On the road (well, mostly air...) again!

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!

Audition Adventure!

So I'm off to Scandinavia again- this time to the southern most city in Norway. I will be auditioning for the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra (eek- a real job!). There were 25 other bass players invited to audition for one position. There will be three rounds, each with different music.

I'm really nervous about playing a professional audition. Flying halfway across the world adds a level of pressure... But- I'm also really excited to start getting into the audition scene, and getting to see Norway will be fun no matter how the audition goes!

I'll keep the blog updated with info about my trip and the audition- I'll try and post pics as best I can. I'm excited to be traveling again!

Session 4 in Full Swing

As I lay in the grass under the big tree this afternoon, I thought about how great this year has been. I've had so many amazing opportunities, and they seem to keep on coming. I've been asked to stay for Session 5 to cover for someone who dropped out, which is really exciting! I've never done three sessions before and it will be a challenge.

This session seems to be a bit more relaxed than session 3, but it's a little early in the week to tell for sure. So far, my groups have been really fun. My first rehearsal starts at 8:45am and it's becoming more and more difficult to get up early enough to have breakfast beforehand. That being said, the rehearsals are always a lot of fun, even if it takes us all a bit to fully wake up. The next rehearsal is for a modern piece that is based on tongue twisters- the idea is that we're all reciting tongue twisters while playing tricky music. It's a really fun piece, and the composer is our coach so it's great to get his input (and occasional corrections..).

Being here is still such an amazing experience- this time with a new group of musicians. The weather has been nice for the most part, although we had an unusually cold night over the weekend. This is possibly the cause of the cold that seems to be making its way though the camp... so I've been extra careful to wash my hands and drink lots of water, the last thing I want is to be sick at Apple Hill.

Once again, the internet here won't let me post photos, so I'll see if I can fix it (and take some more photos since I've been slacking since Session 3 ended....)

End of Session 3....

I realized that I had gone the entire session without posting anything to the blog! The session went so fast I can't believe that it's over... I had a lot of fun with both my groups, as well as with all of the social aspects of the camp. It's always a lot of fun to see how people get to know each other and create friendships throughout the session. The picture above is from Silver Lake where we went swimming a few times.
Musically, I feel like I've grown a lot in the past two weeks. I played a piece called "Shaker Loops" by John Adams, which was an amazing experience. The piece is a minimalist piece for seven string players (three violins, a viola, two cellos, and a bass), and it is extremely difficult to work on. The hard part about a piece like this is that there is no part that is clearly leading- everyone is responsible for keeping the pulse and making all the contrast changes together. This makes counting and keeping track of where you are really difficult. One rehearsal our coach told us after a run of the piece- "if you get lost just keep playing sixteenth notes and eventually it will be over...". But after a week of intense rehearsals, we had an amazing concert this afternoon- there was so much energy and we were all completely in sync with each other.
It has been a crazy session and I will write more very soon- the internet has been in and out, so I wasn't able to upload photos until today...

the session begins....

7/17/10
I’ve been at Apple Hill now for a few days and it has already been a great experience. Apple Hill is almost like another universe- where everyone is accepted no matter their religion, race, nationality, or any other difference that divides people in the real world. For me, Apple Hill is an escape from a fast-paced and many times intolerant world. There are so many amazing musicians here and that is the most important thing- we’re all musicians. There is really no other criteria for how we view each other here (and even in this, there is no judgment as to peoples skill level). While the mission of the camp is “playing for peace”, there is very little talk about peace during the majority of the session. The way that they achieve this is that by playing music together and being respectful and listening, the community building happens naturally. It’s funny, this is my 5th summer at Apple Hill (I think…) and I never realized that this was an intentional process, or that it was even happening at all. Lenny (the director of Apple Hill) explained it to us, and I realized that it had been happening every year without my realizing that anything was really changing throughout the session. The process of learning to respect each other, in playing music and in everyday life, is something that seems to happen naturally here at Apple Hill. I think that that is one of the things that I love most about Apple Hill. It is so amazing to see all of these people from completely different backgrounds come together, and by the second day they have already started to build a community.

In the past few days, the camp has been really busy getting ready for the beginning of session 3. I drove to Boston to pick up three cellists, one from Syria, one from Jordan, and one from Egypt. I also did a few other pick-ups around New Hampshire. Friday the 16th was the official arrival day for session 3, so we were all really busy that day signing people in and showing them around. This is the first year in the history of Apple Hill that every session of the summer is at full capacity for participants, which is great! In the afternoon, I went with a few of the other CW’s (camp workers… or counselor workers…) to Silver Lake for a swim. It was really nice to go for a swim because of how hot it was. Silver Lake is a 15 minute drive from Apple Hill, but is much nicer than the pond where we usually swim. That night we had introductions and sang some madrigals as a group activity, which was fun.

Today was the first day of coaching, and both my groups are really great! I am playing the “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert, and “Shaker Loops” by John Adams. I really like my schedule because I have rehearsals all morning starting at 8:45am, and then I have the rest of the day free to practice and laze around.

There will be pictures and more stories very soon!

Apple Hill!!!

7/14
My trip to Apple Hill this year was much easier and quicker that the epic road trip Stephen and I went on last summer. Traveling without a huge bass flight case was a breeze- I checked in on time, with all the other passengers (instead of an extra hour and a half just to get the bass checked in), got through security with no problems, and had an uneventful flight to Boston. We landed in Boston 40 minutes early, which was great because I was able to walk downstairs and catch the bus to Concord, NH within the next five minutes.

The drive from Concord to the Apple Hill campus is really beautiful, with the tree-lined highways that are so characteristic of New Hampshire. I get the same feeling every time I get close to Apple Hill, an excitement that builds as we get further away from the city. The air feels clean, and it is so nice to see nothing but trees as we drive along. By the time we reach Apple Hill Road, I am practically bouncing in my seat with excitement. The rustic road has a quality that I can’t explain- maybe it’s because I know what it leads to, but it feels like there is a peacefulness that surrounds the whole area.

I arrived at Apple Hill right before the weekly concert, with just enough time to have some dinner. The concert was a Turkish string quartet along with a clarinet player from Cypress. It was an amazing concert, in part because you could tell how much fun they were having. A while after the concert, they started up a dance- and Apple Hill dances are unlike any others, there are no expectations about skill level, and everyone is welcome (and encouraged) to dance. During the dance, it started pouring rain outside and somehow the dance suddenly moved out into the grass. They turned the speakers outwards and everyone started running and dancing in the rain- some people started dancing up on the picnic tables. It was such a great experience, with everyone enjoying life and the rain… it was such a memorable Apple Hill moment. After a couple hours I took a hot shower and went to bed- it was just about the perfect first night at Apple Hill.

Last Week in Sweden and Trip Home

My last week in Sweden was a lot of saying goodbye to all my friends. We had a few BBQ's, one of which was rained out. It was really great to hang out with everyone and a little sad to know that I was leaving so soon.
The orchestra packed up all the instruments and flew to the United States! The flight went really well, I slept most of the way. Once in Washington D.C. we went to the hostel, and then walked around for the evening. I met up with my friend Federico (a pianist from Apple Hill) for a drink that evening and he offered me a place to stay while I was in D.C. It was great to catch up with Federico, and so awesome to be able to stay with him instead of in the hostel.

The second day in D.C. we went to play a concert at the House of Sweden for the Swedish National Day. Then we packed up all our gear and moved to the Swedish ambassadors house for dinner and another concert.
That night I took a bus to New York, which was an experience. The overnight bus is not the easiest place to get some sleep. But I made it! And I had a great time there, exploring Central Park, and just walking through the city. I stayed with my friend Holly, and I also got to hang out with my friends Alexandra (friend from work) and Leila (violinist from Apple Hill). I also saw a broadway show called Promises, Promises which was really good!

Back in D.C. we took a bus to Delaware to play a concert at the University of Delaware, which was poorly attended. It was fun, but a little discouraging to only have 23 people in the audience. We stopped in Baltimore for dinner before going back to D.C.

We had one last concert at the Kennedy Center, which went pretty well. It was fun to play there, although the stage was far too small for our orchestra. The concert was a lot of fun, and it was sad to say goodbye to all my Swedish friends after.
The picture above is of me and my friend Anna-Cecilia, another bass player.

My flight back to Los Angeles was a little bit crazy. I got to the airport in plenty of time, but the baggage rules have changed since I flew to Sweden. I had to repack a bunch of stuff because both my bags were too heavy. Because of that, I was running late, and then the security line took forever. So I got to the gate just as my plane was pulling away.... which was a big bummer. Then I had to run to another terminal to try and get on the next flight to LA. I made it there just as the agent was leaving and she was able to put me on the standby list. I managed to get a seat and made it back to Los Angeles only 2 and a half hours later than I planned. But I made it home!!

It has been great to be back, and I plan on keeping the blog going for my time at Apple Hill starting soon!