Let me introduce myself. At the time of writing this, I am a 19 year old music student in my second year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. I play the viola, and because of this fact, 50% of my weekdays are spent playing viola, or nerding about music, and the other 50% are spent sleeping, drinking highly caffeinated drinks, smoking, and listening to music. Thats just the way things have to be if I want to succeed. I play in numerous orchestras, I sing in multiple choirs, I've played piano since I was 3, violin since I was 8, viola since I was 13, and I've sung since I could talk.
This is what I look like currently, although my hair tends to change colour as frequently as the wind changes direction:
My weekends are often very lazy. Sometimes I go out and get drunk. Very drunk. Bust mostly I stay in, write stories or poems, write music, read, watch good films, or watch disney films, go to concerts, or go shopping (i'm a girl, of course I love clothes, bags and shoes, and of course I'm terrible with money). I would say I'm a fairly chilled person when I'm not being anal about intonation, rhythm, and technique.
I am currently unattached to any member of the opposite gender. I find boys very stressful, and I have had a series of terrible relationships that have not ended at all well, so my trust for boys is practically non existent. It's actually nice to not have to worry about that side of things at the moment - it leaves me more time to concentrate on music, and I've got a really great network of really good friends, so who needs men?!
Taking into account the fact that I am to be a professional musician, my taste in music ranges from the great to the down right weird! I obviously have my favourite orchestral composers - Bruch, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaicovsky, Rachmaninov (allllll the romance!), then I have my favourite choral composers - Tallis, Wood, Greene, Gibbons, Bruckner, Purcell, Stainer, Faure, Haydn, Monteverdi, Stanford, Pallestrina, Wesley, Byrd, Mendelssohn, Pergolesi, Parry, Ireland, Bach, Durufle, Darke, Dyson, Morley.... Basically I'm a sucker for choirs, and I love anything with a good suspension in it! Then there are my favourite piano composers - Debussy, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninov, Lizst - for pianos its the emotion behind the notes that has to be there for me, the huge dynamic contrasts and the lush harmonies. Theres also my favourite violinists to consider - I have a love affair in my head between myself and Joshua Bell, then theres Nicola Benedetti, and Sarah Chang - all three of these people have found something else altogether within their instruments, they take the sound into a whole other universe. And then my favourite singers - the kings singers, alfie boe, tenebrae, the sixteen - nothing can beat a really, really good choir.
Then theres musical theatre. I love musical theatre, all of it, and that is all there is to be said. If you're not so sure about it, I suggest a track entitled 'Taylor the latte boy' sung by Kristen Chenoweth, or Daniel Radcliffe performing in How to Succeed in Business WIthout Really Trying.
So thats classical music covered, but I'm not so narrow minded that I don't enjoy my fair share of the modern. Obviously the top 40 is always good for a laugh on a night out, but theres barely anything behind the majority of it other than a lust for fame and money - I would take 'Gangnam Style' as a prime example of this - theres hardly any musical genius behind it, or hardly any musical qualities at all! I love the kind of music where the lyrics really hit you, and I love hearing a voice with a quality thats never been heard before. Frank Turner has a way of making me feel so emotional, Mumford and Sons are just beautiful, beautiful people, and Foals are my favourite thing ever. I'm a standard indie teen really - the maccabees, arctic monkeys, bombay bicycle club, two door cinema club, air traffic, augustana, you me at six, all time low, bloc party, band of horses, bob dylan, bon iver, bright eyes, cage the elephant, city and colour, cold war kids, the courteeners, crystal castles, damien rice... you get the idea.
Then we get to the unexpected - everyone has their few musical secrets, just odd songs that can raise your mood when your down, and put a little smile on your face. For me, anything written for disney is good, because it makes me feel like a little kid all over again. I made a spotify playlist entitled Shazam which encompasses all my smiley songs - theres all sorts of music on there from 2Pac, to Barry White, to Craig David - there are no words to explain it or justify it, it just is.
So that about sums me up. I aim to post on here as regularly as I can, little gems of information that I don't expect many people to read really.
Whoever you are, no mater how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your placein the family of things.
Mary Oliver - Wild Geese
I'll leave you with this, a song to brighten your mood on a sleepy Sunday, try not to think about the fact that Monday is just around the corner...:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
Upvote for Frank Turner love <3
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