Friday October 7th. Day 41

What a day! Jazz combo in the morning, went pretty well. It is quite exhausting to nit-pick the whole rehearsal, but I know that is what we have to do to get better. After a brief, self-imposed freak-out session about deadlines/workload/priorities, I sat in a practice room for a good few hours and tried to teach myself jazz harmony. Needless to say it was quite difficult, but I do feel that I have a better understanding because of it.

A while later, after resolving to not spend another Friday night alone in the room, I went to a concert at the Muziekgebouw with some IES friends and their friend from Argentina. The Amsterdam Sinfonietta performed Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a theme by 'Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, Bach's Violin Concerto no. 2, and Britten's Serenade for Tenor and Horn (!). Needless to say, the concert was stunning. It wasn't until mvmt 5 that I remembered that the Serenade was, if I remember correctly, the first piece I ever "studied" (I put that in quotes because I didn't really understand how to score study at this time, so I was mostly just reading along with the recording. That would also explain why I didn't remember studying it).

After the concert, my friend's friend invited us all to his place for dinner (despite the fact that is was quite late at this point). He whipped us up some dang good pasta with homemade sause, and we listened to music and all that good stuff. By around 2am, we had noticed that someone in the room below him was having way too much fun, so we decided to investigate. It turns out that they were having a housewarming party, as they had just moved in. Somehow, the entire apartment complex is comprised of solely music students and musicians. Most of the people at the party had already graduated, so it was great to meet some new people. All in all, it was such a great ending to a day that began rather benign.