Productive winter

It has been only three months since my last post in this blog, but many things have happened and I do not even know where to start with this new post.

As I have mentioned before, I passed all the exams from the second year in autumn which means that I am supposed to complete my Bachelor’s program already this year according to my study plan. There are not so many exams in music theory in the third year, nevertheless, these is a bachelor’s thesis. Fortunately, it was not so demanding for me to write the thesis since I have written many essays before, thus I completed the thesis in two months. Maybe it was its theme which made it much easier to me, namely an analysis of one of the most important Czech contemporary compositions for accordion. I drew on my own experiences and knowledge so writing was really natural. But I must admit that I like playing accordion and performing in public much more then writing.

When speaking about performing in public, there was a great festival at KMH in January on the occasion of opening of the new building. Now, KMH is reportedly the most advanced and modern music school in Europe, and 8000 visitors attended the festival, including the king of Sweden. I was pleased that I had an opportunity to perform in two concerts during this prestigious festival, both solo and duo together with my mate.

Furthermore, I have led a workshop in contemporary music for composers from KMH recently, explaining the possibilities and techniques of accordion and their use in contemporary music. It turned out that five composers are interested in composing a piece for me, which makes me happy. I am supposed to premiere all the five pieces at KMH in spring. The classes here are very interesting in general! For me, the most enriching and the most interesting course in definitely the mental training. These classes are led by Olympic competitors and prominent people in sports and acting. These people share with us their perspective on handling stressful situations, public presentation, or improvisation. It is extremely interesting to see how much musicians and athletes have in common! In spring comes another interesting course – freelancing, I am looking forward to this one too.

Also, I am preparing for the entrance examinations for the Master’s program in the near future. Furthermore, I am going to perform at the annual meeting of the Swedish accordion association. At this meeting I will have an opportunity to provide a big interview for the main Swedish accordion magazine. I am also looking forward to my Bachelor’s concert in April.

I have been still working on my chamber music projects and now, I believe that I have finally found the right people with whom I will be able to realize those projects. Unfortunately, my mate violinist left to study to Italy in January, but I am sure I will easily find another great musician among the KMH’s students. But I am engaged also in some external projects, such as music recording for theatre productions of the department of singing at KMH. Recently, I have started to provide private accordion lessons from time to time.

I try to use and enjoy every moment and every situation here, and to be honest, I am having a great time! However, already now I can say that I am starting to make plans for summer under the rations of local inspiration. I would like to record and release two new CDs along with several music videos this summer. I believe I will be able to fulfil most of these visions, because such ideas give me an enormous amount of energy and motivation.

 

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