Today I took a bit of a risk. I got a call from the orchestra/chamber music manager at Mannes today saying that a cellist had just dropped out, and he needed someone to play the Brahms clarinet trio on October 20th. No small cello part, only a month to learn it, and two other chamber groups besides, one a modern clarinet trio by a composer I've never heard of (Lyon?), and the other the Tchaikovsky piano trio. But yeah, of course I took on the Brahms, it's one I've been meaning to learn for a long time, and frankly, I had so much fun doing chamber music at TMC this summer that I'll take all I can get. I'm just praying right now that I didn't hideously overbook myself. I'll find out next week. Despite feeling somewhat nervous about the situation (this is definitely the most I've ever had on my plate at one time . . . I know it's commonplace for some of us, David, but not for me), I'm also excited. I'm pretty sure I can handle it. It's only a month of insanity anyways. And when I told Mr. Eddy he said I should definitely do it. Speaking of Eddy . . .
He's definitely tougher than my other teachers. Not more overtly demanding, but he seems to expect more. I've been working on Dvorak for maybe 3 weeks now, but only on and off, and mostly on the exposition to the first movement, and today when I played the second half of the first movement (you know, the hard stuff) and missed a bunch of 6ths, he said he was surprised. I guess he has high expectations. So now I have to do a bunch of exercises to do this week to fix this structural deficiency. I gotta admit I'm pleased that he doesn't let me get away with much, and he definitely does it nicely. He wasn't mean about the out of tune notes, just very direct and matter-of-fact. I think I'm going to accomplish a lot with his help.
I'm getting used to International House. As with any dorm it has its certain times when it's tough to practice, or tough to do laundry, and one just has to take that into account. I am starting to like my tiny room, at least. It's kinda nice to have everything within reach, and its small size gives me a big incentive to actually keep it somewhat (emphasis on somewhat) clean. At least it has the sink in it. I don't think I'd be able to live without that sink (god knows many here do), since I eat a lot of food here in my room and have to do dishes daily. Certainly makes my life easier. Oh, and apparently the clarinetist from both my clarinet trios lives here too. Might make scheduling rehearsals a bit easier, since we can rehearse here, provided our pianist isn't averse to making the trek.
FInally things are starting, and I'm practicing regularly. It's nice to be busy.

I've been spending a lot more money than I should be since coming to NYC. The problem is, going to the bar, going out to eat, all costs money . . . and those are good things to do with people. This weekend, for instance, I went to a bar last night with two friends, breakfast this morning with a friend going to school in Germany who's visiting a bunch of people here, and tonight I went to a Bohemian beer garden with Kimberly, and then a really different sort of bar that she read about in some guide book she has. All in all the beer garden was by far the most fun thing I've done here . . . the atmosphere was like there was a perpetual party there, the clientele was all our age, there was an acoustic band up on stage playing covers of 80's hair metal songs, and the beer was very, very good. For instance, I'd never had the chance to drink Hoegaarden on tap before, so that was a nice change. We went to a small bar afterwards because it said in the guide that they had deserts, so we went and got some taramisu, which was amazing. This bar was really strange in some ways, it had your traditional bar, but the rest of the room was filled with fluffy couches with big pillows on them, and there was even this small room with a couch in it up some stairs with a curtain you could pull down in front of it . . . kinda . . . iffy. These two places were in Queens, so I was in Queens for the first time tonight. At first glance, I like it a lot . . . much more interesting than my neighborhood, I think.

I've had a week of classes now, and I gotta say I'm not thrilled. Of the three classes, two have the most boring teachers on the face of the earth, and the third, graduate review counterpoint, I wouldn't care about if the most dynamic lecturer on earth were teaching it. But working with Eddy was amazing for my first lesson, and honestly, he's the reason I'm here, so all's good. Tomorrow the orchestra is reading the first movement of Bruchner 9, since we'll be working on it later this semester and I guess the conductor wanted to get a bit of a jump on it . . . which is funny, since the orchestra is always rotating anyways. They have roughly twice as many musicians as they need for the orchestra (23 cellos for 12 chairs), so I have a feeling I'll at least be out for 3 of the 8 concerts. Hopefully, anyways. Plus, for one concert a year, we can request a leave, so if I ever really need a cycle off, I can get it. SO yeah, I like a lot of things about this school. Sometime this week, Wayne and I will find out who our violinist is, so I'm excited (or maybe a little nervous) for that. Either way, I can't wait to start playing chamber music again.