The Life and Times of...

Okay. Things have been set in motion so I can begin narrowing down my grad school list. I have a lesson set up with Mark Hetzler-UW-Madison (Oct. 28th), Nat Brickens-U of A Texas (Oct. 30th or Nov.1st), David Gier-U of Iowa (Nov.20th), and I'll be playing a masterclass for Carl Lenthe AND a lesson with him on Oct. 24th. Still waiting to hear back from either Marcellus or Kellogg from Eastman. Will update you as I go on that one.

I have emailed all the wind ensemble directors to inquire about their conducting opportunities for non-conducting majors. Hopefully this will help narrow down my choices so I can travel a bit less. I'm considering adding Northwestern onto my list because its a great school and is closer so auditioning would be cheaper too. Downside is that school is REALLY tough to get into. But I'm not afraid to try. :)

I'm getting excited for my trip to Houston, even though I HATE flying in planes. If I didn't love Becker, I would NOT be doing this. Planes = ANXIETY ATTACK. So we'll see how my first solo flight goes. I'm not anticipating good things on my behalf. Probably a bit of a freak out before I can settle in. Is it weird that landings are my favorite part of flying in planes? :P


I have my Cohort Reading Presentation tomorrow. I like the content that I'll be teaching, so I feel that if I just relax it will go very well. I need to get up in front of people more. I lost that confidence sometime throughout my college career. I used to be able to perform without being nervous, but now I am generally nervous in any situation that involves being in front of people. I wonder why that is? I think it might be because I have such high expectations of myself that I'm afraid if I don't do a perfect job people will judge me and that will hurt my self-esteem. I'm working on doing things soley for me and not allowing anyones' opinion sway the way I go about things. Work in progress for sure.

Ok. Time to work in the music library, since I somehow successfully wasted the past 2 hours of my shift online. FAIL.

With love,
Rachel Catheryn