Sophomore year has begun! I’ve been back at Lawrence for over a month now, and so far, life here has been very exciting and busy! One of the major highlights of this term so far has been getting to play with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for the first time! Last year, I was a member of the Wind Ensemble, and while that was a fantastic experience, I tend to favor orchestral repertoire more than band repertoire, so I am absolutely thrilled to be part of an orchestra again. For our first concert last weekend, we played the Ruslan and Ludmila Overture by Glinka, the Romeo and Juliet Suite by Tchaikovsky, and Alexander Borodin’s Symphony No. 2. All of the pieces were incredibly beautiful and so much fun to play, and it was additionally exciting for me because my dad was visiting for the weekend! He and my mom are always able to watch the concerts from afar (thanks to Lawrence’s webcasting service!), but he said he really enjoyed getting to see a Lawrence concert in person. It was great to see him, and he very happily tagged along with me and my clarinetist friends for a series of spontaneous events that weekend, including an afternoon coffee hangout at Harmony Café and a nature walk around Appleton!
On Sunday, my friend Linnea, a fellow clarinetist, had her senior recital, and as part of the program, she and a few of us clarinetists performed a very interesting quintet piece by composer Scott McAllister called Devil Sticks. The piece is supposed to emulate the art/ritual of devil sticks, through “clarinet equilibristics.” We had been rehearsing together for several weeks, and it was so exciting to finally perform this vivacious piece!
Everything else this term is also going really well! I am taking Principles of Psychology (which is the introductory psych course), music theory, clarinet lessons, and, of course, orchestra. In my psych course, we are learning about the social and cognitive development of people as they age, and the processes that cause these changes. Recently, we’ve also covered the physical basis of memory, and how we code, store, and retrieve memories over the short and long term. Psychology is a subject that I’ve been really interested in for a long time, so it’s been great to finally take a course in it! In music theory, we have been working a lot on four-part writing and formal analysis of musical excerpts, and we are about to embark on a 30-40 measure piano composition project! Music theory has always been a bit of a struggle for me, mostly because it’s very mathematical (and I am the opposite of a math person), so I’m a little nervous about this composition project. But as long as I work on it steadily and meet with my professor if I need to, I think it will be okay. My clarinet lessons have been going pretty well, although with all that I’ve been busy with, practice time is becoming increasingly scare! I’ve been working a lot on a piece by Bela Kovacs called Hommage a de Falla (an homage to Manuel de Falla, a Spanish composer), and it is a really visceral piece that was composed in the style of flamenco, which is a traditional Spanish dance. Soon, I will move on to some new music—pieces by Schumann, Debussy, and maybe more!
Anyway, that’s all for now! In a couple of weeks, I’ll be back with tales and pictures from Bjorklunden (Lawrence’s retreat center in Door County, Wisconsin) and a trip to the Twin Cities!
…Here are couple more pictures from our nature walk…it’s a gorgeous time of year here in Appleton!
