Hello from Memphis!!!!

Sooo let me play catch up for a bit!

Over the summer (after leaving Philly) I spent 3 weeks in Northern Austria/Southern Germany, which was amazing. I participated in a program called TOP Opera (the Tyrolean Opera Program) in Maurch, Oesterreich, receiving multiple coachings, voice lessons, acting lessons, and staging rehearsals over a two week period. It was my first vocal program ever, and I found it absolutely wonderful! It was so nice to work with such professionals (Elizabeth Bachman-Director, Kathryn Wright-Coach and musical coord. for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Melanie Helton-Voice teacher, and Sebastian Soules-Voice teacher/coach from France that is based in Innsbruck) in my pursuit to prepare myself for grad school in Memphis. It was also SOOOO nice to work on my German!

Shortly after returning home from Europe, my parents and I moved me down to Memphis :) I wasn't really sure what to expect from the area, or the school really, but so far I absolutely love it here! I am in my second week at the University of Memphis, and just this week have had a voice lesson, 2 coachings, and 2 acting classes. My main teachers are Dr. Pamela Gaston (voice teacher), Maestro Mark Ensley (conductor, director of Opera program), and Mr. Copeland Woodruff (Acting teacher/coach, head of Opera workshop). They are all SOOOOO helpful, and are really helping me to open up my voice in ways I've never been able to accomplish before! I am also working with Marcie Richardson, who is my accompanist for lessons as well as a coach for Opera workshop, and she is wonderful!

For performances this year, I am covering the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) during the fall semester. This means that I will attend all rehearsals and coachings for the role, and have the chance to earn one of the performances in December (which I am absolutely determined to do). During the spring semester I am performing the role of Miss Todd in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, which I am also looking forward to sooo much!!!

So all in all, I will be an extremely busy lady!!!! I am currently looking at summer programs and young artists programs for next summer, as well as trying to get a church job for the next couple years. I've been pretty diligent about going to the gym (kickboxing Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays :)), as well as riding my bike to school on days that I can, and just all in all working on being the best performer I possibly can!

I'll also try to update this more often so it doesn't take an hour and a half to read again.....hehe, sorry :-p

My last show (stage managing) in Philly!!!!!

I haven't kept up on this at all!  But, my last show here in Philadelphia has been FANTASTIC! Even though it's the most depressing piece we've done all year (The Rape of Lucretia), it has been sooooo much fun.  Our director was hilarious and british, and an all around blast to work with, as was the show designer (who was Janet's age and from Fort Collins-small world!).  Janet has been sooo much more laid back and happy this show as well, I think because she officially told the company that she was turning down the contract for next year and was no longer stressed about it :-D 

A few pics!

Yea, karaoke!!!

Hopefully next time I'm working in Philly it'll be to sing!  Yea!!!

L'enfant/Schicchi

This show has totally flown by!!!! The last four weeks have been a total blur, and don't even know where the time went. This show has been a total relief after Turandot-which was a nightmare-and I really think the end product turned out really well. L'enfant is about a child who is kinda a hellian, and breaks his furniture and throws his books and all this, and then everything in his room comes to life (including two chairs, teapot/cup, grandfather clock, math, the cats, and the fire in the fireplace). It's a very strange show, but we did it with a lot of background projection and some really great costume designs. Our cast is a much younger group, and were all soo wonderful! Very fun :) Schicchi is about a family who's very wealthy elder passes away and leaves everything to a bunch of monks, and they naturally develop a scheme to have his will re-written in their favor. It's one of the few Puccini operas that I love, and it's hilarioius!

We had opening night last night, followed by the opening night party (which was the same as always-but stage management looked awesome!!!!! see picture below :)) Now there is one week left and I'll be home for a few days!

Palm Sunday...

I went to mass for the first time in.................6 years?..............today. The church is like, 2.5 blocks from my house which is really nice, and it was funny cuz the priest greeting the people at the door was like-you've never been here before- and I told him I was visiting :) It maybe wasn't so much funny as it was nice-it reminded me more of our church in Clovis that was more personal and laid back.

Anyway, the main point of this post- my palm frond crosses suck compared to moms! :)

Catching Up!

I am back in Philadelphia once again and have begun rehearsals on the double bill- L'enfant et les sortileges and Gianni Schicchi. Some quick thoughts on the show:
-Our director is WAAAAYYYYYYY more reasonable and doesn't yell-although he does seem to have ADD which presents a whole different set of issues :)
-The cast is really fantastic, but much younger than our last group.
-We are not having three session days, so no 9 am to 11pms on this one, yea!!!!

As far as life in general goes, I was accepted to the University of Memphis for my master's in Vocal performance (also very YEAAAA!!!!) and couldn't be more psyched about it :-D

My roommates Erin and Azu (who were together), split up after Azu bought a house, and as of today Sylvia (our pit bull) no longer lives with us either. It's quite a big change, but it's just a little more coping! Pain in the ass that Sylvia may have been, I'm gonna really miss her sweet and loving times :(.

I'm hoping to get some spring pics soon, the trees are blooming which I LOVE! I'll get them put up ASAP!

Atlantic City!

Sooo as a reward to ourselves for getting through this show, Janet, Valerie and I decided to head to Atlantic City for a couple days. Our trip was almost canceled due to lots of snow and the locks on Janet's car freezing, until we found out we could take the train for $8 each way-yea!!

We used one of Janet's promo free nights at Bally's, and basically spent the day gambling, eating, and drinking a few beers with no talk of Turandot, and it was great!

The view of the ocean from our room:

A few Random pictures on this trip:



And for the Monopoly geek inside me, our hotel was located at the corner of Park Place Avenue and the Boardwalk (the original game is based on the streets of Atlantic City):

Auditions and such....

So the last week (and a half) have been a bit insane-o busy. Here is a brief breakdown of events, keeping in mind that it is a 3 hour train ride to New york City........

I went to NYC on Thursday, the 19th, to meet my accompanist for my CCM (Cincinnati) audition. That went well, and thankfully the accompanist was very good and quite helpful as well :) We opened Turandot on Friday, the 20th, followed by a party the next day to celebrate a certain director's departure-which was very necessary after the previous 3 weeks! Sunday we had a show again (which went very well). Monday I spent getting together audition recordings and application materials for Brooklyn College as well as for a summer program called TOP opera that I'm applying for- both due by this Sunday, March 1st. Tuesday, the 24th, I hopped back on the train to NY for my 5pm audition for CCM- this audition had one mediator, which was great, and I believe I actually did quite well- I have had trouble hearing out of one of my ears for this entire week, and I believe it actually helped me out on this one :) Came back to Philly that night. Had another Turandot on Wednesday, the 25th- a small hiccup involving an ill super inside a giant plastic bubble slightly changed that evenings show, but all in all we made it work :) Prior to the show, I learned that the financial aid stuff for Memphis and Manhattan were due by March 1st (four days-ha!), so started scrambling that stuff together and calling dad for sure. I left Thursday the 26th to go back to NY (for 3 days this time-stayed with the wonderful Amy S.) for my Manhattan School of Music audition. I spent the first day kinda just hanging out, because my audition was the next day at 11 am. I don't really know how to tell you the audition went: I think it was fine, but I can't be sure. The room the audition was in was accoustically awful, and caused everything I said to echo and buzz really loudly in the ear I mentioned before- I know I got all of my text correct, but other than that I'm hoping habit kicked in cuz I couldn't hear or feel anything but the echo (fun! :(). After the audition, we had to take a diction test, which they didn't mention was also a translate this test-I don't think I COMPLETELY failed it, but definitely could have been better. Had I spoken Italian or French. Hehe. We went to the Knicks vs. Sixers game at Madison Square gardens that night, which was fantastic. Which brings us to today- I took the train home this morning and am now very releaved to be not worrying about anything at the moment. Yea!!!

And now my plan is to sit back, and do nothing. Except maybe watch some Grey's............. :)