How do you like THEM jelly doughnuts?

Hello dear friends! Happy Summer Solstice!

I just returned from nearly three weeks in Germany with my sister and now that I am marinating in the soup-like air of Tel Aviv, I thought I'd get back to my blog. I had two concerts last month and in the second one especially, I could really feel how I had improved since my concert last December and I enjoyed myself. My sister Adriana arrived the day after my concert and we began an intense week of rehearsals and lessons with my teacher. We flew to Berlin on a Monday, took the train to Zwickau and stocked up on groceries.

The first round of the competition didn't start until Friday, so we had a few days to settle and practice more. Our performance of the first round was on Sunday, but we had to wait until Tuesday morning to find out whether or not we had advanced to the second round. Come Tuesday morning, we found that instead of advancing 50% of the first round as is the usual practice, the judges advanced less than a third - so out of 90 singers in the first round, only 24 continued to the second round!

So, as far as the competition itself is concerned, I was disappointed by the lack of organization - to admit 90 singers without any sort of pre-screening and then only advance a fraction of them is unheard of and cruel.

However, I learned a lot from this experience, let alone a lot of music which I will be able to sing in many concerts. I am really proud that I sang well, in front of a hall of strangers and a row of frankly pretty surly looking judges. The last of my set was an operetta aria and I really let go and moved and used gestures, and really enjoyed myself.  As we were leaving the hall, we were surprised by a friend of Adriana's who happened to be accompanying another singer at the competition and had seen our names in the program. They had not seen each other for nearly 10 years! As we were sitting and visiting, an older gentleman came up and asked me for my autograph. The competition printed programs of all of the participants' bios and their repertoire, so his will surely be a collector's item one day.

We still had a few days before we could head back to Berlin, so we did what we could in Zwickau. We made friends with the owners of one of the two Asian restaurants in the town and ate there nearly every day - the only place with gluten-free and fleisch-free options. We visited the Robert Schumann House, which is a museum documenting his and Clara's lives. They have historical instruments (some of them had belonged to the Schumanns) that we were allowed to play on. There was a funny pedal piano which is a combination of a piano and an organ. It was invented to allow organists to practice at home, but the pedals underneath attach to strings and hammers like a piano, not to pipes, like an organ. Adriana and I played an improvised duet on the theme of "Alouette," with me manning (or rather, feeting) the pedals below and she playing the piano above. We enjoyed ourselves immensely...the others on our tour weren't sure what to do with their faces. The museum also has a piano which Clara Schumann's father had purchased for her debut at the age of 11. It was really interesting to hear the different sound quality from these instruments - they have all been restored, of course, but they are much quieter and don't sustain tones for as long as modern pianos, so it really changes how music would have been performed and heard by the audience.

We left for Berlin a few days early and stayed with our newly-re-found friend for a few days. She took us to a really cool concert of a group called Projekt Guzu. I won't try to describe their music, only tell you that the singer sings in German, English, and Farsi gibberish. This is one of my favorite songs from the night, although we didn't have so many hilarious dancers during our concert.

Berlin was a breath of (mostly) fresh air after the stiffness of eastern Germany. We first stayed with our friend in Friedrichshain, which reminded me a bit of Tel Aviv. The atmosphere was really cozy albeit a bit grungy, and the food options were sooo much more diverse than the two lonely Asian restaurants amidst a sea of butcher shops in Zwickau. We had Indian-esque or Asian-esque food every day; I was in heaven. We also managed to get some Grinberg sessions in, which I really needed after all of the stress and then disappointment of the competition and so much traveling. My Grinberg practitioner called the competition judges "vultures," which I think is a fairly accurate description.

Aside from exploring and spending all of our money on clothes and pastries, we met with friends, visited the well-stocked Dali museum, attended a concert of Brahms' and Poulenc's violin sonatas, and mastered the U-Bahn routes. We also visited the East Side Gallery, which is a remaining chunk of the Berlin Wall that has now been covered with commissioned and non-commissioned (aka graffiti) artworks. We heard so many languages being spoken there, which gave me hope that more people are thinking about this important piece of history.

I was sad to leave Berlin, but I have a feeling that I will be back again sooner rather than later. Now I am preparing for some choir concerts that I am singing in - Beethoven's Fidelio and Mahler's 3rd Symphony.

I hope that you are having wonderful summers (or, possibly, winters) and enjoy the weekend.

Much love and peace,

Daniella

Yom HaShoa

Dear Friends,

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel and I wanted to share what I wrote on facebook this morning.

When I was about 15 years old, I went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., and it was the first time that I was truly touched by the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust. Not just Jews, but all manner of people from different backgrounds and beliefs and professions, who were deemed "inferior" and a threat. I remember feeling helpless and overwhelmed with sadness that I didn't really know how to process.

Being 15, and being obsessed with posters, I bought a poster that was a composite of many small pictures and newspaper clippings that created a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, with this quote: "When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"

This poster is still hanging up in my house in Wisconsin and her words still touch me.

On this somber day, let us not only remember the victims of atrocities past, but to honor their lives and deaths by living our own lives fully and with compassion. Every creature on this earth deserves love and respect.

"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" -Eleanor Roosevelt, 1946

Wishing you love and peace,

Daniella

Free Your Brain!

Dear Friends,

These past few months have brought a lot of challenges to Daniella-land, but I realize that at the root of all of these challenges, the main objective has been deciding what I want for myself and pursuing those desires.

I was accepted to both the competition in Germany and the course in Austria, but after reassessing my options, I decided to just go to the competition. So I spent the last month finishing learning my 30 pieces and now I am polishing them. I have a small concert this Monday and another at the end of May, so by the time I go, everything will have been performed at least once. My sister is coming with me as my pianist, so now I have rented a piano so that we will be able to practice here before we go to Germany.

The whole process has helped me see just how much I can accomplish when I have a clear goal in mind and manage my time well. And take regular practice breaks!!! I read this wonderful article about practice/performance-related injury and in it, they talked about this outdated school of thought that musicians (particularly instrumentalists) should practice for hours on end. This, combined with a  "no pain, no gain" mentality is so harmful - not only can it cause physical injury, but emotionally and mentally, it makes people believe that they are somehow "not good" if they cannot endure for hours and hours of practice. I wonder just how many people have given up music because of this sort of abusive practice regime. I used to suffer from such a belief - I thought that I simply wasn't strong enough because my voice would become tired and hoarse after practicing. I never stopped to think that it was what I was singing and the way that I was singing which was harmful. Now that I have healthy technique, I feel like I could sing all day.

The other thing I learned from this article is the fact that the adult brain can only focus for 15 minutes at a time, after which, it needs a 5-minute break. The longer the amount of time you spend concentrating, the longer your break needs to be. I have been employing this tactic during my practice sessions and the time flies by so quickly. In fact, I think my brain starts working more efficiently during my allotted 15 minutes because I have a clear idea of when I will stop practicing. It also cuts down on letting myself become distracted. Our brains need breaks, that's why we become distracted! When we become distracted, our brains are trying to signal to us that they want to think about something else for just a bit, and then they'll be able to focus on the task at hand again.

Brains aside, what I really wanted to write about today was my friend Mitch, who passed away this time last year. Mitch's death, although not unexpected, has been really difficult for me to process, not just because of the distance, but because he had such a huge impact on my life. In him, I had found a pillar of support and encouragement, somebody who shared my twisted sense of humor, and somebody who I didn't need to answer to. He had an amazing ability to see people as they were without placing judgment on them. It is something that I wish I could do more often. He taught me so much about love and trust simply by letting me be myself and listening to me with an open heart. I really miss him and even though this past year has sometimes been incredibly painful, I try to remember everything that he taught me and to know that this pain is because he touched my life in such a profound way.

So my wish for the rest of this year is to keep on deciding what I want for myself and to allow people to share in my joy and pain and love.

I wish you a beautiful month of May in your world.

Much love and peace,

Daniella

Der Frühling will kommen...

Dear friends,

I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere these past few months, it has indeed been a busy time!

Last December, I gave my first public recital here in Israel - an evening of art song. The concert was predominantly German works, with Ravel's Greek songs and a token Israeli piece. Everyone enjoyed themselves, myself included! I have opened a SoundCloud account, where I posted clips from my last two concerts (I don't post full songs because of copyright issues). And I also built a short and sweet website, where you can find all of my official details.

I went back to the States for the holidays, stopping first in Orlando to visit a friend whom I haven't seen since before I came to Israel! She works for Universal Studios, so we spent a packed day touring the park, spending lots of time in the Harry Potter section. It felt a bit like a living museum, I was happily surprised with it. After sunny Orlando, I headed up to Wisconsin, only to be surprised by extremely mild weather. Our lake did not freeze until nearly January, which has never happened in all the time that I've lived there. It was just surreal. We got snow in time for Christmas, so it felt slightly more normal. 

When I returned to Israel, I began preparing for a Lieder competition in Germany. It is the International Schumann competition, so I have to prepare about one hour's worth of music. I am up to my ears in Schumann pieces now and I am waiting to hear back from them. In the meantime, I am preparing for another recital in May that my friend Eleonora will also sing on. We're calling it "עם קול הלב" - a play on words. "כל" means "all," but "קול" means voice, so it is "With the voice of the heart," but it sounds like "With all of the heart." Last week, I was busy making a recording for a Lieder master course in Austria for which I have applied. After I gave up the notion that it needed to be perfect, I was able to enjoy the recording process and I am very pleased with the results.

Business aside, I am enjoying life, especially now that Spring is coming to Israel. In February, I moved to a new apartment and I am enjoying life above the ground floor with lots of air and sunlight. My plants are also very happy with their new home - I have a sweet potato plant that is threatening to take over the kitchen! I will have to find a new place for it soon. The weather keeps oscillating between cold/windy and sunny, but I hope that the cold/windy days will start to diminish. Already the trees are beginning to bloom here and there throughout the city. I am waiting for the tree outside my kitchen window to bloom - right now it is just full of red buds.

I hope that you are all well and that Spring is making its way to your corner of the world.

much love and peace,

daniella

Le monde, je t'aime

My sister and I have been working this week to release our very first CD/DVD from our concert in August.

Last night when I started to look at the news, I felt an old feeling of helplessness - what can I do when it seems like the world is exploding all around me? What can do to ease the hurt of all of these people? What makes a person so desperate and angry that they feel they need to take someone else's life? So many questions that I may never understand the answer to - can anyone?

I thought about my concert with my sister and thought, "Is it unfeeling to release this CD now? What right have we to ask people to buy this when there are so many more "worthy" things in the world that people could give their money to?"

But as I listened to our performance together, I remembered how much I enjoyed putting together this concert. I remembered how it felt to bring this concert to an audience of strangers, performing with a person whom I know and love more than anyone in the world.

And I decided, "Yes, the world could use a bit more love right now."

I love to sing.

Despite all the challenges it brings, despite the fact that "it's hard to make a living as an artist," despite the fact that it's made me move to a crazy country to pursue my studies, despite the fact that it makes me confront all of my biggest fears every time I open my mouth to sing. I love to sing.

Music has the power to unite strangers, to make them remember all of the emotions they've ever felt - love, joy, despair, longing, yes, sometimes even disgust. Music is a force beyond "reason," beyond religious affiliation, beyond violence, beyond death.

It's all I have to make my part of the world a little brighter and a little more filled with love.

If you're reading this post, know that you are loved. And know that you were made for a greater purpose, which is to make the world a slightly better world than the one you were born into.

The divine spark in me sees and loves the divine spark in you.


Namaste,

Daniella

Welcome, October!

Ciao, tutti! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you, I've just been traveling the globe, battling cockroaches, and enjoying the holidays.

Wow, many things have happened since my last blog post. At the end of July, I was one of the finalists in The Stage TLV's Poetry and Storytelling "Grand Slam" event (if you haven't seen it: https://youtu.be/trO5cIlzCDQ). I didn't win, but I was happy with my performance and just happy with the fact that I was a finalist at all! The topic was "that explains everything," so we had a very diverse range of poems and stories. I spoke about my journey with pain and fear and how it has affected my singing (and performing).

Soon after that, I closed up my apartment (I thought) and headed to the States for some high quality cat, I mean, family time. I spent two weeks in Wisconsin and then continued on to Denver to visit my sister. As you might remember, we put on a concert together which was a big hit! The concert was called "Alma Mahler in the Mediterranean" and featured songs inspired by Mediterranean countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Israel, as well as a set by Alma Mahler. I had a nice break in the middle of the concert while Adriana whirled through a piano solo rendition of Gershwin's "An American in Paris." Afterwards, we had a small reception with bubbly, blackberry and mint-infused water (posh!), and tasty chocolates handmade by Adriana's friend, Vanessa. Afterwards, we went out for drinks and dessert with some of Adriana's friends - it was a lovely evening.

In between and after concert preparation, we visited the Red Rocks (relatives of the Fountain Formation rocks with whom I became acquainted during my geology fieldcamp), Dinosaur Ridge and Triceratops Trail. Dinosaur Ridge's claim to fame is that the very first Allosaurus fossil was found there and also the first Apatosaurus and Stegosaurus, which is Colorado's state fossil. There is also a mega-fossil of dino-prints which can be traced over several states - pretty cool! We amused ourselves by doing our best dinosaur impressions throughout the trek (well, mostly Adriana did them since I had the camera).

We also visited the Denver Botanic Gardens, where we witnessed the rare blooming of the Corpse Flower (http://www.botanicgardens.org/our-gardens/whats-blooming/corpse-flower) and also Deborah Butterfield's intriguing horse sculptures made of found materials. A few days after our concert, we drove up to the Grand Tetons National Park for a week of hiking and communing with nature...from the comfort of our rental cabin (my sister refuses to camp because it entails not having one's own shower). But it was nice to have a real bed to sleep in and a real kitchen to cook in. We saw quite a few different species of animals; pronghorn and mule deer, many different kinds of birds, marmots, pikas, grouse, snakes, elken friends...even a moose family in somebody's front yard and a black bear from very, very, very far away. In addition to wearing a bear bell and bear spray, we invented songs to alert the bears to our presence. So either there were no bears in the area, or our songs worked because mostly, we just saw a lot of chipmunks. We nicknamed them "Chip McKaze" because they have a tendency to run out in front of cars. On the way back to Denver, we stopped at the Bighorn Sheep museum and took a small sidetrip in search of bighorn sheep (we saw one) and petroglyphs (we saw many!).

Then I flew back to Wisconsin for another week, made a short stop in Amsterdam where I stayed with my friend Pauline (whom I met last year in Munich) and paid a visit to my friend Lotte and her family. It was the first time that I met her daughters (aged 4 and 2), and they are quite the characters. It's funny to think that I've known Lotte since I was 10, but so nice to be able to visit as if no time has passed.

It was lovely to be back in Amsterdam, if only for a short time, but I was itching to get back to Israel. I landed during the tail-end of a chamsin - my flight was an hour delayed because the air was so thick with dust and then when I walked out of the airport, I felt like I had stepped into a sauna. On returning to my apartment, I found that a few different species of cockroach had taken up residence during my vacation, so after a week of trying to catch and release the wee beasties, I finally had somebody come to spray the apartment. It's nice to be able to sleep in peace, not worrying about "visitors."

Since returning, it's been one holiday after another: Rosh haShana, Yom Kippur, and now a week of Sukkot. I had two more training seminars for my English teaching and this week I teach my first classes. I'm a bit nervous, but mostly looking forward to finally working with the kids and getting into a routine.

I'm also beginning to prepare repertoire to take to a Lieder competition in the spring. I realize that when I tell people that I'm "going to be doing voice competitions," they think I'm auditioning for The Voice or something like that. I suppose the principle is sort of the same (many singers competing for a prize), but this competition is not televised, there isn't a massive audience, all of the judges are actually musicians, and I won't get offered a record deal if I win. So...no, not really the same at all. The competition I'm preparing for requires one hour of music (to be sung over three rounds, assuming that you advance), so I have my work cut out for me!

Adriana and I are working to put together a CD and/or DVD of our August concert, so stay tuned for more information. Hopefully they will be ready by Christmas...

I hope that you are all well and enjoying a lovely fall (or spring), wherever you are.


Un gran abbraccio,

Daniella

A few final words...

Well, it's been quite the week here in Tel Aviv. I just completed a teacher training course for the Helen Doron English method, which was five long and intense days of re-learning how to think like a child. The method incorporates everything that I've wanted to teach to my students, but didn't know how to implement it. We learned how to design lessons to appeal to the different learning styles and basically planned two years' worth of lessons in five days (split between 6 teachers-in-training).

The course was really challenging for me, but also inspiring. We had a good mix of trainees and all of us were immigrants, so we're all familiar with learning a second (or third or fourth...) language. I love this method because it introduces children to English as though they are native speakers, so they begin with listening and speaking and only move to reading and writing when they are older. I realized that I am hesitant to speak different languages (even with my international friends) simply because I lack the confidence and am afraid to make mistakes. In this course, we learn how you simply encourage and engage children, which gives them the confidence and motivation to want to speak English. I wish that I had experienced this in my education.

Here is a picture of my training group:

l-r top: Naama, Corey, Tami

l-r bottom: me, Shira, Sephie (our trainer), and Sherry

My "office" before the last day of class. 

I will not work with glittery paper on my yoga mat in the future.

This teaching method goes far beyond what I imagined and I'm so pleased that I am joining this group. It is building on all of my Grinberg work because now I will really have to express through body language and gestures in order to engage and communicate with the students (and to not panic when teaching). Our teacher trainer remarked that my demo lessons were like coming to a yoga class because my voice was so low and calm!

I also realized that this will benefit my singing performances as well and that I can hypothetically take this skill set anywhere in the world where my singing career may take me because there are franchises all over the world.

Isn't it nice how the universe just opens up for us? All we have to do is accept the challenges with grace.


Elephants and tortoises,

Daniella