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...