Well, having made my 2012 goals list and joyfully bid farewell to the horrors of 2011, today I found an email from someone talking about the 10 best things of their 2011. Given how mostly awful 2011 was for me - back pain, depression, 9-month gum infection that nobody could find the cause of, a second sprained ankle and a busted calf muscle just for starters - I thought I should really try to think about the good things that happened in 2011, because there were good things, and it's not right that they be obscured by a bunch of mostly medical crap. So it's time for a list-post. I'll start with the kind of obvious but still amazing:
1. I was accepted into Trinity Laban's Master of Music programme in Composition, to start in September 2012. I've been wanting to do an MMus ever since graduating from my BMus - for 15 years, so yes, this is an amazing thing.
2. I'd never have applied for the MMus if I hadn't done the CoMA Midwinter Composers Masterclass in Durham in January. I got the first real feedback on my music I'd had since I left uni, met some amazing people and got some real encouragement, including specific encouragement from both our tutor Tansy Davies and other students to apply for a Masters degree, that my music was good enough to do so (I hadn't thought I was anywhere near good enough). That masterclass was one of the most important things I've ever done for my work.
3. We decided to buy a house. Admittedly, since then there's been a vast amount of stress, dealing with the stupid bank who have been causing all sorts of delays and not giving us an answer about the mortgage, but the decision itself was a huge step - to move out of London, deciding where we wanted to be, making plans.
4. Wrote (or at least mostly wrote) my first real orchestral piece. This has taken most of the year, but I've learned so, so much by following the process through and while it's still got some way to go, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far.
5. Did a semester's worth of private composition lessons. This is obviously tied up with no. 4, but it was a great experience, exposed me to some wonderful music I'd never have found otherwise and got me used to actually talking about my work and getting a little bit brave about sharing it.
6. Spent 2 weeks at the Edinburgh Festival followed by a weekend with Djeli on the Isle of Arran. I really, really needed that break and saw some amazing shows and stunning scenery. And even though the Festival was somewhat marred by a rather extreme bout of stress-induced insanity on my part, followed by the second sprained ankle, the insanity did lead to some excellent talks with Djeli, and I'd really needed to get away - just so insanely stressed by an assortment of stuff...
7. Met up with an old friend. We met first through the internet & have been corresponding for over a decade. We met once in York in 1998, but hadn't managed to meet up again since I moved over here 6 years ago. Very slack, I know, but it was great to finally do it - and great, too, that we're moving into the same area as him, so hopefully we'll see a lot more of each other from now on.
8. Started sharing my work-in-progress on my blog. This was a super-scary, but very useful for thinking through the piece and for my confidence. I didn't get as much feedback as I'd hoped to, but people seemed to read the posts at least and I've learned a lot from doing it anyway.
9. Saw the Barbary apes on the Rock of Gibraltar. I've been wanting to do that since about the age of eight.
10. Made big progress with my business. It's still got a long way to go, but I think I've found a focus now, I've launched the website for it, got a few clients and am gradually finding a way to balance the paying work with composition and training. This was a big feature in the year, and a bit of a struggle to get to where I am now, so mostly it didn't feel like a good thing, but in hindsight it really is.
So there you have it. I made it to ten. And, looking over them, some of those are pretty big deals, really. Food for thought...
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