Stompin' Grounds

First week down.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here at CIM. The atmosphere is very driven and very intense. The practice rooms are packed........all......day. Good luck finding one after 8:00am.

I'm taking theory, piano, orchestra, chamber music, and ear training. Oh, by the way, CIM uses fixed-'do'....try singing a major scale starting on 'fa' after years of only starting on 'do'. Eeeesh.

The people here are great. We're all nerds, and we all know it. We geek out over Shotakovich and practice our instruments until we hurt.

A part of my work study assignment is to play in Lab Orchestra, which is an orchestra put together for the benefit of the Masters and Doctoral Conducting majors. This past week we read through Beethoven's First Symphony without missing a beat. It, was, fantastic. And to think everyone was simply sight reading.

Our first orchestra concert is coming up in a short two weeks. We're hashing out a Rossini Overture, Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra in Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra. Should be thweet.

Here are a few pics from around the CIM campus. It's a small school, incubating roughly 370 students all eager to learn, practice, and win a job. The main building was built in 1961 and thanks to over $40 million in donations, has expanded with a new classroom, office and practice wing on the eastern side and a new recital hall on the western side that will open this November. So, the school is still in the midst of construction, and is no doubt a little annoying when sitting in class and the dictation exam is a combination of piano melodies and jack hammers...

Turquoise brick that envelops the outside of the of the concert hall. Remnants of the 60's...

You must kneel to get a sip of H2O at CIM.