Music « Sequoia Wild

Music

2010 - 10.03

Demos

Here are a few examples of my current jazz repertoire and application materials. Click on the link for the MP3. Thank you for listening!

Praise

Here are three letters of recommendation from a variety of sources: my Master’s degree advisor, a fellow musician, and arranger-conductor Kirby Shaw (note: he refers to my previous name in 1994).

Personal Statement

I have nine years of performing arts experience, primarily as a vocalist; but I am the kind of person who strives to become involved in all aspects of the things I love, so I have had many roles. In high school, my friends and I founded a jazz combo for which I was the lead vocalist. We did not have adult guidance during this project, so we taught ourselves how to read fake books and charts and how to arrange and transcribe pieces for the transposing instruments. We performed at schools, cafés, retirement homes, and swing dance events. The music department honored me with the Most Outstanding Soprano award and I received a recommendation from Kirby Shaw in support of furthering my vocal training. In college, I completed the first year of the music major and had the amazing experience of performing Carmina Burana as the first soprano section leader. During the following year I held two positions in the music department; Choir Manager and Stage Manager. I played a sultry cross-cast Audrey II in ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’ while co-directing and assisting as a peer vocal coach. Tom Lehrer, who lectures at UCSC, praised my singing and asked me to perform with him in an upcoming cabaret-style dinner. In my third year I discovered that I had a gift for teaching maths and designed my own degree, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mathematics Education. I wrote a thesis proposing a paradigm shift in gifted education that earned me honors in my degree and led to a rewarding teaching career over the next six years. I saw that my ability to help students was due to addressing their mental health needs, and so I began a master’s program in counseling psychology. The program I chose emphasized the need for a counselor to understand themselves, and in my personal explorations, I remembered my love of music and singing and wondered why I had not maintained my musical activities. It seemed that the deeper truth of why I had left music was because on some level I believed the message that being a professional musician was only for the miraculously talented and lucky, and so I had given up. I am so grateful that I figured out this distortion- it lead me to a set of similar epiphanies about many things in my life that I had thought were out of reach: traveling, martial arts, writing a novel, even romance! So as soon as I finished my master’s, I flew to China to study kung fu and am now in Japan soaking up the culture. My muse has returned and I am writing my novel and singing again. The next natural step is to get myself the best support, training and opportunities possible: a music degree. I am returning to music school primarily to receive technique training to repair the bad habits of a decade of singing to the radio, and then to take me beyond my previous level of singing to a place I have only glimpsed in small moments of being in touch with my voice. I can tell that I am a little intimidated by the power and beauty of my voice’s true form and I want to learn to relax into cooperating with my body’s gift. I have twin musical interests: European symphonic metal and big band jazz. Throw in some Japanese pop and German techno and you have the band I hope to create one day. This music features the dramatic, virtuosic and musically sophisticated style of modern-romantic composers like Rachmaninov (Within Temptation, Dragonforce, Muse and Rhapsody of Fire- all EU bands). The amount of versatility and, well, epic-ness of this music means I need a free, healthy voice and a great deal of musical knowledge. I also want to understand how the business of music works so that I can sing as much as possible- that is, succeed in making music my career. Please allow me the opportunity of pursuing my dream at your institution. I believe I always had the talent, intelligence, creativity and passion to fuel my music- now I have the maturity, patience, integrity and fortitude to see how far I can go.

Influences

Since the complete list would include hundreds of works, here I just list the pieces I have discovered recently that are fueling my determination to take my music career seriously so I can share similar messages and feelings with others. Said another way; these songs are the closest I’ve found to the music I want to make someday… and yes, I want to form a band that is versatile enough to do epic pop, symphonic metal, happy hardcore techno and big band jazz. They are all different expressions of the same feelings, to me- not to mention occasionally ridiculously silly! If I can become good enough to solidly perform Diamond Crevasse, Northern Cross, Hand of Sorrow, Jillian, The Diva Dance, Imaginary, Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter, Last Winged Unicorn, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Nessaja, and my favorite standards from Ella’s rendition of the American songbook… I’ll die happy.