Full Time Living

This has been such a full and wonderful weekend full of music and meeting new people.  My friend and former quartet-mate came down from Boston to begin a quartet rehearsal process with a group down here.  She is sensitive and full of laughter, unplanned and free to a fault, impervious to morning alarms.  It was good to have her energy for two nights and really wonderful to start playing in a quartet with her again.

We've started rehearsals with Beethoven's Opus 132, a challenging but rewarding piece.  It was rough as we were reading terrible parts and truly reading them, but the group has a fun balance and we covered a lot of ground in the two long rehearsals that we had.  It's interesting to be able to fully express myself in quartet again, after two years of gestures and half-linguistic communications.  It's amusing to rehearse in a quartet that doesn't have a structured tuning protocol, or the score, or preparation for the rehearsal.  This is not necessarily a good thing–it's better to be prepared for the rehearsal!  But it's also lighter as we are all learning together from the beginning, getting to know one another, trusting that we are capable (because this group really is).

I also sang in public for the first time in my adult life, at a fundraiser Cabaret for the Riverside Choral Society.  The choir has a very friendly, supportive social life to it and I was happy to volunteer to sing the work of a woman in the soprano section who composes in her spare time.

Afterwards I joined my visiting friend (who has friends everywhere) at a house party in the upper upper west, where I mingled (or was in close proximity) with lots of composers from the city and elsewhere, a few other musicians, and enjoyed the not-yet-too-cold night air from their roof.

And today, after another rehearsal, I accepted a last minute invitation to concert my friend's chamber group was giving at a Japanese cultural center.  A fundraiser for their concert and educational activities, they had picked several movements of pieces for horn, clarinet, cello, and piano to accompany segments of silent movies.  It was very well rehearsed and timed, there was wine (and Pellegrino!) and various cheeses, crackers, etc, and popcorn for the movies.

The futon is back in place, the house is quiet again, and I'm preparing for another day in the city.  Tomorrow a trip to Staten Island for an appointment and a few substitute lessons (meeting new students!).  It's a busy and full existence and at the end of this week looms an audition in DC that has not been prepared, and has no time to be.  Should I take it out of principle?  Gain something from the experience?  I have until Tuesday to decide.  I understand why New Yorkers don't seem to audition so much.  When would they have time to prepare?  Why would they want to leave?