Last month, I was in San Francisco to wrap up our second phase of work with the San Francisco Opera.
On the way back to my hotel, I meet a gentleman on Market street. I meet his eye and smile. He gets a shocked look on his face, walks over and says, "Hey listen, I'm not here to ask you for money - I just wanted to say thank you. You're only the 3rd person to look in my direction today and acknowledge me, and you have no idea what that means. I'm serious - you've already helped me so much."
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Written by Grace Hong
Some people tell me that I am a superwoman or supermom, as I put on multiple hats throughout a day. Do I agree with that title? Maybe... (Maybe is the problem.) I am the oboist of Fifth House Ensemble, a freelancer, teacher, wife, daughter and a mother. I get asked a lot about balancing work and life from young musicians, especially during our Fresh Inc Festival, which happens every summer for 2 weeks with participants coming from all over the world. Some of the participants are newly married, thinking about starting a family, or already have a family and struggle to find the perfect balance between work and life. I really wish I could tell them, “here are the list of things you need to do and you will have a perfectly balanced life,” but it is not that simple. I do not have a black and white answer. The answer to this question changes depend on the current stage of your life, so this post is from a working mom who has two beautiful children, 5 and 3, sharing a few things I’ve learned while juggling work and life.
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Fifth House Ensemble’s mission is to create engaging performances and interactive educational programs, forging meaningful partnerships with unexpected venues, artists of other disciplines, educational institutions, and audiences of every type.
Speaking to the unexpected venues part, Fifth House Ensemble has performed in a wide variety of spaces, ranging from bars, a lake in Tuva, aquariums, supper clubs, libraries, and museums to concert halls and convention centers of all sizes. How do we find these places?
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It's late summer and Fifth House Ensemble had a few weeks off, affording me time to properly reflect on the whirlwind that was our past season. In this space, a project I re-live fondly is our collaboration with the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble, Alash.
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We are very excited to announce the election of Tad Gray as president of Fifth House Ensemble’s board of directors!
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Let me start with a scenario: You’re at a rehearsal where the group is reading through a new piece. You just finished a complicated technical passage, and now you’re faced with 28 bars of rest. Using your free hand, you count to 5 over and over until you get to 28…or is it 23?
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There is a ton of strategy, research and prospecting, massive outreach, and marketing material design that goes into making a sale. Once you get a presenter on the phone, here are five tips to close the sale:
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Each of us has our own “creation” story about how we started on our instrument of choice. Perhaps it was a popular friend who played the piano, so you started studying to be just like her. Or, it was a performance you experienced live, on TV, or on a recording that made you say, “WOW – I want to be able to do that!” Or maybe, as with some of my younger students, the answer is a sullen, “My mom made me do it.”
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It looks like it's about that time. September means a new season for Fifth House Ensemble (the 13th new season as a matter of fact)! We hope you all had a nice summer and that you're ready for some exciting new content from your friends at the Augmented Fifth and Fifth House! Alright, before we get to the fun stuff, we have some business to go over:
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Well well well, did you miss us? Good news, Fresh Inc 2018 is here and we are super excited to bring you the Fresh Inc Special Edition of the Augmented Fifth! We had an exciting start to our festival and we'll be posting some of our most notable moments here.
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I'll save the mushy stuff for later, but hey guess what, you've survived an entire season of reading the Augmented Fifth! We do enjoy your company and hope you've enjoyed your experience. The calendar might say we're done, but Google doesn't own me yet so I have a feeling we'll be back fairly soon...
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Can you believe it? Only two weeks to go until we arrive in Kenosha for Fresh Inc! In the meantime, we've got projects wrapping up left and right here at Fifth House Ensemble.
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