Well.

Here we go.

I have decided to apply to graduate school Fall 2019 to attend Fall 2020 for a master's in collaborative piano. This has been something that I have been praying about for about five years. So to have reached a point where it is time to go is very exciting but extremely overwhelming.  

Each university mostly has a different list of pieces to play including solo pieces. I will be spending quite a bit more time in the practice room this year. I'll be studying with Dr. Chris Foley from Toronto, Canada. No I am not moving to Toronto, but that would be super great!, but I will be doing lessons over the internet with him. He runs the Collaborative Piano Blog. He's absolutely incredible and is excited to help me prepare to go! Check him out here.

So here's to a great new year, with new things and many new adventures in accompanying!

My dreams of keeping a blog going while working this semester seemed to have been dashed. It is the week AFTER Juries and the usual filing music away, updating the gargantuan rep list I've kept, and pulling out other music for the next semester are the result of the week between semesters, oh, and getting caught up on all the TV shows I've purposely missed due to other projects that have popped up during the last few months. I sit here and realize that I accomplished A LOT this semester. I really did. 

I usually start each semester by setting a limit for how many to accompany due to the difficulty of their music/recital rep. I have been very fortunate to have a group of "usuals" that I've been employed by for the past couple of years. That is about ten to fifteen people combined in both voice and instrumental areas. Professor McQuay, who I am studying piano with, added another bit of practice time into the semester so I set my limit at about half (10-12) from usual (about 20-25 per semester) to hopefully prepare enough to make a recording and be ready for grad school auditions this fall. Not having as many individuals to cover I talked with the String Chamber professor and the Baroque Ensemble professor if I could join them if they needed more keyboard players. Apparently they are more needed than most pianists think. This was quite a learning experience. 

String Chamber was an entirely new experience. It's what I wanted to do though because I'd only been a part of one ensemble like that the year before.  We rehearsed three or four times and then performed.  It was stressful, to say the least, (as we received updated scores...) but as we were volunteering our time and talents and on our own to rehearse we, probably could have spent a little more time together but all four of us were super busy (I was preparing for six voice recitals). So this was going to be a bit different. I was placed in a quintet of all women. It really was a lot of fun. We picked Hungarian composer/pianist, Ernst von Dohnanyi, Piano Quintet No 2 in E flat minor as our piece to study. We decided to do the first movement and possibly the third as we prepared for two recitals for the semester. That. Is. Really. Hard. Music. 

So the semester started with me somehow, attempting somehow, to hit all the notes,. Hours upon hours of slow practice and listening for the first several weeks ensued. It was the most difficult piece I've ever played in my life. And it is hauntingly beautiful. The composer is, of course, a virtuosic pianist. Meaning, he was born with the natural talent to kick everyone else's trash at anything written for the piano and he probably got so bored of it that he had to challenge himself by writing even more difficult music. He graduated from the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music, with extremely high marks and then taught there for many years. He traveled the world performing, was married several times and had several children with each wife. So this pianist knew his stuff and wrote some incredible music. There is also a lot of solo piano music and some symphonic works. Check him out.

The professor of this class sat by me before our last session and asked a very pertinent question, "What would you tell a first semester pianist who would be taking or who would be interested this class?" I hadn't really thought about advice I'd give but it was a great time to reflect on a few things I've learned about ensemble playing in this situation. 

1 - Be prepared. Because we were in a collegiate situation, and not a professional one, we were given time to rehearse (three hours a week, two of them coached with our professor) and still have errors (notes, rhythms, counting, etc. Etc?! What am I thinking?! That's pretty much it.) but not completely incompetent of your part. At times I was personally frustrating with my own playing because the difficulty of the music was not quick to learn. There were other times where members of our group still couldn't count to four or counted their rests completely. It is part of rehearsal. It's part of life. Making mistakes. It has to be done in order to progress. I know that in our group we didn't have a lot of discrepancies but other groups were very upset that they couldn't practice together because people still hadn't gotten their notes down. When our group played for the class a few weeks into the semester we were noted as the most prepared so far. I know that a big part of that was my doing because I had hammered that music so hard at the beginning to make sure I wasn't pulling everyone down. And it may have been due to the huge presence of the piano in this piece, and my professor agreed.

2 - Be on time. Things happen. They really do, but class starts at the same time each week and everyone has their other studies, jobs, family, and social calls. Having been able to work in a more professional setting since graduating five years ago, being on time or at least ten minutes early for any rehearsal or call time is crucial, even the symphony conductor states that at every performance. People associate your appearance next to your punctuality. If you're there dressed appropriately, prepared, and punctual there's a high possibility that you'll be hired, or asked, again to work with them. Especially if you've got a special guest, who's being paid a lot of money, to coach your group(s). It really is embarrassing, and frustrating at times, to have to wait around for some one to show up almost each time late. 

The next feat, Juries. Unlike most musicians I feel I am the lonely few who actually like them. I did four semesters worth for my own and they weren't horrible, I didn't die, or pass out, or start screaming. I went in and played my best and hoped they liked it. Now being on a bit of the other side of juries, it's kind of exciting to see what the jurors will pick. For instrumental juries they play a bit of everything, especially if it's a recital hearing. But vocalists have it a bit different, at least as far as I've experienced here in South East Idaho. I've read this article that has awesome "duh" moments for juries. Some that I experienced this semester were (which happened to be some of her Tweets, the parenthesis are my add-ons):

-You really, really don't want to start your jury with your least successful piece just because you're avoiding another one you can't really play or sing. (it's not really a mind game, just pick your most confident piece!)
- If you're playing a piece in 3/4 for your jury, make sure what you deliver is really in 3/4. (I can't follow you if you aren't in the right time signature)
- Know in advance if you're going to need to fill out any forms and whether or not you need to provide music to your jurors. (Every semester students fill out the same form and add their rep to it. Print it out the week before for Heaven's sake!) That's the last thing you should be thinking about.
- Make sure you and your collaborator know when and where your jury is. (I am not your mom. We are working together and you should inform me when your jury is and if you're not going to do it)
- Don't have your jury be the first time you perform something.  Even if that means performing for a bunch of elephants at the zoo (Glenn Gould did that!), perform for someone.  First performances are rarely comfortable and are not often good representations of what you can really do. (My dad always said that practice makes permanent. You can't really think that you'll be able to do your best when you're pulling it out of the air)
- It may be a jury and not a typical performance but go out and perform anyway.  Everyone will be thankful. (Don't you have a personal reason for doing what you do? Share that with others)
- Dress appropriately, and don't bring your cell phone to your jury. (Even accompanists. It's like a small event/recital. The faculty and students see how you present your appearance and that's a lot of what they remember you by. Just leave your phone in the hallway. It's a max of ten minutes. Really.)


After all is said and done you'll do as well as you've prepared. I feel that most of my students I worked with this semester did that. And I'm grateful I was able to work with them. And so it goes...Adventures in Accompanying!

I always wait with anticipation for the first week of the semester. Being close to a university five years after receiving my degree, from the same place, I simply cannot wait to start new music. This semester is kind of going to be completely different. How, Allison? You work yourself to the breaking point, have two kids, a husband in college, and still maintain some sort of sane-ness. How could THIS semester possibly be different!? You ask. Well....read on.

As I approach the next year it really has hit me hard that in order for me to be better at what I do, to make money to support my family, I need to receive some more education. I have come to love learning and love being at school, college, specifically.  I enjoyed high school and studying private piano since I was 6/7 years old, but when you're with an advanced soloist or a small ensemble that bring their 'A' game all the time it really is a unique, gratifying experience. So...I need to take piano again. Enter Doctoral Candidate Michael M. McQuay.

He has graciously, he really is the nicest guy ever, decided to help me achieve my goal of applying and hopefully getting into a grad school for Collaborative Piano Performance. We're going to reconstruct my playing so it is technically sound and solid for auditions. A lot of hard work is ahead and I am very excited to be working with him. I have a few schools I'd like to apply to, one or two high profile, and others that would still be a great place to be associated with. Also, a friend of mine at UNLV has suggested that I even out my accompanying rep with boosting the one (vocal or instrumental) that lacks the most. For me, it's instrumental. Enter the BYU-Idaho instrumental ensembles.

I never had any idea that there were other "things" pianists could do. Other than choir accompanying and solo accompanying, apparently I was out of the loop, AND use those for your juries. Since that time has passed I've been able to be a part of a few things. Dr. Kevin Brower, Dean of Visual and Performing Arts, is someone I've always wanted to work with. I've played for two of his students and I took a chance and asked if he needed an accompanist for the next semester. Boy, did I brighten his day! So we worked out all the kinks (where as I'm not a student anymore, so I can be paid) to be the BYU-Idaho Men's Choir Accompanist. Glorious. The best pick up line so far I've received is, "How often do you wax this piano?" Say, what?! Oh, my. This will be fun. But, most of all the student director is one of my best friends.

Two other ensembles I'll be a part of this semester are String Chamber and Baroque Ensemble. Two things I've never done before. A friend of mine has composed a string quartet and I performed the last movement in November (the cover photo for this page) and I played harpsichord with the Idaho Falls Symphony the previous year for their Christmas Concert. So that's as far as my chamber music goes. We are doing a bit of Vivaldi and Pachelbel (No, not his Cannon in D. He was actually known as an organist and wrote quite a lot of chamber music.) String chamber will be a new venture as my quintet learns Ernst Dohnanyi's 2nd Quintet in E-flat minor.  Absolutely excited.

I will be keeping up with solo accompanying as well. I have two recitals, one for a soprano and the other a mezzo.  As the semester presses on I will receive many more interests about my accompaniment services. And so here goes...Adventures in Accompanying!