October at Curtis from Bella
Despite my disbelief, today is the 11th of October! How time has flown by… it has been a little over a month since my first blog entry, and I must say I feel like a completely new person to the one I was when I arrived. I think most of the new students would agree with my sentiment. Maybe it’s because we’ve settled into the rhythm of our schedules here, maybe it’s because our new home isn’t so new anymore, maybe it’s due to our dedicated teachers or peers – who knows! All I know is I’m so excited to share what I’ve been up to.
As of now I’ve taken six weeks of classes. I mentioned them briefly in my previous update, and they contain the following: private piano lessons, private solfège lessons, Curtis (English) Seminar, Foundational Seminar, Music Mechanics, Foundations of Acting, and Performance Seminar. Besides these classes I’ve been attending rehearsals for our upcoming opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, numerous coaching with repetiteurs and language specialists, and of course, vocal lessons. With all this going on, things can get busy, and fast, yet amongst the rapid pace of the week I still find time to practice and work three odd-jobs: manning the library desk, working in the costume department, and, despite being here for less than two months, I gave my first tour as a school guide just yesterday! Perhaps, as a new guide, I should divulge some of Curtis’ history…
Inside the foyer of 1726 Locust Street, picture taken from Curtis Institute of Music’s website
Mary Louise Curtis Bok, born in 1876, was the only daughter of Louisa Knapp Curtis, founder and editor of American magazine Ladies’ Home Journal, and Cyrus H. K. Curtis, the publisher of the former as well as many additional newspapers and magazines. After becoming involved with the Settlement Music School – a community school here in Philadelphia that exists to this day – Mary Louise realised there was a need for a school dedicated to promising young musicians that would help them excel in their craft without financial barriers. She purchased three mansions in Rittenhouse Square, including 1726 Locust Street, and the Curtis Institute of Music was opened on the 13th of October, 1924.
The original building at 1726 Locust Street is beautiful. Its roots as the home estate of George Drexel give you the feeling that it’s been well lived in and well cared for. In addition, hundreds of extraordinary musicians have of course passed through its walls and classrooms! For instance the fourth floor – the home of the vocal department – features a lounge for the vocalists that was once the office of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti. Most of my coaching take place in this building, so do our rehearsals for upcoming operas, and there’s plenty of practice rooms to choose from, many with amazing views of Rittenhouse Square.
Curtis offers numerous opportunities to its student cohort, ranging from administrative work to orchestra crew. Hours are reasonably flexible given the workload and rehearsal schedules that change week to week. The library desk is a very peaceful job, where you help to check in and out music scores for students, faculty and alumni, and label freshly binded books. Meanwhile in the costume department, you can find numerous rooms filled with racks of dresses, robes, button-ups and jackets, boxes of boots and character shoes, and a workstation aimed at altering and creating outfits for the three operas put on each year by the vocal department. So far I spent most of my time there returning clothes and props back to their places, organising fabrics, hemming pants and restocking accessories – all in preparation for the upcoming production of L’Orfeo.
A photo showing part of the storage space for costumes in the Costume Department at 1726 Locust Street
I look forward to sharing how our rehearsals and performances go as we get ready to begin intensive rehearsals next week!
I should also mention that during this last month, I had the pleasure of meeting with the chair, Kathy Demos, and one of the board members, Robyn Hollands, of the John Truscott Foundation; An organisation that, within partnership with Tait Performing Arts Association, has aided my studies in the United States with a generous grant this year. Their sponsorship, alongside a grant from the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, has removed much of the financial hardship brought on by accommodation and cost of living fees here in Philadelphia, and the Francis J. Alterman fellowship assigned to me here at Curtis makes Mary Louise’s dream of tuition fee-free education for young musicians such as myself possible. The generosity of the people that have put me in this spectacular situation will never go unnoticed to me, and I hope to excel both on my journey as a musician, and as someone who not only cultivates the next generation of music-makers, but gives back to the community that supported them too.
I look forward to writing about my rehearsals, performances and upcoming projects this upcoming month, but until then, thank you for reading this month’s post!
