Pictures and commentary from my sophomore year

triplets who were at our house for meeting, the two Heathers (me and one of the triplets)


the ladies of Mu Phi Epsilon at the annual Lekberg Tea, my good friend Rachel who lived down the hall and I


Mu Phi Epsilon at the All-American Concert, my bro Andy and I on my 20th birthday


Mu Phi Epsilon initiation, my Mu Phi "family" (top to bottom: me, my "dot," my sister, and my mom)


Andy and I on the day of his piano recital/my choir concert/my piano recital (poor Mom and Dad!), my favorite practice room piano


playing Uncle Dave's piano, Sarah and I shopping in Peoria


Sarah and I driving back from spending too much money, showing off our purchases


Kelly and I (my roommate for next year, and good friend) in the lobby of the music building, Rachel and I in costume and ready to rehearse


our performance of scene 1 of Pirates of Penzance, Dr. Larsen (opera director and all-around amazing man) and I at the end of two long nights of opera scene performances


That's an overview of a crazy year of college! I can hardly believe I'm half done....

An explanation of some of these pictures, events, and groups is probably in order. Mu Phi Epsilon is the professional music fraternity I joined my freshman year. We do a lot of things with Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the men's music fraternity at Simpson. It's so much fun! Music pretty much rules my life at Simpson...besides Mu Phi, I'm in the Women's Chorale (and on the Chorale Council), I take two credits of private piano and one credit of private voice. That means lots of practice room time (hours each day) besides group rehearsals. I'm also a student accompanist--I receive a paycheck at the end of each semester for accompanying for other students (this year I had 8 students...which meant a couple nice checks!). I also share the accompanying for Mu Phi and Chorale. Whew!

Then, for May Term, I decided to enroll in the opera workshop, a bi-annual event for the music department. For three weeks in May, I was completely immersed in opera--I was the rehearsal accomanpist for several scenes, was onstage for 2 scenes, backstage for a couple scenes, and either page turning or taking pictures for all the other scenes. We performed these scenes Wednesday and Thursday of the third week...5 1/2 hours each night, so 11 hours of performing total. And we got it ready in 2 1/2 weeks! Wow!

So, even though I have two jobs and an online chem class this summer and keep driving all over to visit family and go to conventions and weddings, I'm getting to relax compared to being at college! :) Then at the end of August, I'll jump right back into the tornado we call the Simpson music department. I'd better relax while I can!