unorganization prevails

wow, everything about the piano faculty right now is fucké shitey!
They are so disorganised. The jury I was supposed to play this morning was cancelled because they never bothered to check the time with one of only 3 members of the panel!!! add to that, my teacher hadn't called to tell me this, which I suppose if ok, cause it would have made me practice... but I found out and made sure to throw last night away with masses of sightreading, and improvising - both important, but ya. As it stands, the juries will be early next week sometime, so ya, I'll let you know about that. I felt bad because, having only found out about the cancellation at 10pm last night, and not having my accomapnists phone number, she came early this mornign to practice.... IM SORRY BECKIE!!!
Also there was an awesome masterclass today, which I felt bad about having to leave early for work, BUT all three of the performers had to leave early as well. FOR FUCKS SAKE, it was a guest concert pianist from Israel. If you know you are performing in a masterclass, then make arrangements to BE THERE! Notice also the bitterness that 2 of the people listed had already played for a faculty class, and still neither Deena, nor I have had a chance to play, and we're the performance majors (contrasting the 2nd year pianists). Not cool. Anyway, Im not happy, because I would love to have had more opportunity to play my concerto, especially since no one knows it, I want to expose people to it, but I guess that doesnt matter. And the guy from my studio who played today, got to play at the last masterclass, when I had told David I wanted to. GRR..... David is going to get an earful when I have my next lesson. I just feel like I'm not really being challanged this year. I realise that David wants me to be able to master shorter pieces and stuff, but I am more motivated by the stuff that I know will take a good deal of effort. Anyway, I shouldn't say too much , cause I really don't know what is best for me, if I did, I woule be a much better pianist right now. The guest artist today was amazing. We didn't hear her play, but her teaching was well articulated, and insightful. The sightreading or whatnot she did to demonstrate sounded like she was performing. It was wonderful to hear and see another teaching perspective from David's. It always gives you a new way of looking at things.
Last night I had some serious fun improvising. I asked for a suggestion, expecting to get a key and a style, but no! Kirsten suggested a scene in a desert where people are dying of dehydration:
This was super fun, I tried to encorporate a very Arabic pentatonic/whole tone type scale to depict the desert. I also found ways to do the imagery for sandstorms and mirages. Unfortunately in the end, they all died.
Later on, Brendan suggested G major, three children flying kites, but then their nany; usually outspoken, always mean yells at them to come home for dinner, but they don't want to:
This was also a lot of fun. I set up a simple I-IV-V-I type arpegiation with a tonic bass pedal in the LH and then devised a little wind melody that expressed the happiness of the day. I used that as a type of refrain as I tried to have an individual little theme for each child's kite, flying in different directions and styles ( I was imagining the different colours of kites, and how some kids let it go all over the place, some try and keep it in control). By the time I got to the third kite, I had forgotten the character of the other kites. My intention was to also play 2 of the themes together showing them with an interplay of almost getting tangled. Then, almost out of nowhere, right in the middle of the wind theme, E minor comes in and represented the nanny yelling to the children. I tried to go back and forth from that to the different kites, but Im not sure how clear that came across. I intentionally left out the wind theme because, if the nanny was yelling, it would be hard to notice how happy the day was. Eventually, I calmed down the kites, and the wind theme came back to end the piece.
I also did some other types of formal improvisations last night, but I had completely forgotten about this aspect of improvisation: pictoral representation. The last time I tried a direct appproach to this was years and years ago, before I started improvising formally. My technique wasn't enough at that point to express what I had wanted. Now, it comes much more easily, and I can say that it's probably a strong point, second to tangos maybe, in my improvising. Anyway, tonight I will practice and practice some more on my concerto, don't want it to slip away out of my fingers!