Time Change for Final Recital

The time for my 90-day recital on Thursday Sept 15th has been changed to 8pm. Hopefully this will allow you more time to get off work, eat something, and make your way over to CUA calmly. As calmly as possible considering you'll be driving through DC.

Also, more dates have been added for my pre-9/15 recitals: Please check them out and consider attending one of these concerts, especially if you can't make the final one.

See current concert schedule HERE.

If you are planning on attending the final recital on 9/15, please let me know. You can leave a comment at the very bottom of this page, or email me at fhurstpianist@gmail.com.

Upcoming Performances

Hello! There are 30 days to go til my 90-day DMA recital, and I'm feeling good about it. This weekend I performed my program three times for different people - this was the first time I'd played the entire program in front of anyone. Today it went really well (today is still my weekend.)

I've got some upcoming performances of my program, in preparation for the official recital:
Saturday, Sept 3, 7pm, Fairfax Christian Church, Fairfax, VA
Friday, Sept 9, Time TBA, St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Annandale, VA
Saturday, Sept 10, 7pm, Piano Company Showroom at White Flint Mall, Rockville, MD

for more info, CLICK HERE

PS All these concerts are FREE!

Running My Program Already!

Today was the 4th day that I've run my program through from beginning to end! (from memory)

Thursday when I did it, it took something like 90 minutes, but by today, it took 80. I'm hoping by the end of this week to have it down to 75! The program needs to be 70 minutes so I'm getting close.

I performed Chopin Mazurkas Op.17 Nos. 2 and 3 today at the church where I work, and it was a successful first performance. I'm thinking the next piece that I want to try out for the church will be the Liszt, since it has so much fancy and fast finger work. I think in two weeks it will definitely be ready to play for people.

Yesterday was the last day of the 3rd annual Washington International Piano Festival. What an amazing festival this was - I wasn't a participant, but I attended all of the evening concerts, and they were wonderful. Last night's concert featured Santiago Rodriguez, whose performance of Chopin's 2nd Sonata brought me to tears.

Well, technically there is one more concert for the festival this coming Wednesday at the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage, 6pm, featuring participants of the festival. If you're in DC, I highly recommend attending this concert. You'll hear amazing young pianists, and it's FREE! Plus, you get an excuse to visit the Kennedy Center, which is just gorgeous. If you haven't already done so, be sure to take the elevator to the T (Terrace) level, and walk around on the terrace outside. You'll get some of the best views of Washington up there.

I'm starting to plan tryout performances of my program, and I will post the info here once they are confirmed. If you have any ideas for where I might play, send me a message!

100% Memorized!!!

As of a few days ago, my program is 100% MEMORIZED!!!

What a relief it is to know that it's all memorized, and what a great feeling to finally be able to play the Waltzes (Ravel) from beginning to end without the music. Hooray!

I'm thinking to celebrate I actually might paint my nails again. It's been several weeks and my fingers have been feeling a little sad.

Also, yesterday was the first day that the finger that I cut two weeks ago didn't hurt AT ALL. So that's finally healed too!

A note to piano lovers in the DC area - don't miss next week's 3rd annual Washington International Piano Festival. You can hear lots of great world-famous pianists playing concerts and teaching master classes and giving lectures, and hear some amazing young students too. Check it out at http://www.washingtonpianofest.com/

Stay cool!

A Slight Setback, but 97.5% Memorized!

Hello! So, just over a week ago, in a freak random accident, I cut my left index fingertip on the razor sharp lid of a can I had set in the sink. I always push the lid inside the can, but had left it open to rinse it, and forgetting it was there, I put my hand down in the sink, and the tip of my finger ran straight into the vertical can lid. Needless to say, I freaked out! I knew right away I had cut it, before I even saw it. Then the fact that it didn't want to stop bleeding made me even more worried. Crap! I was panicking!



But eventually it stopped bleeding, I calmed down, and accepted the fact that I was going to be taking a (left-hand) break for a few days. I guess it was "meant to be" because DC weather last week after I cut my finger was gorgeous for about 3 days. So I did some right hand practicing, and enjoyed some time outdoors. And about the time it started getting hot again, I was ready to sit down and return to some serious practicing.

This cut really threw a wrench in my progress and in my motivation. I'm including a photo (left) of my finger today to show where the cut is, ON the tip, exactly where I need to play. I'm still playing lightly and on a flat finger, but in a few days I think it'll be back to normal. The crusty stuff is liquid bandage which is starting to peel off.

Today is the first day I really feel I'm back on track, which is I guess why I decided to blog. I have less than 2 pages left to memorize of the Ravel Waltzes, and for the first time I felt today like it is almost becoming a cohesive set of pieces. I am still learning waltzes #5 and 8, but after that, I will have this whole set learned and will feel a big sigh of relief.

A friend asked me what percentage I had memorized at this point, and I'm doing the calculation with the total number of pages. Out of a total of 80 pages, I have 78 pages memorized. So... that is 97.5% memorized!!!

Thanks for reading!

A New Approach to Ravel

So, I started thinking, WHY have I been learning the Ravel one waltz at a time, when I've been learning multiple Ginastera movements simultaneously (not to mention a bunch of other pieces)? So... I started learning Waltz #4 and #7 today. In general I seem to have the capacity to memorize about 3 lines of a piece at a time, so 3 lines of #4 and 2-3 lines of #7 make one whole page!

I also downloaded mp3's of the waltzes so that I could have a CD to listen to in my car. I realized that I really need to hear the waltzes a lot, since I don't really know them in and out, and that way it will be easier to memorize them since I'll know what they're supposed to sound like. My brilliant plan is already working.

Today I went to the dentist for a cleaning, and then to the grocery store (okay, two grocery stores) so I was out for most of the afternoon. That plus the fact that I only slept about 5 hours last night made tonight's practicing a struggle, but I did manage to get through everything, and memorize some Ravel and Chopin. Once again, I almost forgot Beethoven. I don't know what it is with that piece. Maybe it's the blue Henle book that just blends into the background.

I made fresh sea scallops and jumbo shrimp sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic and lemon, and ate them with a salad with mixed lettuce, sugar snap peas and peas. It was yum. I also bought pork chops which will need to be made tomorrow I guess. But this isn't my food blog so I'll stop there.

Tomorrow is another day, with lots more practicing and memorizing in store. And tomorrow night I'm attending a piano trio concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill: the Modern Musick Fortepiano Trio premiere concert. I'm actually volunteering there before it starts. If you're interested, it's $15 ($10 students). On the program is:
Beethoven: Trio in c minor, op. 1, no. 3
Hewittt: Piano Sonata: “The Battle of Trenton”
Mozart: Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379
Haydn: Trio in G major, Hob. XV, no. 25

12 days until my 100% memorized goal...

Progress on Tuesday 7/5:
Beethoven 8.66/11 pages
Chopin #4 1.66/3 pages
Ravel Waltz #3 1.6/3 pages
Ginastera mvt 1 5.17/7

Progress Today, 7/6:

Beethoven: 9/11 pages or 82%
Ginastera mvt 1: 5.66/7 pages or 81%
Chopin #1: 0.8/1.6 or 50%
Chopin #4: 3/4 pages or 75%
Ravel Waltz #3: 100% MEMORIZED!!!

Today I think I practiced around 7 hours. That's on the long side for me, and I was tired, but pushed through and managed to practice every composer! Ludwig, I didn't forget you today.

Anyway, exciting update - I finally got my package with my Polish National edition of the Chopin Mazurkas and the Durand edition of the Ravel Waltzes! The Ekier (Polish) edition has already proved helpful, as the print is large (yay!) and there are performance notes for all the pieces. I guess I had forgotten that most ornaments and grace notes are to be played on the beat in Chopin. After comparing the Durand and Alfred editions of the Ravel Waltzes, I have to say, the Alfred edition really is basically exactly like the Durand, in terms of notes and articulation. However, the Durand does not have any pedal markings or finger numbers, so the page is much clearer, which can make the music a little less overwhelming.

I don't know why, but I have a mental block against these Ravel Waltzes. I am finding them so hard to memorize, but I just keep telling myself they aren't hard. haha. I freaked out today when I realized I have 16 pages of Ravel left to memorize, and only 12 days left until my memory goal, which means I'd need to memorize more than 1 page a day. I am going to try my hardest to do it. I think Ravel is going to be my main memory focus for the next week.

Luckily Chopin is pretty easy to memorize (most of them, #1 is a bit tricky) so I guess that balances out the Ravel.

Also, I've been too lazy to paint my nails this week. But I swear, I'll do it soon, because I know we need a new photo here!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you had a great 4th weekend. Mine was ok. I definitely slowed down a bit this weekend on the practicing, partly because I actually didn't have the time, and partly because it is a holiday weekend after all.

Saturday's memory progress (July 2, 2011):

Chopin Op.17 Mazurka, no.1 - 0.4/2 pages or 20%
Op.17 no.4 - 0.33/3 pages or 11%
Ravel Waltz No.3 - 0.4/3 pages or 13%
Ginastera Mvt 1 - 4.5/7 pages or 64%
Beethoven - 7.66/11 pages or 70%

Sunday I basically just maintained what was already memorized.

Today (July 4, 2011):

Chopin #1 - 0.6/2 pages or 30%
#4 - 1/3 pages or 33%
Ravel Waltz #3 - 1/3 pages or 33%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 4.83/7 pages or 69%

And... Crap! Writing this, I just realized that I forgot Beethoven AGAIN. Poor Ludwig. I have to stop doing that. Tomorrow I will start with Beethoven and learn the rest of that 8th page!

Decided to wait til tomorrow to paint my nails again. That Essie I used last week was kind of a fail. It needed pretty constant touching up/redoing. Sometimes it would just peel off! I'm back to a Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish this week. Stay tuned to see what color!

TGIF!!!

Ginastera mvt 1 - 4.33/7 pages or 62%
Beethoven Op.34 - 7.5/11 pages or 68%
Chopin Op.17 No.3 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Ravel Waltz No.2 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!

Thursday's Notes

Was sooo tired all day as a result of my Jaleo salt-induced coma from last night. Apparently the DC location is better than the Crystal City one, but I don't know if I want to even try that out. Each dish was saltier than the other. ONE dish saved the meal - the simplest appetizer on the menu. Pan de Tomate - Bread with tomato smushed and smeared all over it. That was delicious. And that's all I should have ordered.

Today's Progress:

Chopin Op.17 #2 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Chopin Op.17 #3 - 1.33/2 pages or 67%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 2.2/2.6 pages or 85%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 3.33/7 pages or 48%

Took a break from memorizing any more Beethoven and just reemphasized the 5th variation. The 6th looks a little scary (aka pain in the butt) so I figured I'd wait until tomorrow to start it.

Ravel gets a little more comfortable under my fingers every day, but it's definitely taking its sweet time. I've got 2 more lines left to learn of Waltz #2, so slowly but surely, I'll get there. It's more motivating for me to count progress one waltz at a time, since the whole set is 25 pages.

The 2nd Chopin mazurka in e minor is SOOOO BEAUTIFUL. I think Op.17 is my favorite set of mazurkas. There are only four in the set, so I'm almost 50% done learning the set :) Oh! And my music finally shipped from www.burtnco.com today! So I don't have to worry about downloading the other two mazurkas from the CUA library. Although I still might.

Any fun plans for the 4th? I think I'll be spending the day at the piano :-)

Yesterday's Progress

Last night I broke out of what's become my 90-day routine (of vegging on couch or reading, too tired to go anywhere) and went to Jaleo with my friend. This isn't my restaurant blog so I won't go into detail, but let me just say that I'm still recovering from the salt coma I was in after a sad set of tapas last night. Needless to say, I forgot to blog!

So! Yesterday's memory progress:

Chopin Op.17 No.2 - 1.2/2 pages or 60%
Chopin Op.17 No.3 - 1/2 pages or 50%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 3/7 pages or 43%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 1.6/2.6 pages or 62%

aaaaand....
I realized yesterday that I completely forgot about Beethoven the day before, so yesterday I did a Beethoven catch-up, plus more memory!

Beethoven Variations - 7.17/11 pages or 65% - I have memorized all of Variation #5 - this means that all I have left of the Beethoven to memorize is the last variation and the coda! Woo! (Of course this last variation/coda is longer than all the other variations.)

Hopefully my morning caffe' latte will wake me out of this salted groggy state and I will start today's practicing sooner rather than later.

WOO HOO!!!

Yippee! The Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #11 is memorized!
The picture shows me very happy, and a little tired, at the end of my practicing today.

I'm still waiting for the Polish National edition of the Chopin Mazurkas and the Durand Ravel edition. Apparently the Chopin has been ready since last week, but it's the Ravel that's holding up the mailing. Not wanting to wait any longer for the Chopin, I remembered that the Catholic University library has an online database of classical scores. I checked, and printed off Op.17 Nos. 2 and 3 of the mazurkas.
Memory Progress as of today, 6/28/11:

Liszt - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Ginastera mvt 1 - 1.5/7 pages or 21%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 1.2/2.6 pages or 46%
Chopin Mazurka Op.17 no.2 in e minor - 0.8/2 pages or 40%
Mazurka Op.17 no.3 in A-flat Major - .33/2 pages or 17%

STILL MEMORIZED:
Ginastera mvts 2 and 4
Ravel Waltz #1

NAIL POLISH NOTES:
The Essie does not seem to stay on my nails as well as the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure did last week. I also found the Sally was easier to apply, due to the flat brush. I'll probably have to redo at least the thumbs tomorrow. (They take a beating on the piano.)

Liszt memorized in 1 more day!

Still making headway on my memorization progress!

As of today, June 27, 2011, I have memorized:

Liszt Rhapsody - 8/9 pages or 89%
Beethoven Variations - 6.5/11 pages or 59%
Ginastera 1st mvt - 2/7 pages or 29%
2nd and 4th mvts - totally memorized!
Ravel Waltz #2 - 0.6/2.6 pages or 23%

Liszt will be completely memorized tomorrow, because the last page I have to learn is almost exactly like the page I learned today! Woo!
I've started learning the 5th Beethoven variation, which is a funeral march. It's actually very fun! And even a little funny :)
Ravel Waltz #2 - it is so beautiful, and it reminded me why I chose this set of waltzes. Really lovely.
As far as my bright orange (Braziliant) nail polish goes, it's a little weird to watch my fingers on the keys. Sometimes when my hands are moving quickly, I see green. Which is weird, since there's no green nearby. Hmph, science.

2nd week already?!?

Today was Day 9. Tomorrow will be 80 days remaining, and I can't believe that!

Today I did a lot of memory "maintenance" but also memorized more of the Liszt and Ginastera.

Liszt: 7.6/9 pages or 84%

Ginastera mvt 1: 1.55/7 pages or 22%

I took a break from memorizing more Beethoven and Ravel today, and instead just focused on becoming more comfortable with what I've already memorized. For the Beethoven, I only have Variations 5 and 6 left, so I feel pretty good about that.

I took my Fairy Teal nail polish off a couple of days ago with the intention of reapplying, but never got around to it. I think I've been feeling a little bummed the last couple days while practicing, and I'm wondering if that bright nail color wasn't actually motivating me to keep going. Well, we will find out this week with my new color, Essie's Braziliant! I almost didn't find the color but luckily spotted a special display at CVS all by itself. I'm going to paint tomorrow.

I've also chosen the color for the following week, but you'll have to wait and see. (Hint: It was an Allure readers' choice bright color.)

Confession: I still haven't read all the Ravel notes, etc in the Alfred edition. But I will... soon...

Yesterday's Post, Today.

I did practice yesterday, just wasn't up to writing about it last night.

Memory progress as of Day 8 (Saturday, June 25):

Liszt - 7/9 pages or 78%!
Ravel Waltz #1 - 100 MEMORIZED!!!
Beethoven Variations - 6/11 pages or 55%
Ginastera - Mvts 2 and 4 - still memorized!
Mvt 1 - maintained page 1 memory

One week down. (Already!!!)

Just a quick update on my progress today. I got a late start, and was feeling discouraged, but I ended up making some good progress :-)

Memory progress as of 6/24/11:

Liszt: 6.1/9 pages or 68%
Beethoven: 5.3/11 pages or 48%
Ginastera Mvt 1: 1/7 pages or 14%
Ginastera Mvt 2: 7/7 pages or 100% MEMORIZED!
Ginastera Mvt 4: MEMORIZED
Ravel Waltz 1: 2.6/3.5 pages or 74%

2 of 4 movements of Ginastera are memorized, and I finally felt somewhat comfortable playing through what I've learned of the Ravel so far. Hopefully it will get a bit easier after Waltz No.1.

You pianists that also have back trouble from practicing, any advice?

Day 6 - Still going strong!

Today was day 6 of my first week of practicing for this recital, and I think all in all it's going fairly well. I find that around 5-6pm it gets to be the beginning of the end for me each day, so I'm really trying to get as much done before then as possible. Today I started around 9:30am, after the technician came to deliver a DVR!!! Finally, I'm joining the 21st century :)

Some notes:

1. Practicing makes my back hurt. Like, a lot. I take breaks and stretch but it still hurts.
2. The first Ravel waltz is not that easy to memorize. I'm a little annoyed that I still haven't even finished one Ravel waltz yet, although to be fair I really have been focusing on the Liszt and Ginastera.
3. For some reason I was scared to start the 1st mvt of Ginastera, but I started it today, and so far it's not so bad. I'm kind of finding that's my reaction to most of the stuff of which I'm scared.
   
4. Speaking of scary, there was a small snake on my back patio today. The handyman kindly took it far, far away.
5. Yes, I have a handyman.
   
6. Those chromatic major thirds at the end of the 2nd mvt of Ginastera are nasty. I have tried several fingerings, and I think I've found the one I like, but I will be doing some research into other chromatic third passages to see if I can come up with anything else.
   

Memory progress as of today, June 23, 2011:

Liszt: 6/9 pages or 67%
Beethoven: 5/11 pages or 45%
Ginastera Mvt 1: 0.6/7 pages or 9%
Ginastera Mvt 2: 5.3/7 pages or 88%
Ginastera Mvt 4: 7/7 pages or 100%!!!
Ravel Waltz No.1 (Adelaide): 2.5/3.5 pages or 71%

Um, if you've noticed that the Chopin isn't here, that's because it should be coming in the mail any day now... It's taking its sweet time, but I'm excited because I decided to splurge and get the new Polish National Edition. I had 20% off with Burt & Co music which helped me make that decision. It's also coming with the Durand edition of the Ravel. I originally purchased the Alfred Masterwork edition of the Ravel (don't judge me!) which is actually cool because it has a ton of background info about the piece, historical context, formal analysis, various recordings, use of the sostenuto pedal, performance suggestions, programming suggestions, and an article by Walter Gieseking called "How Does One Perform Ravel's Piano Music?" Um, to be perfectly honest, I haven't read any of this stuff, except the notes about editorial fingerings. So that is what I plan to do tonight. But getting back to the Durand - I decided to order that just because I think there are a lot of marks in this score that are not original.

Exciting Update!

The 4th movement of the Ginastera Sonata No.1 is now fully memorized!!!

Memorization Progress

I plan on having my entire program memorized by July 18th (Happy Birthday, Mom!) One way of calculating this plan is to count the total number of pages, and then divide that by 30 to figure out the number of pages I would need to memorize each day to meet that goal. The other day I tried to count the pages, but the number was getting so high (and scary) that I stopped. But I've found my courage, and I'm going to start posting my memorization progress in terms of page numbers. I tried to create some graphs but it was way too hard, so you'll have to read the numbers and imagine the pie charts yourself.

As of today, 6/21/11 (Happy Summer btw!) I have memorized:

Liszt Rhapsody - 4 of 9 pages (44% including the coda!!!)
Beethoven Variations - 4.5 of 11 pages (41%)
Ginastera movement #2 - 4.5 of 6 pages (75%)
Ginastera movement #4 - 6 of 7 pages (86%)
Ravel Waltzes - 1.5 of 25 pages (6%)

Today was a good day, and I finished memorizing the coda of the Liszt! Learning this Rhapsody has been interesting. I've always been kind of scared of Liszt, but I'm finding it very pianistic. Pianists use this term to describe music that "fits" well under the hands - it's almost like you just put your hands on the keys and they know how to arrange themselves to play the music. Not all music written for piano is like this. It is often the case when the composer is also a great pianist.

The coda was a little confusing with the middle notes in the right hand octaves, but it's up in the old noggin now!

Nail polish update: It's starting to fray a bit at the edges and will need a touch up tomorrow. I'm honestly pretty impressed with its staying power.

So far, so good...

I got my program last week, and had a bit of time to procure the sheet music. I've been averaging about 5 hours a day so far, which I think is a great start. I've learned quickly, however, that I need to get lots of sleep right now, because memorizing makes me so tired! Yesterday I didn't accomplish much, because I was very tired, and I kind of felt like this:(I love that picture.) Needless to say, I went to bed early last night and slept 9 hours! Today I was back to being a memorizing machine! So far I've memorized parts of the Liszt, Beethoven, Ginastera and Ravel.

I've also decided to practice with painted nails. The bright polish is giving me energy! This week's color is Fairy Teal by Sally Hansen. The bright color really gave me a boost today, plus I'm doing it kind of as an experiment to see how long various polishes will last when subjected to extreme wear and tear (practicing.) After 5 hours today, it's still looking pretty good. I did also use Poshe' quick-dry top coat. (Hm, I guess I should have gone to Sally's.)

Welcome!

Hello, my name is Francesca and I am currently preparing for the final recital for my Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Piano Performance. For this final project, we DMA students are given a 70-minute program of music we have not played before, and 90 days in which to learn it, memorize it, and perform it. I'm currently on Day 3. I decided to blog about these three months because 1. I'd like to reflect on it, 2. I might like to look back on it when I'm done, and 3. I think it might be interesting for others to read. I'll try to update this blog daily but if past performance tells anything, that's probably not very likely.

You might be thinking, WHAT? NINETY days to memorize SEVENTY minutes of music? That's CRAZY! Well, you're right. It is kind of crazy, and I was terrified before I started, but now I'm looking forward to this process, and definitely excited about giving the final recital. I'm also excited about this whole process because I think I'm finally going to see what I'm capable of, since I've never really devoted myself only to the piano.

I have lots of other interests, including cooking. You can see what I've been up to in the kitchen at my food blog, The Guileless Gourmande. I wasn't sure if I would find time to cook while preparing this music, but so far, I've cooked a couple of dinners, and I find it relaxes me in the evening.

The last thing I want to share in this welcome post is the music that I'll be learning in the next 90 days. Here's my program:
Theme and Variations in F Major, Op.34 by Beethoven
Mazurkas, Op.17 by Chopin
Hungarian Rhapsody No.11 by Liszt
Sonata No.1 by Ginastera
Noble and Sentimental Waltzes by Ravel

If you want to keep up with my new posts, please "follow" me!