The night breeze whispered through the trees, shuffling their crisp leaves and making them buzz like radio static. It was an unusually beautiful autumn day, but then again, it was January. Always several steps ahead in politics, technology, and accepted morality, Los Angeles remained ever a few months behind when it came to seasons. But…
They were going to throw me away, Out with the rubbish bin. I, who you used to play, When you were small children. . Did it not mean much to you? The scales we learned together? Maybe if I were shiny, new, I'd be kept out of the weather. . But moving on is hard;…
As I was practicing piano the other day, I wrote a series of three questions to ask myself as I worked on each detail: Is it clean? Is it beautiful? Does it mean something? First, I work technically, listening even to exercises to discern if they are played with clarity and precision. Are they clean?…
I am a pianist, but I have long suffered from stage fright. My junior undergraduate piano recital was yesterday and, true to my philosophy that no art is complete without a proper understanding of other art forms, I used literature such as Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to create program notes to give greater depth…
I was inspired this morning as I walked to practice piano for an upcoming recital... this would have been great, had I been inspired to practice. Rather, I was inspired to set the opening of Wordsworth’s The Prelude to music. My roommate (bless her) stopped me just in time: “Ryanne, if you write a melody and…
I turned twenty on November 14th, 2016. It was weird. Every day I was thinking, “one more week until I am no longer a teenager” or “three more days until I am a real adult.” But then, when the day came, I felt the same. This should not have been surprising, but I could not…
Okay, so the title of this post is a bit misleading. To clarify, I have not taken lessons in speaking Italian and, if I'm being completely honest, my Italian speaking abilities consists of basic greetings, "grazie", and apologetically smiling and batting my eyes. Oh, and I got pretty good at ordering coffee and gelato. But…
I am what one might call a "Jill of All Trades," the female counterpart of a "Jack of All Trades." I quite liked this phrase until I saw a quote on Pinterest (seriously, Pinterest? You're supposed to be my social media happy place!) that reads: "Jack of all trades, but a master of none." Well stink.…
I often find that the most effective way of communicating a potentially controversial opinion is through storytelling. That said, I will let the following short story speak for me rather than explaining at length my views. Please let me know what you take away from this as I would like to know if my statement-through-story…
"What's your major?" seems to be the question of the month and I am seriously considering giving false answers if (scratch that, when) I am asked this again because it is getting a little old. As a music major with an emphasis in piano performance, though, I have heard some terribly amusing responses to my answer to this…
