Friday 29 February 2008

Long time no update...

Life has been busy.

Sorting out housing has moved along several steps but it still isn't finished. Highlights include the old agent being verbally abusive and threatening, a small electrical fire in the bathroom (nobody hurt thank goodness), and a distinct lack of internet access. I'm not impressed. I really do like the area I live in now, but I do not think I will stay in that flat after my tenancy agreement expires in June. I dread the thought of moving again but I'd rather do it in the summer when I have more control and more time than halfway through next year!

Other than that things are going well.

I've managed to get a group together to play the Brahms Horn Trio. We've had two rehearsals so far, and I'm really enjoying it. Working with the score available through The Mutopia Project is interesting in and of itself; it's pretty good, but there are one or two bum notes and the page-turns are rather silly in the horn part. I'll be making a list of errata and either e-mailing the original transcriber or correcting the lilypond files and submitting them myself.

Tentatively I also have an oboist and pianist to play the Reinecke trio, op. 188. We won't get a chance to rehearse until 14th March, though.

Personal practise has been going well. I am still behind on my orchestral excerpts, but I've been in to Trinity to practise every weekday for the past two weeks, usually first thing in the morning. In truth I have not actually practised this much since June 2005. I'm not exactly sure what has shifted in my brain or my schedule to enable this but I'm very glad of it and intend to continue the habit. (And no, it isn't the lack of internet access; the practising came first.) Right now I'm working on chamber repertoire and also Bach 'cello suite in Eflat major. I've borrowed a 20GB mp3 player from a friend so that I can listen to orchestral excerpts on my commute; I still need to organise myself better and make sure I have recordings of all of them. I also really need to get my planning done for this year's exam and next year's final concert.

I'm taking some jazz lessons with Mark Bassey. So far this has been lots of fun. Whee! I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it but I'll figure that out later; for now it's something that stretches me, mentally and physically, and this is a good thing.

I successfully applied to attend an Open Rights Group seminar, Creative Business in the Digital Era. Now I have lots of reading to do so that I will go there and be useful and learn things. I've printed out some of that lot to read on the train.