i may be in love, maestro...

Well, its been a long time. I feel I should update you on a few things:

1) I'm not working at Kairos anymore:
that's a bummer because I really enjoyed working with the people there. On the other hand, God is much smarter than I am, and the lack of work has allowed me to visit my home church and see my sister.

2) My sister's walking...
and learning how to play mind games. All the attention from us let's her clearly know how gorgeous she actually is. And she has learned this. On one hand she's cuter than ever, but she's dramatic to get exactly what she wants.

3) I'm going to grad school!!!
I've been accepted to the University of Michigan (considered by many the top conducting school in the country), which means I'll probably go there. Although, I had a great audition at the Westminister Choir College audition last weekend.

I flew to Baltimore and rented a car at 11pm. Mom and I went got home at about 12, and I went to sleep at 1. I woke up at FIVE AM to drive this rental car three hours to Princeton, New Jersey for my audition at Westminster.

I was so excited to meet Dr. Joe Miller (the newly appointed successor to Joe Flummerfelt) and got to meet him and the other candidates in a room filled with famous conductors that have conducted the Westminister Choir (Toscanini, Bernstein, Flummerfelt, etc...).

I walked downstairs and saw Adrian Rosas who I met last summer in Austria. He was auditioning his voice for the program (and had studied with Joe Miller at the Western Michigan University).

Anywho, he took his audition and I my meeting with Joe Miller and James Jordan (who Morten Lauridsen dedicated a movement of Mid- Winter Songs to) who seemed pleased and asked me about composition, jazz piano and religion v. spirituality. I played the Bach Invention in d minor and sang "Am Feierabend" from Die Schoene Muellerin by Schubert. After that I took a pretty easy aural exam, and a not so easy sightsinging exam. I got a 100, 100, 50, and a 95 in that order of difficulty.

I went out with Adrian after lunch to find a bar because we had a free three hours. I got a vodka cranberry at a bar and we left to buy a t-shirt (found out there's no tax on clothing in NJ). Downtown Princeton is beautiful. It's old small and it all borders the gorgeous Princeton campus.

After that, I conducted THE Westminister Choir. THE WESTMINSTER CHOIR!!!! I remember a couple things: I started by saying "Hello, my name is Glen Thomas Rideout. That's Glen Thomas for short, Glen for shorter. As you turn to the Sanctus, I'll say I'm from Baltimore, Maryland but I'm going to school in Nashville, Tennessee." I figured I'd want to remember that in 30 years. On the Sanctus, I remember cueing very little and making the sections stand every time they sang the primary theme motif. After that, I worked on the Libera Me, the Requiem with Soprano solo section. I had two minutes and I said to the choir that my goal was to get a ppp (Verdi's marking). I had the back row whisper while the choir sang. The point was to create a pretty spooky, foggy foundation for the floating soprano.

Well, the students complimented me at least, as well as Dr. Megill (who teaches there).

I'll try to do the Michigan thing next entry. My left fingers are sore...