I’ll write more about the new Opera soon, but just wanted to plug my new blog! For reasons I’m legally bound to keep a secret, I now have a homepage and blog with the brand new “T-Community”. You can check out my new homepage, chock full with fotos and german blogging. Leave me blog-comments even if you don’t know what you’re reading…its good for my, uh, top-secret reason to have another blog…
http://www.t-community.com/home/kilgoretrout
First off, a quick summary of the last few weeks:
I played with two orchestras for Young Euro Classics, an annual festival here in Berlin.
First Orchestra: “Young Sound Forum Middle Europe”. Tour of Poland and and bit of the Czech Republic, with the final concert in Berlin. All in all quite good, good players, new friends. Guest conductor Penderecki: an asshole at the podium, can’t conduct worth a damn, but wrote a cool violin concerto. The real composer of the group, Christoph Altstaedt, is absolutely fantastic. Only 26 and already a great leader. I sure wish he conducted the whole concert!
Second Orchestra: “China meets Europe”. Half Sound Forum plus half Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra. Tedious rehearsals in Berlin, literature only mildly interesting, and not a very high level of performance as a group. The chinese were not very social, but their conductor, Mr. Tang, rocked!
Following those exhausting two weeks I had one week break to prepare for my next project with Ensemble Mosaik which started today. A word to the wise for composers who haven’t realized it yet: please give your players their *finished* parts atleast a week in advance. Most of our rehearsal today was spent with decifering the parts. Time changes were missing, dots, rests, fermatas, complete stanza as well as pages were just missing. “What note is that in measure 67?” “How many beats are in measure 105? “Where IS measure 105?” So much time and concentration wasted! But for that it should be a cool project. It’s the continuation of an opera written last year about a space ship captain, Kommander Kobayashi, and his adventures. The first part was written by five different composers, this one by only two. The different styles are clear which makes the project even more interesting. We’ll be performing in Berlin, Luxembourg, and Warsaw. I’m excited to travel again, Warsaw will be completely new to me.
This project as well as the Volksbühne show will slide me into my *LAST SEMESTER OF SCHOOL*!!!! It’s going to be crazy busy, but I can’t wait to dig in!
Well I could write about my magical weekend in Groß Dölln playing Mozart, my trip to Poland and the Czech Republic playing with world famos Krystof Penderecki, and my current project with a chinese orchestra…….but I’m much to exhausted. That will be coming next week. For now I’ve updated my “Upcoming Performances” page….take a look, theres a lot to hear!!
My, my, how time flies! The summer in Berlin has bin sticky and hot so far, though nothing compared to California. Over the weekend I was in Stuttgart playing with Ensemble Mosaik, the new music group that recently hired me to play with them. The music was quite difficult, employing lots of modern techniques and every trumpet mute that I have, even one that I had to borrow! I had to whisper, make vocal sounds through the instrument, and even sing and play at the same time! Needless to say I spent countless hours working on the pieces. It was WELL WORTH IT! I was very happily recieved by the ensemble. I was an active part of the rehearsals, with suggestions, jokes, and comments about the music and made a great impression.
The concert in Stuttgart went very smoothly. Although the building was not airconditioned and everyone was sweating, the audience was very patient and the pieces were well recieved. All of the composers were present, and gave their input at the rehearsals, which is always a treat (Elena Medoza-Lopez, you are FABULOUS!). I had a great turning point during the concert as well. After the first piece that I played in I was a bit disappointed. I had performed well, but a few little things didn’t quite go as I had hoped, and I *so* wanted to play perfect. I was sitting backstage before the next piece, worried that things would continue going wrong, as my part in the next piece was very exposed and unforgiving. Typical me, self-victimizing and mistrusting of my own abilities. Then I remembered something: I’m there on stage with this highly renowned ensemble because they trust me. They’ve heard me play, like me, and want me to be a part of their ensemble. And besides, when juggling mutes, text, and 5 different techniques within seconds, little things are bound to go amiss. And the little things that went “wrong” were exactly the little things my teacher said would go wrong (and unnoticed) in that particular kind of music when I was working on the part with him. So I stood up with confidence, walked on stage, and played my part in the next piece *flawlessly*!!! Screw beta-blockers, I’ve got it in me to keep my cool even when its 90 degrees!
After the concert the conductor approached me and told me he was very happy to play with me, liked how I played, and looks forward to continuing to work with me!! Several others also said similar things to me. And I just recieved word today that they’re hiring me to play again for the next project in the fall! I’ll be traveling to Warsaw and once again to dreaded Luxembourg (how ironic) for that project. I feel like I’ve finally arrived as a freelance musician. For the first time in my life I’m paying my bills myself and I’ve got more work to look forward to.
I start back again with the Volksbühne in the fall, and miraculously the schedule with them and Mosaik fit perfectly!! There is one conflict that should be easy to resolve, but other than that its a perfect match. Other than that I’m playing some unpaid gigs in the immediate future. This weekend I’ll be in Bebersee, a lake town just north of Berlin, playing Mozart. Paid travel and a four-star hotel right on the lake! Then in August I’ll be traveling to Poland and the Czech Republik with a youth orchetsra. I wanted to travel on my own a bit this summer, but I’ll settle for a sponsored “working vacation” for sure!
Check out the “upcoming concerts” section in the next couple of days for my new performance schedule!
Meistersinger was a success in Luxembourg! The Premiere went as good as flawless!! It was such a blast to finally present what we had been working on for so many weeks. The audience was fairly small, about 300 people, only a few of which walked out before the show was over. From my position in the orchestra I could see a decent portion of the audience and they seemed captivated and entertained and even got some of the jokes. At the end the orchestra got to ascend to the stage and take bows. I've never played for a theater show and got to go on stage to be recognized! The Volksbühne is certainly unique in many ways. Afterwards it was time to PARTY! THe Volksbühne band was flown out just to play for our Premiere Party. There was food, drinks, and lots of excited people. We partied into the wee hours of the evening before turning in to get some rest for the second show………which got canceled! The lead male role, the only lead role that acutally has a trained voice, got sick and couldn't perform. I would have liked to have played again, but it was nice to have that great memory of a good performance to motiviate us when we start the show again. So ended our work in Luxembourg. So we did what any other normal group of performers would do, we went out and partied again! This time it was to celebrate a few birthdays. We reaped havoc in a great bar and ended up getting kicked out because it they wanted to close. Most bars there close at 1AM, we managed to overstay our welcome well over an hour. Suffice to say that much of Luxembourg took a sigh of relief as we parted the next day. I for one could hardly wait to get back to Berlin! There were many newspaper reviews, most of which were lukewarm….but the real permiere will be here at home in September.
My next musical endeavor came a few days later as I played for the Eisler Prize Competition at my school. My performance was great and I really enjoyed the other pieces. I didn't win any prizes, neither did Max's piece, but we got a ton of positive feedback AND it got me another job! The director of Ensemble Mosaik, a well renowned new music ensemble in Berlin, was there and happened to be looking for another trumpet player and now has booked me to play with them in July! I couldn't be more thrilled, this connection is better than any award. They want me to be a semi-regular member of the group, which means more work in the future. Ironically this may include a trip back to Luxembourg in the fall to play in the SAME theater I played in with the Volksbühne….atleast this time only for a couple days!
The success of the Competition performance paved the way for another great performance of the piece this past weekend for a concert series by a group called Klangnetz. I'm so appreciative of this group! They organize new music concerts for up and coming composers and recieve enough financial support that the musicians and composers can be well paid for their services! We played in Ballhaus Mitte, an old run down Ballroom thats half restaurant half dance venue with free swing and Tango courses. This concert was all solo piece, 2 each for trumpet, percussion, harp, and cello. All wonderful musicians that I hadn't met before. The room is absolutely breathtaking and with surprsingly good acoustics. The only downside was the heat and the dry air. I was sweating like a pig but had not one drop of moisture in my mouth which makes trumpet playing quite difficult. Despite this I made it through Maxs piece and the other piece, "Waft", by Petr Bakla. The Bakla piece is ridiculously difficult and basically forces the player into making mistakes. Despite my struggles, the composer was happy with my performance! What I see as instrumentalist torture, he sees as "exciting unpredictability". I'm glad he was satisfied!
Now I have a bit of time before working with Ensemble Mosaik in July. I've got a lot to practice, including singing and playing at the same time (gotta love new music) and a lot of catching up to do with laying out on the canal in the sun. By the way, you can hear a radio broadcast of the Eisler Prize Competition on Friday June 23rd at 10pm germany time (thats 2pm in California). Details are in the "Upcoming performances" page.
The last rehearsals with the orchestra were this morning and we’re all excited about the first performance tonite! The way it looks right now we won’t have that big of an audience. The Luxembourg crowd is most likely not familiar with the director or the Volksbühne so its not so exciting for them. And besides, tuesday and wednesday aren’t exactly nights when most people go out. But who cares, for us it will be lots of fun! Everything has really come together well, I’m proud to be a part of the show. I feel like a part of something special. I’ll miss seeing the crowd here when we get back to Berlin as the show starts up again first in September. With nothing else to do but hang out with eachother we’re getting to know eachother well.
When I get back to Berlin the work starts up again with other projects. On Saturday night is the Eisler Prize Competition, luckily I’ve had plenty of time to practice here. One or two more rehearsals with Max and we’ll be all set! It will even be broadcasted in Deutschland Radio, so tune in at 8pm on saturday!
Ok since my last post was so negative I decided I would blog about the nice part of luxembourg today. I went and explored the valley with two of my colleagues and it was absolutely breathtaking! Its like a completely different city down there. Ancient sand stone, gardens, and lovely old houses and churches. We also actually found a restaurant where everything was under 10€, what a deal! The bars may all close at 1AM but atleast theres something to look at.
or This Place is Boring! My apologies to “claude” who commented on the last posting, but Luxembourg is LAME! Ok Ok, in all fairness, its politically and historically interesting and there are lots of beautiful old buildings among the tasteless new buildings, but not much else. Around every corner theres yet another freeway onramp or exit or another main traffic artery. The lush green valley that surrounds the city center provides the only solice from the constant buzz of traffic. It seems more like a place that people drive through, not some place to stay. The city center is flooded with tourists, shopping, and incredibly expensive restaurants (atleast 15€ a meal). I made it out of the city center today only to find more of the same. Less tourists but more shopping shopping shopping and tons of traffic. No wonder this place has one of the highest alcohol comsumption rates in Europe, what else is there to do but drink?!? Not to mention that its been raining for five days straight! I’m hoping to find some other young Luxembourgers to show me where they go to have fun….but until then I’m happy going out for beers with the sound engineers for the show.
Luckily, most of my time is spent in the theater. Today was actually the first day that we had free, rehearsal starts again tonite. And speaking of the production, its getting more and more exciting as well as bizarre!! I no longer feel comfortable calling it an opera….its more of a progressive theater collage. The crazy/cool scenery is an art piece in itself! The props have come to include a real jeep that drives onto the stage several times, likely breaking some sort of law against exhaust fumes in a closed building, two trojan horses (one of which pukes “semen” in the second act), three fake guns that fire, lots of scary masks and even a bit of good old stage blood.
Rehearsals are usually quite chaotic with screaming and banging on stage, the director shouting directions through an unbelievably loud microphone, and us orchestra members desperately trying to hear ourselves play. A completely different play has been woven into the Meistersinger story and plays along side. Quite dramatic and deep: german revolution, mass vs. individuality, and execution (hence the guns). Amidst the chaos its really starting to grow on me 
. In Luxembourg its advertised as “Opera”, which, as I’ve said, it certainly ISN’T! I interpret it as a commentary on high art and german culture, or a perhaps better said, a parody. Before the last musical number is a quite intense scene, the end of the other play (by someone named Tolle), where two of the main characters are excecuted after some very deep dialogue. The orchestra then comes in with the joyful Meistersinger theme, celebrating the winner of the song contest. The effect is deliciously ridiculous! As I said, it’s growing on me! I’m hoping, as all are I believe, that the audience shows up in their finest opera attire expecting an entertaining evening of opera. Will we be booed? Will they even stay to see the end? I’m excited to find out!
Tomorrow its off to Luxembourg with the Volksbühne! I'm really excited to travel somewhere I've never been, especially with the trumpet as my excuse! Thought I'd share a few interesting facts about Luxembourg..
Although Luxembourg is one of the smalles countries in Europe, only about 1000 square miles and just under 500,000 people, it was a founding member of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, Benelux, and the Western European Union. Luxembourg is trilungal, the three national languages being French (for Government and written use), German (also for written use as well as the media), and Luxembourgish (conversation). The children also learn english at an early age meaning most people are fluent in atleast four languages by the time they're adults!! The also have the cheapest alcohol prices and are one of the highest alcohol consumers in the world. In 1993 it was calculated that three beers a day for every man, woman and child in Luxembourg were consumed. Unbelievable! The culture seems to be a mixture of the neighboring countries: Germany, France, and Belgium. Friends have told me that it's expensive and snobby, we'll have to see! I've heard it's also beautiful! I'll post some photos when I get back, wish me luck!!
I’d like to take this oppourtunity to first fill you in on the story of “The Meistersingers from Nürnberg” by Wagner. In short, its about a song competition way back in the day. The singers are trying to be part of the “Master Singers” group in Nurenberg and must compose their own song with original music and text. The winner not only gets to be part of the Master Singers club, but wins the hand of the lovely Eva. Plot twists follow: he loves her, but she loves another, etc. A typical setting for a classic Italian comic opera (even though Wagner is german and wrote well after that time). Got it?
Now that you know the basic plotline you will share my shock in seeing the stage scenery for the first time today. Paintings of dancing skeletons, and old jeep, a massive drop screen featuring a viking skeleton riding a giant bat, and large crude sketches, much like those scratched onto the wall of a mens bathroom stall, including a giant erect ejaculating penis with the text “EGG” written on it direct center stage.
What does this have to do with Wagner, you may ask? I, for one, have no idea! The director, as I’ve mentioned before, likes to tear a piece apart and drag it through the dirt a bit before putting it on stage and this production is no exception. His shows are almost always surrounded by contreversy. But having said that, this theater is I believe the most prominent in the country, he must be doing something right!
I’m going to try and take my camera in tomorrow so I can give you all some visuals…
