The second half of Bachelor program

This year I will be in the last year of Music and Literature class, we will study music of the 20th century which is really difficult because during that time composers did not follow any rules anymore and tried to be as original as they could. I will also have Music History class in which we will study the connection between the world history and music and how that influenced the composers of the time and their lives. In humanities I chose “Ethics, conscience and good life” where we study human behavior and conscience in order to achieve good life.

This semester I was assigned to orchestral cycles under Alan Gilbert and Semyon Bychkov. With Alan Gilbert, the music director of New York Philharmonic, we studied Mozart§ opera Cosi fan tutte. This very difficult opera, which is considered to be one of Mozart’s bests, will be performed three times by the Juilliard orchestra. Alan Gilbert, who recently got an extension at New York Philharmonic, was in the New York Times review called as “the conductor, who managed to connect impressive orchestra with brilliant singers into one great group, which performed with Mozart’s charm and never-ending musical flow.” It was pure joy for all of us. Semyon Bychov is a megastar between today’s conductors. He worked with us on Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on Paganini’s theme and Brahms’ fourth symphony. Maestro Bychkov is a Russian conductor who lives in Paris and regularly appears with the greatest orchestra such as Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic.

During this semester, two things that seem to be external for our musical life happened. Those were the presidential elections and the hurricane Sandy. The presidential elections were a very much discussed topic in school as the programs and opinions on future of arts of both candidates were diametrical different and would eventually decide which direction art in the US would go. Hurricane Sandy hit New York at the end of October and the beginning of November. Due to that New York subway was shut down and nothing was really working at that time. The school got cancelled for 3 days. The school is fortunately located on the Upper West side at was not directly hit by the hurricane and did not make any significant damage. Thou, during this storm the city that never sleeps suddenly became a ghost town.

Nowadays we all are getting ready for our final exams and then we will go home for the Christmas.