Experiences galore!

From Sunday, June 13, 2010

Okay, so two really big things happened this week: On Tuesday I played in the MMTA Composition Contest recital, and a teacher wanted to BUY a copy of my original piece (!!!), and last night I played in the Honors Concert at Northrop Auditorium!!!

Which experience was cooler?

It's hard to say.

I was speechless when this teacher said to me, "I have a particular student that I think should play your piece." I luckily had an extra copy I gave her. That's right, I gave it to her and didn't take her money. I had no idea what sheet music costs, especially when it's just a few loose sheets of paper. It didn't really matter to me. She asked me to sign it, too, and that made me feel very warm and fuzzy inside.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'm always going to let my compositions go for free (I hope I can get into a more regular composing habit so that there'll be a lot more of them.)

When I told my own teacher about it, she said, "You should have asked for $50. $30 for you and $20 for your teacher!"

Oh, if only it could work that way.

Then the concert last night! After working my butt off to win the Minnesota Music Teachers Association state piano contest, my reward with 699 other kids was to play in a big duet on the Northrop stage. Two hours of kids from six to 19 years old played in their own age groups, usually about 20 pianos used in a piece, with a conductor. (who liked to sip juice boxes during rehearsal, if you like random facts)

I got to wear a really awesome formal dress, and it was red. Seeing what every body was wearing was...interesting.

With dress rehearsals, pictures, and sticking around for the whole hooha, I was there from 3:25 to 9:07 PM. It was a long day, but I'm glad I got the experience.

The song we played was a nice and easy blues that was only about two or three minutes long, so I knew it like the back of my hand. The part that was really nerve racking though was when we had to wait behind the stage. You have to be real quiet, which gives you too much time to think about what you're just about to do. But once I got up there, I made sure that I didn't look anywhere else but at the conductor, and I was just fine. I saw a bit of the audience in my peripheral vision, but nothing derailed my confidence, and before I knew it we were done. I think for me, my brain can't comprehend the number of people in a space as large as the Northrop, and we're so removed from the people that in a way, it's almost like there's no one at all--just a bunch of kids on a big stage. If I'm in a recital with just a regular roomful of people, then pre-performance nerves are more evident, which is really weird, I think.

So now that all of that is over, I can focus all my energy on preparing for the St. Olaf piano camp next week, which sounds like it'll be really intense. I mean like, soak- your- hands- in -hot- water- and- bandage- your- fingers-at-the-end-of-the-day intense. I say, Bring it on.