First Real Day of Classes

Today was our first real day of classes. I have intensive Italian classes for three weeks, five days per week, two and a half hours per day before it drops into a normal schedule of only three days per week, each meeting for an hour. My professor is wonderful and I feel that I am going to learn a lot from her class, though I am already confusing languages in my head! Between Spanish, German and Italian, there are many similar words, but they are all spelled slightly differently, which is making Italian difficult to write for me. I know it will get better in time, so I am not worried yet.

I also had my first class of the Music Performance Workshop, a masterclass style workshop geared toward chamber and solo music and toward class discussion of the music. Maestro Fontinelli is a phenomenal professor- he lectured today about the similarities between gesture in visual art and in music, pairing images with pieces of classical repertoire. He analyzed pieces based on compositional techniques and on musical phrases, which become gestures to communicate drama and larger concepts to the listener. I have another class tomorrow and I am excited to learn more from his classes.