Welcome Back!

My apologies for not having posted in literally months. The last post would have been from October’s Sky Fall premiere, and let me tell you, a heck of a lot has happened since then.

During the end of last semester, I got really sick and was out of commission for about 2 and a half weeks. I did manage to get to school to play in Variable Geometry, the contemporary music project under the direction of Jean-Phillippe Calvin. We played some very interesting new music by some current and former RCM students. It was an exciting project and I am very much looking forward to playing with this group again later this semester.

At the end of the fall semester, I was pleased to be playing principal piccolo with the RCM Symphony Orchestra for a selection of works: Barbers Second Essay (absolutely to die for!), Strauss’ Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils, and Belshazzar’s Feast (for choir and orchestra) by Walton. The conductor for this concert was the wonderful Martin Andre from the Portugal Opera and Symphony Orchestra.

 

I headed back to Canada on December 2nd and boy did I have an awesome break! I worked way too much (which is great cause I love my store and I made lots of money, but it also meant I was really busy and didnt get to see my friends or family as much as I could have), played a number of gigs and concerts with various people/ensembles, rode my horse a LOT (yay! We did a dressage clinic with Roz Moskovits that changed everything for us. So happy about that!) and practiced a bit 🙂

My five week vacation was not to last forever tho, so on January 5th I came back to London. Been here 11 days now, and basically havent stopped, until today.

Upon arriving in London, I hit the ground running.

Of my two projects for this semester (Variable Geometry being one), the first and most exciting one was playing principal piccolo with the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra.

We did a performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which also included a presentation on the ballet and the history of the work – there was a lot of drama involved so it was quite interesting! The orchestra even got to do their own workshop with a choreographer and learned some of the interesting dancing that took place in the original ballet!

The concert took place in Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at college, on the first Thursday back at school. Thats right. the FIRST Thursday.

We started rehearsals on Monday afternoon, so had a grand total about 26 hours on the piece, and then rocked the heck out of it in concert on Thursday night.

 

To date I think this has been the most exciting performance during my time at Royal College.

 

Right now I am waiting for my teachers to get organized so we can start our lessons. Stewart is away with the LPO on tour playing in the Canary Islands, but I expect he comes back in the next few days, so I should be able to see him next week! I have a lesson with Kathleen this friday (whoops…better go back to the practice room and do more work on Scheherezade and Bartok!) and a lesson with Carla, my new contemporary-specialist flute teacher (so exciting!) next week.

Very much looking forward to this semester at RCM. My friends and I are planning a trip to Paris, and I am playing some really exciting music in preparation for my June recital.

 

For now, I’m off to get some lunch, mail some music back to Just Flutes for return, and then its back to the practice room. Work work work!

 

xox

 

PS: Prince Harry is supposed to be coming back from Afghanistan this month. Will let you know how that goes. x