part of her new book of poetry, "Sonata Mullatica". This book tells the story of Beethoven's friend, Bridgetower, whom Beethoven originally dedicated a famous violin sonata to, but after a saucy comment about a girl Beethoven liked, he ripped up the former dedication and gave it instead to Kreutzer.

Other interesting events included the first concerts by the academy students, sometimes appearing in "unusual places" around the resort. Pictured below is the string quartet who is performing my piece next week:
There is a mini-market at the resort that we stopped at yesterday, since they only like to feed us once on Sundays for some reason-- they say that these types of places can jack up the prices, but I think anything ever found at Carowinds pales in comparison to this store: (check out the late-movie return fee!)

On Sunday afternoon we had Classics Concert I, which featured all Baroque-period music. I have to say, I might kick something if I hear a harpsichord one more time! Obviously, not everyone at the festival feels this way, as evidenced by this picture taken at intermission:


After the concert, we were invited to the circle members party, held at a multi-million dollar home of one of the sponsors. Everything about it was amazing-- the food, mingling with important people, but most of all-- check out the view from their back yard:



I really am blessed to get to be here this month... this is such a fun opportunity that I'm very thankful for, and I cannot wait for the rest of it!

Stay tuned for more...

Wintergreen- day 4

We're just about finished with day #4 here at Wintergreen- don't get used to blogposts this often-- we just happen to have a free evening, and after having thought about music all day, I'm done for at least an hour. Just enough time to get my internet fix =).

Each day is a whirlwind, and I have been enjoying every second of it. Yesterday started with another morning session, led by the incredible Michael White, who's standing at the front of the class in this picture:
The man is a genius, and everyone in the class loves him. My composer friends and I are the only ones under age 50 at that class. And oh my, it is incredible how we are treated like rock stars by all of the other people! They come up to us and practically worship us when they talk with us... it's a nice feeling I can't allow myself to get used to, since it'll cease after Aug. 1.
Here's 4 out of 5 of my fellow composers at the academy:
We are all sitting in the Evans center, awaiting the start of the opening concert. It was a fabulous show: a little music from Biber, Hadyn, Ligety, Webern, and Mozart... composers who cover a 400 year time span.

We've had a couple group classes with Larry Alan Smith, and yesterday Michael White talked to just us composers for 2 hours. This constant immersion in music has been the most inspiring, satisfying experience I've had in forever. I believe in the arts and that this is my career calling stronger now than ever before!

This morning started with a discussion with James Austin Smith, who happens to be the son of Larry Alan Smith. He's a oboe player who lives in NYC and is a member of ICE, the premier new music ensemble. He gave SEVERAL good pointers on how to interact in a positive way with performers, and gave several tips on actions to avoid when it comes to establishing positive connections in the music world.
For lunch we were treated to a special dinner with Dr. Prosl, ambassador from Austria to the U.S.A.... he's the man in the back of the picture speaking from the podium.


This afternoon we observed a rehearsal of Bowen McAuley Dance, in preparation for their concert tonight. One of their pieces is choreographed to a new work by composer Wolfgang Seierl, a composer from Austria who's here to teach us for the next 2 weeks.
The backdrop is a gorgeous picture of Vienna from a long time ago.

It's been so much fun getting to interact with so many people, and especially people who share so many similar interests. I feel right at home with all my fellow crazy music nerds!

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures to make you jealous you're wherever you are and not here. The first one is looking down on the main part of where we live-- the white spot in the middle of the picture is the Evans Center (large white tent where the concerts are at).
The second of these pictures is what a ski slope looks like in the summer time- the poles in the middle are artificial snowmakers I believe.

Wintergreen 2010

First off, I'm not a writer, which will be painfully evident by this website. Did I want to start this blog? Not really. Do I have loving family members that insisted that I do this? Yes =)
Now it's a competition to see which blog is more interesting: mine, or rach's Chicago/recent NYC endeavor.
Perhaps why I've never felt that keeping a blog has been necessary before now is that I've never done anything interesting before now... except going to Poland in 2005, before I knew this technology existed.

I'll briefly start with what I'm doing, although 100% of my readers already know. I am just about to finish day #2 at the 2010 Wintergreen Summer Music Academy, held at the Wintergreen resort near Charlottesville, VA. Getting to this place has been no small task... my adventure started back in February when I submitted my application to the festival/academy. I hadn't ever heard of Wintergreen before, but found it in a google search for fun/interesting things to do with my summer. Getting the phone call from Joe Nigro (amazing violist and fearless academy director) that I had been accepted was a complete blowaway shocker, as I had recently been rejected by 7 grad schools and 2 other summer festivals. I won't go into that here, but the point is that now I'm here spending a month in the beautiful mountains of Virginia.

And what a beautiful mountain we're on!


Yesterday I checked in and met my house-mates-- there are seven of us living in a 5-bedroom house-- Me, another composer, 4 of the 5 members of a string quintet, and our intern watching over everyone on the top floor. We had a 2-hour info meeting, followed by another 2-hour meeting with the 6 composer students at Larry Alan Smith's house. Dr. Smith teaches at the Hartt school during the school year, and knows of other BJU grads who have studied at his school... I'm feeling that I will be going to Hartt in 2011 because of my recent connection =)

One other important bit was getting my music to the violist for the string quartet I composed for... come to my concert on July 20 at 7:30 pm! He is brand new to the academy, since the other viola student supposed to come got diagnosed for depression last week and had to skip the festival... being a musician, I should be in the hospital right there with him! Just kidding... sometimes. My quartet is complaining tonight that they tried my piece for the first time and can't get it together... so I will go play it for them on my computer in the morning and help explain it away.

After a wonderful 3 hour morning session with Michael White (teacher at Juilliard), we loaded into a van, drove to charlottesville, and had a 2 hour masterclass with Judith Shatin, teacher at U of Virginia. This is not a typical day... it was on the lighter side. Pretty soon we're supposed to have private lessons, more masterclasses, concerts to attend, and hopefully scoot some free time to compose somewhere into the packed day.

On the way back from Charlottesville we stopped at an art exhibit which will change throughout the 4 weeks. Tonight's theme was Viennese Cafe's in the 19th and early 20th century.


Tomorrow we will be visited by the Austrian ambassador to the USA, and he will talk about the impact of his country's culture on America.

Musicians are weird in general, and I also found out that composers are too... the six of us talked about the nerdiest things at dinner tonight, that would have 99.9% of the population screaming and running after 10 minutes.

When not breathing/eating/sleeping music, I want to take advantage of the fitness center, swimming pool, golf course, zip line, etc.
I'll try to take more pictures of this place and post them soon!