Seaweed

I lived in Gothenburg for the summer of 2008 to work at a nursing home after spending a year at Ölands Musikteaterskola. I lived with a good friend of mine and her boyfriend in an apartment. All of us are musicians of some sort, and I remember how Terje played me some of his original songs and I was so impressed. Now he is in an awesome band called Seaweed and is making more wonderful music! I have been listening to their album non-stop. Check it out here!

It is time.

Its senior recital time! On Saturday I will sing my heart out for about an hour of music and in six different languages! I'm so excited to make music with four other student musicians as well as the accompanist I've been working with all year. So if you're in the L.A. area, come by this Saturday, April 7th, at 7:30 in Bird Studio at Occidental College for some good times. Composers featured are the following: Pauline Viardot Garcia, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Rebecca Clarke, Maria Szymanowska, Irma Urteaga, Alicia Terzian, Augusta Holmès, Elfrida Andrée, Corona Schröter, as well as W.A. Mozart, Aaron Copland, Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino and Carl Maria von Weber.

The Art Song Project

Being immersed in the classical style right now has given me a huge appreciation especially for the classical vocal technique. For my Senior project as a music major, I am to perform a 60-minute recital of vocal music. I have chosen to focus on female composers, as it angers me how underrepresented women are in composition and in the creation of music. It's not that they are not making music, it's just that nobody is listening to them! It has been a fascinating journey to uncover names and history and I know there is so much more to find. And so much more music to sing!!!In the research I have done, I came upon a talented duo who uncover lesser-known works and record them. They write great bios about each of the composers they feature, which I appreciate very much. I believe the composers' social context to be very important to the arts they create, it's consumption, and its social significance. Click here to open a new page to their blog, titled The Art Song Project. It is a collaboration of Swedish-Egyptian vocalist Hélène Nyqvist and German pianist Philipp Vogler. Through their project I found two composers I absolutely love and will be singing some of their music: Elfrida Andrée (Sweden: 1841-1929) and Augusta Holmès (France: 1847-1903). It was especially exciting to find a Swedish composer with texts in Swedish, so I could connect to my roots and sing in my other native language.By Augusta Holmès: A TrianonBy Elfrida Andrée: En vacker höstdag

When two awesomes collide

I have always loved both Ane Brun and Jose Gonzalez for their guitar parts that always tug on my heartstrings; now they've produced one of their collaborations!!!  The video is called Undersea Funeral, click here to watch it!And Ane Brun is coming to L.A. in May....I think she will be a great live performer, as she gives so much of herself in her recorded albums. Her lyrics are so honest and so true.

The Knife

[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=ezut4049mcM]At one point this was one of my favorite groups (especially for "Heartbeats" and "Girl's Night out"), and this album is super exciting to me, partly for it's weirdness. I was so surprised to hear the operatic voices take such a central role in this album!