Saturday, June 28

I’ve been staying up late for the past 2/3 days. I tried singing “Ecco ridente in cielo” with Milos playing, but have a hard time singing lightly. I have to work on it hard, because I know how much Ms. Horne knows about the repertoire, and I want to make sure that, at least, vocally, I can handle the aria.

I only have one coaching and that was with Warren Jones for the chorus rehearsal of La Clemenza di Tito. After that, I stayed at Cate School. Later in the evening, I accompanied Erica and Dexter to go to Downtown Santa Barbara, but didn’t do much because most stores were closed, even Coffee Bean. After that, I stayed late again. Most of my colleagues were drinking and some were smoking, but I didn’t do either. I was just there to listen to conversations and stories.

This journal is for Friday, June 27:

Didn’t have any lessons, coachings and sessions today. Mona picked me up and we attended Warren Jones’ Masterclass at Abravanel Hall in Music Academy. Evan was also there. I learned a lot from the Masterclass. Some of the most crucial information that I got from it was about “conveying the meaning” of the songs, the proper “attack” or “non-attack” when in terms of the pianists, the use of space and not always being “physically” WITH the piano, and the idea of moving by phrases and not by beats. Everyone sang marvelously. I was really moved by Sussana Phillips’ (soprano) interpretation of her two (2) songs, as well as “Von ewiger Liebe” by baritone Erik Werner. So far, that was the best “Von ewiger Liebe” I have heard from a young artist/student.

We headed over to Café del sol Restaurant after the Masterclasses. Later that evening, the Rec-Center was the hang-out place for all “libiamo-ing”.

Oh well, that’s about it for now.