plans and singing

This has been a busy past couple of weeks for me and my voice is alittle sad right now. Singing through a head cold does eventually have its ramifications.

That said besides singing in the normal end of school departments and studio recitals, I got to sing at a reception for donors to one of the non-university choirs that I am in. This went really well. I've been singing the Laudamus Te from Mozart's Mass in C minor like crazy. This is a really impressive sounding piece, lots of tricky coloratura and other flexible leaps of 13ths and such. For you non-singers colorotura not only refers to the type of soprano that sings super high, but to fast moving runs through (usually) the higher part of your voice. Anyhow, it sounds super super difficult to sing, it certainly isn't easy and took some mastering, but to be honest, that's just what my voice does. Give me these long sweeping lines and I struggle much more. Though I am working on it, my Dupius le jour is sounding nicer and nicer. I just have to be careful with it as it is heavy in comparisen to the Mozart and Strauss that I am used to. Anyhow people were very impressed and I got to chat with all sorts of people for the rest of the affair about how Mozart composed and that he considered specific voices when he wrote. Of course the weekend was such that as soon as I left that I had to change out of pink and into black for a new composition concert I was singing in. My voice is less than thrilled with me and I had to not sing the Libiamo solo from TRaviata at rehersal the other night. (I know a 20 year old like me has no place singing anything Violetta, but really at this school I am the best prepared to do it)

There is alot of research that I am trying to get underway as I start thinking about my BA. Unfortuantly as the quarter rushes to a close I do not quite have the time to fit it in yet. I'm hopeing to be all through with exams by tuesday of exam week and the use the rest of the week for research. I am very excited by where this research might go, though I am being much too slow on the up take to apply for a Fulbright for right after I graduate.

That's ok, I've been thinking that I might take the year off. as I havn't ahd the time to really consider where the best school for me might be. I am not going to a conservatory now so this may or may not work against me when I apply for MFAs. Alot of places want you to have had 3-5 major roles before they accept you. I clearly do not have that opprotunity here. Would it be worth it for me to go to someplace like DePaul or Roosevelt for a year and then later apply to a bigger name place? Or should I bother looking at big name places? I would much rather stand out than be part of the crowd. I have this romanticized vision of a year off in which I'm paid to sing in an opera chorus as I research and get ready to apply to other programs. Yes I know how compeditive these things are and that it's just a vision, but I havn't pulled ideas together such that I know yet.