Last Day in NYC.

The Rutter concert was unbelievable. Carnegie Hall is ridiculous, especially with one choir of 175 and a second of at least 250. For once I had NO PROBLEMS getting backstage! The ushers were friendly in pointing me in the right direction and the house manager walked me to the elevator, called it for me, and told me how to get to his suite. When he saw me still standing there a bit later, he realized the elevator had been locked before as they were taking Rutter up, so he called it again and told the worker inside that I was to meet with the conductor. She knocked for me and waited around to see that all was well. When the door finally opened, a little old woman had wandered to the door. Mr. Rutter made a *hold on* face at me and talked with the woman for a while in the suite.

As I waited outside, a boy from one of the choirs came up and asked the stagehands if he was allowed to ask for an autograph. I told him he could go ahead of me. "Do you know Mr. Rutter personally?" Ugh. Little boy had to run off, though, so I resumed my 2nd in line position.

The door eventually opened again. A transcription of the conversation as I remember it will follow. I was going to ask to record it, as I want to remember the advice he gave me, but he was so easy to talk to I didn't find a moment to turn my camera on!

R: That was Virginia, the orchestra's director.
A: I'm Ashley Donaldson. I met Nick in Chicago, but for some reason he's not speaking to me now.
R: I'm sure Nick will speak to you again. He's just very busy right now. He's thinking about starting college in October. And he's going on an orchestra tour this summer in Greece. *sits at table and picks up a pen, so I get my drawing out. He stands up and takes it to look at it* Oh, you drew a picture of Nick! Is this me?
A: Yes; could you please sign it for me?
R: *sits back down*
A: I've never been to a concert here, before. The hall is amazing!
R: Oh, I'll write where we are. It's the 29th, right? So do you go to school?
A: Yes, I actually want to be a conductor.
R: Is that so? I find it to be very time consuming. Not nearly as much as composing, but I don't do too much of it. *by this time, he's wandering around the room packing*
A: Do you have any advice?
R: Study the music to get it just how you want it.
A: That's just what Colin Davis said.
R: You met Colin Davis? At school or a masterclass?
A: No, I actually went backstage at the Barbican. I was in London in December.
R: (something like:) He's a definitive conductor.
A: Nick and I both went backstage at the Chicago Symphony.
R: Oh, yes. Nick mentioned that. You met John Eliot Gardiner. He's a very temperamental man. But I guess you can be that way when you have your own group. He has the Monteverdi Choir.
A: Actually, he was with the Chicago Symphony that night.
R: Oh, then I'm sure that he was on his best behavior....which is still bad. He's been known to make sopranos cry, which I don't recommend. So, are you interested in choir or...
A: Orchestra.
R: What instruments do you play:
A: Trumpet and piano.
R: I recommend a string instrument. After all, they are the largest group in the orchestra. You have to know enough about each instrument to understand how to get them to play what you want. I'd also recommend singing with a choir. Well, I wouldn't be too worried about Nick.
A: Could I please get a quick picture?
R: Oh, yes! *walks towards door, stops suddenly* Actually, I'm not allowed picture back here. *pulls out phone* I'll have to find someone who's not official.
A: I can take it myself.
R: That would be wonderful. *walks to corner of the room in which there was a piano at one side and a bust in the corner* This'll be fun. That's Toscanini! 1, 2, 3...

I thanked him, asked him to at least say hi to his son for me, and left in the rain, only to walk by Radio City to see that Eddie Izzard was sold out for the night. Back to Kier's to shower, eat, and get my things. And that was that. In short, the trip I dreaded beyond all others was a success.

Deja vu?

While sitting at this computer, a tall blonde British guy (named Jan, I later learned) asked me to watch his things for him. My first contact with Nick Rutter was when he asked me to watch his things in the hostel for him. In London, the only person I wandered around with was a girl named Shelly from Australia. Today I ended up wandering around with Jan and a girl named Sally from Australia. Strange, no?

The 3 of us hunted all over the place for "Central Perk" cafe from Friends, but to no avail. It was quite enjoyable to watch Jan ask virtually every type of person to help us on our journey. Sally eventually went off to meet a friend, so Jan and I headed towards Liberty Island. The line was far too long, so we continued on to Little Italy via Chinatown. From there, we walked to Times Square to get "cheap" tickets to Curtains. Boo for (still) expensive tickets, but yay for seeing David Hyde Pierce (Niles from Fraiser)!

I need to leave here pretty soon to head down to the West Village to drop my bag off at Kier's. Time is going to be tight. I'm supposed to meet him at 7 and the show starts at 8. I'm supposed to be meeting Jan back here at the hostel soon, but if he's not here before 6:30, I'm going to have to just meet him at the theatre.

I don't expect internet time again until I get home. The Rutter concert is tomorrow at 2 at Carnegie. A very interesting conversation will surely follow the music...I'll let you in on it ASAP.

sittin'.

Kier had to be in to work 2 hours earlier than he thought, so I'm sitting back in the lounge of the hostel, again. I don't really want to wander around too much as my feet still hurt quite a lot. I'm probably just going to sit around in here where it's cool for a while. I had the most amazing plain bagel with cream cheese this morning.

Yup. Going to surf the web for 9 minutes and 24 seconds now.

Come and Meet...

those aching feet. I walked about 120 blocks today, which is about 12 miles. 110th to 103rd to Central Park, through part of the park up to the south end of it, where I walked over to 5th Ave, all the way to 45th, up Times Square to the 50th St. Subway which I took to 86th St., walked across the park on 81st St., walked around in the Met., met Kier at 91st St., walked to 70somethingth to eat, to the subway, to the hostel. Then I stood in line to check in for 40 minutes. You do the math.

As for the bus ride....it left 40 minutes late, arrived at Cleveland in time for us to run directly to the next bus when we got there, left Pittsburgh an hour late, and the bus driver was 20 minutes late on another stop. Still, we *somehow* managed to make it to NYC only 10 minutes past the scheduled time of 8:50 AM. Oh, how I wish I'd have gotten an earlier train back (11:15 PM Sunday night...ugh).

Now for the happier side of things. I took some nice pictures in Central Park. There were rose petals in the shape of a peace sign on the mosaic at Strawberry Fields. Exciting.

I walked down a street of piano shops where I played a pretty nifty Steinway. Got my picture taken with the Naked Cowboy! "You're alone? Well, that changes things!" Then I walked up to the Hello, Deli and gave Rupert a drawing. I told him I'd send him one when I had him sign one for me in March of 2007. He wasn't in there when I first went in, but the co-owner woman cooed all over it (but pointed out things that were slightly different in him from when the pic was taken and had me change them).

Before going into the Met, I sat outside and drew for a while. It was nice to get off my feet. Kier just happened to be at a museum a few blocks away from me when I called him from the Met, so I walked down and met him. The National Design Museum (they had a big Rococo exhibit). It's pride weekend...and I'm staying with Kier in the West Village...this will be interesting!

I feel like I'm forgetting important things. I guess I'll just have to mention them in my next post.

New Year's

I have tickets to London for New Year's. Leaving Detroit on December 29, arriving at Heathrow on the 30th. Returning on the 8th. Thanks to Ophelie, I have a free place to stay for most of the trip. The LSO won't be playing while I'm there, so I'm partially depressed. But since I won't be living in the Barbican this time, I'll be able to wander around town and do all the things I didn't/forgot about before. Hopefully I'll get to see Emma (coming down from Manchester) for the first time! Nick will hopefully come down from Cambridge at some point, too. I have a job now, so I'll even have spending money.