The trip to Norway was a looong one, starting with packing up the bass and driving to the airport on the morning of the 8th. Now I was again expecting to have to argue and haggle with the ticketing agent to get my bass on the plane (and make sure it made it all the way to Norway!). Yet here I must say that if you are a bass player- fly United Airline if you want to have no hassle whatsoever. I was checked in in 5 minutes, and then I realized that I had three hours to sit around in the terminal and wait...
In order to get to Norway I made two stops after leaving LA, one in Chicago, and the other in Copenhagen. The one in Chicago was basically me frantically trying to make it across to the international terminal, only to realize that I had set my watch an hour ahead so I actually had plenty of time. I have to say, flying into Copenhagen airport was really nice, I know the airport really well (90% of the stamps in my passport are from Copenhagen). Besides the fact that I've been there before, it is one of the nicest airports I've ever been in. In Chicago, the international terminal consists of a poorly lit, carpeted hallway, Copenhagen airport has all dark wood floors, and windows everywhere, making it very welcoming.
By this point, I was really exhausted, I wasn't able to sleep on the first two flights so I was not looking forward to getting on another plane... especially a really small one.... But the time finally came, and I walked out onto the tarmac into the chilly but sunny day to board the plane. I had the pleasure of watching the ground crew load my bass into the cargo hold, which was just about the most terrifying experience ever! They put it on a little ramp and just send it on up- in my mind I saw it crashing to the ground, with my bass rolling down the runway... luckily, everything went smoothly. As we took off, we came out of the cloud cover and got to see the clouds sparkling in the sunlight... it was beautiful. And just like that, as tired and gross as I felt from all the traveling, I was excited again. Flying into Kristiansand was really great, there are fjords that make up the city, which you can see as you fly in. It was so cool to see all the houses scattered up in the hills and along the water. When we came in for the final approach, it looked as if we were going to land on the frozen ocean, but we made it to the runway. The airport here is tiny- one building with pretty much only one terminal. I had a conversation with the custom agent, in which he basically casually walked by and asked if I was playing a concert in the city and I told him about the audition. I didn't realize that he was a customs agent until halfway through the conversation. He didn't even ask to see my passport...
After negotiating with a cab driver and maneuvering the bass into the Mercedes van taxi, I was off to the city centrum. There are lots of industrial factories (or at least that's what they looked like...) on the outskirts of the city. Once in the city, I went to the hotel to check in. It was a little different than I expected it to be.... there was no one at reception (I'm glad I remembered to print the confirmation e-mail that had the door code or I would have never gotten through the front door!), so I had to find my own room and guess what- it was on the second floor. Of joy, stairs! I managed to get both the bass and flight case up to my little room... and little may be somewhat of an understatement.....
So the pic above and below are taken from the bed.... and to answer the pressing question on everyone's mind- yes, I have to move my bass in order to open the bathroom door.
I like to think of it as cozy.... yeah, I'm gonna stick with that... at least it's a queen size bed, which is nice.
After getting settled in (or crammed in as the case may be....) I went for a walk to see a little bit of the city, but mainly to get some real food! The hotel I'm staying at is only a block from the water, which is really nice. The two pics below are right down the street from where I'm staying- you can see the hills I was talking about earlier in the background. The city reminds me a lot of Sweden, both in construction and attitude. It was also just really great to get to walk after 20 hours of traveling! I found a nice little coffee shop to have dinner in- I had a chicken pesto sandwich with really good fresh ingredients. It turned out the girl who was working there was from Sweden, so we had a conversation in Swedish! I was so happy that I was able to remember enough to carry on a real conversation! After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay awake for a while so I would sleep through the night-and if anyone has figured out the time difference, you realize that that clearly didn't work since it's 3:30AM here and I'm awake... I was able to sleep, but not long enough, hopefully I can get back to sleep so I can sort of be adjusted by Friday! I'll take some more pictures on my walks tomorrow!
This morning I slept in (a little), had a nice breakfast, and set out to see some more of the city. The sun was just coming up when I started walking, it was beautiful. I walked down along the water to see the fish market and the new concert hall.
The fish market
In the background is where the new concert hall is being built
I woke up this morning a half hour before my alarm went off- wide awake with anticipation. After breakfast and pacing around my tiny hotel room to kill time, I walked to the rehearsal hall for the Kristiansand Orchestra. There was plenty of time to warm up, and the staff were all very nice. At 9am, ten bass players from around the world picked numbers out of a bowl to determine the order of the audition. I got number 9, so I had a while to wait (and worry) before my audition. I warmed up and wandered around trying not to over play and tire myself out. The picture about is the view from the warm-up room I was in- nice huh? Below is my little setup in the corner of the room (I was sharing the room with another bass player).
When it was finally time to play for the panel, I tried to calm myself down and just play for myself. The pianist was very helpful, and talented, which made the concerto seem a little less daunting. The beginning of the first movement of the Vanhal Concerto went really well, I felt confident about it, and was starting to feel comfortable when I missed an entrance by just a little too long- it was a small mistake, but it started the nervousness all over again. I was able to pull it together, getting about halfway through before they stopped me. They only listened to about 8 bars of the second movement before asking me to move on to the excerpts. My Bach excerpt went really well, but the Berlioz was a bit messy- I got going too fast and had to struggle to keep it under control.
This evening I went out to a pub with three of the bass players from the audition- one who was out after the first round like me, one who made it to the second round, and the guy who won. It was a lot of fun to chat about playing and the craziness that is involved in trying to make a living as a professional musician. Again, I'm glad I came, and I feel like I learned a lot about how to play auditions, and what kind of competition is out there.
Today was a pretty relaxed day, mostly spent either practicing or sleeping. It was raining for most of the day, so I only went out for a little while to get some food. I turned my little room into a little practice room, and was able to get some good work in. I also took a nap that was supposed to be a short one, but turned into a marathon nap. When I woke up, it was dark out and 6 hours later- I guess it only makes sense since I was traveling for almost 24 hours yesterday, and then couldn't sleep for long last night... I'm just hoping that I can get back to sleep soon so I'll be awake in the morning for my audition.
The picture above is the only one I took outside today because of the rain/snow.... it's the Cathedral, which is only about a block and a half from my hotel. It was really cold and wet weather today, so the only reason I went outside was to get some pizza. One thing that is a little different here is that it's a LOT more expensive to live here- the pizza cost about $20....
Tomorrow is the big day, which will either be a long one if I'm able to stay in for all three rounds, or a short one if I'm eliminated in the first round.... I'm glad I came and I'm excited to get to compete, no matter the results- of course, it would be nice to win! I'll post my results as soon as I get back from the audition tomorrow!
So the pic above and below are taken from the bed.... and to answer the pressing question on everyone's mind- yes, I have to move my bass in order to open the bathroom door.
I like to think of it as cozy.... yeah, I'm gonna stick with that... at least it's a queen size bed, which is nice.
After getting settled in (or crammed in as the case may be....) I went for a walk to see a little bit of the city, but mainly to get some real food! The hotel I'm staying at is only a block from the water, which is really nice. The two pics below are right down the street from where I'm staying- you can see the hills I was talking about earlier in the background. The city reminds me a lot of Sweden, both in construction and attitude. It was also just really great to get to walk after 20 hours of traveling! I found a nice little coffee shop to have dinner in- I had a chicken pesto sandwich with really good fresh ingredients. It turned out the girl who was working there was from Sweden, so we had a conversation in Swedish! I was so happy that I was able to remember enough to carry on a real conversation! After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay awake for a while so I would sleep through the night-and if anyone has figured out the time difference, you realize that that clearly didn't work since it's 3:30AM here and I'm awake... I was able to sleep, but not long enough, hopefully I can get back to sleep so I can sort of be adjusted by Friday! I'll take some more pictures on my walks tomorrow!
