This Past Weekend

So I have literally been on the go all weekend. So Friday we went to the market for German class, and it was pouring. Not just raining...pouring. It was kind of awful, but after that we went to McDonalds to talk about our findings at the market, and lets just say, even their Mickey Ds is better than ours. Haha. Then I practiced and headed to lunch. It was pretty normal that day with some type of fish. After lunch we headed to a great masterclass with one of the vocal coaches. He is great, he had a lot of great advice for us as young singers. After that we headed to the competition winners recital. It was phenomenal! They were fantastic. The final singer ended with the most moving rendition of Ride on King Jesus that I have ever experienced in my life. And the venue was absolutely gorgeous. After that we headed to dinner with a group and then went back to the dorms to get some much needed sleep.

On Saturday we were all up bright and early. We went on a tour of all of the festival houses. It was amazing. We got to walk and sing on the stages. So much fun! After that we headed back to the dorms to practice and get ready for that night. We had tickets to a Lieder recital featuring Anja Harteros. She was really fantastic and had some outstanding musical moments. After that we headed out for the night to just relax and have some fun with everyone from the program, it was quite a night. The next day we just relaxed and prepared ourselves for the final full week of the program.

This program is really helping me to pinpoint what i need to work on as an overall singer-performer. Right now it looks like an insurmountable amount of work ahead of me, but i just have to stay positive and have faith in myself. The next two years are going to be crazy and super intense. Im ready to really commit and make this my craft rather than my major. Short cuts get you no where and the only thing that works is if you put in the man hours.

If you arent a singer, you have no idea what a rollercoaster it truly is. One day you sound great and you are super confident about what u bring to the table and the next day it sounds like crap and you are ready to find a new career path. This is not for the faint of heart, and really takes a strong person. Because one person may think you are fantastic and the next may think that you suck. It is so subjective.
Well I have a busy day ahead of me, so check back later for an update from today, ciao!
Living the Dream,
Lauren Frick