Tonight I sang in a voice recital at Dixie State College. I've done a lot of recitals at DSC but tonight I sang a song that's particularly special to me: "So Anyway" from the musical Next to Normal.

The performance went beautifully and my wonderful boyfriend recorded it for me to share with the WORLD! <3 So here it is.




I am a total perfectionist - I am NEVER satisfied. But I think that I"m definitely satisfied with this performance. It wasn't absolutely perfect, but it was REAL. Music on CDs, stuff you buy on iTunes - a lot of it is perfect, but it's so engineered in the studio with computers and stuff that it isn't real. My performance was organic...it was definitely real.

And I am very, very happy.

:)

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Tonight (or, rather, last night, as it's past midnight) the DSC music department held the last Student Vocal Recital of the Fall 2009 semester. I love having the opportunity to perform, especially solo, so recitals are really special to me.

I sang a song called I Miss the Mountains from the musical Next to Normal. I've got video up:



I hope that works!

I got some pictures afterward too.



Left to Right: Dr. Ken Peterson, the Director of Vocal Studies and my voice teacher, me, and Aaron, one of our music majors and an absolutely fabulous tenor.



The foyer of the Eccles Fine Arts building is gorgeous. I'm actually in the hanging on the left!



This is me and my friend Rita, who came to see me sing. Rita has all-but-officially adopted me as her granddaughter. I love her muchly! :D

Altogether, a great night. I've got another performance with the Chamber Singers today (Saturday), and then I'm singing at the service of Unity Church of Positive Living on Sunday morning. The DSC choral concert is on Friday, and then on Saturday we're going to go sing at Temple Square in Salt Lake City!

I really love how DSC supports the arts. Our musicals are always awesome, the art gallery is positively gorgeous, and the music program is really blossoming.

DSC was just recently accredited to award 4-year degrees in music. When the approval was finally announced, everyone was so excited. I'm not pursuing a music degree, personally, though I was a music education major at Cal State (before I transferred to DSC). But I'm still so happy that we got a music degree.

In the year and a half I've been here, the college has grown so much and continues to do so before my very eyes. And the fact that I can take such an active role in the music program, even though I'm an English major, is such a blessing in my life.

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Performances! Lots of them. Tomorrow, a performance with the Dixie State chamber singers at a luncheon on campus, then a Vocal Jazz Project performance in the evening at a school, I think? I'll find out tomorrow in class, lol.

I really don't like the Christmas season, generally, but I do like the opportunities to perform. There are more performance opportunities this time of year than any other. The only drawback is that our repertoire is almost entirely made up of Christmas songs. I guess you could call that an occupational hazard ;)

Friday at 7:30 I'm singing in the winter voice recital at DSC. I'm singing a song from the musical Next to Normal (it's still on Broadway and won a few Tony awards). The song is called "I Miss the Mountains." Today in my voice lesson my voice teacher, Ken, watched and listened to me sing it and was very very happy. He had "nothing to say" - which means, nothing needs to be fixed. Yay!

Then Saturday the chamber singers are singing at Pine Valley, which is a place I've never been before. I hear it's very pretty. And then on December 12 (the day after our winter choral concert at DSC), the chamber singers, concert choir, and women's choir are going up to Salt Lake City to sing at a place called Temple Square.

Temple Square, I'm told, is a really special place for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've never been to there, but I've heard that they decorate the area with lights at Christmas and that it's absolutely gorgeous. I'm looking forward to seeing it and singing at a new venue. Well, new to me, at least - I think that most of the people I'm singing with have been there before.

I'm still researching grad schools, of course. For a long time, my first choice has been University of Nevada, Reno, but University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is starting to look really appealing. They have a Master of Arts in English with a Rhetoric/Professional Writing emphasis. They also have a Creative Writing emphasis available, which is good.

I want to be - I will be - a best-selling author, but until I make it big, I need to be able to support myself. While I'd love to pursue one, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing isn't exactly the sort of degree employers are looking for. So I'm looking to earn a professional writing-esque Master's so I can get a job - and fill out my grad school electives and such with creative writing courses.

Until then, I'm focused on graduating from DSC! Spring 2010, here I come :D

- Tracie

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