Musica, Musica, MUSICA!

In April I spent many days and nights locked away in practice rooms preparing for performances. On May 5, I had a concert in the Baxter Theatre. It was my first time being on stage in a real concert hall since my high school graduation, and this was a different feeling from then. I always get nervous, but that night the color of my face matched that of the curtains. The brass section opened the concert with a fanfare, which we received 4 days before the concert. With the bright lights beaming down on me, I managed to find 23 of my American friends in the, audience, smiling and taking photos, just like proud parents at a Christmas pageant. 

This put me at ease, and also made me giggle throughout the entire performance. When I get nervous, I giggle uncontrollably, and this made my already rosy cheeks even more rich with color. The performance lasted two hours; afterward I was greeted by my friends and I thanked them for coming: I haven’t had so many friends come to a performance since my jazz concerts in high school. It felt really great to share with them what I’ve been away doing all semester. After the performance, the college of music held a party with an open bar back at school. I shared conversation with my professors and peers over cocktails in the halls we walk each day. Though it was a great night, I had to concentrate on my solo performance, which will be judged, coming up in June. Back to work, I suppose. When I’m not in the practice rooms I can be found nerding it up in the music library, either obsessing over my most recent find in the CD collection or working on my senior thesis for my music degree. I have finished a first draft of my paper on the music of apartheid, which my African music professor is looking over. He is setting me up to interview several musicians who were exiled by the government during apartheid.

 I can’t wait to share my findings with everyone when I return to the states. I have been given so many opportunities and resources in South Africa to explore music in a number of ways I have never before been able to, and I’ve made sure to take advantage of all of them. I’ve been able to develop as a musician, scholar and young adult by studying, practicing, performing, and volunteering. I’ll be writing soon about my musical therapy work with children who have been severely burned, orphaned, and those who are suffering from HIV/AIDS. I also teach music to children in Langa, the township where my host family stays, and I have one private adult student, so I'm keeping quite busy! Though I’m quite certain a blog entry cannot begin to do these experiences the smallest degree of justice, I’ll attempt to put it to words in my next entry. 

P.S. I’ve gotten several emails from those of you who desire to comment on my posts: I think I fixed the problem now. So give it a go if you so choose…

Electioneering and Wine Country

Hey! While the American media was following the life and times of Miss California, South Africa held a presidential election. This historical presidential election was quite different than the one I took part in last November, but very interesting nonetheless. It’s interesting, I say, to study the multiparty system, and in South Africa, one votes for the party and not the candidate. There are 9 provinces in SA, so one votes both provincially and presidentially. Jacob Zuma and the ANC won with over 2/3 majority, meaning he can do basically whatever he wants. The ANC is Mandela’s party that liberated the people from  apartheid. Within the ANC, there are two major tribes: Xhosa (Mandela) and Zulu (Zuma). I’ll keep my political views out of this, but I’ll say I hope Zuma fulfills his promises to the people who elected him. Another thing I’ll say is I am shocked at the poor voter turnout. I thought the U.S. turnout was bad enough, but voting day is a public holiday in SA. I’ll never understand why people living in democratic countries don’t vote…

Now to something totally different. If you didn’t know, South Africa’s wine country rivals those in Europe. Stellenbosch offers tourists excellent wine tasting, and wine tours are popular among study abroad students, so I hopped on the bandwagon with my friends and spent the weekend there. The weather was perfect and the weekend was relaxing , but I realized I know absolutely nothing about wine. We toured four vineyards and tasted an array of wine and cheeses. To someone like me all the reds taste the same, all the whites taste the same, and I can never remember the name or taste of a wine I consumed five minutes earlier. Throughout the day we had the opportunity to taste about 40 wines, but I probably capped at about 8. I felt goofy swirling the wines and discussing the fig, berry, or rose petal tastes, which I couldn’t taste at all. I opted for a tall glass of orange juice at the lunch we were provided, and even though I’m no wine connoisseur, I had a lot of fun venturing though wine country with my friends. 

Some kids are buying bottles/cases to bring back to their families as I opt for postcards. It’s probably better that way because I wouldn’t trust myself to pick out a nice wine.