Final thought...
My final thought to share with you is that during the competition, I was listening to Alicia Keys’ latest album, The Element of Freedom, in my car. At the very start of the album, she quotes the diarist Anais Nin: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” And she adds, “This is the element of freedom.” I took a lot of inspiration from those words, which really helped me to deal with my fears before the Final. I had to look deep inside myself to find true confidence and an honest desire to go out in front of everyone and really ‘live’ the music.
Something about the pressure of a competition like this – the length of time preparing, the money spent on getting there, the exhaustion of working so hard in my day-to-day life too, (for me, combining all that discipline with being a mother), even just the loneliness of it all…it really gets to you. It fills you with dread and the fear of failure. I decided that day to ‘give myself up’ entirely to the music – to trust what I knew I knew, to experience the dream of performing the most wonderful harp concerto with a superb orchestra and conductor – my dream…and to do it without fear, but with excitement, love and freedom. That really is the element of freedom – and it is well worth finding! I am indebted to all the people in my life, not forgetting the competition organisers themselves- who helped me to achieve that and to realise my goals.
That's all from me about this competition in particular, but I hope to put up more posts with lots of tips for young harpists preparing for contests...maybe even a check list of things to take with you will appear at some point! Of course, all of my ideas are personal to me - it would be so interesting to learn how other harpists prepare, compete, stay sane and if they also enjoy the experience!
Highly Strung
An unit of policy contract is the foundation of costs. QuotesChimp fluctuates from sort of policy contract to a different. For at this time consider a device of protection as a lb of beef. Imagine the speed as the cost which you pay each lb.
The lighter coeolrd area on the edges of the welds are actually just where I cleaned up the metal with a grinder. Another good thing to note when TIG welding is that the metal needs to be spotlessly clean. As soon as you think its clean enough, clean it once more. If you don’t, the welds look horrific.
First I want to say that I will be playing Congratulations today since my aanmizg wife pulled off an aanmizg surprise 50th birthday party for me today (a month or so early). Second, here’s my facebook response to this blog post, re-posted here:A wise man once told me a secret to not getting too stressed in the corporate world was to wear an imaginary (I think he meant imaginary anyway) teflon jacket to work so you can let the bad stuff just slide off. I’m not sure exactly what the analog is for what you’re describing but I think it is related to the ability I am blessed with to be able to not hear screaming babies on airplanes or all the clatter in the airport when waiting at the gate. I can usually read or do email or carry on a conversation with an associate as if all that other stuff isn’t there. As for not hearing the harp well in the first few Vai numbers I had that same thought when I saw the Boston show but I figured out that it was because I came to see you but it was a Steve Vai tour. Once I adjusted my expectations to what you’d been telling us for months: I’m in the band , I knew your sound was part of the overall experience, not the foreground of the overall sound. I play guitar and though Steve’s music isn’t in the center of my favorite style range I did enjoy it but I enjoyed you and Bev even more both because of style of music and simplicity of arrangement. Steve’s performance is traditional heavy rock wall of sound even though he’s anything but traditional with what he plays in that sounds. You and Bev’s stripped down acoustic guitar and harp left room to hear each part. I prefer music presented that way.