Happy New Year, back from the dead, and updates

Last year, I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging when life suddenly accelerated. But when I look back on the second half of 2008, I feel gratitude and joy about the things I was able to participate in, and the things I was able to accomplish. Some personal highlights:

Music

Continued to take voice lessons.

Enrolled in the German Art Song class in the SF Conservatory Adult Extension program (the class I was interested in taking earlier). The focus this semester was on the songs of Schubert and Brahms. This class was an incredible opportunity for me - it stretched my brain in ways that engineers don't usually get to do, and helped me take my first big steps forward as an artist and performer.

Sang in two student recitals - my first as a solo performer. Another huge milestone. The first was a NATS student recital. The second recital was the culmination of the German Art Song class and was held at the beautiful recital salon at the conservatory. You can listen to clips here and here! There are also pics of this recital on Facebook.

Performed as soloist a couple of times with my choir. I don't think I'm at the same level yet as the best voices in the group, but I do think I am getting my foot in the door on the regular soloist roster.

Sang the A above the staff in public, by myself, more than once. This was during the recitals and concerts above. Not exactly an earth-shattering achievement for a soprano, but look, it is for me!!! We have to celebrate the small victories!!! B-flat, here I come!!!

Sang the Fauré requiem for a benefit concert and recruited a bunch of singers for same. The woman who organized the concert did it to celebrate her 50th birthday!

Sang some choral music at a concert at Stanford to commemorate the centennial birthday of Armenian-American author William Saroyan. Got a very fancy free catered dinner out of it, too. Mmmm, will sing for food...

Went to the Stanford Messiah Sing- and Play-Along for the umpteenth year. This is a favorite holiday tradition of mine. Each year, we try to go with a bunch of friends and get together beforehand for coffee/dinner. This year, we managed to assemble a bunch of Sugar Daddy's violin-playing friends to attend with us.

Watched and listened to more opera recordings!

Stravinsky - Rake's Progress
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro
Bizet - Carmen
Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Wagner - Das Rheingold, Tristan und Isolde
Massenet - Werther

Professional

Started my own business doing freelance Drupal/PHP website development for nonprofits! Scared about whether this will be financially viable in the long run - but I have to try.

Took on the Diabetes Society in San Jose as a pro-bono client, to build my portfolio. Did tons of work to convert their website to Drupal - and learned a crapload about Drupal in the process. Successfully launched their new Drupal website a couple weeks ago! Hurrah!

Created a website for a book launch, also on a volunteer basis. The book is Your Money or Your Life. It's a personal finance book, but not of the get-rich-quick variety. Rather, it's about living within your means, asking yourself "how much is enough", and becoming financially liberated enough to do values-based work regardless of pay.

Found out through the grapevine that the nonprofit where I wanted to work so badly a couple of years ago is now in the midst of an identity crisis and organizational meltdown. When I couldn't get a job there, it was bitterly disappointing at the time. But now it looks like the universe is looking out for me in mysterious ways. Nevertheless, it's still a bit heartbreaking because they were doing fabulous work.

Met with a nonprofit in East Palo Alto that does youth technology training, to discuss how Drupal could fit into their program. Judging from our discussion, I think it will be ambitious for them, but I am willing to give them some mentorship and coaching so they can give it a shot. I'm going to have to be very careful to set boundaries with them. They are sending out a lot of neediness vibes (which is not uncommon with small nonprofits) and I am learning the hard way that boundaries are needed in order to work positively and productively with such groups without getting sucked dry.

Attended my first Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp). This is an amazing event. It's shocking what a high-quality conference this is, considering that it's FREE and sustained entirely by volunteers and a few very-low-key sponsorships. I've been to conferences that charged good money and didn't hold a candle to BADCamp.

Also attended the Nonprofit Software Development Summit. This is another amazing event, conducted in "unconference" style. The emphasis is not on "keynote speakers" and other expert muck-a-mucks handing down their knowledge from the podium. It's more about assembling an amazing mix of attendees and then throwing them together in various small-group formats to talk about topics of common interest and share expertise among themselves. Everyone gets to be an expert (and schedule a session if they want), and everyone gets to be a learner. And the event organizers put a lot of effort into getting a good mix of participants - one of them even said "we keep the jerks out". Ha ha. Truly, the strength of this event is not so much the sessions as it is the people. This is the place to go to meet technologists who are doing brilliant things for the social good, and tap into their knowledge and professional networks.

Had a meeting with World Centric, a sustainability organization in Palo Alto, to discuss a new position they are creating that will involve website development, content management, and writing. There are potentially a lot of good fits for me here. I also have to say that it is exciting to be approached about a job because the people hiring specifically have you in mind for the job. I am motivated to make this work - we'll see if we can hammer out the details and come to agreement on a work arrangement where I can put my special talents and strengths to work for them while still being able to maintain my own work/life balance.

Travels

Santa Barbara - spent time last summer with my best friend, her husband, and her two adorable terror-children!

Detroit - also last summer, we and the in-laws flew to Detroit to visit Sugar Daddy's aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother.

Tahoe National Forest - A Fourth-of-July camping trip with the in-laws. Lots of hiking and exploring. It's sooo nice on Fourth-of-July weekend to enjoy the beauty of the Sierras without the crowds!!!

Other Stuff

Took a tour of Far West Fungi's mushroom farm in Moss Landing, organized by Slow Food Santa Cruz in conjunction with MSSF. This was all-around fun. For a nominal tour fee of just $5/person, we got to see their fascinating mushroom farm operations, enjoy the beautiful coastal landscape of Moss Landing, and then eat a fabulous potluck lunch afterwards, to which the mushroom farmers contributed a generous amount of their harvest. I highly recommend any potluck that involves Slow Food people. Those people know how to cook! Sugar Daddy had to roll me out to the car afterwards.

Successfully crashed the San Francisco watershed mushroom foray. Signups filled up really early, but we just showed up on the day and were permitted to join. This foray is of particular interest because the area is so pristine and there are certain edible mushrooms known to be in the vicinity. I can't go into further detail or else I would have to kill you.

Went mushroom hunting at Salt Point for the first time. I have to say that six hours of driving and four hours of hiking yielded just a few spoonfuls of mushrooms! It's partly due to our lack of familiarity with the area and lack of experience hunting for boletes, but also the weather has been really poor this winter for mushrooms, with little rain. On a more positive note, we did get to try a few new mushrooms from this trip - slippery jacks, a Queen Bolete (delicious - never tasted anything like that before), and some oyster mushrooms (I've bought oysters and grown my own, but this is the first time I've gotten them from the wild).

Went to Calstar again in the fall - this was Sugar Daddy's first time at Calstar with his new astrophotography equipment. He was really excited and obsessed about it! You can see his photos here, and I've included one of the Dumbbell Nebula below. What's really impressive to me is that he gets these photos with low-budget equipment. Amateur astronomers can spend thousands and even tens of thousands on photography equipment and telescope equipment, but his setup is more in the hundreds range.


Well, that's the big update for now. I can't promise that future blogging won't be spotty or have more unplanned hiatuses - gotta go with the flow of life sometimes! Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

Opera at the Ballpark

One fun thing we did last month was attend Opera at the Ballpark. It was a LOT of fun, and scored high on the Fun Cheap Date scale. This is basically a simulcast of the live opera performance, on the Jumbotron in the SF ballpark. The opera being performed was Lucia di Lammermoor. The event is free, so all we paid for was the train tickets to get up to the city.

Thousands of people attend. We arrived early, and the throng, I mean line, was already wrapped around the ballpark. The afternoon was borderline scorching, too, but Sugar Daddy (a prince among men) fetched me an milkshake from the ice cream place down the street, while I held our place in line. Strangely, despite the massive crowds, we happened to run into a couple of friends, V. and M., while standing in line.

Even though the line was long, we scored a primo spot on the baseball field and spread out our picnic blanket. Dinner was a picnic of sandwiches (free, courtesy of a Panera Bread gift card), a salad of field greens, chips and dip, fresh strawberries, cherries, and chocolate. Yum.

The late-night weather was perfect - pleasantly mild, which is almost unheard of in that part of the city, even in summer.

I enjoyed the show. Sound quality was surprisingly good for an outdoor music event.

We headed home on the train. I broke out a pack of playing cards for a friendly game of rummy on the slow ride back. Strange coincidence #2: we ran into two more friends, J. and A., on the train. They were returning home from a different event.

All in all, an awesome date and I would do it again. Here is a fun YouTube video that someone posted that captures the Opera at the Ballpark experience quite nicely.

Jazz is not dead

We just went to the student performances for the Stanford Jazz Workshop and it was exciting. They had three different stages with various combos playing at different times. Ages varied from middle school to high school; skill levels varied too. Some kids were good for their age; many were just plain good.

Performances ranged from young'uns getting started playing basic riffs on a blues progression, to older ones delving into tunes with a high level of harmonic and melodic complexity. It's exciting to see the advanced students trying out a broader palette of tone colors, dynamics, phrasing, interaction with their fellow ensemble members, etc.

The rhythm sections were surprisingly strong across the board. I don't know if that was by design or because the slots for those instruments were especially competitive. But it worked out really well, because the rhythm sections served an important function in keeping everything together during those times when individual student soloists weren't totally secure. I saw teen and pre-teen bassists and drummers who were pretty damn solid, and I'd be glad to have them back me up. And some of the pianists...wow.

Some of the workshop faculty are quite inspired and inventive. One of them brought a troop of 15 violinists and a cello onto the stage. I half-expected a group "Twinkle Twinkle" a la Suzuki, but instead, he led them in this jam in which all of the players simultaneously improvised at a level at which they were comfortable, yet the end result sounded fascinating.

The whole event reminded me that I've been doing too much left-brained stuff lately and need to do some more right-brained activities. Perhaps more music listening, exposing myself to genres I don't listen to often, more music playing.

Updates: opera, househunting, socializing, beading, and (eek) coding

Updates, updates, updates all around...

On the musical front:

Watched DVDs of two operas and one operetta: Rigoletto (film version with Pavarotti), a rather sensual production of Massenet's Thaïs, and The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan.

Attended more master classes at Stanford, one by John Bellemer and one by Rudolf Jansen (wow. has his own Wikipedia page) for both singers and collaborative pianists.

Broke down and finally got an MP3 player. It's coming in very handy so far, especially after I installed Rockbox on it. I have to confess that I'm enjoying playing with my new toy. What tipped the balance is that Sugar Daddy and I use MIDI and MP3 files a lot during our music practice sessions, and I finally realized that during those sessions, we were basically using our laptops as expensive, power-hungry, and not-very-portable MP3 players. I hope that's not too much of a self-deluding rationalization :)

On the creative front:

Made this bun cover (for a hair bun) out of beads from my trip to Africa a couple years back. I'm working on a pair of matching earrings, too.


On the practical front:

Decided to get serious about buying our first house (well, condo, most likely) this year. Signed up to get new real estate listings. Also doing lots of research, reading, and surfing.

On the technical front:

Working on the local Sierra Club's website event calendar. TOTAL time suck. But I am fast learning Drupal, which is the point (and which is why it's a time suck, being new to it and all).

On the social front:

Had A. over for dinner Sunday night - delightful! A nice bonus is that the apartment is clean, something that only happens when company comes over :) And last Wednesday, met R. and B. for dinner at B.'s place and did a lot of catching up. Had a delicious dinner of garlic naan, Indian vegetables, braised tofu, fresh spring rolls, tea, and peach mango cobbler.

Messiah sing, voice lesson clip, Lucia di Lammermoor

This past Palm Sunday I finally attended the Messiah Sing at West Valley Presbyterian Church, the one where we, the audience, perform the entire work (2 1/2 hours or so). I've been wanting to do this for a couple years now. I'm happy to report that I handled it respectably, even the movements that I don't know so well because they're usually not included on Christmas programs. I had to be strategic about which movements I wanted to sing, because if I tried to sing every note written for soprano in that work, I'd have no voice by the end of the night. I like these Messiah sing-alongs, even though sometimes the more difficult movements end up as train wrecks :) Partly, I enjoy these events because they're the only venue where it's ok for me to sing "Rejoice greatly" in public.

While there, I heard a guy with a beautiful voice behind me and to my right, singing the tenor solos. Tenors, especially good ones, are always in short supply, so I thought to myself, "I should recruit that guy for my choir!" Later, when I turned around to take a peek, I realized: "That guy IS in my choir!" Which was reassuring. I believe it's his first season with our group - hope he sticks around!

I've been excited about my voice lessons lately, so much so that I am daring to post an audio clip from one of them. Normally I would be too self-conscious to do so, and I can certainly hear my own shortcomings in the clip. At the same time, though, this clip represents a lot of progress, considering where I started from a year ago. (I'm singing a passage from the aria "Una donna a quindici anni" from Mozart's opera Così fan tutte.)

Also this past week: watched the DVD of Lucia di Lammermoor from the Met production with Sutherland and Kraus. No happy endings there. Great singing, though!

A gold star day in the voice studio

...is what I had the other week at my lesson. Over the past two or three lessons, I've experienced some breakthroughs and a "singer growth spurt". In the previous lesson, we breezed through the vocal exercises and made good progress on the piece that I was working on. Then my teacher brought up the subject of repertoire, and we discussed possibilities for songs and arias I should tackle. I believe he was giving me a nudge to start working on more difficult pieces. I feel like I've graduated to the next level. It is exciting and rewarding! I never thought I'd have the interest or ability to sing pieces from the operatic repertoire, but here I am, taking the first baby steps in that direction.

I've updated my repertoire list accordingly.

Other recent musical endeavors:

Saw tenor John Bellemer perform at Stanford as part of the Shenson Recital Series. The following day, I sat in on the masterclass he gave for Stanford voice students.

Recently learned how to use LilyPond, an open-source software package for music notation. I used it to prepare some sheet music for my choir. It lays out musical scores beautifully, but it is not all that user-friendly, and using it is practically like writing computer code. However, it is free. I checked out the commercial alternatives, Finale and Sibelius, and they are definitely not giving them away!

Singing updates: NATS recital bust, Stanford master class, opera previews

Updates on my recent singing activities:

The Fortnightly Music Club's Centennial Concert finally arrived in January, and our chamber chorus sang a spirited and enjoyable (well, at least to me :) performance of the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes. And let me tell you about the free-flowing food and drinks...yum.

I attended the NATS Student Recital in Danville last night to size it up, and decided that I would not be out of place performing there. I applied for the one in San Jose this month, but unfortunately they were full, so I've been waitlisted. There are recitals in the North and East Bay this spring, but I can't justify driving two hours to sing for six minutes. Will try again in fall and scout out other opportunities in the meantime.

Last week I attended Amy Schneider's master class at Stanford.

I listened to three more operas: Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, and La Traviata by Verdi. My current goal is just to get a sense of different opera composers' styles.

Last week, I attended a short preview of Opera San Jose's production of Rigoletto, and tonight I'll go to the short preview of West Bay Opera's production of Così fan tutte. They are great programs and are free, which is good for me because at the moment I am too damn cheap to buy opera tickets, which are decidedly not cheap.

Also earlier today, I finished voice lesson #17.

Serendipity strikes again: classes at SF Conservatory

I was surfing Craigslist recently, and serendipitously came across these two classes being taught at the San Francisco Conservatory. It's funny that I found them just as I was looking for more opportunities to 1) perform in a solo setting and 2) learn more about the classical vocal repertoire. Even better, they are being offered through the adult extension program, so classes are in the evenings and don't require enrollment in a degree program (or a conservatory audition, heh). The only hitch...the performance workshop conflicts with my Monday rehearsals, and the German lied class just happens to conflict with the spring dress rehearsal.

I will cross my fingers that this class will be offered again, preferably in summer when Monday evenings are free.

German Art Song Class for Singers and Pianists
Reply to: event-533870129@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-09, 2:40PM

New exciting performance class at the San Francisco Conservatory's Adult Extension!
SIGN UP NOW!!! Registration is limited!

GERMAN LIED PERFORMANCE (for Singers and Pianists)
http://www.sfcm.edu/prep_adultdivisions/adult_courses.aspx#course11
Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Starting February 6
San Francisco Conservatory of Music / Room C01
10 classes, $350
This class - taught by a native German singer - serves as a hands-on approach to the preparation of German repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, over Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf to Strauss, Mahler, Schönberg, and Berg. All songs will be performed and discussed in class. Students will work on song repertoire that can be found at SFCM's library. This class will conclude with a public recital.
Covered topics will include:
· International Phonetic Alphabet
· German Diction for non-German speakers
· History and background of discussed composers and poets
· Tools for translation/interpretation of German poetry
· Musical interpretation and execution
· The singer-pianist relationship
· How to plan a recital
· Breaking down the formal barrier between performer and audience
Prerequisites: Open to intermediate/advanced singers and pianists

Classes
Students may register for classes by completing the form below and mailing or faxing it to the
SF Conservatory of Music at 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102 or (fax) 415-503-6299.
Students may also register over the phone with a credit card by calling 415-503-6229.
Fees for classes must be paid before the first class meeting.
A $15 non-refundable registration fee is required to enroll.
Remember to mark your calendar with class dates and times.
Registration Information
http://www.sfcm.edu/prep_adultdivisions/adult_registration.aspx
Registration Form
http://www.sfcm.edu/pdf/AdultExtensionApplication_Sp2008.pdf

Instructor:
Anja Strauss, Soprano holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Musikhochschule Luebeck (M.M.), Germany. She is active as an opera, concert, and lied performer. Appearances include Carnegie's Weill Hall and Lincoln Center, New York City; San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Fremont Symphony, Mozart Society of California, Olympic Music Festival WA; opera performances with Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Lyric, Lamplighters Theater, Pacific Repertory Opera, Pocket Opera, Oakland Opera, and German companies of Luebeck, Kiel, Potsdam and Detmold. In addition to her active performing schedule Anja Strauss is equally in demand as a teacher. 
As a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, she maintains a thriving private voice studio in San Francisco and serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory's Adult Extension and Preparatory Division. She has recorded with Dabringhaus and Grimm and offers German, Italian, French, and Spanish diction.

Original URL: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cls/533870129.html

Classes for Singers - Performance Training
Reply to: event-533841918@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-09, 2:14PM

New exciting performance classes for Singers at the San Francisco Conservatory's Adult Extension!
SIGN UP NOW!!! Limited Registration!
PERFORMANCE TRAINING
http://www.sfcm.edu/prep_adultdivisions/adult_courses.aspx#course12
Mondays, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Starting February 4
San Francisco Conservatory of Music / Room 207
6 classes, $215
This class will provide a safe environment for singers of all levels to enhance their performance skills. The class will meet weekly and each participant will present a selection of their choice. Students are encouraged to critique each other. We will then work on improving stage presence, such as introducing yourself and your repertoire.
Covered topics will include:
· Stage presence (introductions, bowing, etc.)
· Body language and acting tools (How to get into character)
· Musical interpretation and execution
· Breaking down the formal barrier between performer and audience
· Auditioning
Prerequisites: Open to singers of all levels

Classes
Students may register for classes by completing the form below and mailing or faxing it to the
SF Conservatory of Music at 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102 or (fax) 415-503-6299.
Students may also register over the phone with a credit card by calling 415-503-6229.
Fees for classes must be paid before the first class meeting.
A $15 non-refundable registration fee is required to enroll.
Remember to mark your calendar with class dates and times.
Registration Information
http://www.sfcm.edu/prep_adultdivisions/adult_registration.aspx
Registration Form
http://www.sfcm.edu/pdf/AdultExtensionApplication_Sp2008.pdf

Instructor:
Anja Strauss, Soprano holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Musikhochschule Luebeck (M.M.), Germany. She is active as an opera, concert, and lied performer. Appearances include Carnegie's Weill Hall and Lincoln Center, New York City; San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Fremont Symphony, Mozart Society of California, Olympic Music Festival WA; opera performances with Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Lyric, Lamplighters Theater, Pacific Repertory Opera, Pocket Opera, Oakland Opera, and German companies of Luebeck, Kiel, Potsdam and Detmold. In addition to her active performing schedule Anja Strauss is equally in demand as a teacher. 
As a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, she maintains a thriving private voice studio in San Francisco and serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory's Adult Extension and Preparatory Division. She has recorded with Dabringhaus and Grimm and offers German, Italian, French, and Spanish diction.

* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Original URL: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cls/533841918.html

Merry Christmas, people

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I'm currently visiting my mom in SoCal for the holidays. Hating the SoCal traffic and ultra-sprawl. In a couple of days, we'll head to Arizona to see the in-laws.

One weird thing we encountered while walking around the neighborhood here was a megachurch. It was a convention center-sized campus with a huge sanctuary, twice as much parking as a Wal-Mart, and a cafe and two retail spaces. It was like a big-box store for God! It's still being built and isn't yet open for worship services.

Other recent activities:

Attended two Messiah Sings - one hosted by my choir and also the Stanford one. The one we host has a better level of audience musicianship, but the Stanford one is more like a big, festive community event. Also, Sugar Daddy can accompany me to the Stanford one because they have a pick-up orchestra for instrumentalists like him. In fact, the Stanford Messiah Sing has become quite a tradition for us - we've attended it for the past few years.

Also, Sugar Daddy and I are slowly getting over our nasty colds.

I finished another piece of my volunteer web project for New Dream.

I ended up pouring a lot of time into a homemade Christmas present this year. One of my pastimes is wild edible plants, and last year I gathered leaves from California bay laurel trees, dried them, put them into recycled jars with labels I designed, and gave them to friends and family who cook with bay leaves. Well, this year I got a little more ambitious. While we were at the Calstar weekend astronomy outing at Lake San Antonio this past October, I gathered a bunch of valley oak acorns from our campsite. I decided to prepare them by adapting a couple of traditional recipes that originally used chestnuts. The end result was jars of Ghiande al Liquore (Acorns in Spirits) and Glands Glacees (Candied Acorns), which I'll give as gifts to some friends who also have an interest in wild plant foods. It was a fun project but more messy and time-consuming than I realized...it takes a long time to shell that many acorns, and also the candying process took 4 days and involved a lot of sticky sugar syrup. Also it was kind of an experimental thing. The brandied acorns take 2 weeks to cure so I haven't sampled them yet and don't know how they turned out yet. I did try the candied acorns and they are a little bit more firm than chestnuts would be, but I like the flavor (although Sugar Daddy thinks they have a woody taste). Well, at least these gifts are going to people whom I know will appreciate the novelty and the experimentation, even if they taste weird :)

Updates: Thanksgiving, concerts, science fiction, volunteering

An update on some of my recent exploits:

Well, the major disruption in our lives lately is that the landlord kicked us out of our apartment for the last two days to fumigate our building. We only got a week's notice, and we also had to remove all food, toiletries, houseplants, and valuables from our apartment. When we returned yesterday morning, I took a shower only to discover that the hot water had been turned off. Yikes!!! Talk about motivation to move out! Other news:

Planning a lunch get-together with some of my former co-workers; looking forward to catching up.

Spent Thanksgiving on the central coast with R. and her family. Had a delicious dinner there, spent quality time with their charming and tireless kiddies, helped them put up Christmas lights, and even got a deluxe car wash and wax by F.!

Went to a recital by mezzo-soprano Malin Fritz at Stanford.

It's been a long while since I indulged my taste for science fiction, so I picked up The Year's Best Science Fiction anthology from 2005 at the library and have been staying up late to devour its 652 pages. Great writing, but disturbingly, all of the stories are dire and gloomy. Even the one funny story I've encountered so far is black humor. Authors in 2005 don't seem to be imagining a bright future for us.

I resigned my volunteer position as a Project Leader for Hand On Bay Area. This decision has been nagging at me since last fall. In recent years, it's become a toss-up about whether the sense of reward outweighed the small frustrations and the time investment. But sometimes you receive signs about what choice to make and when to make it. The recent leadership transition and ensuing disorganization at Bread of Life where I coordinate a volunteer team was a clear sign to me that it's time to move on and reclaim that time and energy to invest in a new nonprofit career.

Voice lessons are kicking my ass

I'm on voice lesson #14. Voice lessons are kicking my ass. The Bach family is kicking my ass. Even the 24 Greatest Hits are kicking my ass.

Studying voice is difficult, more difficult than I ever imagined it to be. I'm now of the opinion that those who train to become world-class singers work every bit as hard and require as much brains, talent, and skill as those who train to become world-class baseball players, rocket scientists, businesspeople, etc.

Taking voice lessons is a little like taking violin lessons...from a blind violinist...while wearing earplugs. The teacher can't directly see your instrument or how you are using it. They can only diagnose what you're doing (or not doing) based on how you sound and a handful of other external cues, relying on their experience and intuition. Teacher and student work together to relate what the teacher sees/hears to the physical sensations and actions the student is creating or experiencing as she produces the sound. Teacher then uses abstract or concrete verbal imagery to guide the student in producing an improved sound. Add to this the fun fact that a singer doesn't really hear herself properly; she sounds different to her audience than she does to herself, so the teacher also needs to serve as a pair of "trusted ears" that can give external feedback.

For me, progress is in unpredictable fits and spurts. I'll shed blood, sweat, and tears for weeks and weeks, working on some aspect of technique, not understanding what is going awry, puzzling over what the hell I am doing, not knowing when - or if - I will ever figure it out. Then I'll have a wave of blinding insights that catapult me forward. At least that's how it's been so far. It's a roller coaster and I always pray that salvation will be right around the corner.

But the proof is in the pudding. For all the anguish and cussing and swearing that goes on in the practice room (and believe me, I can get quite profane in there), I think I'm singing better than I ever have. There's plenty of stuff I still need to work out, but I feel like I'm at least aimed in the right direction.

Other recent singing-related stuff:

Updated my repertoire list.

Performed in choir concerts this past weekend. The program was "A Bach Family Christmas". I ended up landing the first soprano part in the "Suscepit Israel" trio in the Bach Magnificat. A solo aria would have been nice, but maybe I'll be ready for it at a later time. I'll be happy if I can just gradually make some progress up the soloist food chain in my choir. Anyway, I think I did a respectable job at the concert - not my personal best, what with performance nerves and the technical things I'm sorting out, but not overly shabby for where I am.

Attended and enjoyed a recital by a student soprano at Stanford. It's so educational to me to watch fellow students perform, observe their strengths and weaknesses, and try to apply that knowledge to my own singing. Also, it's a good place for me to get repertoire ideas that are appropriate to my skill level.

Watching the recital made me think, "if she can do it, I can do it!" Also, the whole audition and solo process for the Bach choir concerts made me realize that I need to get more public performance practice under my belt. I'd like to start small-scale and low-key, though. I've been thinking about where to do this. Maybe the NATS student recitals are a place to start, and I'm curious about the Fortnightly Music Club. I should go check out the scene at both of those. Also, there's the possibility of putting together a salon recital or house concert with friends. I could also bite the bullet and probe my teacher about a studio recital or other performing opportunities...but I'm afraid that if I open that can of worms, I may bite off more than I can chew!

Started recording my lessons, auditions, and performances. I read on NFCS that a lot of voice students do this for self-evaluation purposes and also to take notes after their lessons. It's been very enlightening so far.

Recent reading:

The Inner Voice - autobiography of Renée Fleming, contemporary American soprano. I don't yet have an informed opinion on her voice, but I found the book interesting. Some parts are sugar-coated (probably a prudent move in the singing business), but there is lots of voyeuristic detail on her training and the evolution of her technique, the business side of singing (often glossed over by those who want to promote the "high-minded artist" image), and a blow-by-blow account of what it's like to perform at the Met, the backstage area and crew and etc. And no backbiting celebrity tell-all gossip.

Callas at Juilliard: The Master Classes - Transcripts of superstar soprano Maria Callas' master classes in 1971-72. Still waiting on top of my reading pile...

Recent listening:

Susan Graham - Songs of Ned Rorem - I don't have an extensive knowledge of the American art song repertoire, but I love what I've heard so far, and especially composer Ned Rorem. I wanted to hear more of his stuff and get repertoire ideas for my lessons.

Liebeslieder-Walzer - burning the music into my brain for the Fortnightly rehearsal this weekend.

Updates: nptech, music, volunteer work, mushrooms

Photo courtesy of MykoWeb

Some updates on my recent activities:

On the nonprofit tech career front: talked with S., to whom I was introduced by Gunner at Aspiration. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, his plan to bring on more people didn't materialize...however, he was friendly to talk with, offered to pass my contact info on to others, and at my request gave me lots of useful advice about the nonprofit tech sector.

I attended Gunner's talk on "How to Find Software for Your Nonprofit", the first Net Tuesday event I've attended. Pretty fun.

I got contacted out of the blue by D. who leads a major open-source nonprofit software project. He saw a message I posted on a discussion board asking about nonprofit tech career transitions and got in touch. I'm looking forward to talking to him later this month about his experiences.

I've also made some good progress on my volunteer web project for New American Dream on their Alternative Gift Registry. I emailed their IT guy an update and some screenshots. So far he seems happy with what I've done. He was also very appreciative, which I have to admit made me feel good. Money is great compensation, if you can get it...but appreciation isn't half-bad, either.

On the musical front: Whew. Busted my butt working on the pieces for the solo auditions for our December concert featuring the music of J. S. Bach and family. Just did the auditions on Monday night. Can't say that I covered myself in glory, but neither was it a train wreck.

I turned a corner during last month's voice lessons, making some good breakthroughs...but now I'm back to slow, struggling progress...

I got recruited into a small ensemble to sing the Liebeslieder Waltzes by Brahms at the Centennial Concert of the Fortnightly Music Club. It'll be a good opportunity to sing in a small ensemble, which I haven't done since college. And, I won't have to wear the dreaded blue dress!

I'm happy to report some progress tackling the subjects in my Music Curriculum for Self-Study. I've managed to pick up some IPA, and have internalized more learnings about German diction. This afternoon, I got worked over by the ear training software station at the Stanford music library. It kicked my butt. I'm drilling on recognizing chord progressions by ear. My brain is fried.

Attended a couple of concerts. One was the Stanford Symphony and Marching Band's annual Halloween concert. Very fun, but oh my god, after hearing the marching band drummers inside an auditorium, it took a few hours to get my hearing back. I also went to Sugar Daddy's concert with the HP Symphony, "From Schubert to Star Wars". Applause for Sugar Daddy - yay!!!

Other projects:

Went on an out-and-back day hike on the Rhus Ridge trail, looking for boletus mushrooms (to gawk at, not to eat or get high on :-) . Funny thing, we hardly saw any on the leg out...but on the leg back, along the same stretch of trail we passed earlier in the day, we started spotting them all over the place.

Finished reading the new book Get Satisfied. Reading this book actually made me feel serene. Highly recommend this book!

Got an update from Hands On Bay Area about sending volunteers to this Coastside Alternative Gift Fair. Turns out they won't be able to do it, since the fundraising aspect of the gift fair falls outside of their policy, and also due to low volunteer attendance for events in Pacifica. Too bad! I suggested to the gift fair people that they contact One Brick.

Made an executive decision to keep my personal & work-related blog reading down to five hours a week, max. There's lots of good stuff on blogs, but they're a real time suck (heh, do you enjoy the irony of reading that statement in my blog?). I need to prioritize.

Onward!

Recent listening: opera, opera, and more opera

Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) - Callas/Di Stefano/Gobbi/De Sabata

Turandot (Giacomo Puccini) - Nilsson/Tebaldi/Bjoerling/Tozzi/Leinsdorf

Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart) - Te Kanawa/Murray/Hampson/Blochwitz/McLaughlin/Furlanetto/Levine

Rinaldo (Handel) - Bartoli/Daniels/Hogwood

Little Women (Mark Adamo)

Divas, Volume 2: 1909-1940 (Nimbus Records)

The Art of Arleen Auger (Koch International Classics)

Il tenero momento: Mozart & Gluck Arias - Susan Graham

David Daniels: Handel Opera Arias (Virgin Veritas/EMI)

Wagner: Operatic Scenes and Lieder - Kirsten Flagstad

Wolf Lieder - Bostridge/Pappano (EMI Classics)

One goal of my listening lately is to learn what the spectrum of soprano voices sound like, how they fit into fachs (voice/role categories), and figure out where my voice fits in the spectrum.

Another goal is to get familiar with a few works in the standard operatic literature, so that when someone on the New Classical Singer Forum mentions an aria, I can recognize what opera it's from, who wrote it, and what kind of voice sings it. This also comes in handy for researching and choosing new repertoire for myself.

I am fast losing my prejudice against opera. It's not all viking horns, bombastic voices, and tenors who sound like all the veins in their neck are standing out. There's a lot more diversity of sound and style within the opera genre than I realized. I can find operas that I enjoy listening to and singing parts of.

I think I'm also beginning to see why solo professional classical singers emphasize opera, as opposed to other forms of vocal music. Since it takes weeks to months to mount an opera production, which may then run for several weeks, and since singers get paid by the performance(? and per rehearsal?), it is the professional classical singer's bread-and-butter. And it is arguably the most demanding form of vocal music, in terms of technique, interpretive/acting ability, and definitely stamina--so if you can manage to do opera well, you can certainly handle concert/oratorio/song recitals. (Although art song has its own subtle nuances that challenge the singer and require mastery.) Also, once you learn a role for one production, you can audition it around and hopefully perform it at several other opera houses--a decent return on the time and effort invested.

The opera Little Women was pretty amazing. It is a modern opera, in English and written by an American in 1998. The musical idiom is a contemporary one, but not jarring or painful (at least to my ears :) - just some spicy dissonances and harmonic structures :) It's based on the book, but unlike the book, the focus is on the conflict between Jo and the passage of time/growing up. A heartrending portrayal; I could really relate.

What's new; to-do list updates

I've updated some items on the to-do list at right.

I'm marking the PHP basics as done for now, obviously that will be an ongoing learning process. Recently, I bought books on Drupal as well as PHP and MySQL. I downloaded Drupal and CiviCRM and started playing around with Drupal (a popular website system for nonprofits).

Bumped up the Coastside Alternative Gift Fair on the to-do list. I got in touch with Hands On Bay Area and tried to contact the Coastside Alternative Gift Fair people, with the intent of organizing a Hands On volunteer team to help out at the gift fair. Not much is happening in that quarter so far; the gift fair people have been difficult to get hold of. I'm going to try to reach them a couple more times. I hope it works out, but I won't be heartbroken if it doesn't pan out this year. I can still attend as an individual volunteer, and there's always next year.

Also bumped up the "grand decluttering" list item. In reality, I notice that I've really been doing this a little at a time--going through a closet one day, dropping clothes off at Salvation Army, freecycling stuff.

Another task I've completed--I had a phone chat with Dave Wampler at the Simple Living Network to learn more about his smashing success at blending right livelihood with his passion about simple living. Will post a recap of our conversation later.

Some other recent exploits:

Playing phone tag with S. Allen Gunn from Aspiration put me in touch with him regarding a possible nonprofit web gig. Hope I can get hold of S.; he did say he's been hosed.

Went on an edible plant hike led by a Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District docent. Realized that I probably have enough expertise now to lead an edible plant hike. Some things I ate from our hike: manzanita berries, yerba santa (chewed on it), bay fruits, bay nuts (the seed inside the bay fruit), and naturalized grapes (cultivated grapes that escaped from an old settlement in the mountains and are now growing wild--very tasty). No ill effects :-)

Had breakfast/lunch with different friends every Friday for the past three weeks.

In a whirlwind fit of inspiration, wrote a personal finance article about discretionary spending and how to choose the purchases that are most likely to give you true fulfillment. The article will appear in the January/February issue of the Simple Living Network newsletter.

Sang two concerts this past weekend.

Preparing to audition some Bach solos for the winter concert.

Halfway through the Schaum Orange Book

I am now halfway through the Schaum Orange Piano Book. Hooray!

When I finish this book and graduate to the next book, I swear I’m going to have a little graduation party with champagne and cake!

See more progress on: Learn to play the piano

The Repertoire List

This post will be my vocal repertoire list. I will use it to keep track of pieces that I've worked on and ones that I plan to work on. I'll update it as I go along.

In progress:
"Una donna a quindici anni" from Così fan Tutte - W. A. Mozart

Upcoming:

"In uomini, in soldati" from Così fan Tutte - W. A. Mozart
"Deh vieni, non tardar" from Le nozze di Figaro - W. A. Mozart
"Ganymed" - F. Schubert
"Leise flehen meine Lieder (Ständchen)" - F. Schubert
"Sure on this shining night" - Samuel Barber
"Oh, had I Jubal's lyre" from Joshua - G. F. Handel
"Frère! voyez!...Du gai soleil" from Werther - Jules Massenet
"Go, lovely Rose" - Ned Rorem
"Little Elegy" - Ned Rorem

Previous:

"Per la gloria d'adorarvi" - Giovanni Battista Bononcini
"Lachen und Weinen" - Franz Schubert
"Vittoria, mio core" - Giacomo Carissimi
"How beautiful are the feet" from Messiah - G. F. Handel
"Suscepit Israel" from Magnificat - J. S. Bach
"Virga Jesse floruit" from Magnificat - J. S. Bach
"Quia respexit humilitatem" from Magnificat - J. S. Bach
"Et exultavit spiritus meus" from Magnificat - J. S. Bach
"O del mio dolce ardor" - C. W. von Gluck
"Sento nel core" - Alessandro Scarlatti
"Come raggio di sol" - Antonio Caldara
"Lasciatemi morire" - Claudio Monteverdi
"Vedrai, carino" from Don Giovanni - W. A. Mozart

Grieg is finally approaching vivace

The simplified Grieg piece I posted about earlier might actually be approaching “vivace”.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Likewise, in my piano exercises, my fingers are starting to play dominant seventh chords in different keys and inversions with a greater degree of ease. That’s a first for me.

It’s nice to feel like I’m making some progress.

See more progress on: Learn to play the piano

Slogging through piano practice

I just slogged through a piano practice session. I lapsed for a few weeks this summer, but have been back on track for the last week. Currently working on:

Schaum Book D: #11 and #12, kiddie versions of pieces by Rachmaninoff and Grieg. Despite the significant dumbing down of the excerpts, I am struggling…the Grieg is definitely nowhere near “vivace”. This is where persistence comes into play. I play the problem passage slowly 10x with the left hand, 10x with the right hand, 10x with both hands, then maybe try it a little faster, then move to the next problem passage, then repeat the whole process the next day, then the day after that…

Dozen a Day, Book 3: Group II, Exercise #5. Good news is, I finished the Group I exercises since the last time I posted about piano. Group II has a lot of block chords, so every day I play the exercises in a different key so my fingers can get used to different chords and inversions in different keys. I think it’s helping.

See more progress on: Learn to play the piano

Phoenix, summer sings, tech for non-profits, PHP

Last week, we returned from our visit to Phoenix. We celebrated Sugar Daddy's grandfather's 90th birthday, and boy, was it an uplifting experience! Despite his age, he is feisty, funny, and in pretty good health. He even danced the "Waikiki Walk" with every lady present at the party!

I've been working through the PHP tutorial at W3Schools. It's not the best tutorial I've ever used, but at least I learned something when I had to debug why the tutorial instructions didn't result in the expected output...

I stopped at the library and hunted for books that would provide some guidance on the legal/financial/procedural aspects of setting myself up as an independent contractor. Two useful finds: Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants (which is exactly the information I'm looking for) and Starting a Business in San Mateo & Santa Clara Counties (info that is locally pertinent).

I spent some time reading articles about tech for non-profits, specifically the ones at TechSoup. There are more blogs/feeds on tech for non-profits that I'd like to check out, like the ones listed at Beth Kanter's nptech blog. Plus, there's an interesting article on How to Pinpoint the Right Social Networking Tools for Your Nonprofit, and Get the Support and Budget to Put Them to Work that I'd like to get to. But despite all this interesting reading material, I don't want to develop a case of blog reading fatigue like my buddy Oluf. So I looked around for some different free feature-rich RSS readers, and am currently experimenting with JetBrains Omea Reader to see if it will successfully tame the information monster.

In addition, I've just started brainstorming about what new online tools for activism and enhancements of existing tools might best benefit New American Dream. Comments, ideas on this topic are welcome.

On the music front - my recent listening has been following the Schola Cantorum Summer Sing schedule. Last week, the Verdi Requiem (and I found a pretty decent recording by Claudio Abbado at the library). This week, Poulenc Gloria and Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzer. As a bonus, I borrowed a recording of Carole Farley singing songs by Ned Rorem, one of my favorite art song composers, with Rorem at the piano. I've got my next two voice lessons scheduled, and am getting back to the piano after a couple of weeks of practice hiatus.

Concerts, socializing, learning PHP, dealing with apartment issues

This week in review:

On the social scene: Saturday I attended G.'s party to celebrate 5 years of cancer-free living. It was an uplifting and life-affirming experience. While I was there, I also got to catch up with some colleagues from my former workplace. That evening, we went up to the city to visit my uncle and an aunt who's in town from Vermont. (Note to self: I also saw my cousin C. who just finished filing for non-profit status for his organization, the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative; he might be a good contact if I ever want to start my own non-profit.) Sunday, I called my old high-school friend J. who lives in CT, just because. Monday, I visited a relative of mine who's distantly related to me, yet happens to live maybe a mile away (and yet I haven't seen her for years). This coming weekend, another aunt is coming to town from Toronto; gotta make plans to see her. And the most surprising encounter of the week: I got an email from B., a junior-high friend I haven't been in touch with for years and years. Sounds like lots of changes and challenges in her life recently; hugs to you, B.!

Apartment issues have been a time suck this week. There was a situation with the landlord that we thought might escalate into something unpleasant, but miraculously, it might be headed towards the happiest possible ending. It did get us talking about our future housing needs. Ideally, we'd like to live close enough to Sugar Daddy's workplace that he can commute by foot or bicycle. We might shop around for an apartment in that vicinity. We talk about buying on and off, but never really get serious about it, although we did go to our first-ever open house on Sunday - a condo in Mountain View.

Music has kept us really busy this week. Voice lesson Tuesday, dress rehearsals Monday and Wednesday, performing in concerts this coming Saturday and Sunday, went to my friend R.'s concert last Friday, and also saw R. sing yesterday with the HP Choir (and Sugar Daddy accompanied them in the orchestra). I'm doubling up on practice hours this week because I'll be in Phoenix all next week and won't get in any more practice time before my next voice lesson. Between all this and the apartment situation, I had to slack off on piano this week. If I can get a couple of hours in on the piano before leaving for Phoenix, I'll have to be satisfied with that.

Two-and-a-half months after leaving my software job, I was finally able to look at code again...I just started giving myself a crash course in PHP to prepare for the contract job with New American Dream. At least the basics so I can fake it until I make it :) I've also started reading a bit about technology and non-profits at TechSoup. I want to do some high-level reading about social media/networks, find out what's out there today, and think about how it can be incorporated into a non-profit's strategy.

Off to Phoenix next week for Sugar Daddy's grandfather's 90th birthday bash! The man has three times as much life experience as me, and he still has a sense of humor, pretty decent health and mobility, and probably a more active social life than me! Amazing!