jill.musick

On Monday the 19th, our plane landed in Zurich. We had just returned from Vienna, but the intense music time was not over.

March 19-22 was Music Festival week at BFA. For a reminder of what happens, see my posts from 2011 or 2010.

This year, our string judge was Florian Mall, a professional cellist and teacher from Basel. He worked well with students of all ages. I was really excited for our cello students to have an opportunity to gain some experience with a real cellist (as opposed to the novice cellists that Marit and I are).

He surpassed our expectations and wowed us by sight-reading violin music – in the correct octave!

On Thursday night, the most excellent performers from all instruments performed in the Honors Recital. The complete list is below, should you want to watch the whole concert in order.

We’re proud of our students! They have worked really hard this year!

Spring break has started, so I finally have a bit of time to sit and blog. There have been several major events in the last few weeks, so I’ll rewind to March 14.

Marit Swanson and I chaperoned the 6 students from BFA who were chosen to sing in the honor choir. We flew out of Zurich on that Wednesday after school. My head felt like it was going to explode because of congestion. After an unpleasant flight, we arrived safely in Vienna and crashed at our hotel.

Thursday morning, rehearsals started at the International Christian School of Vienna.

Choir rehearsal at ICSV

The students were challenged and motivated to continue growing musically. They learned as much from rehearsals as Marit and I did from watching!

As chaperone, I had a bit of free time during rehearsals. Marit and I went to a coffee shop and did some work and reading.

Marit with a warm drink and a book

Along with rehearsals, there was a day for sight-seeing in downtown Vienna.

On the sight-seeing day, we took two of our girls downtown early for a bit of shopping at the Naschmarkt.

Since Suzanne (music dept head and choir director) couldn't come on the trip, we took a kitten named Suzy. Suzy met a big cat!

St. Stephan's Cathedral in downtown Vienna

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic

One of the students became sick with a stomach bug, so Marit and I missed a few rehearsals to take care of him. He was unable to perform in the first concert, which took place at a church just outside Vienna

Getting ready to watch the first performance with sick student and Marit

The happy group after the concert

Giddy and goofy

On the tram back to downtown Vienna, the whole choir continued in a state of giddiness. It was rather amusing.

The second performance was at the Mexican Cathedral, a beautiful castle-like structure in downtown Vienna.

Beautiful cathedral

Posing before the final concert

Close-up shot.

With the proud chaperones!

Inside the cathedral

Dr. Pearl Shangkuan leading the choir

It was an enjoyable trip, despite the sickness. The kids sang very well, learned a lot, and established friendships with students from other schools. Hopefully there will be strings next year in addition to choir!

Today I ran the 2nd marathon of my life. This time it was not a race or an official course; I simply had a personal goal of running a marathon that would take me through 3 countries. I started at home and ran into Basel, Switzerland, up into Saint-Louis, France, and back into Basel to explore the city a bit and end up near the Badischer Bahnhof (train station).

Emily was kind enough to ride her bike with me most of the way. She filled the role of the “race sherpa,” providing me with food, water, and moral support throughout the run. She also took pictures, so thanks to Emily, you get to see a few glimpses of my run!

On Thursday night, Emily and I, along with Marit’s roommates Natalie and Jenna, snuck into Marit’s office and filled it with balloons!

Friday morning, Marit came to the orchestra room at the end of orchestra for a rehearsal with one of my violinists. The orchestra played a lovely rendition of “Happy Birthday” as a surprise! Marit was definitely not expecting it!

After school, a group of us went to her house to enjoy the dinner her roommates had prepared. Marit showed us her favorite spot to watch the sunset. It was a gorgeous display!

We brought carrots to feed the sheep living in the Christmas tree farm.

The sheep didn't trust me.

Emily was the only one able to get the sheep to eat from her hand.

Ready for the sunset!

It was a relaxing evening with friends – sunset, dinner, and movie. We’re glad Marit is here!

When people ask me what a typical day is like at BFA, it’s hard for me to answer. The short answer: I don’t have any typical days. Every day is a little different. But to give you a snapshot, here’s a description of last Wednesday:

6:30 – Wake up and pray for the day. Realize it will be a long one.

7:00 – Breakfast, get ready for school.

8:00am – Staff meeting in school library. We filled out student character evaluations for NHS (National Honor Society).

1st period (8:50) – High School Orchestra. We practiced a piece for Sunday’s Music Recital, then worked on our class composition.

2nd period – Marit, Suzanne and I moved hand bells, tables, pads, and hand drums over to the middle school in Sitzenkirch since Marit started Hand Bells and Hand Drums this week with the kids there!

3rd period – Guitar class. We’re learning Danny Boy and how to do finger picking.

4th period – My only free period of the day. I frantically wrote emails and tried to start some planning for next week and for music festival.

lunch – I ate in the staff room downstairs with a bunch of other fun teachers and staff members. Lunchtime conversation may have involved random historical events and the odd similarities with our students. I may have asked if anyone will be free to sub for me while I’m in Vienna; no one could. I’m still looking . . .

5th period – Violin lesson with a high school student 6th period – Played with Lauren Holland (pianist). We sight-read some Kreisler and worked on Lark Ascending.

7th period – Violin lesson with a 4th grader

4:00 – Nursing Home visit. The Intermediate Orchestra played a few pieces, and several students from the group played solos in preparation for Music Festival.

Intermediate Orchestra

Old folks watching the Intermediate Orchestra

Solo

Duet: The Happy Farmer

4:45 – Violin lesson with the student pictured directly above

5:30 – collapse on my bed at home for a few minutes.

5:45 – First small group girls arrive. A crazy evening commences.

The girls came early so we could eat dinner together. Teenage girls entertain themselves while cooking; it's amazing we actually ended up with food!

Cooking tools - or weapons! When not brandishing knives, these girls were preparing chili.

"Take a picture of me! I'm actually cooking!" "You're just stirring." "Yeah, I'm cooking!"

While the chili was simmering and the corn bread baking, we finished the Disney version of Robin Hood (we had started it a looong time ago). Then we feasted on our creation, and planned out our future discussion topics for small group. Then with full bellies and another hour left of small group, Emily suggested we take a walk.

Ready to go. They borrowed some of our coats.

This girl suggested planking...

... so we all planked on the little bridge over the creek!

Then we walked around to various staff members' houses and serenaded them with an endless rendition of "Row, Row, Row your Boat" in canon.

9:00 – Small group girls leave. Attempt to get something else done; fail miserably. Crawl into bed.

Retreat was a blast this year. The entire high school piled into 5 buses and rolled down to Lenk, Switzerland last Friday and returned Sunday afternoon. The weekend was full of sunshine, Swiss Alps, good conversation, and some unusual but fun activities. The pictures tell quite a bit of the story, so here’s the retreat in pictures:

Our chalet

My room for the weekend - shared with Emily and about 20 Junior girls

View from the window

There were all kinds of activities inside and outside....

...like playing on the playground....

...piling on top of each other in the snow....

...getting a haircut and learning how to cut hair....

....playing dodgeball....

...and climbing the poles in the gym (that's me up at the top).

Along with copious amounts of free time, we also had a structured program which included skits (everyone participated and created a skit), music, a message, and then small group time to discuss the message.

Our skit: a boy has an unlucky bus ride.

The speaker addresses our students

We have the best small group ever!!! (even if they did attack me with snow and steal my awesome flip flops. I blame Emily.)

There are certain things from “home” that are familiar and comforting when you see them in a different context. Here in Germany, some “familiar” things have taken on new meaning.

A reputable music publisher is Bärenreiter, known especially for their urtext editions of music (authentic to the composer’s original intentions, including bowings and other details). Seeing music with their name here reminds me that it is a German company, and Bären are actually bears! The name ‘Bärenreiter’ might mean something like ‘Bear rider.’ Cool and random! Gummi bears are also really good in this area (just ask David – he wants me to bring more of them home for the summer). This photo captures both the music and the gummy bears, both familiar things yet seen with new eyes.

One of my friends from high school went to Grove City College. A few people here at BFA also did. One day I slept at Liel Dorm as a sub for Lauren, the RA there. She happened to go to Grove City, so I saw her pillows and thought of my other friend! It was yet another small connection between my two homes, ironically through a third place I have never visited!

I’m way behind on blogging. There is a ton of stuff that has happened lately, so I’ll just sift through my pictures and start typing.

The BFA basketball season just ended last weekend with the championships in Wiesbaden, Germany. We had 4 home games this season, which was quite a lot – normally we only have 3. I didn’t go to every home game, but when I did go it was exciting. The following pictures are from February 17, the last home game and Senior recognition night.

It was a nail-biter, but the varsity guys lost by 1 point. The guys came in 4th in the championship tournament last weekend, though, so they redeemed this loss!