I woke up this morning to find yesterdays headache still hanging about. It is not a migraine, just plain headache. I think it has to do with a wisdom tooth which is moving a bit. My whole jaw has felt bruised and tender, my throat quite sore (but I have no problems with swallowing) so I'm pretty sure it's my tooth who is nagging at me.
The baroque ensemble had rehearsal from 2 (or 13.30, since the orchestra finished early) and we locked the door around 5. Carole, Laima and I walked together to the city. Laima had never walked the seaway, so we took her there, and later to the "Husfliden" so she could buy some more knitting yarn.
Carole looked at me, and decided to take med to her house to feed me and have a little chat over a cup of hot tea. One of her sons, Torkil, had made some dinner and had to do some homework. It felt really nice to be in a real home and do everyday stuff like listening to his guitar practice and talk about molecules, and be fed without having to go to the shop first.
After a while the house filled up with more boys, and Harald came too. He had been to an after-audition-dinner but had to go out again for some milk so he drove me home.
Thank you for taking care of me!
Now I'm just home waiting for Rob to finish his work :)
tirsdag 18. november 2008
mandag 17. november 2008
Social Tonje :)
Friday was Rob's day from hell at work. That means, he had a whole-day-shift (10-23.30) in the kitchen. I was off, if you don't count my practice hours..
I'm still trying to get to know the baroque cello (it feels better every day), but this day I got to know that a violin maker was in the building. He had brought some good bows with him so I was eager to try them. It turned out to be quite ok, but not much better than what I have at the moment. Still searching! (Helene, it was orange. Orange!)
And at 17 I had an appointment with Arne, our previous house-owner. He was to pick me up in front of the gate to Bjergsted. In stead, I found a car just behind the gates (inside the park) with Arne's son behind the wheel. We were both invited for dinner (Rob too, of course, but...).
This was my first visit to their new flat (they sold their old, big blue house before the summer vacation) and it is great! It was already dark when we arrived so I couldn't see the surroundings very well. But, Rob and I popped by today as well, and the view from their balcony is AMAZING!!
The whole evening was just really great. They are almost like an extra set of parents :)
Saturday was quite the same. Rob didn't have a marathon at work, but started around 14 until 22. I joined him to the city so I could practice a bit, and at 18 I was supposed to be at a dinner party at Merethe's place. It turned out to be a waffle-gløgg-make:choreography:to:"I feel good" party with Merethe, her teacher friend and me. Nice, and quite fun! (Merethe, you have to tell me how the 20 guys did it with their mooves!)
I'm still trying to get to know the baroque cello (it feels better every day), but this day I got to know that a violin maker was in the building. He had brought some good bows with him so I was eager to try them. It turned out to be quite ok, but not much better than what I have at the moment. Still searching! (Helene, it was orange. Orange!)
And at 17 I had an appointment with Arne, our previous house-owner. He was to pick me up in front of the gate to Bjergsted. In stead, I found a car just behind the gates (inside the park) with Arne's son behind the wheel. We were both invited for dinner (Rob too, of course, but...).
This was my first visit to their new flat (they sold their old, big blue house before the summer vacation) and it is great! It was already dark when we arrived so I couldn't see the surroundings very well. But, Rob and I popped by today as well, and the view from their balcony is AMAZING!!
The whole evening was just really great. They are almost like an extra set of parents :)
Saturday was quite the same. Rob didn't have a marathon at work, but started around 14 until 22. I joined him to the city so I could practice a bit, and at 18 I was supposed to be at a dinner party at Merethe's place. It turned out to be a waffle-gløgg-make:choreography:to:"I feel good" party with Merethe, her teacher friend and me. Nice, and quite fun! (Merethe, you have to tell me how the 20 guys did it with their mooves!)
lørdag 15. november 2008
A day off!
It feels incredibly good to be able to sleep in, not run around in the kitchen in the morning to grab some food before chasing the bus (which may or may not come. It seems to me that the timetables here are only for giving the impression that they exist. They don't really have anything to do with the buses, except - of course- when you are late.
Despite my morning exercise and bus related anger, I've had a great week in SSO. I didn't play the Schnittke Concerto Grosso, so I had actually quite a lot of spare time. I listened to the performances, and Benedicte and Kristina did a great job!! (They were the soloists this week)
I don't think the first half of the concert was appealing to every concert goer, and the lack of audience kind of proved that. Roberts comment was also confirming my suspicions. (Mum, can I say this??)
I was very touched when I came to the dressing room and found my locker. It still had my name on it!! Awww, it felt very much like coming home then.
Yesterday we had concert number 2, in Tysvær. So, another bus trip for almost two hours, with a 20 min. ferry crossing in the middle. Hanako was not very pleased with that after the Kyrkjelyd project. She usually get car sick even on ordinary bus travels in the city...
We left the concert hall ca. 16.10, but when we came to the feery, we had lost sight of the second bus. We decided to board the ferry anyway. The second bus was of course not on the ferry.
It all ended up with the concert being 15 min. late, and our seat rehearsal (for testing sound and repairing flaws from the day before) got cancelled.
Some pre-concert-excitement :)
Despite my morning exercise and bus related anger, I've had a great week in SSO. I didn't play the Schnittke Concerto Grosso, so I had actually quite a lot of spare time. I listened to the performances, and Benedicte and Kristina did a great job!! (They were the soloists this week)
I don't think the first half of the concert was appealing to every concert goer, and the lack of audience kind of proved that. Roberts comment was also confirming my suspicions. (Mum, can I say this??)
I was very touched when I came to the dressing room and found my locker. It still had my name on it!! Awww, it felt very much like coming home then.
Yesterday we had concert number 2, in Tysvær. So, another bus trip for almost two hours, with a 20 min. ferry crossing in the middle. Hanako was not very pleased with that after the Kyrkjelyd project. She usually get car sick even on ordinary bus travels in the city...
We left the concert hall ca. 16.10, but when we came to the feery, we had lost sight of the second bus. We decided to board the ferry anyway. The second bus was of course not on the ferry.
It all ended up with the concert being 15 min. late, and our seat rehearsal (for testing sound and repairing flaws from the day before) got cancelled.
Some pre-concert-excitement :)
onsdag 12. november 2008
Time goes fast when having fun...
I have lots to put down in my blog, so now it'll all come in one big one. I think it'll be A' la Helene...
After coming to Stavanger on Monday I started to get acquainted with the baroque cello. I thought I had a mountain of time to spend on it, but on Thursday night I got a phone from a very stressed singer in Bodø who needed a cellist for their Sunday concert on "All Saints Day" (Allhelgensdag).
So, I left Robert back in Stavanger (I think he feels a little forgotten some times, since I leave him all the time...) and headed for the city who is a little north of the polar circle. On Friday I had a rehearsal with the Baroque ensemble at 12, but 14.15 I had to run off to catch the 15.30 plane. Unfortunately I didn't have a seat for my cello so Anders Moberg (a cellist in SSO) was so kind to lend me his flightcase. A cello to send always takes time, so I was very stressed to get to Sola Airport in time. Luckily the Friday rush-hour had not reached its peak yet (it usually gets pretty jammed on the roads around that time...) so since Robert offered to drive me there it was no problem at all.
I have to say that I find it a bit strange how they think about dangerous artifacts in the security check. They had absolutely no problems with 5 knitting needles...
18 I was in Bodø, got a ride from the not-anymore-so-stressed-singer to the church and warmed up before the evening rehearsal for "Kystrequiem". (Coast Requiem)
It turned out that a lot of my colleagues from the Music Conservatoire in Trondheim was playing in the orchestra (small ensemble, only 6 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, 1 double bass, piano, perk, flute and trumpet), even the composer! And not to forget Ingvild. I was so happy to see her!!
Our conductor was a bit nervous; she had never conducted an orchestra before. I must say she did a lot better than many of the more experienced choir-conductors I've seen before. She did a great job!
When I was in Bodø, I thought I could drop by Paulines aunt and cousin. Aunt Arnhild was quite well despite her back problems, and she was very talkative. On Saturday night I went to eat with cousin Mart and his wife Tatjana. I had never met her before, and it's long time since I've seen Mart, so it was incredibly nice to talk to them! I learned a lot about "hellerisstninger" in caves around Bodø, about the Russian language, problems with Norwegian and music.
Later that night, all the musicians were invited for a bacalao party at Sveinars (the pianist) house. He had an amazing flat - it looked just like it was cut out of a magasine where they show a great retro style or how to make a flat feel open and full of space but at the same time keep the atmosphere warm.
Sunday before the concert, Ingvilds parents invited me to have dinner with them at their house. It was a super thing to do before the requiem. The concert wouldn't have felt as good as it did if I had to try to find a restaurant on my own (or with the other musicians in the hotel) and then probably stress about the time... Ingvild, you have a great family! (Just missed Margrete, but on the other had, I had lunch with her the week before.)
Monday (3rd of November) I had a very early flight. 6.50 is not really my favorite hour..
And when I got to Oslo airport it was foggy so of course the planes were not on time. Bjørn Pettersen called me when I was sitting there, half asleep."Hello Tonje. Where in the world are you?" I seriously got a fright. Did I miss the rehearsal with Kyrkjelyd now? It was originally planned to be from 10-13 and then again from 16-19 but it was postponed to 15. I thought I remembered this. But with that kind of call you don't feel secure about it anymore.. No, I wasn't late. It was Sirkka-Liisa whose plane from Krakow was late so he wondered if it would be ok to have rehearsal from 19-22 instead. Phew!!!!
It was a pretty pale cellist in the quartet that evening, even though I had a few hours of rest between my flights and the rehearsal. But it was great fun to play the Yano-Yanovsky piece!!
We were only the string players, so we made all these great plans that Mona (our soprano) were going to conduct us a bit. She got pretty anxious about that when we finally told her Tuesday morning. "..to ask a soprano to do such a thing! Yes, they are really known for their sense of rhythm..." She managed pretty well! I know for my self that I would have been lost quite a few times during our 5 concerts if she hadn't. To swap between 3:2, 6:4, 5:4 and 7:4 is not always very easy without conductor.
Wednesday, time for our first concert. It was to be held in Sola Ruinkirke, and all the players were put together in a tiny bus which Bjørn drove. That was the first time I saw all the musicians in the project. Well, I had met the Libaneese singers for 2 minutes before our first rehearsal in the Dom, but I don't count that one. There were 5 of them in the Byzantine Music Group of Lebanon, an American percussionist, and then the 5 of us. The bus was absolutely packed, and with an extra person (a sound-engineer student) with loads of equip ment and my huge cello case it got pretty crowded.
We had 5 concerts all in all, and with a lot of travelling time we got to know each other quite well. The churches were all very sweet and small, cold (with a slowly working heating system) but cozy - and we got some food and hot drinks for the break between rehearsal and concert. The numbers of audience was not very great, but never less than 24. (I counted!) And absolutely everything were documented, either by digital cameras, video cameras or stored as audio files on a computer. Sirkka-Liisa baptised this project as "the paparazzi-project". This was all due to the sweet Libaneese singers. They have a church choir at home (Libanon) with rehearsals 1-2 times a week and sings for sunday mass. (They are christian arabs! I got upset when I learned that they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem because of being arabs.)
Here you can see some of the ads for our project:
Music from the Middle East
Aftenbladet
The last concert was held in the Stavanger Dom. And quite a lot of people came to listen! Ilmari, Petro and Ivan came too. They are very supportive! (I know there might have been other musicians there too, but these were the only ones I saw...) And Robi of course! I was so happy that he liked the concert. I was a little ancious about it since it all were quite meditative, but I had nothing to worry about. Afterwords, we had to gather together at the restaurant calle Bevaremegvel. 21.45 came the waiter and asked to get all the orders straight away because the kitchen would close exactly at 22. Since we were only 4 people there (Sirkka-Liisa and me being the only musicians) we thought it better to move to another restaurant. Robert fixed it so we could be at the Italian one across the street. They held their restaurant open only for us (only demand from them was: only pasta or pizza to be ordered. Or salads. Which was fine by us.)
It was a grea t fare-well party. I'm only sorry that Hanako missed it, and that Carole, Robert and I all had to be at work early next morning so we couldn't party for long.
I know I have got some new friends for life, and a little bit wider horizon.
Thank you!!!
...and now I'm back in the Scandinavian mood again with orchestra rehearsals, rain and other every-day tasks. But it feels also incredibly nice to be back in SSO, even for only 1 week.
(pictures will be uploaded when I find my chord..)
Location: Stavanger, in Roberts borrowed flat
Mood: Nostalgic, but happy
Eating: Should have eaten hours ago
Drinkin: Nipping to coffee which I bought for Roberts birthday
Listening to: The fridge. Sounds tempting!
After coming to Stavanger on Monday I started to get acquainted with the baroque cello. I thought I had a mountain of time to spend on it, but on Thursday night I got a phone from a very stressed singer in Bodø who needed a cellist for their Sunday concert on "All Saints Day" (Allhelgensdag).
So, I left Robert back in Stavanger (I think he feels a little forgotten some times, since I leave him all the time...) and headed for the city who is a little north of the polar circle. On Friday I had a rehearsal with the Baroque ensemble at 12, but 14.15 I had to run off to catch the 15.30 plane. Unfortunately I didn't have a seat for my cello so Anders Moberg (a cellist in SSO) was so kind to lend me his flightcase. A cello to send always takes time, so I was very stressed to get to Sola Airport in time. Luckily the Friday rush-hour had not reached its peak yet (it usually gets pretty jammed on the roads around that time...) so since Robert offered to drive me there it was no problem at all.
I have to say that I find it a bit strange how they think about dangerous artifacts in the security check. They had absolutely no problems with 5 knitting needles...
18 I was in Bodø, got a ride from the not-anymore-so-stressed-singer to the church and warmed up before the evening rehearsal for "Kystrequiem". (Coast Requiem)
It turned out that a lot of my colleagues from the Music Conservatoire in Trondheim was playing in the orchestra (small ensemble, only 6 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, 1 double bass, piano, perk, flute and trumpet), even the composer! And not to forget Ingvild. I was so happy to see her!!
Our conductor was a bit nervous; she had never conducted an orchestra before. I must say she did a lot better than many of the more experienced choir-conductors I've seen before. She did a great job!
When I was in Bodø, I thought I could drop by Paulines aunt and cousin. Aunt Arnhild was quite well despite her back problems, and she was very talkative. On Saturday night I went to eat with cousin Mart and his wife Tatjana. I had never met her before, and it's long time since I've seen Mart, so it was incredibly nice to talk to them! I learned a lot about "hellerisstninger" in caves around Bodø, about the Russian language, problems with Norwegian and music.
Later that night, all the musicians were invited for a bacalao party at Sveinars (the pianist) house. He had an amazing flat - it looked just like it was cut out of a magasine where they show a great retro style or how to make a flat feel open and full of space but at the same time keep the atmosphere warm.
Sunday before the concert, Ingvilds parents invited me to have dinner with them at their house. It was a super thing to do before the requiem. The concert wouldn't have felt as good as it did if I had to try to find a restaurant on my own (or with the other musicians in the hotel) and then probably stress about the time... Ingvild, you have a great family! (Just missed Margrete, but on the other had, I had lunch with her the week before.)
Monday (3rd of November) I had a very early flight. 6.50 is not really my favorite hour..
And when I got to Oslo airport it was foggy so of course the planes were not on time. Bjørn Pettersen called me when I was sitting there, half asleep."Hello Tonje. Where in the world are you?" I seriously got a fright. Did I miss the rehearsal with Kyrkjelyd now? It was originally planned to be from 10-13 and then again from 16-19 but it was postponed to 15. I thought I remembered this. But with that kind of call you don't feel secure about it anymore.. No, I wasn't late. It was Sirkka-Liisa whose plane from Krakow was late so he wondered if it would be ok to have rehearsal from 19-22 instead. Phew!!!!
It was a pretty pale cellist in the quartet that evening, even though I had a few hours of rest between my flights and the rehearsal. But it was great fun to play the Yano-Yanovsky piece!!
We were only the string players, so we made all these great plans that Mona (our soprano) were going to conduct us a bit. She got pretty anxious about that when we finally told her Tuesday morning. "..to ask a soprano to do such a thing! Yes, they are really known for their sense of rhythm..." She managed pretty well! I know for my self that I would have been lost quite a few times during our 5 concerts if she hadn't. To swap between 3:2, 6:4, 5:4 and 7:4 is not always very easy without conductor.
Wednesday, time for our first concert. It was to be held in Sola Ruinkirke, and all the players were put together in a tiny bus which Bjørn drove. That was the first time I saw all the musicians in the project. Well, I had met the Libaneese singers for 2 minutes before our first rehearsal in the Dom, but I don't count that one. There were 5 of them in the Byzantine Music Group of Lebanon, an American percussionist, and then the 5 of us. The bus was absolutely packed, and with an extra person (a sound-engineer student) with loads of equip ment and my huge cello case it got pretty crowded.
We had 5 concerts all in all, and with a lot of travelling time we got to know each other quite well. The churches were all very sweet and small, cold (with a slowly working heating system) but cozy - and we got some food and hot drinks for the break between rehearsal and concert. The numbers of audience was not very great, but never less than 24. (I counted!) And absolutely everything were documented, either by digital cameras, video cameras or stored as audio files on a computer. Sirkka-Liisa baptised this project as "the paparazzi-project". This was all due to the sweet Libaneese singers. They have a church choir at home (Libanon) with rehearsals 1-2 times a week and sings for sunday mass. (They are christian arabs! I got upset when I learned that they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem because of being arabs.)
Here you can see some of the ads for our project:
Music from the Middle East
Aftenbladet
The last concert was held in the Stavanger Dom. And quite a lot of people came to listen! Ilmari, Petro and Ivan came too. They are very supportive! (I know there might have been other musicians there too, but these were the only ones I saw...) And Robi of course! I was so happy that he liked the concert. I was a little ancious about it since it all were quite meditative, but I had nothing to worry about. Afterwords, we had to gather together at the restaurant calle Bevaremegvel. 21.45 came the waiter and asked to get all the orders straight away because the kitchen would close exactly at 22. Since we were only 4 people there (Sirkka-Liisa and me being the only musicians) we thought it better to move to another restaurant. Robert fixed it so we could be at the Italian one across the street. They held their restaurant open only for us (only demand from them was: only pasta or pizza to be ordered. Or salads. Which was fine by us.)
It was a grea t fare-well party. I'm only sorry that Hanako missed it, and that Carole, Robert and I all had to be at work early next morning so we couldn't party for long.
I know I have got some new friends for life, and a little bit wider horizon.
Thank you!!!
...and now I'm back in the Scandinavian mood again with orchestra rehearsals, rain and other every-day tasks. But it feels also incredibly nice to be back in SSO, even for only 1 week.
(pictures will be uploaded when I find my chord..)
Location: Stavanger, in Roberts borrowed flat
Mood: Nostalgic, but happy
Eating: Should have eaten hours ago
Drinkin: Nipping to coffee which I bought for Roberts birthday
Listening to: The fridge. Sounds tempting!
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