Musicians > Bureaucracy

That is the lesson I learned today. It had the potential to be another disastrous day, but I have now learned to sidestep all the "official" people who are "supposed" to give me answers and advice, and know that musicians take care of their own.

My day started at the Musikhochschule in an effort to find out how to fix my broken oboe (and see if I could get my foot in the door). The problem is, and the reason I ended up at this university in the first place, is I found out too late that the School of Music is its own separate entity, not affiliated with the university, and my scholarship is for the university. But I needed an excuse to show up, and a legitimately non-functioning oboe is a good reason.

(It's having a temper tantrum because of the climate change I bet....the pads won't seal and I think it's because of the sudden cold and dry air here. How convenient, especially when I have an audition on Monday!)

But back to the story - I got there this morning and just wandered the halls for a long time, remembering what it feels like to be in a music school, and promised myself I would try every avenue to somehow become associated with this place. I asked the secretary where I could find the oboe professors (they have 4!); she said no one was in at this time but I could come back between 4-6 and someone would be here. Cool.

I then headed to "my own" school to meet with another Rotarian professor who said he'd help me make heads or tails of this mess called taking classes. He said he'd be in his office between 11-2. I came at 12:45, his secretary said he was gone for the day.

Next I went to the International office to speak with the lady who hadn't emailed me back yet. They had open office hours this afternoon, so someone should have been there. Unfortunately the lady I wanted to talk to was out sick today. I talked to someone else, and she said that this office couldn't really help anyway, so she suggested I talk to the student adviser in my department. I told her I tried and it was worthless.

I had an appointment at 2:30 with the music pedagogy professor, and thankfully she was there and I had a great meeting with her. I thanked her about two dozen times and told her she was the only professor who had responded and shown up when she promised, and made sure to let her know how much I appreciated it. She sat with me for about half an hour, talking about options, classes of hers I could take, how things work, and more people to talk to. That's what I needed about a week ago - but unfortunately she could only answer specific questions about her own department, so I have to go talk to different professors to find out about music history and education stuff.

Apparently, up until last year there was a full-size music education program at the university - but the professor left and they never replaced him, but all the students were still here - so she's really not a full professor, she just teaches all the classes. But........the good (hopefully) news is that they have a partnership with the Musikhochschule so that their students can take some ed classes there - she gave me a name of a person to contact to ask. That would be great. I emailed him this afternoon.

Excited and high-spirited from this meeting, I headed back to the Musikhochschule (it's about 25 minutes away by streetcar, unfortunately not close to campus). The secretary directed me to where the oboe teacher was. I found the room, knocked, and a man holding an oboe answered (always good!), but he was in the middle of teaching a lesson. I immediately apologized like crazy and said I'd come back later, but he said "no, no! Come inside! What can I do for you?"

I told him my situation and how I had no idea where to go except to come here, and he said "well of course I'll help you. Go ahead and get out your oboe and we'll take a look...while your reed is soaking do you mind if the student and I finish working on this passage?" (Are you kidding? It's her lesson! She was absolutely phenomenal, by the way.)

Sure enough, he couldn't fix the problem, but told me where I should bring it to get it fixed. He was lovely and chatted with me for a while, as long as he really could while putting this girl's lesson on pause. I wanted to ask him about lessons (I don't really care who teaches me, just as long as I can have one every now and then) and playing opportunities, but this wasn't the time. But now I've established a contact and I can follow up on it soon!

Like I said, musicians take care of their own.

At this point, I have seriously emailed every single person I can think of or who has been recommended to me, and the ball is in their court. If all else fails, I can take music history and a few pedagogy classes and call it a day. Classes only meet once a week here, for an hour and a half each, so keep that in mind while imagining my schedule.

I think I deserve a break. I have decided I am intentionally ignoring school tomorrow and spending the three-day weekend having fun exploring the city and going to Ikea. :-)