EROI

I haven't posted for awhile because I've been pretty busy...this past weekend (starting Thursday afternoon, and ending today at noon), the organ department at ESM hosted the 2012 EROI (Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative) Festival: Bach and the Organ. It was a joint meeting with the American Bach Society. It involved many hours of interesting paper sessions, a few masterclasses, and many recitals and concerts. It was a weekend jam-packed with Bach! Many 'big names' of the field were there: Christoph Wolff, Peter Williams, etc, as well as around 200 other attendees. Not gonna lie- it was pretty overwhelming for me, as a freshman student and as a player still relatively new to the instrument. But, the talks gave me a lot to think about. The papers (at least, the ones I was able to follow) revealed a lot of the context surrounding Bach's music; there was one in particular that I liked that recreated the life of an average 18th century organist, all from the contents of one primary source: his account book of all his income and fees. It was also very cool to see pictures of original scores, or at least, copies from the time period. It makes me thankful that we learn from mass-produced music scores these days, because some of that 18th century handwriting looked hard to follow!

I'm so excited for this week to be over, because starting Saturday, I will be on Fall break! I'm not going home, because I only have the weekend, Monday and Tuesday off. But, I will get a chance to do nothing but practice (which may not sound that fun, but it is nice nonetheless). Also, some of the organists might make a trip to Niagara Falls, which would be fun.

Tomorrow I have to face the results of missing several classes due to the Bach fest--hopefully there is not too much homework to make up!

I've discovered that the sushi offered by the dorms is edible, as are the mozzarella sticks, but stay away from the grilled chicken caesar wrap! It depends who cooking that day, but there have been some icky meals lately. I'm learning my way around them.

Not much else has happened, and I've been working hard as ever. My main to-dos for a weekday are: Practice, Homework, Practice, Lessons, Homework, Rehearse and maybe a little more Practice, and Eat, if I get the chance! But I'm not complaining, The days themselves seem to last forever, but the weeks are going by very fast! I'm already starting my fifth week of class. Crazy.

Hope everyone at home is enjoying the transition to Fall. Here it is still nice enough to wander around without a jacket (but maybe with a scarf). Happy October!