Travels with Grammy

We've been having an eventful yet relaxing time here in London. Leisurely breakfasts followed by jaunts into town or around my neighborhood.

On Saturday we decided that we ought to see a show so we got tickets to a performance of The Messiah at St. Martin's in the Field. That was in the evening so we decided to go explore my school area and look around. We took the bus down to GSMD and took a quick tour around the school. It was a lovely day so we bought lunch from Marks and Spencer's and ate in the public bowling green in front of my Finsbury job. Grammy wanted to see the Roman amphitheatre so we walked down to The Guildhall and managed to get there just as the art gallery went from being charged to being free. Well timed us! The art gallery was lovely and it was fun to see the amphitheatre as well. It was hard to believe that the ruins were so old. Particularly as they are bathed in this weird green light and there is an audio track of a crowd cheering/jeering and gladiators running around. It's actually just the tiniest bit silly...

Grammy had seen the 14th century hall that *is* the Guildhall before so we spent a confusing few minutes debating which building off the square it was likely to be. Eventually we figured out that we needed to enter a truly hideous 1960's entryway. The hall had been closed to visitors half an hour before we got there, so that was a little disappointing. I noticed that there were GSMD fliers in their flier area and since I had understood that there was NOT a connection between The Guildhall and GSMD (in spite of the name) I asked about it. It turns out that GSMD is sponsored by the City of London Corporation and The Guildhall is the heart of The City's government. So that is the connection. Once the security guards found out that I went to GSMD and that I was graduating this year, one of them offered to take us back to the hall! So that was SUPER cool. We felt very privileged. Also, it turns out that GSMD has its graduation ceremony in the hall- so it was exciting to see where that is going to take place.

There was lovely early evening light at that point so we walked to St. Paul's and had a quick coffee in Starbucks while Grammy told me stories about Helen. Then Starbucks closed so we hopped on a bus to Trafalgar square. We got some soup in the Crypt, which was very crowded- but a nice woman saw us looking for a table and offered us hers as she was just about to leave. We collected the tickets and were there right as the doors opened for the show. I hadn't been there since the remodeling was finished and it is absolutely gorgeous now. We didn't have the most expensive tickets so our view was pretty poor- but the acoustics were wonderful and it was a total joy. I spent a lot of time watching flickering candle light glinting off of the gold leaf of the ceiling decorations while listening to Handel's recitatives and soaring choral soprano lines. We moved to wider seats at the intermission- for which I was grateful.

See? Doesn't that sound like a delightful day?

This is getting ridiculous, I know.

Okay, so four posts in one day might be a little over the top. However you get one more because I wanted to share with you a letter that I sent to the president of GSMD as a thank you for my scholarship. I'm not actually thoughtful enough to have come up with the idea of a thank you note on my own (it is a requirement of receiving the scholarship), but I spent quite a lot of time on the letter and I thought you might enjoy reading it:

Dear Mr. Ife,
My name is Casey Middaugh. I am originally from Seattle in the US, but have spent the last six years in Michigan and Maryland going to music school. I’ve been trained as an orchestral double bass player and in undergrad I discovered early music as well. I had a friend who was at Guildhall last year for Transverse flute. I wasn’t sure what to do following my undergraduate degree. I was certain by that point that the road to being an orchestral bass player was not for me and since I had enjoyed my early music experiences so much I thought I might follow my friend and look at Guildhall for that. While poking about the GSMD website I noticed a side bar that said ‘music leadership.’ I wondered what that could be, so I clicked on it.

I understood very little about what the MMus in Leadership was really about, but what I could gather was both intriguing and incredibly exciting. Based on that one page of information I proceeded to apply for a Fulbright scholarship. I did not get to the final level of the Fulbright process, but I bring this up because it is not an easy fellowship to apply for. It involves a number of essays, three separate references and letters from each, as well as an individual interview with a panel from the University where you defend your application. I willingly did all of that based on one page of your website.

When I got to the audition in April my interest only grew. The professional development office was gracious in inviting those auditioning from overseas to come to the creative development workshop the weekend before the auditions. That workshop was my first experience with anything of its kind. I had never improvised before. I had never been involved in a group composition. I had never had the opportunity for my ideas to affect the course of an entire piece. The workshop blew my mind and I think I was grinning the entire weekend.

Thank you for helping to make it possible for me to attend GSMD this year. I mean this sincerely: I could not have imagined a school more suited to me.

I keep a blog to both track my progress at GSMD and to keep in touch with my friends and family. Please feel free to check it out if you have a free moment. The blog can be found at londoncasey.blogspot.com

Thank you again,
Casey Middaugh
Supported by the Guildhall School Trust

London: Official day #1

I found Guildhall! That was my goal for today: to get down to the Barbican and find where I am supposed to be tomorrow morning. I wanted to know how long it would take (roughly 45 minutes door to door) and figure out a route from the flat to the school. Good thing I did too, I walked all the way around the Barbican (I think I found the restaurant that we ate at after the Philly concert when we sat one table away from the conductor-man whose head-shots were all pretentiously arty and of his hands) and wandered around a good deal of that section of London as well. I ended up going up a level somehow, over a super cool water feature (there is this sunken section in the water that is dry and covered in wire and ivy domes-I want to go play in it), past an annexed section of Guildhall administrative offices, and back down again. But eventually I found it by hearing a soprano warming up and following the sound.

Now for the awards for the day:
Grammy pulls ahead of the competition once again for her e-mail titled "Look Right!" which has been very helpful to remember when crossing streets. Mommy gets an award for telling me to get some sleep when I called her last night, crying (I slept for 16 hours, think I needed it?). Andy gets an award as well for his suggestion of tiffinbites- which is this chain of Indian fast food restaurants, one of which I ate at tonight. You choose from a series of meals named things like "pride paneer" and uh. other stuff. (That was the only one I committed to memory because I thought it was amusing, but they are all alliterative or rhyme-y.) Anyhow, each meal is a set of three plastic tubs stacked together that you can microwave either at the shop or at home. I had something-or-rather mumbai. I think. Anyhow, there was a tub of potatoes in a tomato sauce, a tub of eggplant in tasty sauce, and a tub of rice. Anyhow- it was nice and everyone who worked there was very polite and helpful when it became clear that I had never been there before and didn't know how the whole set up worked. Actually, the guy who helped me out was very unobtrusive in his help, I didn't feel like "hey, you're a doofus for not understanding" which is always nice. Nobody likes being a doofus.

Speaking of other nice people-(this time on the tube) a woman got her hands and bags, but not her body, on to the tube before the doors closed, so she was very stuck. About four people went to go and try and get the doors to open, and when they finally at last did- another fellow jumped on right as they were closing again. The whole car laughed while the fellow looked around, confused.

All in all Life is good. I'll let you know how the first day of the workshop goes tomorrow.