The story of Daniel's spectacular day

I had a spectacularly wonderful day today. :) My flute teacher had this wonderful idea to take as many of her students as could make it on a bit a of  "school tour". So this morning, we toured to two local elementary schools and played a short concert (about 35 minutes long) for them. It was really fun, and they were great listeners. I have to say that I was also impressed and appreciative that the teachers were willing to take time out of their class schedules to bring their students to listen. Music is always worth the time. We all went to Subway for lunch afterwards. Yay for Subway, (always my lunch-out place of choice). I went home and slept for 1.25 hours,  even though it was only mid afternoon. I was really tired for some reason, more than just mid-afternoon drowsiness. After my nap, I cut the grass, sang for a bit, made myself a good, strong coffee, and practiced some piano. After my mother reminded me that I was on supper-making duty, I made some delicious barbecued chicken, roasted potatoes and salad. I'm not just bragging, it really was tasty! Anyway, after supper, I got out my shirt and tie and headed off to the symphony. Amazing. The program included Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Debussy's masterpiece La Mer ("The Sea"), as well as some other fantastic pieces, two of which were composed by Canadian composers. Brilliant stuff. The Debussy though, was just exquisite. Debussy never wrote a Symphony, but La Mer is the closest he got though. It's an incredible piece of music and just indescribable when heard live. It's so full majestic and full of life, and so beautifully textured and colourful. I found it pretty moving and inspiring. The concert tonight was exactly what I had been needing for a long while- a chance to reflect, get inspired and have a "night out" with myself. Ha. I feel ready to tackle new challenges and endeavours. All in all, a good day. Tomorrow- busking at the farmer's market, a talk/workshop about efficiency, and the last performance of Word Problem in the evening. Which reminds me that I haven't posted about Word Problem yet, so some of you won't know what I'm talking about. I'll blog about it soon. I promise. Until then, take care.

-Dan

Quandary

quandary [ˈkwɒndrɪ -dərɪ]n pl -ries a situation or circumstance that presents problems difficult to solve; predicament; dilemma

Okay, so I'm in a bit of a quandary right now. It's coming up to the end of the school year, and I need to let my piano teacher know what I'm doing next year, so I can register. As you may know, I completed the Suzuki Piano program this past February, and I am taking my Grade 9 Royal Conservatory exam in mid-June, and so it seems like a good time to re-evaluate and make some decisions. The thing is, I honestly don't know what to do for piano next year.

Here are my options:

Option 1. Get a new piano teacher, and see where that takes me. My current teacher has actually suggested this to see how a different approach will help my abilities grow.

Option 2. Stay with my current teacher. Maybe work on my Grade 10 exam or on a larger work i.e. concerto.

Option 3. Take a year off from piano lessons. Focus on preparing for post-secondary, thinking about what I want to focus on, and preparing for that. Practice piano on my own.

I'm currently leaning towards Option 3. See, the thing is, as much as I love piano, I'm not sure that I have any plans to be a concert pianist. I think that my passion lies in a mixture of music and theatre. So, I guess what I'm saying, is if I don't have specific plans to pursue a life as a pianist, what's the point in studying that at university, and if I'm not going to study that at university, then I should be spending the time on things that will prepare me for university. I don't know... Obviously, I'm never going to stop playing piano, and the skill that I currently have will be of huge value to me in the music/theatre/composing world.  So yeah.

By the way, my current plan is to be a working actor with lots of musical theatre training and a composer/sound designer on the side. I love directing as well, so I guess my title would be actor/composer/director. I just have so many choices, and so many interests, it's just really hard.

Sorry, this has been rambling. Bleh.

Well, look who it is. It's me.

(you) Oh, Daniel, nice to see you here, it seems you don't post a lot here. Is this your blog? I come here more than you.

(me) Yeah, well, I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now. It seems the menu of my life is full of all sorts of tasty exciting things, and I'm having trouble fitting them all in. 

(you) Like what? What could you possibly do besides blogging?

(me) Well, all my writing time is being taken up by Script Frenzy, and I'm currently preparing for my Grade 9 RCM piano exam in June. And I'm in the middle of Kiwanis Music festival. And I'm also getting ready to go to Toronto for a National Youth Shakespeare festival. I'm trying to get rehearsals in and also work with some friends on set/costume design for the above festival. And I generally have lessons and rehearsals and meetings every day. So yeah, not much.

(you) Darn you, you always have good excuses.

(me) ...

(you) What page are you on in Script Frenzy anyway?

(me) Page 61. I have 39 pages to type in 4 days.

(you) What's your script about?

(me) Shhhh. It's confidential.

(you) I see. Well, I guess I'll see you more after Script Frenzy.

(me) You will. I promise.

Prelude

Hi everyone, this is just a little piece that I wrote for solo piano. It's also the one that I am submitting to the Kiwanis Music Festival for composition. Here's the short blurb I had to write about it:

"Prelude is a short piece for solo piano. The theme is introduced in the opening bar, modified and developed, and then finally recapitulated near the end. It is largely inspired by the works of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff and should be taken at a moderate, very free tempo, using lots of rubato to convey the dark, mysterious feel."

Hope you enjoy it. By the way, if you can think of a more creative title for it, I would be forever grateful! Post them in the comments. :)

If there's one thing I've learned from facebook fan pages, it's that we're really not that different after all.

Two answers to music-related questions

A couple more answers to questions, these ones rather music related.

Why don't you like top hit songs, but like classical music, upbringing?
The main reason is that simply, I don't think a lot of the top hit songs are very good. But I actually do listen to some "pop" music (*cough*Lady Gaga*cough*). It really depends on the music. I won't listen to it just because everybody else is listening to it. It's got to express something or make me think. But I actually do like a wide variety of music! The reason I like classical music so much is that I think there's really something to it! And judging by the fact that a lot of the good stuff has been around for hundreds of years, obviously other people think there's something to it as well! But yeah, my taste in music goes from J.S. Bach to Benjamin Britten, to Beethoven, to John Adams to the Beatles, to The Smiths, to Regina Spektor, to Loreena McKennitt to Queen to REM to Lady Gaga. I just love music! I can't say I'm super keen on rap, or heavy metal, or techno, but I'll listen to almost anything short of that. As for upbringing, my parents played a lot of classical and folk music when I was younger, so that has probably influenced my music taste, but now, I'd say I probably listen to the most varied in my household.

Do you like Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos #1 & 2?
Oh yeah! Rachmaninov's piano concertos are some of my favourite piano concertos! He actually wrote four of them (as well as a another work for piano and orchestra, his Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini). Out of the four concertos, his 2nd and his 3rd are the most well known. The Third concerto has a reputation for being one of the most difficult in the repertoire, as it takes a huge amount of technical skill, expressive power and lots of endurance to make it through the 50 minutes of intense playing. The Second concerto is probably the most played, because it's incredibly beautiful, and very popular. I have a real preference for the First Concerto, which in my opinion is very under appreciated (although I think it's very rapidly gaining popularity). The second movement of the 1st is just exquisite, and has this amazing dialogue between the flute and the piano. Just amazing. And then everybody forgets about the Fourth concerto, which just saddens me, because I think it's a great piece and needs your love too. But it always gets forgotten in preference for the 2nd and 3rd concertos.

Answers (some of them)

What is your favourite movie of all time? And why?
Um, that's honestly such a hard question. I've got a couple. The Pianist would definitely be up there, just an incredible movie about survival, that really made me think about how fortunate I am and taught me a lot of lessons about gratitude. Moulin Rouge! is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, and all about L-O-V-E (lol). And of course, because I'm a fanatic about the musical RENT, the movie of the same name is one of my favourites too, and the core message is all about really living and living as if it's your last day alive. So those would be three of my favourite movies. But I have others, and I don't have only one.

If you had a billion dollars and hot chicks what would you do?
AND
If you had a million dollars what would you spend it on?
If I had a billion dollars, I'd build a beautiful little theater, and then rent it out to small theatre companies. And I'd obviously give a lot of money away. I'll pass on the hot chicks. :)

Why do you like answering questions?
a) It's fun!
b) It makes me think about things I might not have before.
c) and it makes my blog more "interactive". Lol.


If you had a superpower what would it be?
I'd like to be able to fly invisibly.


If you could change ONE thing about people (in general) what would you change?
I wish people were more open-minded. We've made so many mistakes in the past by not being willing to revaluate our opinions. We'd be a lot better off if we would listen honestly to other people without prejudice.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Sondheim!

So, today (March 22), the greatest musical theatre composer that's ever lived, turns 80. Happy Birthday Stephen Sondheim! Sondheim's music is just so fascinating to me. His lyrics are so clever and inspired and his genius in being able to work character and emotion into music like no other musical theatre composer. Unlike other composers, he doesn't write the exact same style for every character, it differs depending on the specifics of the person. And his ability to combine lots and lots of separate melodies into rich, musical harmonies is just mindblowing to me. Just completely inspiring.

Questions!

So we did this a while ago, and one of my regular readers suggested that I do this again! So go ahead and post some questions for me in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them. Go ahead, put me on the spot!

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is the movie this year that I've been most anticipating. It came out on March 5, and for the first time for me, I actually saw it in theatres the day it came opened. I had been excitedly watching each trailer, and each clip as soon as they came out, and as Tim Burton is one of my favourite filmmakers, I was getting pretty excited! It has a crazy awesome cast too- Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Johnny Depp to name a few. The film also stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice.

Overall, I loved it. Tim Burton's style of directing is so interesting. It's very artistic, stylized, quirky, and dark. Alice in Wonderland didn't disappoint. The acting especially is brilliant. Helena Bonham Carter was probably my favourite character, as the Red Queen. Johnny Depp's performance of the Mad Hatter is amazing, quirky, layered and subtle. Every cast member is strong, and all the supporting roles are interesting and memorable.

The biggest flaw, in my opinion is the script. Instead of following the story of the Louis Carroll's original Alice in Wonderland, Burton decided to make a sequel, set thirteen years after Alice's original trip to Wonderland. Its a great idea that could have been interesting and innovative, but unfortunately, I didn't find the plot or the script to be anything special. Without Tim Burton's directing, it could have easily been another predictable Disney movie. Personally, I don't think it's a masterpiece, but it's sure pretty good, and definitely worth seeing!

Henry V

So, tonight is the dress rehearsal of Henry V, we have our first preview night tomorrow night, and by Sunday night, it will all be over!

Overall, it’s been good and good experience for me (ooh, something to put on my resume!). But it’s been exhausting and quite a big time commitment. I have to say that I haven’t felt full energy for a while now, especially with a big lack of sleep from Scout camp this past weekend which I don’t thing I’ve fully recovered from. It feels like the show is finally all coming together now, and despite tech rehearsals being slow and boring for the actors, it is pretty exciting to have lights, sound and set. But we’ll see how the dress rehearsal goes tonight.

I was talking to one of my friends, Zach, who is also in the show about this strange drug that is theatre. I mean, I always get soo stressed about it, and say “I can’t wait till this is all over”, and you get so sleep-deprived and sanity-deprived, and you think it will never end and then when it does, you know what you do? You do it all over again! I seem to have this annoying habit of taking on more that I should really be able to handle, but then when I’m finally done all my projects, I just get bored and take on more. Why, Daniel, why? But yeah, it’ll be nice to have Henry V be all over, and then I can have some free time.

Oh wait, actually I’m just getting started on another Shakespeare project. But that’s a story for another blog post….

Scriabin Prelude no. 9, op. 11

Hi everybody, I just wanted to post this little video that I recorded yesterday.



I wanted to record it and post it because  I think the music is just remarkable. It''s Scriabin's Prelude no. 9 from his Opus 11. I haven't been practising this piece long, so I hope you can get a sense of the music from my mediocre playing and video quality. What I love about this piece is that it's so rich, musically. It's only one page long, but he packs so many notes, and thick harmonies into it. Each prelude is like a perfectly formed package. And they're so intelligently composed! I mean each one has a beginning, middle and end, and every note is important. They're just brilliant! So I hope you enjoy this quick little video. Oh and by the way, if you want to hear this prelude played by a master- Here is a video of of the great Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz playing it.

Oh and by the way....

Oh and by the way, I am not wearing a dress as Katherine in Henry V. Honestly, that's what everybody asks me, but seriously? It's hardly like dresses are the only thing that women wear. If you're a woman, look down at what you're wearing. Are you wearing a dress? I didn't think so. You're probably wearing pants.

Catching up

Hello everyone!

I haven't posted for a while, so I expect that this post will be quite a long one. I apologize.
At the moment, I am sitting in Second Cup drinking an Italian Soda. It's an absolutely beautiful day outside so I decided to walk over to Second Cup (it took me sixteen minutes). The sun is shining, there isn't a cloud in the sky and it's about +3 (which means that I can wear a spring/summer/fall jacket instead of a parka!). It's wonderful to take a break from everything and just enjoy the beautiful day.

My long hiatus from blogging can be blamed on many things. Mainly, I've been quite busy with Henry V I've had rehearsals almost everyday, and to be honest, I'm now cramming to get my lines into my head. Did I mention that my parts got changed? Instead of playing Alice (the maid to the Katherine), I am now playing Katherine, the princess of France. The guy playing Katherine had to drop out because of a family wedding in the middle of our performance run. So I took on that part along with the other two little parts I've got (Messenger and Grandpre).
We're 10 days away from preview night, and so the atmosphere at rehearsals has changed. Everybody is a lot more alert, focused and quickly hurrying to learn lines. The fight choreography is really coming together, but frighteningly, it seems that my choreography is kind of getting abandoned. We haven't ran it since learning the choreography. Eep! And the girl who is my "fight partner" is currently sick. So I've had to fight with a fake opponent. I know it'll all come together though. The whole thought of acting in a real theatre with real lights and a real technician and a green room and tech rehearsals and everything is still so exciting to me!

My graduation recital is all over and it went swimmingly! It actually went better than I could possibly have imagined! The piano that I was able to play on was this incredible Steinway. If you're not an musician, you might think this sounds crazy, but there are some instruments that you just connect with. It's crazy and sounds weird but honestly, when you touch the right instrument, it's just amazing. It feels completely natural and almost feels like you don't have to do much, like the instrument can feel what you want and respond. It's pretty crazy and I was fortunate enough make a connection like that with this piano. So it was a pretty amazing experience and I felt right at home playing. Thanks for all the support everyone and thanks to those of you who were able to come out!

I should probably write about something other than the arts so people think that I actually do something other than music and theatre. Ha! I actually finally finished that math textbook I was working through (Saxon Algebra 1/2). Ah, finally. It felt good to get it over with and now I can move on. And I got a good mark on the final exam too!

To change subject completely, I was reading The Screwtape Letters (by C.S. Lewis) this morning and I found a quote that I thought was really interesting. (It's in Letter XXI if you're curious to look it up).

Lewis says:
"Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that legitimate claim has been denied."
I thought this was a really interesting quote because I can really see the truth in it. We get angry about things because we think we have the right to something "better". We have this idea of what we think we should get out of life and get angry when we don't get exactly what we think we need. Maybe if we took a step back and appreciated what we were given, we would be happier. Hmmm.

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this post up now, so thanks for reading! By the way, I'm still planning on posting Part 3 of my last post. It will just be delayed, as I haven't written it yet. Lol.

Eeeee!! Stuff.

Okay, so after a long hiatus of being locked in my house at the piano, I am back! A lot of things have happened since I last posted. Wait, when did I last post? Too long ago, that's for sure.
This blog post will be in three parts.

PART 1: Henry V
A local University-College is doing a production of Henry V, and they had semi-open auditions. So, I auditioned, got a call back and got a role! Actually, three roles to be precise. Our director decided to do some unconventional casting, and so she cast all the women in the cast as the English, and all the men as the French. So I'm Alice (maid/lady-in-waiting to Katharine, the French princess), a messenger to the Grandpre, and the Grandpre himself. It should be fun. It's great to just have somebody else plan everything and tell me what to do and when to show up. I don't have to plan a thing! Yay. Thankfully, it's not devouring too much of my time or energy, because I have something else on my plate that is devouring my time and energy. This brings me to:

PART II: Piano Recital
In other news, as I mentioned briefly here, I am performing my Suzuki Piano Gradution Recital on February 13, which is like, tomorrow. When you complete all 7 volumes of the Suzuki Piano repertoire, you perform a solo recital, which is what I'm doing. Actually, I'm not exactly doing it the conventional way, as I'm only playing one piece of music from the Suzuki repertoire. Ha. But I do have a full hours worth of music memorized to play. So, I've been practising madly 3 hours a day. Btw, if you're interested, here is the program I'm playing.

F. Chopin
Polonaise Opus 26, No. 1 in C# Minor

W. A. Mozart
Piano Sonata in Bb Major, K. 281

S. Rachmaninoff
Prelude in C# Minor, Opus 3, No. 2

J. S. Bach
Partita No. 1 in Bb

I. J. Paderewski
Minuet in G, Opus 14, No. 1

A. Ginastera
Suite de Danzas Criollas 

Part III will come in another part, as I must go eat breakfast and get to practising.