This week has been quite eventful so far.

A group of professors from ISU and a few other Hoosiers are here at SSRU for a conference. I get to tag along with them for events and meals and such. On Monday evening, I went on a dinner cruise. Had a great time catching up with Dr. Kilp (our horn professor).

On Monday I also gave the final exam for my English for Music course. I just played five different pieces for them to listen and analyze.

On Tuesday morning I taught the last chorus class. Most of those students will stay over to sing in the holiday choir, which excites me a lot. They already know most of two pieces for the concert, and I want to pick out at least one more.

For lunch I went out with Kajohn, Pranote, Prasan, and another professor to Kalaong (the restaurant I went the first week I was here). We were there for quite some time, at least two hours. The food was great, as usual... will have a video of that sometime...

I was tired, so I took a nap in the afternoon after I got back, and then ate dinner at the hotel with the group from ISU.

Today (Wednesday) I went to Samut Songkhorn (I will check on that spelling)--a province to the south of Thailand--with Kajohn, Pranote, and Prasan. We visited one of their colleagues in the hospital, and then ate at this great little restaurant right on the river. FABULOUS sea food... I'll probably have a video of that too, maybe combining both days.

After I got back, I went with the ISU group to eat dinner and watch a puppet show at the Joe Louis Theater. I was very impressed with the show. Their moves are so coordinated and intricate, and the puppets are beautiful. Sorry, no photos or anything--photography wasn't allowed.

I also did some shopping and bought some dresses. Good times. :)

Tomorrow it looks like a trip to Auttaya. Will write about that later.

Last week I assigned a performance project for my English for Music class. For the class itself, I talked about what music is--the product of human creativity, that is, taking sounds and organizing them into art. I would imagine that the majority of their performances were improvised. That works, too, though I was hoping they would work on them during the week and include some sort of object to enhance their compositions. Oh well. We had a good time anyway. :)

This week is the ACDA Central Division convention. Two years ago I attended the conference in Grand Rapids. It was at that conference that, for the first time, I got some sense that I picked the right major. The next year I attended the National Convention, my first out of many to come, I hope. At the convention, I listened to/watched many amazing and memorable and powerful choirs. I picked out my first baton, with some help from Dr. Buchanan--it's bright pink, by the way. No joke. I also met some awesome people, also thanks to Dr. Buchanan, who took me to his alumni receptions. :)

Last week I read an article about the Philly convention. I'm so jealous. Jealous, I tell you.

I wish I could go to the Central Division convention this year. I know I'm here doing this, but knowing that I'm missing such an amazing musical experience is killing me. My week will be filled with listening to my choral pieces over and over again. I might mope around a bit.

Bow and Note took me to Chinatown last night. Here are some videos:

AHHHHH!! That's not a sigh of relief (refer to the former post).

I started looking at job banks because I thought it'd be a good idea. I feel like I have NO idea what I'm doing when it comes to applying for jobs. And applying is going to be difficult from overseas. :/

Ahhhh..... that's a sigh of relief. I have added a picture slide show from Picassa on the side. You can also check out the full album.

Last night I attended a concert put on by the students. They had two rock/pop portions sandwiched around a classical guitar session. I had tons of fun watching them. It almost makes me wish we had such an opportunity to perform together like that at ISU. However, not everyone can play electric guitar, and I certainly can't play the piano or drum. Or electric guitar...

At any rate, I had a good time.

The profound moment, for me, came before the concert, though. I read some of The Robert Shaw Reader whilst I was in the office. Something he said actually made sense (I say that because his verbage is a little more complicated than I care to read during the times at which I choose to read his book--usually in the late evenings):


What is required of the conductor is that he make available and attractive to his co-workers disciplines which educate—not simply dictate, to the end that each person ultimately is capable of accepting his own honest and entire musical responsibility. Granted, it’s the conductor’s job to teach “notes”; much more important is his responsibility to teach ways of learning notes. If two rehearsals on a Benjamin Britten cantata do not short-cut and simplify the problems of learning a Walton cantata, then the conductor also should leave rehearsal at intermission—and stay away.


Big deal, right? What's so important about that?

My impression of Robert Shaw before I started reading this book was that he was a "hard taskmaster." Dr. Carlisle always talks about Shaw because he sang with him. When Dr. C brings up Shaw in rehearsal, some of us members secretly roll eyes at each other and crack a joke after the fact. But something about this man is starting to intrigue me. No wonder he was the most influential American choral conductor to date; his musings on music are very profound and compelling.

The quote above resonated with me because one of the discussions Mrs. Heaton (my supervising teacher at Plainfield HS) and I had was about reconciling performer/conductor vs. educator. I (well, she had the final say, of course) had a tough decision to make about something regarding the winter concert... and that conversation has stuck with me ever since.

A part of that conversation dealt with the mindset of a student/new teacher. I have just ended a wonderful experience--being immersed in post-secondary music studies. Post-secondary choral ensembles are much different from secondary choral ensembles. Students in post-secondary choral ensembles can be expected to be able to learn music quickly (i.e., sing something once and have it down). Students in secondary choral ensembles are different. They (generally) aren't taking theory and skills or music history or even voice lessons in addition to that ensemble, and cannot be expected to synthesize that material in order to become a better musician. Most of their music exposure in school is just that--choir.

So, that makes sense in my head in how what I've been thinking about fits with that quote...

Robert Shaw was a performer, a conductor. I never really thought about him as an educator. But that quote leads me to believe otherwise. I guess that's how it makes sense in my mind. Does that make better sense?

At any rate, at 5 PM, I sat down at the table out in front of the arts building. The classical guitars were practicing their numbers, and then Note started improvising over someone's chord progressions, and it was beautiful, and I was reading more of the Shaw.

And, it hit me.

Music just fits.


I can joke around all I want to, saying, "If I weren't in music, I'd be a geologist," or, "If I weren't studying music, I'd do accounting." Okay, so those aren't really jokes.

But if you knew anything about the first half of my college experience, you'd know that I questioned whether or not I was supposed to study music. Then I got really involved with ACDA my junior year and went to the Central Division convention (which I am missing this year to be here in Thailand--and Chanticleer is performing!!), and something lit inside of me. Senior year was a dream, and I can't tell you how many times I wished I'd not waited so long to become devoted to my studies, to choral music.

My mind can wander around all it wants to about other professions and other paths, but my mind always comes back to music. It just fits. I don't know how I can say it any differently.

Music is where I feel at home. Music is where I retreat to calm my mind when I'm stressed. Music is where I feel most connected to the Divine, where my faith in God feels the strongest. Music doesn't define who I am, but it is a part of me. And it was in that moment that things just made sense.

During the Thammasat concert, so many different things were running through my mind. But when I was up there with the choir, I can't tell you how much fun I had. I can watch that video I posted and see that, yeah, there are things I need to improve upon. Yeah, I could do some things better. I'm sure Dr. Buchanan would point out some aspect of my conducting that we'd tried to eradicate during lessons. But I had fun. That's what mattered at that moment.

And now, I can start working on those things that I saw... those little things can be practiced, but if you're not passionate about it, then none of that matters. Time can fix errors, but time cannot instill passion and drive. Those have to come from yourself, which can be deepened over time.

Anyway, enough rambling, but it was on my mind, so I wanted to get it out. :)

So, finally, my thoughts on the Thammasat Concert.

I have videos down below about it, so you can view them down there. One of them is dress rehearsal and one is the actual encore at the end of the concert.

All I have to say is that I had so much fun when I was on the podium conducting. I can watch the videos now and pick up little things that I need to work on, and sure, that's understandable because I am a young conductor. Those little things will irritate the snot out of me. But, I remember the feeling while I was conducting... it was... fun. Exhilarating. A rush. A high. It felt right.

And two+ years ago in conducting class, you couldn't have told me that I would have fun conducting. In fact, I cried IN CLASS once. It was awful. Conducting doesn't come naturally to me. I have to practice. I don't like that. I get frustrated.

But during the concert, I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.

I am so thankful for Dr. Buchanan and his mentor-ship of me. I will always be thankful for it. I don't think I could ever express my gratitude to him for allowing Erich (Kendall) and myself to take conducting lessons--even though he was getting no load credit for it, and even though he was extremely busy that semester with traveling and planning conventions and such. He felt we were worth the investment. And that's what makes him a great teacher.

This is a link to a blog post written by someone else, and I thought it was particularly touching.

Nothing major to announce. I'll write about the concert at Thammasat in another post, but this will serve as just a quick check in.

This last weekend I went to the pottery village, which is a huge arts and crafts market. Lots of terre cotta. Lots of food. Lots of fun. Then we went to the HUUUUUUUUUUGE weekend market and shopped.

As usual, I've been trying lots of different foods. I don't like liver much, but I ate a piece of one... I kinda figured that's what it was, but there was no harm in trying. I didn't like it, though. The amazing thing to me is that I'm willing to try.

Do you remember how I said that I wanted to sit down at a restaurant off the street and order? I did that twice last Saturday, and once more during the week. Yay!