Final Posting

Hi friends!

This will probably be my last post before we get home to Missoula on Saturday. Austria has been a great experience. I have learned many new things, made a ton of new friends, and got to see some of the most beautiful things. Today was our last German class- we got our teacher flowers. Tomorrow we're going to have breakfast at the Palmenhaus which is next to the Schmetterling (Butterfly) Haus. Today we also vistied the Transacoustic Research Institute. Last week we went to Baden and then went to Bratislava, Slovakia on Saturday. Such a wonderful place! There was a Children's Festival going on and it was so cool to see the local dances and songs of the region. We saw St. Martin's Gothic Church and bought some great souvenirs at the open air market. The food was much cheaper here than in Vienna (1.79 for half a liter of beer)!
Last night was the final UM music concert in the Palais Corbelli. The flute choir performed. I had some cool solos and Katie sang in the choir. Tonight we will be going to dinner at the Griechenbeisel (the oldest inn in Vienna) and then watching Wagner's opera Parsifal projected outside the opera house for free!
On Friday we fly to Paris where we will spend the night and get to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Time to charge up the camera batteries again!
Well, folks, it's been a pleasure writing for you- who knows, I may keep writing about my future adventures as well!

Tasty Travels,
CMR

Bratislava!

Hello all,

sorry it's been so long since the last update but the time has gone by really quickly as the trip winds to a close. Today Katie and I and a group of friends took the bus from Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia. It takes only an hour to get there since Vienna is so close to the Slovakian border. The people there were very friendly and there was a Children's Festival being held today that inlcuded a traditional dance concert. It was wonderful to see and hear the native music and dances of the region. We visited St. Martin's Cathedral and had a great time exploring the markets in the old city center. Dinner was great- I actually was able to order a real steak for the first time in about 5 weeks! The Danube river runs through the town and it was a beautiful, sunny day. I would love to return someday and explore even more but we had to catch the bus back for the night at 8:00. I hope this post finds all of you well and will try to do at least another post before the end of the trip.

Gute Nacht,
CMR

Another Great Week!

Guten Morgen everyone!

Madame Butterfly was simply stunning- it was held in the State Opera House and the quality of the performance was incredible. The soprano was so fantastic- Un bel di Vedremo never sounded so wonderful. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z3-yBlDckY for Renee Fleming's performance of this song for a refresher of how great this aria truly is. The State opera house is seven stories of seats and has a giant crystal chandelier at the top of the ceiling. So cool!

On Tuesday we took a beautiful hike to the Heiligenstadt area on the outer edge of the 19th district of Vienna. It is a beautifully forested area interwoven with vineyards. We began our hike down from the Kahlenberg- a tall hill that the Polish army mounted a counter-attack from that saved Vienna from being overrun by the Turks in 1683. Heiligenstadt means "Holy City" and is so old that scholars believe that there may have been an oracle or sacred place the Romans built when they first settled the area thousands of years ago. There are remains of Roman walls and a cemetery there as well as early Christian churches and settlements. Beethoven lived in Heiligenstadt for a time and wrote the famous Heiligenstadt Testament there. Closer to Vienna, a beautiful monument to Beethoven is located along a stream that was full of ducks and frogs. It is a very peaceful place and it was easy to see why Beethoven loved it.

After seeing Beethoven's hair in a little museum in the town of Heiligenstadt, we went to a traditional Heuriger, a wine-tasting house and restaurant. When there is a new wine being featured, the tradition is to hang a pine branch over the front door. We had the house white wine and it was delicious. To eat we had a chicken salad- which is a little different here then in the states. The salad has a layer of German potato salad on the bottom, a layer of mixed greens with dressing next, and then giant pieces of fried chicken on top. Delicious!

After the wine-tasting, we took a bus back into the city and attended a master class of UM's Pierrot ensemble. Two members of the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien, Gustavo Balanesco and Silvia Gelos, listened to original compositions written by UM composition students who are also members of MELEe. After hearing the pieces they gave feedback and suggestion to the group. An intense but rewarding process with some of the world's finest musicians.

On Wednesday Katie and I went to the Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by the legendary Pierre Boulez. This French ensemble is the world's number one ensemble performing modern music. It was so great- we heard pieces by Stockhausen, Ligeti, Berg, and Donatoni. Kammerkonzert by Ligeti is a wonderful (and delightfully modern) piece. Give it a listen sometime. And for those of you who may not enjoy modern music- keep in mind that most movie music we hear today would not be around if wasn't for modern composers like Schoenberg and Ligeti.

Yesterday we had a masterclass with Katharina Klement at the Universitat fur Musik along with some of her electronic music students. The Pierrot ensemble played again and then MELEe performed as well. I got some new feedback on the video art that I create with MELEe and we got ready for our upcoming performance at the Palace Corbelli this coming Tuesday. MELEe and Katharina Klement's students will perform with MELEe and I will also perform with the Flute Choir.

Now its off to another masterclass with Dr. Ulrike Anton at the Palace Corbelli with members of the Flute Choir. Wow! I think it's fair to say that it's been another busy week!

I hope this posting finds all of you well and I'll be seeing you in about two weeks- then I can show you all of my pictures. Have a great day!

CMR

Salzburg!

Hello everyone-

This weekend we took a train to Salzburg. Its about 3 hours away from Vienna and is the city where they filmed the Sound of Music! Salzburg is an absolutely stunning city much smaller than Vienna full of cathedrals, churches, shops and surrounded by beautiful mountains. On the hill is a huge medieval fortress. We also saw where Mozart was born and where the Mozart family lived. We stayed in a really nice hostel and I took about 300 pictures just in the town. On Thursday Katie and I attended a tour of the Essl Contemporary Art Museum and attended a lecture by modern composer Karlheinz Essl. He performed for us along with prepared piano expert, Tzenka Dianova. The museum was full of unique modern artworks including an awesome exhibit by Niki de Saint Phalle. Tonight Katie and I are going to a Beethoven string quartet concert at the Musikverein and tomorrow we are going to Madam Butterfly at the Opera House. Whew! Sop much to see, hear and do! I hope all is well for all of my friends and family and have a wonderful day!!!!

CMR

Media Art on both sides of the Globe

Guten Tag!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the Digital Graffiti Festival held in Alys Beach, Florida is this weekend. Why is this exciting? Because I have a motion design piece that was accepted into the festival- it was one out of 36 final pieces that was accepted from over 300 entries from all over the world. I am so excited even though I can't be there personally. Check out the website at http://www.digitalgraffiti.com/

Thanks to Martin Fromm for letting me know about the festival in the first place and also a good luck shout out to Amber Bushnell, a fellow Missoula Media Arts graduate student who also has a piece in this year's festival!

For examples of my media design check out http://www.cmrdigitalmediadesign.com

In other news on the Austrian side of the globe, the Flute Choir performed last night in the University of Montana concert #2. We played pieces by Luenin and Ravel. After the flute choir performed I stayed to watch Katie play in a woodwind quintet. They beautifully performed Passacaglia by Barthe.

When Katie was done, we booked it over to the Konzerthaus where MELEe played in the electronic music club Brut. The Konzerthaus is considered the Carnegie Hall of Vienna. I vj'ed (created video projection art) live as MELEe played. It was such an awesome experience to be playing in the Konzerthaus for other electronic musicians and artists in the music capital of the world. The visual element helped to complete the experience for the viewer because it created a link between what was being heard and what was being seen. What an awesome experience :)

Yesterday Music 436 Expressionism and Schoenberg attended a prepared Piano lecture. We learned about using erasers, screws, bolts, felt and other materials to insert in piano strings to create different timbres and sounds from the piano. Tomorrow we visit the Essl Music Museum and attend a living composer lecture. On Friday, we leave for Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart! We will return on Saturday evening to Vienna. I will write more soon!

Hope everything is going well for everyone!

Gute Nacht.

CMR

Jezt in Wien!

Hi all,

the weeks are flying by in Wien (Vienna). Yesterday we took a trip to Eisenstadt, the village where Haydn lived and worked for the Esterhazy's. We then took a trip to the village of Rust, a historic village in Burgenland by the Neusiedler See. This is a quaint town where many people take boats out on the water and have reed-roofed mini-houses where they stay and fish- sort of like ice-fishing houses we use in the states. A beautiful place! Bridget, Jenna, Katie and I ate dinner and experienced traditional Austrian cooking firsthand. I had boiled rump roast with horseradish bread sauce and Katie had delicious snchitzel. Jenna had wonderful roast fish and Bridget had these amazing cream cheese dumplings wrapped in bacon and deep fried served over a salad of baby greens. Guten Appetit!

The Esterhazy palace was a beautiful Baroque castle with Hungarian influences due to the close proximity to Hungary (about 20 kilometers) and the historic relationship between the Austrians and the Hungarians. This palace had a more rustic, "country" feel compared to Schonbrunn. The theatre inside was absolutely stunning- pictures to follow I promise!

On Thursday, Katie, Hilary and I went to another concert at the Musikverein. Klavier (piano) player Maurizio Pollini performed a wonderful concert including the works of Chopin and Schumann. I got to hear the Raindrops prelude, one of my favorite piano pieces and it was wonderful.

Today we visited the MUMOK- a fantastic modern art museum. I was so excited to discover that one of the current main exhibits was called "Changing Channels" and was devoted to the pioneers of video art. In this exhibit were hundreds of televisions set up displaying original films and video art of artists including John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and most excitedly for me, Nam June Paik. This was a media artist's dream: being able to experience Nam June Paik's television installations first hand- even the original video synthesizer Paik used to create some of the world's first video art was on display. This was absolutely fantastic.

We also visited the Kirche am Steinhof- a Jugendstil (art nouveau), church at the top of the hill in a historic psychiatric hospital known as Steihoff. It was designed by revolutionary architecht Otto Wagner and was one of the first churches designed to be functional for the disabled and mentally ill as well as beautiful.

German class this week was intense but we are learning how to say many things. Ich studiere Deutsch jezt in Wien. (I study German now in Vienna!) This coming Tuesday is a big night again as the Flute Choir performs in the Palace Corbelli and then MELEe performs at the Velak Gala- more on that in a few days :)

Katie and I had delicious pizza tonight at a little pizzeria near Karlsplatz somewhere. We ordered a pizza apiece and almost ate all of it we were so hungry!

Well its getting late and I'm getting sleepy- tomorrow is free time to explore the city!

Guten Abend,

CMR