KU MUSIC BLOG

Welcome to the new University of Kansas School of Music blog! We are thrilled to introduce this to the community. We hope you will become a regular visitor and get a glimpse into the lives of our students, faculty and alumni!


There are so many exciting things going on right now with the KU School of Music. For example, just over the past year we can boast two winners of Fulbright awards: a student and faculty member!  Additionally, KU music students swept the 2012 Naftzger Young Artist Auditions, taking home all top prizes; two of our students took home top awards from the coveted 2012 DownBeat magazine's annual Student Music Awards; one of our students is currently performing in the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in China, and much more! We are also enjoying another wonderful summer of music exchange with Lawrence's sister city, Eutin, Germany. Thirty-three of our students--instrumentalists and vocalists-- traveled to Eutin this summer and are performing three operas, two orchestral concerts and two chamber concerts. Joining the students is one of our distinguished graduates, Hugo Vera. Vera is currently performing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and he'll join the group in performances of Nabucco.


Speaking of Eutin, we wanted to bring as much of the Eutin experience to the public as possible (because it is that wonderful and exciting!), so we've asked two of our touring students to contribute to this first blog. Below we've included entries from Katina Bilberry, a student pursuing her Master of Music degree, and John Meyer, an undergraduate studying for his degree in voice. Enjoy and Rock Chalk KU Music! (Photo credit: Kerstin E. Ahrens)

KU orchestra students in Eutin, 2012. From front row to back, left to right:
Katina Bilberry, Evan Flynn
Doug Perry, Patrick Timmis, Mai Tadokoro
Matt Straus, Ethan Bartley, Stephen Meiller

Pete Walker, Grant Bingham, Jessica Findley

Katina Bilberry: Eutin or bust!

Well, to start off, our commute from the U.S. to Germany was full of a series of unfortunate events.  Our one day journey took four days.  First, our flight was delayed from Denver which made us miss our flight to Copenhagen. We finally made it to Germany and on the way to Eutin, a tree fell on the railroad tracks and we had to take a bus to Eutin.  Was it difficult?  YES! Was it memorable?  YES!  Did it feel like it would never end?  YES!  However, if you know the saying, "No pain, no gain,” you would know that through that ordeal we definitely gained something.  We were able to bond together as a group and keep each other going, and that speaks volumes to the integrity of my fellow classmates.  

Since arriving in Eutin, we have been able to support each other and learn to lean on one another through a heavy rehearsal schedule and even develop house rules (quiet hours) for the Bethesdahaus.  I'm impressed.  Already I can tell that this summer is going to be one of the best summers thus far in Eutin, Germany.  

Last year it rained just about every day, but this year, not so much.  The festival's organizers have been wonderful and have welcomed us with open arms.  If you were to ask me if the commute was worth the experience, I would reply with a resounding “Yes!” because so far it has been worth it.  

The orchestra this year is so amazing.  Last year we were all students.  This year the KU students are mixed with professional players from various parts of Europe.  They are some of the most amazing musicians in the world.  We are learning so much.  I've been able to count seven to eight languages so far.  We have (of course) German, and next is Russian, Armenian, English, Italian, French, and Spanish.  Wow!  Talk about an international experience!!!  I love this place.  Being able to perform with musicians of such high caliber is great! -- Katina Bilberry, MM student 

John Meyer's take on Eutin: "...we felt right at home."

Eutin is absolutely beautiful and the people here are so nice to all of the Americans. It was a very long journey to get here. We missed our original flight from Chicago to Copenhagen because our flight from Kansas City was delayed, and we had to travel an extra three days with two extra flights and many train rides. But we finally arrived safe and sound. We were welcomed by some of the interns working in Eutin as well as the person in charge of the sister city relationship between Lawrence and Eutin. We received a free meal and free drinks upon our arrival, and we felt right at home.

           

The following morning the singers went straight to staging Nabucco at 10 am. We were all pretty nervous about what it was going to be like on our first day, but it all turned out alright and all the residents that were in the opera were very friendly to us. Our director is very nice and she finishes a lot in a short amount of time. I think that we had the whole opera staged in only three days, and it was definitely an experience. The music that we are singing is great and the voices we are singing with are very good. This is a great experience for us because most of us have not been in the professional world of opera yet.

We are trying to work in some travel time on our days off, so my friends and I just traveled to Lubeck for two days and it was an amazing place to see. We hope to visit Hamburg and Berlin before we come back to America. Everything is running smoothly with Nabucco! -- John Meyer, BM voice student