Merciful Zeus, it’s been just over a year since I last posted.

It’s been a great year, full of rewarding experiences, however, it’s also been a challenging year. Now that I’m right at the end of my undergraduate career at The University of Western Ontario, I’m able to step back and take stock of the last five years in London, Ontario. Also, the above picture of of myself (left) and my brother (right) in the Dominican Republic. A family vacation at an all-inclusive resort is a great way to unwind towards the end of a degree.

I remember being in high school, back in St. Catharines. I never, and I mean, ever had to try. Everything always came so easily - it seemed as if you could just show up to class in uniform and with a pulse and they’d pass you. I socialized often outside of class and never spent much time worrying about assignments, projects or class work. What a shock this University thing has been, in this regard. Really, I didn’t develop the required work ethic until this very last year. Unfortunately, this means that my transcript it peppered with several undesirable marks - classes I didn’t feel like attending, or didn’t particularly enjoy. I can’t fathom how I didn’t realize this would effect my future in academia - perhaps for some reason, I assumed that as a musician, marks wouldn’t be important for graduate. Well, let me fill you in; although there is a huge emphasis on the entrance auditions, you still have to be admissable to the program - this is usually up to the school of Graduate Studies at your prospective institution, and they’ve never heard you perform.

Despite successful auditions for the MMus Opera programs at both The University of Toronto and McGill University, I was not admitted to their programs based on my transcript. This, at first, was a blow to the ego. Now, at this point, I believe I will apply again - the transcripts that they received did not have this years marks on them, and truthfully this final year of my undergrad has seen the best marks I’ve ever produced. I’m not holding my breath, however. I must realize that a graduate degree is not necessary in the performance field. If you can sing, you’ve built your resume, and you know the right people - you’ll get gigs. It is scary though to think that I might have to start marketing myself and really forging a career instead of hiding behind the ’student’ label. So, what will I do with the next year of my life? Let me tell you!

I have always had an interest in Japan and Japanese culture. Admittedly, this was first because friends introduced me to Japanese Anime. I also took a course in the language. In second and third year University, I thought that it would be a great idea to go to Japan to teach for a year after my undergrad. Well, when graduate studies didn’t pan out for this year, I revisited the idea. I did some research online and applied to one of the three major private schools in the country. Sure enough, I was contacted by a recruiter to participate in an interview. This was a fairly involved interview process - two interviews; one group and a one-on-one. We had to write and prepare sample lesson plans which we then had to teach to fellow interviewers. This first, 3-4 hour long interview also involved a lot of information about the company as well as interaction in a classroom style. I presume these activities were an opportunity for the interviewer to observe how we interacted with others, our general demeanor and attitude, as well as the varying levels of energy and creativity that we were able to exhibit. The personal interview involved recalling information about the company and teacher responsibilities which were explained in the group interview presentation. A surprise element with threw me off my game somewhat were impromptu lessons. I was asked to teach two lessons to the interviewer, who would pretend to be a Japanese student. You are expected to use their resources, be very friendly, and to focus on as much student talk time/conversational practice as possible. I was unsure how the second interview went. I was pleased to receive a phone call, about a week later, congratulating me on being a successful candidate! Unfortunately, I do have to wait until I have my degree in hand to apply for my work visa. As convocation is at the beginning of June, I anticipate that I won’t be leaving the country until August or September.

So, next stop on James’ magical mystery tour: JAPAN! Stay tuned for interesting stories of culture shock and sushi.

In February, I was lucky enough to perform with a professional orchestra for the first time. Mark Payne, here at the Don Wright Faculty of Music asked me to sing in his small ensemble with Orchestra London. For Christmas, 2007, we performed Vivaldi’s Gloria and in February of 2008 we performed Bach’s Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan. Phoebus and Pan is one of Bach’s secular cantatas and it’s said to represent the struggle/debate between between high art music and simple folk music. The libretto involves a competition of epic proportions between two singers competing to decide who is more skilled.

I was most thrilled to be asked to sing the role of Phoebus for this performance. What a lengthy sing! If you’re familiar with Bach’s works, you’ll know that they are quite complex - or, at least I find them to be, rhythmically so. Learning this repertoire was similar to working through vocal exercises. It was also interesting to gage how much breath to use and when it was appropriate to take those breaths as the phrases often required many bars of sustained runs.

I coached the piece once with Mark Payne at his home, having only looked at it myself and listened to a recording a few times. It was then time to bring it to a rehearsal with the orchestra and conductor Timothy Vernon (pictured above). As this was my first time with a professional orchestra, I was fairly nervous. After being unable to sustain a few lines due to poor breath management, I eventually became more comfortable and was able to recover. This da capo aria lasts almost all of nine minutes!

After a few more rehearsals, it was finally the evening of the performance. I had woken up that morning with a sore throat - every singer’s nightmare. I tried not to let this worry me too much and I channeled the majority of my energies to relaxing. On the day of a performance, I don’t want to do ANYTHING. I try to spend my time relaxing alone in my apartment, if it’s possible. The cathedral that evening was packed. The first half of the programme was the small ensemble performing Bach Motets and a wonderful performance of one of Bach’s violin concertos. The second half came, and then my aria, and all was fine. It was over. Such a relief and a triumph to have made it to this milestone. I’m always very critical of myself and I certainly feel it could have gone better had I not been sick - but I wasn’t about to complain.

My mum, granny and aunt were all there for my orchestral debut. I’m pretty sure my mum and aunt were crying. The family had come down from St. Catharines and it was nice to climb into that car wearing that hot tuxedo. After going home to my apartment and changing, we hopped in the car with my cat and a cold drink to visit St. Catharines for a few days.

You are reading the inaugural post of my new blog, jamesmedeiros.net

While I’ve been using LiveJournal for several years now, I decided that I’d like to try hosting my own blog so that I could have more control over content and customization.

I plan on using this tool to share stories about my day-to-day life as a musician, computer enthusiast and coffee connoisseur. I will also be sharing my video and MP3 recordings. Please comment often! I look forward to your feedback and interacting with my readers.

Bye for now,

James