…Blue ridge mountains…

Jun 23

Howdy y’all!

Welcome to North Carolina!

This week has been so amazing as I have met so many new people and had so many new experiences. I’ll try to categorize each event so I don’t repeat myself.

Let’s begin…

First, a big shout out and THANK YOU to my cousins Sam and Emily and their family for hosting me before arriving at Brevard. I had so much fun playing with their kiddos, celebrating Father’s day, and sharing music together! (Paris Mountain… one day it will grow big and strong… maybe…)

Monday was arrival day. It was the most gorgeous drive from Greenville, SC to Brevard, NC. We stopped at a scenic outlook point called “The Pretty Place.” It was a small chapel on a hill that overlooks a gorgeous green valley. I was not expecting this place to be so reverent but it was. If I had the time, I would have spent hours there. On some of the stones are plaques with scriptures of someone who passed away and was memorialized in that sanctuary.

Arrival day went pretty smoothly. Everything here at Brevard is uphill. Even if you’re going down. I don’t know how it works, but that’s just how it is. The campus is a walking campus, so everything is fairly close, but it’s all uphill… In my cabin, there are 16 girls, and we’re all in college. Yay for bunk beds!? It’s quite a cozy cabin. And by cozy, I don’t mean warm; the AC is set to 66°F or lower in my room, and even then, it is often too warm! The one interesting thing to note is because our cabin is an older one without central air, mold growth is rapid and huge! So any towels, clothes, swimsuits, etc. that get wet aren’t allowed to stay in the cabin! So we literally have to “air our dirty laundry in public,” to say the least. There is a rope out on the porch that our bath towels get hung on and basically stay there all the time. Else, mold might grow on your stuff… yuck…

I know many people are going to ask me, “How is the food?” It’s hit or miss really. It depends on the day. Some days you’ll get French Toast for breakfast; other days you’ll get Greek for lunch. Or turkey bacon and turkey burgers. What is the obsession with replacing beef and pork for turkey? I did not sign up for diet camp. Bring on the beef! That being said, there have been many good meals. There is always a salad and sandwich bar, cereal, and ice cream. So, if the hot food doesn’t work, what more do you need!

The practice rooms here are super cool. Did I mention that this camp is spread out over 180 acres of land? Yeah, it’s a lot. Which means that they have space for like 110 practice rooms! With ~400 students on campus right now, you need that many places to practice! Each room either has its own AC unit or is a part of a larger building with central air. The thing I love the most about the practice rooms is the large windows! One day this week, while I was practicing, a beautiful red-breasted robin was hopping around right outside this massive window. I like to think it was there to hear me play. Now, not every practice room shall be created equal… Unfortunately, I was in a room this week where the AC in the building kept going in and out, and it was massively hot! Also, some rooms have more bugs than others, but if you ignore the small hamster-sized daddy-long-leg spiders, you’ll be just fine!

Work study! I am so excited for my work-study assignment. I was fortunate enough to be one of the students receiving a work-study scholarship to attend this festival. While many students are assigned to parking, ushering, or stage help, I was assigned to the new music ensemble. Essentially, this means that the composition students at the festival need people to play what they write. Usually, composers will hire musicians to work for them in this capacity. Instead of getting a salary for doing this work, I received a scholarship! So, I have that benefit and also the experience to play a world premiere of new music. I will be in a Pierrot ensemble, which is violin, cello, piano, flute, and clarinet. I have loved my experience with new music so far in my graduate studies, so I’m excited to do more of this!

Lastly, we have orchestra. This week, I was in the Sinfonia, an all-collegiate student group. We will eventually end up rotating between the two college orchestras, Sinfonia (all students), and BMCO (side-by-side students with faculty). Each provides extraordinary learning opportunities! This week, our conductor was Grammy award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta, director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. She is an incredible woman and a real pioneer of music. What I loved most about the music we played this week is the stories that each piece told. JoAnn was incredible with her imagery and way of conveying these stories to us musicians.

Our repertoire for the week was:

Jennifer Higdon - Cold Mountain Suite

Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E Minor

Featuring soloist Nathan Amaral

Nikolai Tcherepnin - La Princesse Lointaine

Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini

One of the most incredible parts of the rehearsals was collaborating with renowned composer Jennifer Higdon. One of the things I love about new music is being able to work directly with the composer. You can ask questions, make instantaneous changes, and create something truly remarkable. Though the piece we played was not a premiere, Jen really did have a large number of suggestions to help tell the story of the piece better than our original interpretation.

One really cool note about the performance of her piece. Higdon wrote an opera based on Charles Frazier’s book “Cold Mountain.” From which, Higdon then wrote a suite of the music without vocals (which is what we performed). Turns out, Jen invited Charles Frazier to attend the concert! He was there and told Jen that our performance was probably the best yet and it perfectly painted story of “Cold Mountain.” What an honor it has been to be a part of creating such amazing art!

Both of these incredible women are musicians whom I look up to and admire. Both told me, after the performance, that they look forward to working with me in the future. That is one of the greatest compliments I can receive.

This week has been strenuous. With everything being uphill, getting sick on day 3, battling the world of humidity, and adjusting to a new schedule and environment, I have been so blessed with amazing people, opportunities, and joy. The learning that has been done is almost too much to possibly express in words. It has only been one week! I cannot wait to see what happens next!

Some fun stuff I did this week:

Visited Paris Mountain State Park
Discovered that a waterfall can exist in the middle of a city
Learned the importance of filling your entire water bottle with ice
Went to an ABBA concert
Spent 2 hours at the lake! (Yes, I was sunburnt, yes, I used sunscreen… but it was worth it!)
Made some duck and geese friends
Met some very large spiders
Accidentally tried vegan chicken tenders… yuck…
Met so many amazing musicians!!!

This next week I will remain in the same orchestra. We will be playing Wagner and Sibelius.

I will begin lessons, new music ensemble, and chamber ensembles.

There is so much more to learn and I cannot wait!

“Adventure is out there!”

Chaio!