My new Home! Amsterdam!
Wow! So, I left a few days ago to come to Amsterdam to audition for the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. I had my audition yesterday, and I’m in! So, now I’m in the process of trying to find a place to live in the short time I’m still here, make any other arrangements needed, go back home for a few weeks, and then move my life here. It’s going to be a rough summer.
I’ll apologize now that this really isn’t so much a travel informative post as a personal, so you can stop reading now if you don’t care about my life.
I left Detroit Thursday night and had a layover in Toronto. I thought I only had about an hour between, but luckily I was looking at the flight time, not the layover time, which was closer to 2 hours, because they’re in the middle of some construction at the airport, and had to be shuttled all over the place between terminals. I was NOT going to miss this flight for stupid bullshit like in Houston on the way back from Peru. But all was good, and I was soon on the way to Amsterdam. I had a shitty seat in the middle of the middle aisle, but Air Canada has some nice planes. The seats reclined so much that I was nearly laying down. If I had wanted to watch the movie, I actually had to put my seat more upright. And, Air Canada gives you free wine on the flight! So I slept right through most of it, and landed in AMS around noon of Friday, my birthday.
I had arranged to stay with a friend of a friend. Philip, an Aussie friend that graduated from the Conservatory last year, got me in contact with his friend Laura, who I was staying with. I got to her place, and soon went to Vondelpark to meet up with some other friends of hers. It was a rare beautiful day in Amsterdam, and we spent it drinking wine and eating dinner in the park. Very chill and relaxing birthday, but quite alright. And, Laura and Mareli, both South Africans, sang Happy Birthday to me in Afrikaans, which was a first for me.
I’ve been having a great time hanging out with this circle of friends, all of whom are also students or just recently graduated students of the conservatory. They’ve been a great help in finding some possible rooms for me to live in, letting me know some of the ins and outs of the school and being a student in Amsterdam and Dutch culture, lending me bikes to ride, and otherwise just being good company. Saturday night Laura had several of them over and cooked dinner, and we then proceeded to drink several bottles of wine (Mareli loves wine… and seems somewhat surprised that I can match her glass for glass… come on, I’m an American! Excessive drinking is what we do best! eh….), and talked music. It was a good time.
I spent much of Sunday practicing, and making sure I felt comfortable and working out any nerves. I was feeling pretty good about it. That night we went out for some drinks.
Monday I was up bright and early to head to the conservatory to start warming up and practicing. Didn’t want to overdo it, but just make sure I was doing good. My audition was at 13.00, though I did get a chance to talk a bit with Erik, the teacher with whom I’d be studying. I’ve met him before, and have been in contact through email, but we got a chance to talk a bit about what I wanted to do and learn, and his teaching methods.
So then the moment of truth… the audition…. I played pretty well. Of course not as good as I’d really like, but you never perform as well as you practice. It’s just how it goes, and forces you to practice even better, so that your performance is still good. But I still did pretty good. The result? Well… I’m in… though I was originally auditioning for the Master’s programme, but will not be starting it straight away. They think I could use a year to really hone and focus my playing, then take an exam after that year to see how I do. That’s perfectly fine with me. Since I haven’t even had any real instruction in the bass clarinet, for which I auditioned. For those who don’t know my background… soprano clarinet was my major instrument for my Bachelor’s degree. All my bass playing has been primarily self taught, with the aid of clarinet instructors, but nobody that really specializes in the bass. So I know there are definitely some things I still need to learn, and the teachers at the conservatory think that this extra year will get me to the point I need to be to enter the Master’s programme. Hey, it means I get an extra year of study and an extra year to live in Amsterdam, too! So, while not exactly as I’d planned, I’m still quite happy, and perhaps even moreso, with the results.
I’m now looking for a room in which to live. I have a couple possibilities from Philip and Laura’s friends, and also others from the conservatory that offered me some possibilities. The atmosphere is really very helpful. Everyone knows how difficult it can be, and tries to help out. It’s really been great. So now I’m off… I’m hoping to have some of this straightened out soon enough that I can spend some time in Spain before heading home… We’ll see….
Tags: Amsterdam, Europe, Music, Netherlands, Travel
nerokerr1
I already sent you a congrats but thought I’d leave one here for posterity…CONGRATULATIONS! So happy and excited for you…and can’t wait to visit you over in Amsterdam 🙂
Cheers!