Musical college updates! :D

Written by Joshua Iyer
Published: August 26, 2015 at 3:07 AM [UTC]

I've had my first few days here at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and they've all been fun and eventful! Musically speaking, I had my audition for the orchestra (in terms of seating) today at 4pm, and Dr. Culver said I was a very good player and he couldn't wait to have me in the orchestra. We will be rehearsing Monday and Thursday evenings from 7:30pm - 9:30pm, so I can't wait to have a couple evenings a week just devoted to playing with my favorite object in the world. (And it's cool walking through the campus and seeing all the trees here, thinking about how violins were made.) I'm also not planning on taking violin lessons this term, but I will do so eventually. I haven't really had time to truly obsess over the violin itself specifically, but I'm certainly excited for all the musical things to come (and whenever I hold my violin I will get excited, most of the time I keep it in my locker in the music building)! Dr. Bancks, my composition professor, gave me my first lesson today. Throughout this term, I am to compose a piece based heavily on Ravel's "Menuet Antique", and then I will be orchestrating that piece, as that is what Ravel himself did. This will allow me to focus on form, orchestration, gestures, etc. and do so in the world of my favorite composer. The Music 111 class I take in the mornings is pretty cool so far, too, where it's an encompassing course about all music. I tested out of the Theory portion, however. Overall, I am very much looking forward to a great term, and a great next four years of my life! They're going to fly by....

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