Thursday, November 3rd. Day 67.

Today was finally the day of the New Music Arena, for which I was partly responsible for organizing. The New Music Arena is a monthly concert put on by the composition department to showcase CvA composers and their latest works. As an organizer, I was responsible for selecting pieces, programming, rehearsing, sound-checking, and generally putting on the concert. Despite the fact that I relied on my fellow organizers to do far more of the prep work than I, it was great practice for an activity that professional composers will no doubt face in the future.

During the actual performance, I was responsible for stage directions and lights. In my totally bias opinion, I think the whole concert went really well. All the pieces were really great, all the performers did well, and there were no train wrecks (other than the piano tech coming in during the rehearsal of an extended-technique piano piece, which had to be scrapped).

After the concert was composition forum class, where we discussed the concert. I think the students were all very receptive and supportive of what was widely considered an "unconventional" program. There were three pieces that were more "pop" than they were "classical", written and performed by classical composition students. I was afraid they would be ridiculed for being "in the wrong program" or writing "inferior music". However, this was not the case at all. I was happy to see that the students and professors were supportive and not hypocritical with regards to their self expressed acceptance record.

Later, a few of us met at a really sketchy boat restaurant to talk and get to know each other a little better. To top off the fun, we later moved to someone's apartment to house-party it up and eat some home-made pasta (made by a real-life Italian!). Needless to say, it was one of the better days I have ever had, and just one day after my RoS experience.