I’m on campus early, so I’m not down on the first floor yet (where there is no internet access). Instead I’m sitting near the entrance to the department (yes, it’s on the second floor), and every student that comes in first goes to the board where their jury info is posted. I did the same when I got here. It’s not as if anything has changed since the last time we all checked, so it makes me smile that every single student, along with this faculty member, has stood in front of the board just staring at it. I wonder if the students are hoping to see their name removed, so they are off the hook. Hmmm.
We talked about Vivaldi, why opera was different to a concert where people sing, why the acting looked different to what you might see in a play, why an opera performance can look either traditional or contemporary. He was really so enthusiastic about something he had slowly been learning by himself. I really wanted to cry with joy for him.
Just as the call was finished he asked a question, which I thought was great.
“What time does the support act finish?”
(RTWT)
I frequently forget that there are things a novice simply doesn’t know about opera or symphony. I remember one new attendee asking me why the conductor kept coming back to take more bows out after we had finished the concert. She had never seen that done before, having never attended a concert in her life. One woman was furious that the trumpet player left the stage during a Mahler symphony (I had to explain that he was just going back stage to play the off stage part, and that no, he didn’t just “go home because he had no more notes”.
New concert goers are always exciting to see, and they also remind us that what we do isn’t exactly just common knowledge sort of stuff all the time.
Today is “Super Saturday” at UCSC. Super Saturday actually means “Jury Saturday”. But the alliteration of Super Saturday sounds so much better and less fearsome than Jury Saturday, don’t you think? So here I am, about to head over the hill, to listen to flutists and saxes and trumpets, oh my! (Yes, I listen to the brass as well, and no, there are no oboists this time, but I’ll also catch a few clarinets, and perhaps a trombonist or tuba player (tubist? tubaist?); juries occur only at certain points in a student’s college career at UCSC. Some schools, I know, have them every semester. I’m not sure which plan I like better. I can guess which students would prefer, though!)
First Dan and I will head over to Coffeetopia. He’ll then do some Santa Cruz photography while I’m listening to the students. That way he’ll probably add even more to his gallery.
I remember two of my juries, and that’s it. I’ll have to blog about them sometime, because of course I remember them for good (or bad) reasons!
