February Performances and New Music in the Air!

Hello readers! Apologies it has been such a long wait since my last post, but luckily I have loads to share 🙂

Things have been busy here, not only in the performance space, but also as Curtis ramps up for Admission Season. Just this morning, we welcomed cellists from across the world for their first-round auditions. I led those auditioning (The youngest being 15!) from their practice rooms to their auditions downstairs in Gould Rehearsal Hall. It’s surreal to no longer be the one auditioning, but the one knocking on doors, carrying bags, and answering questions – helping those who, just like me last year, don’t know exactly where they’re going to end up yet.

I’m hoping to help with more auditions through the end of February and March, especially during Spring Break which is only two weeks away now!

I will say that it isn’t looking very ‘Spring-like’ outside though, it’s currently snowing heavily – we’re expecting 14-20 inches of snow (that’s 36-50 centimetres). If you’ve watched Groundhog Day, you’ll probably know that a little town in Pennsylvania, just a 4 hour drive from Philadelphia, called Punxsutawney, uses a Groundhog to predict the remainder of Winter each year. It looks like Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) was right about it being another 6 weeks…

Amongst all this cold, music continues to thrive in Philly – Especially new music written in the last few decades. As someone interested in composition, seeing the continued support and celebration of works often unheard in favour of classics is incredibly heartening – as a performer it is also exciting to hear! On the 8th of February, I went to watch the closing performance of Complications in Sue – a world premiere put on by Opera Philadelphia. Its construction, and its premise, was unusual: Ten different acts, ten different composers (one for each of the acts), and ten different situations that Sue, the protagonist of the opera, experiences with each decade of her life – from birth until death. The subject matter was existential, witty, and highly relevant, covering a large scope of subjects such as artificial intelligence, free speech, loneliness, corruption, aging, and materialism in a rapidly evolving world. The synopsis can be found here at the time of sending this.

So much of the creative team and cast came from such different backgrounds, but together they made an incredibly powerful and strikingly relatable experience for their audience – I’m certainly not the only one who found myself crying by the end!

Curtis will be putting on its own opera this coming week: La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho. It was premiered in 2006 in Vienna, and has continued to be performed across the world – even in Sydney in 2019! While I am not a part of the production, I’ve been doing a little lightwalking (standing on the stage so tech can get all the lights right!) in preparation for their dress rehearsals in Prince Theatre. The music is jarring and confronting, yet fantastic, and I cannot wait to tell you about the performance after I watch it next Thursday!

In other news, my performances for the month of February were a success! They included a Korean Art Song recital and the performance of Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina. First of all was the Korean Art Song Recital on the 7th of February. Organised by Celestia Song, a fellow freshman vocalist, students came together to sing and play a variety of works by Korean classical composers, most of which were written in the 20th century.

The profile for the recital can be found here currently (although the program is outdated). I performed two solos and a duet with Celestia which were as follows:

베틀노래
(“Spinning Song”) by Wonju Lee
A woman spinning a garment laments and relinquishes her love for her faraway lover.

남촌
(“The Southern Village”) by Gyuhwan Kim
The singer describes the beauty of the Korean countryside and their desire to travel to its village over the mountains.

저구름 흘러가는 곳
(“Where the Clouds Go”) by Dongjin Kim
In my duet with Celestia, we sing about releasing our inner worries and grudges – letting it be taken away by the clouds.

I found the process of learning Korean pronunciation surprisingly relaxed (especially in comparison to Russian); this is mostly thanks to one of our repetiteurs who, over the years, has created an amazing IPA system for the language. I am so grateful to have access to everything she taught me. Hopefully I’ll soon have videos of the recital on my YouTube channel!

Starting in Korea, but ending in Mexico: on the 14th of February, we took part in Mariana Gorichi Gómez’s Graduation Recital, performing Revolución diamantina – a work created in response to Mexico’s 2019 feminist protest targeting violence against women. Preceding this piece, she conducted Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
The entire recording of the performance can be found here!

All the hard work put in by the orchestra, vocalists, and most of all Mariana, was incredibly powerful to witness, and performing the piece even more so.

In summary, I have had an amazing return back to Curtis for my second semester, and am thoroughly reminded everyday what a wonderful opportunity it is to be here – the talent and passion is evident in everything the faculty and students do. Thank you for my support from everyone back home and I look forward to writing again very soon! xx

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Bella