July 5, 2005 at 7:32 PM

Only one week left until I get to experience true Canadian billinguality (is that a word?)! Quebec city! Then further, where no man has gone before! Well....ok, obviously some have, otherwise there wouldn't be such an amazing internation festival! I've set as a high priority on my list of things to do as a tourist, a visit to a chocolate museum. How can you go to a city where they have a chocolate museum and not go, right? But to the actual festival...

Domaine Forget has got to have one of the most awesome views for a festival. Right on the St. Lawrence River....mountainous backdrop....historical buildings...beautiful landscapes that make your jaw hit the floor. I have tickets to the Quebec Symphony on the 16th; Martin Chalifour (LA Phil concertmaster) is playing the Dvorak Concerto with and then is doing some masterclasses for a few days, which should be exciting! The concerts are amazing. There's over 25 alone in July and almost 20 in August! It's unreal! I'm so excited to be going. The festival suffered a huge loss towards the middle of June though. There was a fire which completely wiped out the cafeteria, main pavillion and some of the practice rooms. This building was a historic building built in 1900 by the man that the festival is named after. You can see pictures of the fire here. The Sunday brunch concert series was cancelled due to the fire and there was over 1 million dollars in damages done.

On Sunday I received notification from the other program I auditioned for, that I had been accepted! Wow! Accepted into two programs, both of which I never expected to get into! This is the program I would have preferred to go to, but it was also the least likely for me to get into as they accept very few players and the level is very high. It was a huge suprise to get in and I'm really sad I won't be able to go but it is hugely exciting to know I got in! I'm definetly auditioning again there next year!

Packing for this long summer excursion is proving to be interesting. "Do I really need three pairs of pants or can I manage with two?" "Do I take Nineteen Eightfour or Great Expectations?" So many questions and so many..."do I this?" "do I that?" I should leave at least a little bit of room (if that's possible) for bringing momentos home. I mean you can't go to the chocolate museum without bringing some chocolate home for everyone to try right? Some things I'll have less of coming home will be stamps, kleenex pocket packs and bug repellent but so far, aside from maybe some granola bars, that's about it.

Aside from the excitment and anticipation (and nerves!) of getting ready for and being at Quebec, I've still managed to get some practicing in! It's been very summery here the last while so things have gotten rather warm outside. It's nice to see the whole valley warm up with the weather. You can tell it's tourist season. The fact that several hundreds (or is it thousands?) of people come from all over for the Elvis Festival and then we have the Peach Festival and some other smaller events and then it's Ironman keeps the area pretty busy with tourists and a lot of annoyed locals who want to go the speed limit on the twisted roads that overlook the lake. There are several wineries between where I live and town and the view is amazing but when you get people who aren't used to driving curvy roads and who gawk at the view while doing their wine tours, it can be a bit maddening. Oh well...I can put up with them for one more week. Then I become the tourist!

Well I guess I should get back to practicing!

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on July 5, 2005 at 9:16 PM

Better to have and not need than to need and not have. You can pack really small. Learn how to roll your clothes up you'll never need a presser or extra bag again.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on July 7, 2005 at 8:27 AM

The Chocolate, the city of Quebec, and 45 concerts in July and August! Wow! Have a great time and write to us about it!

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July 5, 2005 at 7:32 PM

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