March Madness! ...in a good way

Wow! March has been a good month for the Perkins family. It's kind of crazy actually...there's been the concerto night, Adobe, opera job, Masters degree and more!

So, going by chronological order, the first good thing was the Evening of Concertos. Orson flew out for like...18 hours to come see it, which was super cool. I was in the concert because of the competition I won back in January. I was really nervous because it was a big audience and it was a big honor to play with the Philharmonic, so I wanted to represent the school of music well. I got to the HFAC a couple hours early before anyone else was there and practiced while the stage crew was setting up. I knew I shouldn't play too much and wear myself out...but it's hard to walk away knowing the next time I touch a piano, it'll be the real deal! The stage crew must've thought I was weird because I kept gathering up my things and walking away and then turning around and playing it through just one more time. I was first on the program, so I went out on stage with the conductor. Everything went great and I got fancy chocolate out of it! After I finished playing I was supposed to shake the conductors hand. He must have rehearsed compliments for all the performers and was trying them all out on me. He said, "Wonderful. Fabulous. Great job. Well done. Bravo." Then I bowed, and I was done! Here's one of the videos...you might have to download it to watch.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7VNaiCUvmCRSkZiNWZzTGZ2OWc/edit?usp=sharing

Next, Tim got an internship at Adobe which is nuts! It was his #1 pick for a job and it was really competitive to get. It is a very sought after internship so he had to pass through a huge screening of resumes and interviews before it all funneled down to one person: Tim! It will be a really sweet job for him this summer and he can continue part time when school starts back up.



Next, I got offered a job accompanying the BYU Opera Department for their spring musical "The Elixer of Love." It's the best job ever because I get to learn all this new music and the directors/actors are really fun to work with. And...if they have a few minutes when they don't need me, I partake of the free muffins.

And the good news continues! I got officially accepted to the Master's Program for Piano Performance. I auditioned on Valentine's Day and it went really well, but I knew there were only going to be a couple of spots open. I was also under the impression that the application process was a simple as showing up to the audition, but then they asked me "where's your online application with 3 letters of recommendation, a statement of intent essay, ecclesiastical endorsement, and a million forms?" and I was like, "the online what-a-what now?" Haha so...that was a bit of a mess getting that all finished up, but it all worked out. I petitioned to start classes in the Spring and they said that they don't allow that and they wouldn't be able to get me any scholarship money that soon anyway. But...I just found out yesterday that I got approval to start this Spring and they were able to cover my WHOLE tuition!

Besides all of the above, just general good things have happened: I wrote an 11 pg paper in record time, my capstone project is going well, Tim surprised me by getting my bike fixed up, we've had a lot of tasty "celebration" dinners, taxes weren't as horrible as we were expecting, the weather has been great, and even my March Madness bracket is going pretty well. (The one I picked winners based solely on how cool their team name sounded).