school, school, school, school

The end is finally in sight! I've been enjoying checking off the completion of the various activities almost as much as I've enjoyed the activities themselves. Being able to actually finish something with no loose ends attached is very satisfying because it's not something I experience that often in my real life.

The homestretch started this week with the Jazz History midterm. I totally trashed my hand writing for an hour and fifteen minutes straight, but it recovered, and I think I did well on the test.

On Tuesday one of the combos I play in performed and there were several intensely exciting moments (you may read through the lines here). It was definitely an adrenaline producing performance that I thoroughly enjoyed. And the audience seemed to enjoy it as well.

Yesterday the combo that I play in and also coach had its concert. It was an interesting and varied program and everybody played really well. We did Rhythm-a-ning by Thelonious Monk, Conference of the Birds by Dave Holland, Cedar's Blues by Cedar Walton, Nefertiti by Wayne Shorter, a two tune medley consisting of Jerome Kern's Nobody Else But Me (from the 1946 revival of Show Boat) and Bill Evans' Peri's Scope, and finally a funky version of the standard, All or Nothing at All, which we did in 7/4 time and was modeled after a Jonathan Kreisburg recording. At the end Rusty Hassan(!) came up and told me he enjoyed hearing Conference of the Birds. It doesn't get performed very often I guess. So that was pretty cool.

Next up is my oral exam where three faculty members examine my oral cavities, I mean they'll quiz me on what I've learned. That's this coming Tuesday and the big term paper is due on Wednesday.

On Thursday I head down to South Carolina for my college reunion. Both of my senior year roommates are coming and some other friends from the music department so that will be a blast. My current school experiences are very very different from what they were back when I was getting my B.Mus. in Piano Performance. At the time, I actually liked being cooped up in a practice room working on Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc. for hours at a stretch, but I like what I'm doing now even more. The day after I get back from SC we'll be playing in UDC's Calvin Jones Big Band Festival. After that I finally get a little breather. Yaay!

Here are a couple of photos I took today. I won't be seeing much of the great outdoors this weekend, unfortunately. Instead I'll be giving myself carpel tunnel syndrome writing a term paper. So have some fun for me, okay? Breathe some of that fresh air, inhale some of that pollen, get some exercise, and enjoy the fabulous sunny weather that's supposed to happen!