Curtains close on Semester 1 at Curtis – looking forward to Semester 2! (January 2026)

Happy New Year!!

While I’m writing this blog post I’m sitting at my family’s dining table, the back door is open and letting in some fresh air, and I’m in Australia of all places! Yet in just six days I will be beginning the second semester of my first year at Curtis.

I was lucky enough to find some reasonably priced tickets back home to spend Christmas with my parents, grandparents and little brother, and have additionally enjoyed snatching a little Summer here amongst the Philadelphia winter back at school – I expect I’ll see snow when my plane lands back in the United States… Winter break has gone by so quickly but I’m excited to get back to work!

Curtis’ Vocal Department Recital, which was performed on the 8th of December, was a huge success! My quintet, who sung an ensemble number from Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute, were the first performers of the night, closely followed by a solo aria sung by Tamino – the dramatic hero of Mozart’s opera – who was accompanied by not only piano but also, unsurprisingly, a flute (The part was played by my very own roommate)! Following on, there were some wonderful performances ranging from works by Smetana to Bizet, from Falstaff to The Barber of Seville, with many of the older students performing beautiful solo arias and ensembles acting out energetic scenes of romance, horror, joy and cunning. It was a wonderful way to end the semester!

The process of rehearsing for our opera scene was slightly intimidating given most people found out parts amidst late-stage preparation for L’Orfeo. Quite honestly we only truly began to learn our parts after the opera had closed, which was three weeks out from the performance date! Luckily Thanksgiving break meant a stop to classes for a week (24th to 30th of November), which gave us time to memorise the German and add detail to the music. When we returned for our final week of preparation we were practically off-book and within a couple of coachings were ready for performance. The whole process reminded me of my time back at VCASS with my vocal ensemble, the ensemble skills I learnt there have certainly come in handy now!

Over the final weeks of Semester 1, our vocal octet also completed a ‘stumble-through’ of Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución Diamantin – a breathtaking modern orchestral work named after the ‘Glitter Revolution’ of 2019 in Mexico; a feminist uprising against the country’s increasing gender-based violence against women. This is in preparation for the actual performance occurring on the 14th of February this year! The music is incredibly percussive and rhythmic, combining both spoken and sung text with diverse and brilliant orchestral textures – it is no surprise it’s a grammy-award winning ballet score. Reading the story and discovering the intricacies of the piece has been a very beautiful and inspiring process, and I am so excited to see it come to life at Curtis thanks to one of our graduating conducting fellows.

There are so many wonderful performances by both Curtis and Philadelphia’s music community offered to the public. Over the course of my first semester, I was lucky enough to witness quite the variety! Curtis offers free complimentary tickets to its students, which meant that earlier in my first semester I had the pleasure of watching ‘Bruckner 3 and More’, the first official CSO (Curtis Symphony Orchestra) concert of the year that featured not only Bruckner’s brilliant Symphony No.3, but Samuel Barber’s work The School for Scandal and Penderecki’s Concerto Grosso for Three Cellos.

Despite the installation of a new organ in Field Concert Hall making time a little scarcer, Curtis also organises free recitals most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and while the waitlist is quite long I hope to either perform my own program in a recital by the end of this semester or at the start of second academic year. In the meantime though, I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity to perform three Korean vocal works for another student’s beautifully planned recital this February! I’ve watched a few of the recitals and they’re always wonderful. Some of my favourites have been the recent graduation recital of a conductor who presented Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird and Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène – Lili Boulanger is a favourite composer of mine – and the ‘Composers’ Chamber Music’ Recital, which featured all new works by Curtis’ six composition students.

Outside of Curtis, I have watched Opera Philadelphia’s production of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reim at the Academy of Music’s theatre, which was an absolute joy! It featured two current Curtis students and two alumni too – it really helped me imagine what the future might hold…

Philadelphia Opera allows all operagoers to pick the price of their tickets – ranging from $11 upwards. Such an initiative has been incredibly popular and incredibly successful in making opera more accessible to the public!

The theatre inside the Academy of Music before Philadelphia Opera’s production of Il viaggio a Reims

As I finish my first semester at Curtis and head into a new year, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. Not only have I felt like I’ve been able to carve out a life for myself in Philadelphia, having made beautiful friends and settled into the swing of things, but I have such fantastic support back home from family, friends, musical peers and trusts such as the Tait Performing Arts Association and the John Truscott Foundation. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and I look forward to sharing more of my journey during this new and wonderful year.