Michael Alexander: Proud

It is exciting to see students grow.  The last three days of rehearsals have made me even more excited (if that is possible) about the trip to China.  First, the musical growth of the orchestra is amazing.  The students continue to raise the bar and I am happy to keep setting it higher.  This trip will give us the rare chance to play amazing repertoire three times in quick succession.  They sound great now, I can't wait to hear the last concert in China!

I am also proud of the maturity and personal growth that the students have shown in this whole process.  They gave up part of their winter break, they all came prepared and clearly worked on their "vacations".  They are learning to be professionals in every sense of the word.

After spending three days with these students I am continually amazed at just how lucky I am to do what I get to do.  The fact that I get paid for it continues to boggle my mind.  It is a pure joy to work with people like I do.  How fortunate we are to have the support of a great administrative team, an incredible staff, colleagues with staggering talent and class, and students that are not only talented, but hard working and always seeking to improve. 

I travel today to China not nervous, but simply proud.  I am surrounded by great people and musicians doing what we love.  We will return having represented KSU well and will be changed forever by the experiences we have over the next week. 

Holly Botella: Counting the hours

We'll be boarding the buses to take us to the airport in less than 12 hours!  It's going to be extremely hard to sleep at all tonight.  I'm about to pack my suitcase while dancing around my apartment to whatever happens to be playing on 99.7 at the moment!  I'm so pumped for the trip!!!  We had our three pre-trip rehearsals this week and I think they went very well.  I'm absolutely amazed at the difference in sound of the orchestra between now and my freshman year, which was three years ago.  When I tell people where I go to school I realize that more and more people are beginning to notice the enormous growth of the music school at KSU.  I think this trip will not only help us to mature as young adults and musicians, but it will also be a great opportunity to get our name out there and be recognized internationally!  I'm anxious to meet the kids in the other orchestras in China.  We'll have a chance to interact with them on our trip.  I'll be interested to see how differently they perform/practice.  It's hard to say exactly what to expect until I actually get there.  I really have no idea, except that I know I'll have a great time and it will be a life-changing experience. 

Levi Cull: One week to go!

The trip is now seven days away!!! As this day gets closer I’m getting more and more excited. Since the semester got out I’ve been doing nothing but preparing, such as: looking over my music, practicing, listening to reference recordings (such as our performance), and figuring out what I am going to bring with me on this trip. It is really starting to sink in to me that I will soon be a world traveler and see other parts of this beautiful world. There are many places on Earth that I would like to see, and going to China is only the beginning!

           

Next week we'll be rehearsing for a couple days before we leave for the trip. In these rehearsals, we will be going over all the music that we will be performing for Chinese audiences, all the music we have previously played this past semester. As long as everyone has been practicing, the music should come together very easily. On the contrary, these rehearsals could go south quickly if the opposite is true. But, I am very confident in my fellow musicians. No one in the orchestra wants to make himself or herself or our school look bad. For that reason, we will do the best that we can to have stellar performances in China!

Samuel Grant Robinson: Looking forward to an exciting trip

With only two weeks left before we leave, the reality of the trip to China is finally settling in. What an incredible experience this is going to be. I'm so excited that our students will get to have this wonderful opportunity. Not only to travel abroad, many of them for the first time, but also to get to see a part of the world that many here don't get a chance to see. In our final meeting, we went over the itinerary, and it's incredible! We'll get the chance to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, Tian An Men Square, the Terra Cotta Tomb Warriors and all the other amazing sights. And to have the chance to perform not only in Beijing, but also the new concert hall in Xi'an! It's really amazing. I'm so looking forward to seeing how our students will interact with the students there; this opportunity to see the similarities and differences between them will give them a chance to grow in very significant ways.

It is going to be a challenge as well. The logistics of moving this many students this far away are daunting. And it stands to be a cold trip, as well, just adding to the sense of adventure. But I know in the end that it will be well worth it. It has been my experience that these kinds of trips can be transformative. Past tours that I have been part of have helped to widen my world view, helped me to understand others in ways I didn't before, and made my life richer by far. I can only hope that our students have this same experience, as I'm sure that they will. As an administrator, I am so proud of the work that our students and faculty have put into preparing for this trip. I know that they will represent themselves, the School of Music, and Kennesaw State University in the best way possible. 

Michael Alexander: Opening doors, final details, and waiting...

Our trip is just over two weeks away!  I can feel the energy starting to build toward the trip as we make final preparations.  Some amazing things have actually occurred even before we go.  First, we have a new friend in Chen Yi.  We performed her piece Momentum on our last concert of the Fall and it was amazing to see the reaction it got and how powerful the music is.  What a learning experience to be exposed to music like this that fuses a Western orchestra with Chinese music and philosophies about sound.  When we sent the recording to Ms. Chen, she responded with great accolades and some tremendous suggestions for how to make the piece even better for when we take the piece on tour.

We had an terrific orientation session with Dr. Barry Morris, Vice Provost for Global Engagement at KSU.  His energy was wonderful and I think he gave us some great tips on what to expect in China.  The whole staff of the Confucius Institute has been such a pleasure to work with and we look forward to telling them all about our trip.  All of the details are coming into place now and I must take a moment to thank Susan Grant Robinson and Dr. Harry Price for all they have done to support this venture from within the School of Music. We could not be doing this without  them.

The hardest part now is waiting. The orchestra rehearses again on December 28.  That feels like an eternity, but is only two short weeks from today!

Holly Botella: Learning Chinese

The trip is getting close!  We had our last Chinese lesson in Orchestra on Monday.  I think I've learned enough of the basics to keep myself socially afloat in China, however, I wish I would have learned how to say "Have you seen a group of Americans?" and "Which way did they go?" but I'll be sure to leave a trail of breadcrumbs back to the bus from wherever I go, just in case.  


Overall, I think the most useful knowledge I gained in the Chinese lessons was how to bargain shop.  Our teacher taught us how to say, "That's too expensive.  Can we lower the price?" We also learned numbers, days of the week, time, and how to say the names of our instruments, which I thought was pretty cool. The Chinese language is very difficult to speak.  They pay close attention to the tone of your voice, so the same word can have two different meanings just based on how you say them.  Today is the last time we meet before the trip.  We will be told what to pack for our trip, and they'll walk us through the itinerary for the week.  I'm excited for our three performances and equally eager to begin siteseeing around China!  30 DAYS!!!!! 

Levi Cull: I Cannot Wait to Go!

Upon hearing the news that the orchestra could possibly be going to China in the following year, needless to say I was a little skeptical. So many things are required to get a group as big as our orchestra to travel to another state, yet alone another country! But, I stayed optimistic, thinking of how great an experience it could be. Sure enough, the next semester arrived and Dr. Alexander (the director of the orchestra) said that we were officially going.

You can imagine how all of the students in the orchestra responded; we were all ecstatic to find this out! Yet, many of us did not have our passports (like me for example) and had to go through many lengths to get them by the date we needed them. I had to pay about $215 for mine! I was not very happy about that at the moment, but I came to accept that it was for a great cause and something that I would truly learn a great deal about not only myself as a musician but also more about other cultures and the way music affects the entire world.

On New Year's Day, when we get on a plane as one big group embarking on a trip halfway across the world this will be the first time most of the students in the orchestra will be leaving this country. For this reason, we have been having sessions with an instructor from China that has been teaching us cultural and economic information about the country so we will know how to survive better. One of the most interesting things that I have learned so far in these meetings is that Chinese language uses a great deal more voice inflection and pitch changing than does the English language. In comparison, the English language is very flat and the same throughout while the Chinese language changes many times in just one word! In the next couple meetings, we are expected to learn more about what to bring with us to China and what exactly our itinerary will be while we are over there.

The date is continually getting closer and closer. It seems as though just yesterday we had three months, but now it is almost one month out! I am getting more and more excited at every rehearsal, meeting, and information session that we have. I cannot wait to go on this tremendous journey!

Christina Volz: On Learning Chinese, Chen Yi & More

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving break and we have another Chinese class this morning. Our classes have been getting progressively more difficult and interesting as they go on (now we're expected to actually remember things... yikes!). It's been challenging to find the time and energy to study another language during this crazy period of finals at the end of the semester, but we're all trying to make it work. Hopefully, once school gets out, the orchestra will have a little more time to devote to our Chinese studies. 

I'm very excited to perform the Chen Yi in China. It's become one of my favorite pieces that we've performed in orchestra this semester. This piece has brought about a curiosity of Chinese history for me that is actually making me more excited to go (if this is possible)! I'm nervous to perform at the conservatory, but hopefully they will enjoy the concert. 

It was a struggle to come up with the payments for this trip (there were many days of eating ramen!), but the experiences one gains from international travel are priceless. I've never been to China and I'm incredibly excited to see what new experiences and perspectives this trip will bring!

Michael Alexander: An Amazing Opportunity

I will never forget the day that I was able to announce to the KSU Orchestra that we had been invited to perform in China.  The look on everyone's face was priceless.  From that day last Spring until now, it has been a whirlwind of excitement and details.

First, none of this would be possible without the amazing amount of support we have gathered from KSU and beyond.  Second, the students in the orchestra have done an incredible job to prepare what we needed to be able to have a successful trip.  Finally, the trip itself will be amazing.  In addition to being able to tour some amazing places, we will perform three incredible concerts, spend time with Chinese Conservatory Orchestras, and learn about Chinese instruments and culture.

This trip has already opened up so many doors for us.  Chen Yi, a distinguished Chinese composer and graduate of the Central Conservatory in Beijing where we will perform, has worked with us on performing her music and understanding the differences in how to interpret Chinese music.  We are so honored that a composer of this magnitude has taken such an interest in our work.  I cannot wait to be able to perform it for Chinese audiences, which will include 2,000 people at the new concert hall in Xi'an and packed houses at the Central Conservatory and Jiao Tong University.

I am incredibly proud of the orchestra after our concert last night.  What a thrill it is to work with dedicated musicians that are willing to share their passion.  The hardest part right now is knowing that we have just over 40 days until we go.  I wish it could be tomorrow!!

Holly Botella: Extremely Excited!

When I found out I was going to China, I was extremely excited!  My friends and I celebrated by going to a Chinese buffet for lunch that day (although, I'm pretty sure they don't give you a fortune cookie after every meal in China, which is a little depressing).  I've only been out of the country once and I was only nine at the time, so unfortunately I was a little too young to remember the experience.  


Now that the hardest part of preparing for the trip is over—making payments (thanks, Dad!), renewing my passport, weighing my flute and piccolo on the hanging scale located in the fruits and veggie section at Publix because they don't weigh enough to register on a bathroom scale so I could record their weight for Customs, etc.—the countdown begins!  


I'm even more pumped for the trip after our concert this week!  We performed three of the four pieces we'll be playing in China.  I was imagining what it would be like to perform for an audience of two thousand people as I was playing in the concert.  What a rush!  We'll have a series of rehearsals leading up to our much-awaited departure on December 31st.  I feel strongly that after tonight's performance we'll be very well prepared to represent the KSU School of Music in China.  43 DAYS LEFT!!!