20 Highlights of My First Tour

March 22, 2008 at 1:05 AM

Hello all!

I've been absent from my blog for months now. But I'd like to share all the exciting things from my 8-school tour with you all, as I am now completed and can look back on these things and laugh, rather than currently experiencing them and pass into hysteria. Here are the 20 most interesting experiences in my travels:

1. Illicitly staying in hotel rooms, as a sixteen-year-old travelling unaccompanied.

2. Taking the Austin bus alone at 9:00 at night, a few rows away from a crazy homeless musician (I kept thinking "That is me in twenty years...)

3. Giving directions to the taxi drivers to go to places I had never been.

4. Having the transformer blow at the hotel in the middle of a blizzard the night before my audition.

5. Chinese food in Texas, Indian food in Tennessee, Taiwanese food in Indiana, Italian food in Ohio, French food in Illinois, American food in Pennsylvania. Starbucks at every airport.

6. Hearing the Cleveland Orchestra, playing in Orchestra Hall in Chicago, playing for the concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

7. Dragging a 53 pound suitcase with all the wheels broken, 20 pound rolling piece of luggage, 15 pound backpack, and violin case...2 miles...in Pittsburgh...in February...

8. Running through hail and rain so thick I couldn't see my hand in front of my face through downtown Cleveland.

9. Going to the gorgeous Cathedrals for Mass in Austin and Pittsburgh.

10. Seeing my boyfriend in Cleveland and my family in Chicago.

11. Meeting new people at the auditions. And running into them at different auditions the next week.

12. Going to a student-run musical, a student opera, living in the dormitories, and staying with a student in her apartment.

13. Practicing on the fifth floor of a Chicago townhouse, looking out at Lake Michigan.

14. Seeing Wicked at the Oriental Theater for fun.

15. Getting six different takes on my pieces from six different teachers.

16. Splitting a seam two days after my very last audition.

17. Becoming an airport connoisseur.

18. Keeping up with homework by means of emailed assignments, phone calls, and lots of studying in airplanes. And planning gigs away from home.

19. Getting carpal tunnel and popping my shoulder partially out of its socket.

20. Learning how to play my very best under any circumstance.

And now I wait for results...:)

From Mike Lambert
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 4:45 AM

Natasha: I love you! I miss those Brevard days! Good luck! (My last sentence will not be exclamatory.) It all sounds very similar to my experiences, especially in Cleveland.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 5:23 AM

That's a great collection of interesting events. It could be the basis of a comic movie. I hope you get into the schools you really like.

From Joe Fischer
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Nice Work !
The very best of fun and adventure !

From Natasha Marsalli
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 2:04 PM

Good luck yourself, Mike! I hope everything's going really well for you.

Thanks all for your wishes! It was a lot of fun, really. :)

From E. Smith
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 5:54 PM

Impressive! You are intrepid and unstoppable. If you could survive all of this at sixteen, you'll do well no matter what schools you get into or which school you choose. I wish you the very best. Let us know your results or what you choose. I hope your carpal tunnel and your shoulder are better.

From Ruth Kuefler
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM

Oh wow, Natasha - what an adventure! Gosh, I can't believe you're only sixteen still . . . best of luck to you with your audition results! Please keep us posted. :)

From Sydney Menees
Posted on March 23, 2008 at 4:29 AM

Wow! I bet you won't be forgetting any of that... ever. :) I'm getting a mixture of regret and relief that I didn't do the whole audition thing. *sigh*

Good luck!!

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20 Highlights of My First Tour

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