First day at Pilsen

First day at Pilsen

I have to say, my trip here was not that good at all as it happens everything that could have happened. On my first flight, El Paso to Houston, a lot of turbulence was experienced, but that is ok, who has not experienced that? Then, my flight to Amsterdam was an hour of delay, which causes me to lose my plane at Amsterdam, and therefore arriving three hours later than expected. So, instead of arriving at 10:50am I ended getting here at 2:45pm. By then, I was just willing to get to Pilsen and have a bath and a snap. But I was not expecting what happened to me next, it came out that when seeking for my luggage it did not ever arrive. Bath cancelled. Nap cancelled.

So, I went to the dorms at Pilsen without my clothes, there we made the check in, and someone took us to our dormitories. I do not share it. Do not imagine a very nice one, is kind of old, but who cares, I am just spending there the nights, hence most of the times I am at the new conservatory, which is a building that is for the pianists, we are 16 in total and 90 string players. After the check in, they told us that at 7pm someone was going to set up our computers for internet, guess what, no internet. Even though he start typing I do not know how many things, connecting to internet is nearly impossible, which is going to make my updates at the blog somewhat difficult. After that, they joined us for a meeting in which they told us the rules and present to us the staff. So I finally met Dr. Silverman, my professor for two weeks, also professor of Manhattan School of Music. He explained to us that what really matters is to play from the heart, and that the rest was easy to fix. Also, he told me he was happy with my audition cd, which makes me have more confidence in me, especially after meeting all these guys from big schools like Manhattan and Cleveland Institute of Music.

So, my second day and also the first day of classes, I started it really early for I had to buy something to wear for my first day. Thus, I woke up at 6:30am and went for shopping. (Next time I’ll be prepare to take with me something extra to wear as this is the second time something like this happens to me). So, thanks God here everything opens at 7. I found some clothes and something to take a shower :D. At 9:15, all Silverman’s students joined together in order to went for the very first time to the new conservatory, our new home. We start practicing until 11, were they told us how thing were going to work. We have 4 grand pianos for 16 people and 4 upright pianos for the same people. So, in total we have 3 hours of practice in each piano, which is good. I went back to practice after the meeting. At 2pm, I had my first lesson. It went ok, but it was really interesting. I learned lots of things. He is amazing, and knows a lot. However, I feel a little behind. Everyone here play amazingly well. There is a lot of competition. I have to practice very very much.

My second day of classes, third day at Pilsen went much better. I woke up early, and start to practice at 9. At 12:30, me and two other pianists went to know a little bit of Pilsen. Downtown is old, but beautiful. It is in fact a very interesting city. By 2:30, I was again practicing. At 5pm, I had my first class for chamber music, but just me and the professor, Miroslav Brejcha, Director of the conservatory at Pilsen.It seems I had to practice more this piece.

Everything is going much better now. However, you cannot imagine how much I miss a friend or at least someone close. Czech people does not like to talk in English that much, or does not know how to. So, other than in the Conservatory, is really hard to communicate. It seems I have to learn at least the very basics of this language, something I am really interested anyways. People in the Conservatory looks very nice, they are very talkative and kind. I am happier now. I am really interesting of learning as much as can possible be. My professors are so good, that is hard to describe. I am really looking forward for what can happen next. I’ll keep posting my anecdotes; hopefully the further ones are much more interesting!