September 11... Venetian Gondolas

Contrary to popular belief, that title does have something to do with my new thing.

I played a Mendelssohn Song Without Words (Venetian Gondolas) in front of my Pedagogy class, and my professor. So, to shorten, you could say I had my first real master class. This is a mock lesson, where you basically get taught by another student/graduate... except the entire class is both watching and grading it. So I was graded on my actual performance and how I responded to what Rob was trying to teach me afterwords. It was pretty terrifying at first... my heart was pounding the entire class period. But as soon as I walked up and sat down at that piano, everything disappeared. I was able to get into the music, and feel and interpret it. It was a liberating feeling to be able to play a piece I'd had for a week, and play it well. It was also great to get some feedback, advice, and nice imagery from the lesson.

It was also nice to feel like I could somewhat put something out there- that even the graduate students could treat me as an equal. I got some wonderful compliments afterwords as well. This was one new thing that I gained a lot from... Maybe performing isn't as scary as I thought!!!VICTORY!!!!