a plethora of performances.

As the title of this postsuggests, I have attended and peformed in a bazillion performances this month.  No joke.  It started with Cantorei’s home concert—which I simply had to attend given that most of my good friends at St. Olaf are *in* Cantorei.  I also went to the spring handbell and band concerts, again because I know several handbell ringers and a good portion of Ole Band.  Four senior recitals were in the mix for me as well.  I love going to recitials because 1) they’re always fabulous musically 2) I know the person performing and 3) it’s a wonderful atmosphere.  Almost everyone in the audience knows the performer and is just there to express their support and encouragement and appreciation, etc. etc.  The post-recital receptions are also quite fun.  :)  It’s a tough call though—there are so many junior / senior recitals at St. Olaf that one could spend entire weekends going to them.  So my four highlights: 1) a stunning violin recital by Sarah, the Ole Orchestra concertmistress.  2) James’s piano recital, with a gorgeous Saint-Saens piano concerto that he’s actually going to be playing with the orchestra for senior soloists.  3) David demonstrated his multi-talented-ness on cello and voice—I was most impressed by the Russian songs.  4) Katie Beth performed a set of jazz songs with combo for her recital.

Besides music, I attended two dance performances—the spring modern dance concert just this weekend and the Vesilica (international dance ensemble) spring show a few weeks ago.  (great discovery: very catchy bollywood pop song called "maahi ve." ) And in the theatre world, I went to “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” a neo-futurist work, and also “Les Belles Soeurs,” a play set in Quebec with an all-female cast.

Okay, so that’s all the stuff I *went* to this month.  I *performed* as well.  First up was the rather—unique—math recital!  Yes, the St. Olaf math department has its own recital every spring.  It’s essentially a talent show for any professor, student or friend of the St. Olaf MSCS department who wants to perform.  This was my chance to see professors on guitar, pennywhistle and unicycle, the unique “pi” rap, and general hijinks.  I was pulled into the shenangins rather last minute by fellow math major, percussionist and CS classmate Mish.  The morning of the recital she called me and asked if I wanted to play something.  I said, “sure!” and we performed “Sabre Dance” (Mish on marimba, me on toms and cymbal) after about 10 mintues of rehearsal, 10 minutes before the recital started. 

Appropriately enough, the percussion ensemble concert was the very next day.  As usual, there was almost as much time spent setting the stage as actually performing.  Fun pieces though—especially the final “Volume Pig,” where the conductor and performers took off their outer shirts/coats during the non-existent accordian solo. 

My final performance of April was the Andrew Carter festival, or as it was affectionately dubbed “Carterpalooza.”  It was a special concert of music by British composer Andrew Carter, including all of the upper-class choirs and the orchestra.  It also coincided with a beautiful sunny spring day, so I spent all the time I didn’t play lounging in the sun outside the chapel.

 

Since we have approached the topic of spring, let’s have the requisite weather report.  Unfortunately my hopes for the end of snow at the end of March were unrealized.  We had a semi-epic blizzard on the tenth.  And then it snowed again…on the twenty-sixth of April.  And we’ve had a lot of chilly, windy, cloudy, generally mucky weather.  Maybe two or three really lovely spring days.  ::sigh:: 

 

The cold has made one of my new activities rather interesting—I’ve started going to the infamous “early morning softball” games of music org fame.  It’s exactly what it sounds like—members of St. Olaf’s music organizations get up early to play softball at the ungodly hour of six-thirty.  I’m playing for the orchestra team and it’s been quite a ride.  We’ve only won one game so far, but considering that at several of the games we’ve been more than doubled by our opponent in terms of numbers, I think we’ve made a pretty good showing.  (Having more people *does* make a difference because everyone fields; you set the infield and then everyone else picks a spot in the outfield.)  We go to breakfast afterward and give out goofy awards and generally have a good time.  I think my favorite moments have been diving into the mud to make a stop (one of my few helpful contributions to the team), watching a certain violist hit a home run and run the bases while wearing fishnets and a jean skirt as part of 80’s day and our triumphant victory over the band.    

 

Whew.  I come to the last of my socialite activities—dances!  April marked the traditional “Tri-Org Prom” and President’s Ball.  My friend Katie wasn’t feeling well on the night of Prez Ball so I ended up taking over her date—a friend of ours who is blind.  Sydney’s amazing and we had a lot of fun walking around and dancing.  Tri-Org Prom is a formal put on by the three official music orgs (Ole Band, Choir and Orchestra).  I actually only went to about twenty minutes of Tri-Org because there was a contradance at Carleton the same night.  The contradance was tons of fun—I went with my friend Sarah and we both highly enjoyed learning a contra move called “mow the grass” where you really do look like an old-fashioned lawn mower. 

 

Somehow my classes always fall at the end of these letters.  I’m not quite sure how that happens.  Anyway, classes are going well.  I recently discovered that my philosophy paper is due a week sooner than I thought it was, but otherwise work is going smoothly.  There’s a lot of just chipping away at various things until they’re done.  I just turned in my big history paper for the semester, which was a nice feeling.  I’m in the midst of finishing up a plethora of pottery—somehow I made something like 15 plates and 20 mugs without realizing it and now I have to glaze them all—and also working on a final computer science animation project—imagine ants, alarm clocks and axes.  My deadlines are all falling during the last week of classes—the twelfth through the fifteenth is going to be a mad dash but I think finals week is going to be gloriously relaxing by comparison.