Writing the script for my ‘one minute me’ really helped me reflect on the things I’ve achieved in the last few years and take the time to acknowledge and find ways to sell my strengths. The final output could have been better (video quality/poor lighting/my dinosaur bedsheets peeking in the background), but this has been a great starting point to really consider how to present myself as an early career music teacher.

My final recital was earlier this month! Here’s a snippet of Liszt’s Valse Oubilee.

Ok let me explain. So an ogre and a kitten are as opposite as you can get! For instance, size and…level of cuteness. Similarly my piece starts off (section A) with two contrasting ideas, one more heavy/folk-like with a hint of lombard rhythm and the other more delicate. In the following section (B) these ideas start to come together and intertwine, accompanied by continuous semiquavers. 

The story in this composition is that it’s not just an ogre and a kitten, but they’re living in harmony (as bits and pieces from the 2 ideas come together in section B). In section A they’re both just chilling together. By section B, the kitten gets ambitious and wants to try walking and run around independently without having to rely on the ogre. Trying I must highlight, because she’s quite clumsy (the pedal is used to blur the harmonies a bit to reflect this). The kitten really tries to muster all it can to walk and is hopeful but the best she can do is only imagine running around the swamp (cut to dream sequence of a prancing kitten). She ends up taking a big fall (descending scalic semiquavers at the end), but all is well because the ogre has caught her.

Listen to it here.