Exhausting Tuesday and Wednesday

Hello!  I've had a packed two days--I hardly know where to begin.  On Tuesday, June 12 we started out the day with a Libby Larsen masterclass!  I love her music--she lives in Minneapolis so I have met her a few times and she did a residency at our school a couple of years ago.  She is such an interesting woman and is actually interested in your feedback and input on her songs- something I find very unusual but impressive.  This class was in the main hall-Thayer Hall-and we heard her 3 "Cowboy Songs" which I've sung and two songs that I WILL sing--"When I am an old woman" and "Two Happy Lovers."  Johnathan Cooper- remember that name, that's all I'm saying.

At noon, there was another concert and I loved Danya Katok and Dimitri Dover's performances of Ned Rorem's "The Nantucket Songs" (which I will do someday) and Larsen's "My Antonia" (also awesome).  Danya is such an honest, straight forward performer.  She executes the music perfectly and doesn't get in it's way.  She is singing so much at SongFest and really bringing it each time.  Go girl!

At 2:00 there was a masterclass by Martin Katz on Strophic songs (songs where the music repeats but the words change, like hymns) and how to make them varied.  He says that words always rule, but there is absolutely no question about it in strophic songs.  A couple I really liked where "Och Mod'r ich well en Ding han" by Brahms and "She's Like a Swallow," a Canadian fold song arranged by Godfrey Ridout.

What we have available to us to create variation in strophic songs:

• Dynamics
• Phrasing
• Tempo
• Articulation
• Timbre
• Silences
• Fermatas
• Portamento
• Pedaling
• Rubato
• Edition of song

Katz's style wears me out it is so highly energized, so Wanda and I "skipped school" and went to Chinatown in search of a pedicure.  We never found one, but we did find other treasures:

Guess which movie star this is??!?!?

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Beaded Curtains in a tchotchke store

Playing the piano in the street!

Vocal warm-ups anyone?

Working on lifting my zygomatic arch (thank you Audrey Lunda!) in Chinatown!

Welcome to Chinatown!

Standing over the Freeway!

Oh so dainty!  Bought my good jade here!

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! (beef chow fun, not on the menu!)

Whazzup? New Ray-bans!

We were pretty much the only people walking, though Chinatown was really only about a mile away over the Hollywood Freeway.  They love their cars in LA!  Walking is almost faster, especially at the busiest times of day.  We found the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels about two blocks from the school.  According to the mighty Fodor: "It's a spiritual draw and an architectural attraction as well.  The exterior is all strict soaring angles and the building is as heavy, solid, and hunkering as the [Walt Disney Concert Hall] is feminine and ethereal...Opened in 2002, the ocher-concrete cathedral looms...the plaza in front is relatively austere, glaringly bright on sunny days; a children's play garden with bronze animals helps relieve the stark space...The canyon like interior of the church is spare, polished, and airy.  By day, sunlight illuminates the sanctuary through translucent curtain walls of thin Spanish alabaster, a departure from the usual stained glass."

Fodor oh Fodor, how I love thee.

Walked across the Freeyway into another world.  Small shops and countless restaurants abound (a hot ticket item this year appears to be small plastic tanks with tiny live turtles in them!!!), and we explored some of the touristy shopping areas-where I bought some jade jewelry and two fans (AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Tiger Balm (raaaaaaahrrrrr!), and some prezzies for my ladies back home! We also went to some less touristy areas and bought some items from a Chinese Bakery, and went to Empress Pavilion, the oldest Chinese restaurant in the area.  Wanda speaks Mandarin and was able to find the best deals with the shopkeepers and order things not even on the menu that were DELICIOUS!!!!!!!  The best Chinese food I ever had except for when I was in China.  YUMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Walked home in the pitch dark and no one ever bothered us--in fact, I don't think we even saw anyone walking most of the time.  Did laundry and then hit the hay.  Slept hard!!!!

Awoke bright and early on WEDNESDAY June 13.  William Bolcom and Joan Morris have arrived!!!!  I saw Libby Larsen and William Bolcom hug this morning!  Cool!!!!  The Bolcom and Morris masterclass was great fun- they are like a vaudeville act together and had great stories to tell about how the songs came about and about Bolcom's time in NYC in the 60s and 70s (bald heads and cigars turned into long haired wigs and coke spoons around necks after the Beatles came to town!!) The rep today was really for mezzos mostly, though I really liked "Ballad of the Landlord" with text by Langston Hughes, for baritone.  There was time for questions at the end, so I asked if there were any of Bolcom's vocal music he wished was performed more often.  He said his 4th Symphony and the cycle Golden House for tenor.  I bet that will be on SongFest next year :)  Later, he added "McTeague" to that list.  I was at IU when they did that opera, and Bolcom came to town to work on it with them.  What great performances!  He thought so, too.  It hasn't been produced since though he said it will be performed in Europe next year, I've forgotten where.  

Working on "From the Diary of Sally Hemings"

Me, Audrey, and our pianist after a fabulous lesson

From 11:30-12:30 I had a lesson with Audrey Luna.  It was so helpful and lines up exactly with what Connie is teaching me.  I am working on unlearning some of the muscular habits I have built up over time and I need to basically retrain most of the muscles of singing so that I am singing in an easier way.  I love Audrey!  We vocalized and I worked on "Quando m'en vo."

Got done just in time to head to Libby Larsen's masterclass on her cycle "Songs from Letters," which I WILL do some day.  They are 5 settings of letters written by Calamity Jane to her daughter Janey.  The saddest thing was that Calamity never sent them to her daughter.  They are filled with pain, rage, and resignation.  They also feature how strong she was and how many things she was good at--she was absolutely amazing for her time.  I loved this session with Libby because the performances were at a very high level so she was able to ask them to experiment with different interpretations (jealous of her daughter, drunk, etc.) The ladies were able to make changes remarkably and I loved the performances.  What I liked most of all was Libby's dialogue with those of us in the audience.  She wanted to know what we thought and felt, and she actually listened!  I commented twice and she listened.  I introduced myself to her afterwards and explained to her why she recognized me (She has been looking at my curiously since she got here) and of course she remembered coming to UW-Eau Claire for a residency.  Lovely woman who truly likes to collaborate- she thought the best part about SongFest was the collaboration with the artists on her songs.  How great it that!?  She is short, wiry, hyper, and barely gray and is absolutely a dynamo whose energy puts me to shame!!!

I ate me some bbq chicken pizza and then headed into another Martin Katz masterclass called "Circle of Love" which was songs of Robert and Clara Schumann as well as Brahms.  Stayed for a while and then went and warmed up for a coaching with Bolcom and Morris!  I did "Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise" and talked and laughed for 40 minutes!  The song is basically a tribute to the American church basement potluck!  I've been to a couple of those in my time, let me tell you!  So much fun to meet them and I got both of their autographs.  I asked Mr. Bolcom to sign my copy of "From the Diary of Sally Hemings" and he drew a picture of a cake as well!  Hilarious couple!!!!  Mostly they urged me to find my own character rather than caricature and they were exactly right.  I'm supposed to channel Mom and other ladies'  groups presidents I know!  Loved it!!!!

THEN, I attended a concert at 5:30 on Contemporary American song.  Beautifully performed, not my favorite music.  Oh well, you can't like it all I guess!  Afterwards, went out with some friends for a drink at the local Irish Pub, went to Walgreen's for supplies, headed back to campus and on the way stopped at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel where I stayed for NOA one year and where the Oscars were held back in the 30s.  It is such a beautiful, ornate building.  The LA skyline and lights are exciting and low-lying but so gorgeous.   Kristine and I hung out in the dorm and talked and I set up my new....iPad!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  can't wait to play with it more- it is settling in nicely I believe.  (edited later-can you tell I was falling asleep as I wrote that?!?!?  Makes no sense!)

Tired, so here is the rest of the day in pictures..... until tomorrow all. M

Grand corridor of the Millemium Biltmore

On a bridge- buildings above me, highway below me

Looking up!

One of the beautiful outdoor plazas in downtown, with fountains and flowering plant material (Wanda's words)

I loved this guy, dancing in the middle of the night for his friends in an outdoor gazebo--with no cares for what other people thought!  A good lesson!

JDog learned to shake!!!!!!  SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!