Mini-Letters

blog format inspired by Sarah Alvey. :)

Dear American Airlines... please be nice to my fragile cello!! No issues this time, ok?

Dear University of Utah... please think I'm a good cellist and accept me into your program and let me have the graduate quartet assistantship and stipend. Thanks.

Dear self... lets play the Dvorak concerto in TUNE and with PASSION! Be confident!!

Dear stomach... please please please don't get queasy on the airplane. No one likes to puke at 40,000 feet.

WESWARD HO! It's going to feel REALLY good to cross this audition off of the to-do list.

Here we GoooOOOooo! Wish me luck!

Alsooo, um... 36 days sure is not a lot of days left to wait for a missionary. :)

Every Living Breath

For the second semester in a row, I am the Graduate Assistant for a class in the art department called "Time Based Media." It's a new-ish art medium that combines elements of visual, performance, and sound art. Pretty cool, right?

The funny thing is this... since I'm a music student in my second year of my masters degree, the Time Based professor figured I would be an expert "sound artist." And that would qualify me to both teach and create sound art. Little did either of us know that the kind of sounds I'm used to creating would not be considered sound art in the slightest.

Oh man, I've learned a LOT about sound art, sonic art, soundscapes, artistic silence, and sound manipulation in the past two semesters! I've been teaching it, critiquing it, and now finally creating it. The professor asked me to create a sound art piece that the students in Time Based Media 1 and 2 can use as the soundtrack for their final projects. Ugh! Kind of intimidating, no?

But the more I got into it, the more I really liked being creative and manipulating sounds. And as cheesy and art-therapy as this sounds, it sort of became an artistic outlet for some pent up emotions.

So I'm presenting my sound art to you, blog world! A sonic representation of cancer, through the words of one of my favorite poets, John Rybicki. I made my own little silly video to go with the sound piece, simply because you can blog a video, but not a sound clip. Mom, I apologize if you are embarrassed of any of these photos, but they are close to my heart. From spring 2008 to Christmas 2009, a photo journey through diagnosis, chemo, surgery, radiation, recovery, and recurrence.

The piece is called "Every Living Breath." I'd love to hear what you all think.

MG Valentine Thoughts

I came home from school late on Friday night after a long stressful day of orchestra, practice, and masterclass. Routinely checked the mail box, even though I know letters are kind of scarce these days. Empty. *sigh* Climbed the stairs to my apartment, feeling tired and missing my Morris more than usual . Opened the screen door, and what did my eyes behold? A glorious box! A PACKAGE! From Texas!! YYYYyyyyeeeaaaAAAAaaaHHHHhhh!

Package trumps letter any day. But the first thing I read on the box said "Don't open until Valentines Day." Hmmm. I considered this idea for about 2.5 seconds, and then proceeded to rip it open sans guilt.

A letter

An SD card- pictures and ViDeoS!

Bath Salts

11 little candles

A sleep mask

A decorated pillowcase

A teddy bear

A mini missionary figurine

And a silk yellow rose

Mmmmm, A rest and relaxation kit! For his tired and busy MG. He gets a gold star for thoughtfulness. Take a bath with stress-relieving salts and delicious smelling candles. Don the sleep mask, put your head on the pillowcase, cuddle the teddy bear, and have sweet dreams while the mini-missionary keeps watch in the night. He is wonderful. Even as a super busy and focused missionary, he still takes time to be sweet to me. I am a lucky girl.

It's a Jamilyn fact that emotions close to the heart are hard for me to communicate. I've been trying to write this blog since Friday and every time I start, I get to a certain point and don't know how to articulate my feelings anymore. Ugh, I don't know what to say. Nathan comes home in less than 7 weeks. After almost two years, that seems SO SOON! But who would have ever thought that something that feels so close could also feel a billion years away? Almost like it's not really going to happen. It's so weird. Sometimes I think about him coming home, and I have bizarre anxiety feelings. Other times I think about it, I'm SUPER impatient and want him home now! He's been gone so long. And still other times (yeah, I think about him coming home a lot) I feel bad for wanting him to come home. I know that he is loving his mission so much. I know that he is actually kind of nervous about coming home. So how selfish is it for me to insist that he leave everything that he loves in Texas just to come back to our cross-country long distance relationship? How cool would it be to peek into the future for a year or so? See how things play out between us. I like plans and goals and details, but I feel like my near future is a big question mark. That's probably what I'm all anxiety about- the unknown future. Why can't I just be excited? I'm sure the best is yet to come.

Okay, I really am excited. But I miss Nathan immensely. Because if new mission rules, tomorrow is the first monday since March 2008 that Nathan and I won't be emailing each other. Funny that a lack of email somehow feels like a chunk out of my heart. However, I've got my relaxing bubble bath, a new sleep mask and teddy bear to cuddle, a cute pillowcase that smells like the man I love and I just ate a delicious heart-shaped brownie. Nathan-and-Jamilyn-ish songs are playing on the ipod, and I'm hoping for sweet dreams. I love and am loved. I guess things for this emotional Michigan MG are going pretty good.

A Lesson in Hart

Yesterday, the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra went "on tour." We filled two tour busses and drove north for 2.5-ish hours to a little place called...

Hart, Michigan. A place that some native Michiganders haven't even heard of. A place with a small town feel. A town populated with trailer parks. Where the elementary school, middle school, and high school are all on the same campus. Where every street sign has a big red heart on it.

Not exactly the most exciting place for an Orchestra Tour. I gotta admit, I was having kind of a negative attitude about it. We'd be gone from 9 am to midnight, in the middle of nowhere, doing dumb kiddie concerts and losing good practice time.

But here is where I learned my lesson. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the little school, and I saw a class full of students gathered at the window, excitedly waving at our bus, I could feel them starting to tug at my heart strings. Before we played the first educational concert of the day, the principal explained to us a little bit about Hart. There is a 20% unemployment rate. These kids go to a school where most of the art and music programs have been cut completely. Only one student in the entire school studies a string instrument. Most of them have never seen a live orchestra performance before, and might not ever get the chance again. Talk about humbling!

And then the students started pouring into the auditorium. Adorable little 1-4 graders, excited and curious. The looks on their faces as they learned and listened about how a symphony is put together were priceless. They were completely captivated by Shostakovich! They clapped, they laughed, and one lucky kid even got to come up and conduct us.

We gave a concert for the middle schoolers too. And again for the adults who fund the educational music series. They loved us. They fed us well. And I even squeezed in a few hours of practice... in a classroom... while an English teacher graded papers. Although I was playing annoying scales, arpeggios, and mind-numbing repetitions of Dvorak passage work, she couldn't thank me enough for her "own private cello concert."

Moral of the story: It's not where you serve, but HOW that makes the biggest difference. We brightened the day of a downtrodden community, just by bringing them our music.

And that's good for the heart.

Upcoming Events

February 7- WMU Orchestra Concert

February 8- Begin teaching Sound Art segment in Time Based Media

February 10- Perform "Creation of the World" with Faculty Woodwind Ensemble

February 15- Create Sound Art piece for soundtrack to student films

February 27- DMA audition at the University of Utah

March 5- Spring Break. Which really means Stay Home and Practice

March 25- Graduate Recital Hearing

April 2- Nathan

April 11- Graduate Recital

April 26- Graduate Oral Exam

May 1- Graduation

May something- Move to Utah

Holy Smokes. I'll see ya later!