As some of you may know, I launched a fundraising page on indiegogo.com last November to try and raise money for my future doctoral program endeavors in the United Kingdom. I am getting close to the point where at I send in my applications to those programs, and I thought I should give an update to those who contributed and those who are interested for any other sort of reason.
First off, I raised $450 out of the hoped-for $20,000 that would pay for my visa, airfare, tuition, housing, etc. A BIG SHOUT-OUT TO THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED!!! I love you, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support in friendship and of my career, and for the arts in general! However, this amount seems to be exactly what I needed. I have found that, in my life, God always provides what I need and not what I want. So, this $450 is being deposited into a CD account over the next few months (BECU won't do it in one lump sum, since I had already opened the account previously). That will then mature on graduation day and I will use it to buy a new computer, which I sorely need as my current one is jerry-rigged and will most likely explode one of these days. This is a crucial piece of equipment as, presumably, I will be writing a dissertation over the next three years and I will need a working device in order to fulfill that task as well as other school-related things.
My topic is yet to be officially approved, but I will give you a hint: I have become very interested in studying women composers (or as I like to call them, composers) as of late, and I shall be studying (*fingers crossed*) in the United Kingdom. Interest piqued? I sure hope so. Also, to draw you in even more, I shall be applying not only to the wonderful University of Cardiff in Wales, but also to Cambridge University and, perhaps, Oxford. I won't bore you with long, drawn-out explanations of childhood dreams and their unrequited fulfillments, but I will say that getting into any of those three schools would make me the happiest I have ever been in my life.
Currently, I am rehearsing three hours a day for the University of Montana's production of The Legend of Orpheus, a pastiche opera written by Prof. Anne Basinski and Dr. David Cody. I play a shepherd in the first act and Pluto, the god of the underworld in the second act. I promise you now that there will be photos of both personalities posted to this blog as soon as we go up (February 14, collective "aww"). Following that, I will finish out my time here in Missoula teaching and taking my final classes to qualify me for my masters degree and will graduate in May. I will let all of you wonderful readers know as soon as I find out about UK acceptances and (hopefully not, but let's not swell our heads too much) rejections.
Until there is further news, or I come up with a random music-related topic to discuss on this blog (perhaps an exposé on my transformation from "barichunk" to "barihunk"?), I bid you adieu to continue on into my collegiate fugue state.
"What a good thing this isn't music." - Gioachino Rossini on Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
