The Reason I'm Here.

Today was Day 1 with the LSO. It consisted of "Brahms Discovery Day" and a concert at 7:30. I woke up at 8, got to the Barbican at 9:45ish AM. The concert finished around 9:45 PM.

The Discovery Day schedule began at 10 AM with an LSO open rehearsal. I'm quite glad it worked out this way, as I am yet to hear from my contact about getting into rehearsals. I arrived a few minutes early, so Gareth Davies, the principal flute, and I talked for a bit. It was nice to see him again after a quick meeting in Chicago. The rehearsal was supposed to be finished at 1:30, but got out an hour early. Right after it finished up, I went up to David Alberman, the principal 2nd violin. I never thanked him for escorting me backstage to meet Sir Colin in '07 when the Keeper of the Curtain wouldn't listen to me. We talked for a few minutes. He asked me some questions, etc. etc.

With nothing else to do until the next event at 2:30, I walked the 8 minutes to the LSO St. Luke's, a church that has been transformed into a concert hall. I sat on a bench in the park for a couple of minutes before I realized that I was absolutely starving. To fix this, I walked out the gate and to the nearest cafe. As I sat there chowing down on my panini and sipping away at my Earl Grey, I saw someone walk in with two instrument cases on his back. It was Chi, one of the LSO clarinets. He was going to be playing at the Discovery event. I introduced myself and we chatted as he waited for his take-away (that's take out for you all back home).

The Discovery event began at 2:30 with a talk about Brahms the Progressive. I don't have the program beside me, so I can't give the official title. The professor who gave the lecture said he was suffering from the "piglet flu," but he gave a good talk. At 3:40, there was a little break. Things continued at 4 with a BBC Radio 3 personality discussing Brahms' Clarinet Trio (+piano and cello). After they played, there was another question and answer. When everything was finished, I asked the cellist (the only of the 3 playing in the evening's concert) if she could possibly get Joost, the 2nd bassoonist I met in Chicago, to wait at a stage door for me. He ran off quickly after the rehearsal. She said she would.

When I returned to the Barbican Centre, I had another hour and a half to kill. For half an hour, I sat at a Costa in the Centre and ate some fruit and drank another cup of tea. After the rehearsal, Gareth warned me not to fall asleep during the concert. This second cup of tea helped me to not do that. Tea finished, a little over another hour to go. I decided to go upstairs and switch my seat from the balcony to the lower level. That didn't take long. Still had an hour. I then went up to a walkie-talkie-wearer and asked what I had to do to speak to a player (Joost) after the concert. He told me to ask to be put on the backstage list at the advace tickets counter.

About 5 steps after turning to walk to the counter, who should be walking towards me, but Joost! I waved, and he smiled, stopped to talk, and shook my hand. He said, "Hello, Ashley!" and introduced me to his mother, who happened to be with him. He told her that we met in Chicago. His mother asked me how long I am going to be here. He admitted that he had been running around quite a bit. He asked, "So will you be playing trumpet, or only conducting?" I was very surprised that he remembered what instrument I play- I had only mentioned it in passing in March. "You are so talented...you play trumpet, conduct, and do art..." At that, I pulled out a small gift I had thrown together the night before I left for the UK- a tiny painting of part of a bassoon (Gareth got part of a flute, as well!). We then departed and I sat until the concert began.

I didn't realize that the seat for which I exchanged my old ticket happened to be in the FIRST row on the end nearest one of the stage doors. I'll tell you that my neck was not happy with me for watching Sir Colin most of the time. Almost 90 degrees to the right for an hour and a half. While waiting for the concert to begin, I was shocked to hear someone shout my name from the next level up. It was Brian, my hostel friend! I was happy to see someone actually came after I told them about it. While we were standing around during the interval (that's intermission for those of you back home), Sharon, the piccolo player went running past- but not without saying, "hello! Sorry, I'm in a hurry...we'll catch up later!"

I am pleased to say that the energy of the evening's performance, several chance meetings, and the added help of the tea kept me on the edge of my seat (not literally...that would have hurt my neck even more). The Brahms Violin Concerto soloist and the orchestra definitely deserved the applause they received.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday. This means either everything will be closed or everything will be packed. Perhaps I will go to the concert at St. Martin's....

I believe this post is long enough. Questions? Ask!

The Weekend, Already?

I think my new hostel-friend, Brian, and I deserve medals for how far we walked last night. We started out walking from the hostel to St. Paul's with Rusty, from Australia. We walked up the steps to the 2nd highest level (highest is closed, still), back down, and back to the hostel. We rested up for a bit, then took the tube to Picadilly (where I bought some comfy £10 trainers), tube to Trafalgar Square (well, Charing Cross), ate dinner, walked to Buckingham Palace, through St. James' Park to Parliament, then took the tube back to the hostel.

I was going to go to the Tate Britain with Jochim, a German staying in the hostel. We met up for breakfast, said we'd leave in an hour, but he didn't show up. I eventually headed off on a trek to Oxford Street to do some shopping. My intention was to walk there and take the tube back. I ended up taking one wrong turn, so I gave up and just took the tube to Oxford Street. I don't know why the heck I decided to go there on a weekend. I mean, yes, it's always busy, but today seemed slightly more so. I'll eventually get around to uploading pictures in a day or two. I guess the drowning in people was worth it- I bought a nifty dress at H&M. When I got back to the hostel, I had a much-needed and quite wonderful hour-long nap.

Tomorrow is the first LSO concert. There is a rehearsal from 10-1:30, a chamber music event 2:30-5:30, and the concert at 7:30. I'll be going to bed early (for real) tonight to rest up.

On Monday, I'm going to meet up with Adam, the 'tour guide' from the Wednesday night adventure. It's a bank holiday, so we're not sure what will or will not be open or completely packed.

Sleep? What's that?

I did not get to bed at a decent hour as I had planned last night. I was checking my email in the basement lounge area before going to bed. A group of people seemed to be having a good time, so I asked to join them. Not long after, we had joined 2 tables together and had a group of about 15 people playing games. The hostel lounge closed, so we decided to go out and look for a place to hang. Everything seemed closed. We eventually ran into a British guy. Someone in our group decided to ask him if he knew of any open places. He was going to give us directions to an area that might have some open clubs, but we convinced him to come with us.

After walking for an eternity, we ended up in Angel, where we found what seemed to be the only open business remaining. It was packed. No matter, we took the giant group inside and had a blast!

When we finally got back to the hostel, I'd imagine it was about 2:30. I felt energetic due to the cold, noise, and walking allover, so I was not ready to sleep. Adam invited me to go up on his roof, which has a breathtaking view of the city. It might be better than St. Paul's view in that you can see St. Paul's.

Today I woke up at 9, had breakfast, and then wandered to Trafalgar Square with Brian, a new friend from Illinois/Pennsylvania. We started out at Trafalgar Square/National Gallery. After a quick lunch at Pret, I returned to the hostel for a nap. We met up later to go to Evensong at Westminster Abbey with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding. The choir was beyond words.... I shook the Archbishop's hand after the service! If you are unfamiliar, he's kind of like the pope of England...except without the whole Catholic thing.

I'm FOR REAL going to sleep, now, with no intentions of waking before 9 AM.

No tourists here!

Day 1 and I have already been asked for directions. I was able to successfully help her, as well! I also made it the whole day without taking a nap, which impresses myself.

When I walked into my hostel room (after dragging my suitcase up a couple small and one very large flight of stairs), my neighbor immediately introduced herself. Her name is Amelia, and she is from Portugal. We ended up walking down to Fleet St. where I bought myself a pay-as-you-go T-Mobile phone. We finished up there just in time to get to St. Paul's for choral evensong. They just so happened to be installing the new Bishop of Kensington.

While leaving the cathedral, Amelia said that she would cook dinner for us both. She made a very tasty, yet simple, vegetarian spaghetti with tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, and some sort of healthier-than-white-flour pasta. Tasty. I will buy her a meal some day in exchange. She'll be here longer than I will, as she (and everyone else in my hostel room- an Italian, a German, and a girl from New Jersey) is job hunting. She introduced me to traditional Portuguese music, as well, which was quite spiffy.

When I get enough pictures to make it worth the effort to put them on my computer, you will see some of them here.

Tomorrow, I think Amelia wants to go to some galleries in Camden in the afternoon. Before that, I might hop to the other side of the city and get some trumpet-practicing in. I need to buy a pair of comfy walking shoes, too...(you were right, dad...)

Correction: The Archbishop of Canterbury is presiding at the Ascension service at Westminster Abbey tomorrow. New plans.

Horton Hört ein Hu!

14 hours after my initial departure, I have finally arrived at the hostel that will be my "home" for the first 2 weeks of my trip. Check-in isn't for another hour. And they don't have a lift. Despite this minor flaw, this was, by far, the most positive trip across the pond I have yet taken! Please allow me to recount some of the highlights.

There was no one in line at check-in or security at Toledo (perhaps because it's, well, Toledo). Of course, I just had to set the alarms off at security. I don't really mind, as I know it's the gold bracelet that cannot comfortably be removed from my right wrist. In other words, I'm eternally going to set off metal detectors, because it's not coming off. Anyhow. I spent however long Brahms 2nd Symphony is listening to Brahms 2nd Symphony while making some marks in my score of the same. As I took my headphones off, who should walk through the gate through which I would soon be departing, but Mr. Reece. We chatted for a bit, then he went on his way.
The puddle jumper to Chicago was an unexpectedly smooth flight with very few passengers.

During the 45 minute flight, I ready a fair amount of the first volume of Cairn's Berlioz autobiography. I spent most of my THREE hour layover at O'Hare doing the same. I sat at my departure gate the entire time, despite another flight preparing to leave as I arrived. Nonetheless, I arrived at the right time: some of the American Airlines people were passing out free (tasty) cake for customer appreciation!

On one of the walls in Gate K12 is a large collection of payphones. One of them rang while waiting for my plane. One passenger wondered if it was James Bond. Alas, he did not answer, so we do not know. He eventually struck up a conversation with me when he saw that I had a trumpet. He does not "play" an instrument, but he "practices" violin. Interesting concept.

My neighbors on the plane were a friendly couple from Omaha. The husband is in the US military and is currently stationed in the middle of nowhere slightly west of Cambridge. She played horn for 14 years (she said through high school, but that would mean she started when she was 3...). My neighbors across the aisle were speaking German. Hearing them talk inspired me to switch my TV to German. One of the movie options was the title of this blog post. I thought it was amusing.

I have saved the most surprising for last: The UK border agent was NICE! I still don't understand. Perhaps it was because I was visibly excited to be here. For a millisecond, I was vaguely disappointed that she didn't ask me for any of the paperwork I had brought to prove myself to her. Instead, she just said, "So what do you study, then?" Musicians are apparently not suspicious at all.

I will most likely spend the rest of the day lounging around. My feet hurt from the trek down King's Cross Road, etc. etc. During the ride from Heathrow to the City, I decided that I'm going to take a few random daytrips; perhaps a couple before the first LSO concert on Sunday. I really want to go to Salisbury Cathedral, as I love all of Constables paintings...We shall see.

I have no idea what world my computer is in. It is 1:41 here. My computer says that it is 7:55.

My Kind of Town!

I realize it has been nearly 2 months since this trip, but the story must be told!

On March 22, the LSO made a stop in Chicago during their tour of America. I happened to be free, so Marita, Clint, and I made the trip. We left BG at 6 AM, getting us to Chicago at approximately 9:30 AM their time (i.e. 30 minutes before anything opened). We decided to start the morning out right with a cup of coffee from a locally-owned shop on Michigan Ave. After that, we made our way down Michigan towards H&M and other various shopping wonderlands. The sidewalk kept randomly being closed, so we had to keep walking from one side to the other. About 10 seconds after one of these many crossings, two men walked past us on the sidewalk going the opposite direction. I recognized one of them as the 2nd bassoon player in the orchestra and exclaimed, "that was HIM!" At that, I turned around and bolted down to catch up with them.

I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hello! This is incredibly awkward, but you look familiar to me. Are you by any chance in the London Symphony Orchestra?" He was immediately taken aback. He looked at the other man then back at me and said, "Yes!" Conversation ensued. The other man introduced himself as Matthew Gibson, a bass player in the orchestra. I told them that I would be in London for the summer to see the orchestra and had emailed the administration about rehearsals. Matthew said, "Well, I happen to be the vice-chairman of the orchestra. I can get you into rehearsals!" and gave me his card.

I had been in contact with the CSO Symphony Center's stage manager, who was going to try to let me meet Gergiev. I mentioned that she was unsure if it would happen or not. Matthew told me he could introduce me. When we got to the Symphony Center later, I metioned this run-in to the stage manager. She told us to meet her in the lobby after the concert. When this moment came, she ran us downstairs, unlocked the backstage door, and let us go! The 3 of us stood near the stage door as the orchestra members exited the stage. A few moments later, I heard someone say, "Hello, Ashley!" It was Gareth Davies, the principal flutist/my facebook friend who knew I was going to be there. After he ran off (they had 45 minutes to get their things together and leave for the airport to fly to NYC), I saw Nikita, who was a piano student and friend of mine at BG last year! Eventually Matthew came down and took us into the conductor's green room to introduce us to Gergiev.

It is handy that this happened 2 days before my meeting to discuss my budget for the Givens Fellowship! I am still incapable of comprehending the fact that I ran into the one (of 96) player I most wanted to meet. Let alone, on the busiest street in one of the biggest cities in the country! And what were the chances that he would be with one of the people who could help finalize my plans for my trip?

Since I'm talking about things from so long ago, I'll take this time to mention that I saw the NY Phil play in Ann Arbor on my birthday. I was told what door the players would be using to leave the building. I eventually was able to meet maestro Lorin Maazel and principal trumpet, Phil Smith! I didn't realize until I got back that my birthday also happened to be Maazel's birthday.


Nearly 8 days until I leave! You can count on many exciting stories and pictures....just check in every few days! Please leave comments, as well- I'd love to hear from you (I believe you can post without an account...just sign your name so I know who it's from)!

P.S. For those of you who have followed this for my past travels, you may have noticed the change in title. I thought this one a bit more fitting. It is c/o Franz Liszt.

Monday, Monday

Cassie and I spent all of yesterday in London with Gwyn, a friend from BG who is now teaching in Reading. The 3 of us spent about 3 hours in the Tower, wandered around in search of food, then did the Jack the Ripper London Walk. Quite impressive. Pictures later. I have to pack and get ready to go back into the city. We met a guy from Chicago currently studying in Madrid. We are going to meet him and some friends from his hostel at St. Paul's today. I'm meeting Ophelie at 5! I can't wait!!!

I received an invite to visit a friend for the evening (Jan, whom I met in NY last summer...see the Rutter entry), but it would be about a 35 minute train ride. I'm not sure if I'm going to be up for that tonight or not :/

Gotta pack.

Castles and Manors

We spent most of yesterday afternoon at Tonbridge Castle in Tonbridge, Kent. All that remains of the castle is the gatehouse, but it still kept us busy for over an hour.

Cassie, her brother, her dad, and I walked to Langshott Manor, the manor house of the land that is now their housing development. The manor house is a hotel, now, so one of the workers let us into one of the "four-poster" suites. Both the bed and bathtub were 4-posters.

We're going into London again tomorrow and Tuesday. I'll be meeting up wtih Ophelia Tuesday afternoon and staying with her in Notting Hill Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

London

Cassie and I spent yesterday in London. It was a pretty full day. We left Horley on the 9:45 train, took a bus from Victoria to Piccadilly, then walked to Trafalgar Square. We spent just enough time in the National Gallery to look at only the paintings we wanted to see. There was a college-aged string quartet playing pretty stuff in St. Martins in the Field. The second one sounded like something BG would have been proud of....nasty screechy stuff that sounded vaguely of death, so we left. When we walked out the door, there was a dead baby sculpture at the front entrance. Pretty much as disturbing as the music. Pret was full, so we took our food and ate it on the steps of St. Martins. While sitting there, someone walked by and said, "ASHLEY?" What were the chances of Gwyn walking by while we were sitting there?

Took the tube to St. Paul's, walked inside, left. Walked to Millenium Bridge. Took picture. Walked across to the Globe. Took a tour. Got cold. Walked to Tower Bridge. Became happy. I <3 Tower Bridge. Walked across to Tower of London. Left. Will go back when more time can be had at said Tower.

While passing under London Bridge, some dude in a creepy outfit gave us 25% tickets to "THE UK'S SCARIEST ATTRACTION! THE LONDON BRIDGE EXPERIENCE!!!1!" The queue to the London Dungeons was really long, so we decided to go to the shady place. Said scary dude, "Wayne" told us to tell the ticket chick to let us in for £10 instead of £20. The first part was pretty tame and very kid-oriented. The viking guy was our favorite. He taught Cassie how to poke people's eyes out and I told him all about my killing rampages. The head-defroster dude named Cassie Mary Von Somethinggerman and me "Ugg AAAHH" or something. The Monk decided to just call me Bob. I didn't understand why this happened. Then we got to this room with this little creeper man with pointy eyebrows warning us of the fear which lied ahead. We decided to brave the "scariest place in the UK," thus forcing us to don the bright yellow hardhats and hig-viz vests. It was pretty much like a haunted house that left us wondering where the heck we were. It went on forever....London Bridge isn't that big. Were we under the river? r Under buildings? The world may never know. Oh, and there were heads hanging from the cieling.

We're now going to Tonbridge Castle and eating ham sandwiches.

Strictly Come Smallfield

We went to a party with Cassie's little brother's schoolmates' parents. The theme was Strictly Come Dancing. Her brother and I ended up tying for first! I don't really feel like writing a bunch right now as I'm still tired and am pretty hungry. Here are a couple pictures.
Cassie



SO much better than watching the ball drop in Times Square.