"Free" weekend

8.29.10

Well,

This week was a bit uneventful. I had my classes like normal and rehearsal. Friday night I went to the ABC Symphony Australia’s 2010 Young Performers Award. This was a free concert. The concert hall was a bit smaller than I expected, but it was still not very full. The concert consisted of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30; Ross Edwards’s Clarinet Concerto, in one movement: Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14; and Zoltàn Kodàly’s Dances of Galànta. Three were the three finalists competing for the award and the fourth was an additional piece conducted by a guest conductor while the judges made their decision. The winner was Oliver She, the pianist and that’s who I thought should have won as well. The most exciting part o this was that it was broadcast live on ABC radio and videoed for broadcast on Sunday, October 31^st.

On Saturday, I went to the museum in Southbank. This was also free, which was nice. It had 4 floors, on the first floor, they had a kid’s science centre; the second floor had some historical and pioneer-y type things and exhibit of marine animals; the third floor was the “Australia Museum Zoo,” they had tons of animals, birds, reptiles, and bugs on display; the fourth floor had an Aboriginal exhibit. It took about an hour and a half to get through everything. Then we walked around south bank for a while. I finally saw the man-made beach there, and we walked through a little open market type place. After that we headed into the city to grab lunch at the Irish pub there.

On Sunday, I locked myself out of my room for the first time since I have been here (6.5 weeks). I went to go brush my teeth and left my keys on my bed. After wandering around for an hour or so, I finally found someone that could let me in. I now have some papers due in some of my classes so that will be my task in the coming days.