Upcoming Concerts
I will be one of the performers at the American Guild of
Organists Member Recital on Sunday, May 31, at 4 pm, at St. Saviour’s Episcopal
Church, at 41 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, Maine. I will play two trios from Ten Trios for Organ (Opus 49) by Josef
Rheinberger (1839 – 1901): Number 3 in A
Minor and Number 7 in A Major. Admission
is free, and donations support the scholarship fund.
University Rhythms
The rhythm of university life is oriented toward each
semester with the goal being graduation after degree requirements are met. Each semester gets more intense in the middle
for midterms, and then again for the final several weeks of each course as requirements
are completed. The spring semester is
often more intense than the fall semester because the seniors are getting ready
to graduate and thus performing in their senior recitals, the juniors are
performing in their junior recitals, and the sophomores are completing their “junior
standing” in their primary instrument.
Junior Standing is a jury that is performed for all the faculty that is
required for most students to progress to the junior level in their major
instrument.
Because I already have a Bachelor’s degree in another
discipline (mathematics), I do not have to take any non-music courses to get my
Bachelor of Arts in Music; I only need to complete the music department
requirements. This means that I am not
in the same four-year rhythm as most of the other students because I will
complete my degree in less than four years.
So I am in classes with sophomores, juniors, and seniors. This is an advantage because I finish the
degree requirements in less than four years, but it is also a disadvantage
because music skills develop with practice, and I will only have two and a half
years to practice, instead of four. I
plan to graduate in May 2016.
Finishing Spring
Semester
I completed my juries and final exams for the Spring Semester
on May 7. During juries, multiple
professors listen to me play or sing music that I have practiced during the
past semester. I performed in juries for
organ, piano, and voice.
In addition to lessons in pipe organ, piano, and voice, I
took classes in harmony, ear training, and choral conducting and participated
in the Collegiate Chorale ensemble. This
completes most of my required coursework for my Bachelor of Arts degree. Looking ahead, I am required to take four more
courses over the next year. I plan to
use the entire academic year to take these courses and continue lessons in
organ, piano, and voice. I will be one
of the five student conductors in the fall of the Collegiate Chorale, and I am
excited to be the music intern at St. John’s Catholic Church. As part of this internship, I will play the
organ for some services, direct the choir for some selections, and I will
likely do some special projects. In
addition to the St. John’s internship, I will focus the 2016 spring semester on
my senior project, which will be an organ lecture/recital.
My last blog post was on March 20. Since then, besides completing my university coursework,
I played the Rheinberger "Trio Number 7 in A Major" in Recital Lab on April 13. Everyone who is taking music lessons at the
university performs once each semester in recital lab for faculty and fellow
students on their major instrument. I
sang in both church and school choir concerts.
I played the organ for Mass on Palm Sunday at St. Teresa’s Church. I composed a 12-tone piece for flute and
piano as an assignment for my harmony class.
For part of my choral conducting exam I conducted the University Singers
in a rehearsal of the “Ave Maria” attributed to Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Right after final exams, my husband, John, and I flew to
Denver, Colorado to visit our daughter, Carletta, and her husband, Aaron for two
weeks. While I was in Denver, I
contacted the organist at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Kathleen
MacLean, who graciously arranged for me to briefly play the cathedral
organ. This organ was originally built
by W. W. Kimball in 1912. It was rebuilt
and expanded in 1996 by Morel and Associates.
At the console of the
Kimball organ at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver,
Colorado
