Our First Little Recital!

Hello everyone!

Last weekend, I had such a proud mama moment!  My Boston students had their first recital, and my goodness! cue all the emotions.

I never imagined that I would love teaching so much, but during the past six years or so, teaching has grown into one of my biggest passions.  I love everything about it; getting to know the students and the parents, figuring out different ways to approach different subjects for each student, working out how to solve road blocks in their learning process, and seeing them grow both artistically and personally.  It's truly one of the most rewarding experiences.

I feel so lucky to have so many wonderful students (and their parents!) here in Boston, and together with MaeLynn's studio, we had an exciting recital day full of fun music and wonderful companionship!

We were also lucky to have such a sensitive pianist, Daniel, who was there to play with our students! It's not easy following the students' interpretations sometimes (which can be rather surprising at times), but he did amazingly!  =)

All of our students played so beautifully! We had a variety of range in levels, and they all did their best, and we were so proud!!

We were also joined by a wonderful singer, who is one of my students' sister, and it was so fun to have variety during the recital!

We ended the recital with a little Bach Double action!

With all of the students and teachers!

haha this photo really captures the experience -- sweet, funny, a little distracted..  and never a boring moment!

Everyone brought refreshments to share afterwards, and we had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know all of the friends and family!

I feel so blessed to have such talented and wonderful students. Every single one of them has such good hearts that even when they don't practice sometimes (ahem..), I look forward to every lesson with them  =)

I'm so excited that for the first time in my  life, I am planning on being in one place for more than a few years!  I'm excited to hopefully work with all of these students long term and to see all of them grow!

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Photo Cred: my wonderful fiancee -David  =)

Life Recently :: Surviving March

Hello everyone,

I survived March!!!!  I know, I know, March isn't quite over yet, but the part I wasn't sure I would survive (namely, right after David and I got engaged till now) is done, and the only casualty seems to have been my immune system. 3 weeks of intensive sleep depravation seems to have been too much even for my trusty OnGuard oil to fight off the illnesses, but I can only count my blessings that the sore throat and the fever only hit on the last day of my marathon rehearsal/performance schedule!

Some people have asked if I have been busy planning our wedding, and the answer is the biggest, fattest, 'no'.  haha  David and I got engaged, David left to go back to Houston, and since then I've spent every waking hour running around the greater Boston area for rehearsals and performances.  so... yeah... weddings just kinda plan themselves, right?  if we keep telling ourselves that, maybe it will actually happen that way (fingers crossed!)

I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to play in so many performances with my friends in different chamber group configurations, for many prominent composers and teachers, and in awesome orchestras like the Phoenix and the Boston Ballet Orchestra!  so. so thankful.  

This was my first time playing with the Boston Ballet, and this was the first time I've loved playing in the pit!  Usually, many musicians dread playing in the pit (myself included), but the music was awesome, the Boston Ballet community (both musicians and dancers) was so warm and inviting, and the energy from both the performers and the audiences during the performances was really great!  I can't wait to play with them again soon, especially since the Boston Opera House is absolutely gorgeous!

During the 'off' days from the ballet, I got to be a part of the launch even for Phoenix!  Shortly after I moved to Boston, one of my friends from high school, Matt Szymanski, contacted me with an idea for a new orchestra he was starting, called Phoenix!  Since then, I have had the privilege to work with seriously incredible friends for the launch of Phoenix.  Last Tuesday, our dreams became a reality, and we had our first Phoenix concert ever in Oberon!  

I still get chills thinking about it because that night was... It's hard to describe in words just how amazing the night was. We had put in so many months of work beforehand, and to see it come together so spectacularly...  I'm getting emotional over here just thinking about it haha  but my friend and stand partner, Zenas (the goofball below with light antennae coming out of his head), wrote about the event beautifully on his blog, so check it out here!

Other than these two big orchestra performances, I also had the BU orchestra performances, chamber performances, and my solo recital!  For the recital, April came up to perform the Debussy Sonata, Nels Drue Daily (work written for us!), and the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata with me, and we had such a rich week together full of incredible music making, companionship, and of course, amazing food!

i love this girl.

like this one.  the most incredible sandwich from Cutty's.  Go on Saturday, and ask for Pork Rabe.  ahmazing!

Abers' visit coincided with PI day, so of course, we had to celebrate.  It was, after all, 3/14/15. We also toasted at 9:26:53pm  ;)   (and yes, I realize just how behind I am on blogging haha)

Anyway, for this event, we got together with my string trio buddies, and made pizzas!

Look at this beauty!

and this one  ;) 

the perfect pie for pi day!

so thankful for these awesome friends in my life =)

More recently, right before a new music concert, we visited the Sunset Cantina to try their infamous dessert nachos!  Look at this...

It's an overwhelming sight, isn't it? so much fried, sweet, and fruity goodness  haha   Personally, it was too sweet for me, but it was definitely an experience, and worth a try if you've never had it before! Oh, but make sure to take a few friends with you...

We still couldn't finish it between the four of us!

So, March.  You have been one heck of a month.  In my sleep-deprived state, no adequate words come to mind to fully describe you, but all I know is that I am thankful for everything.

Now, I'm off to bed.  for the next week or so.

If you need me... I'll be back in one concert hall or another within a few days! haha

Have a wonderful week, and thanks for stopping by for this dinosaur of a blog post!

--Janny

Vegan Mac n Cheese

Hello everyone!

The finals are over, and you know what that means!!! I have time to cook!!!

I'm not vegan, and I'm not gluten free.  Also, mac n cheese is definitely not one of my favorite dish esin the world... I know.. how could I not like this All-American dish?! but anyway, I stumbled upon this recipe from Minimalist Baker, and it just seemed so interesting!  I mean, cheese sauce made of eggplant?  How cool is that? and the photos looked so good!!  So I decided to try it out  =)

Even though I grew up eating the Korean eggplant, I have yet to successfully incorporate the American kind into my cooking...  It always catches my eye though when I'm in the grocery store, and I was glad for a chance to actually go ahead and grab it and take it home this time ;)

I also grabbed some brown rice pasta because,, well, it's made of rice.  so it can't be bad, right?  haha

Oh, and I had to get nutritional yeast, and boy that was an adventure.  Who would've thought Trader Joe's would not have nutritional yeast!  I mean, that sounded like something TJ's would definitely have!  Danielle was helping me locate it, and eventually, we had to go to Whole Foods to find it, but find it we did!

The recipe is not too complicated, but it did take an hour and a half or so to make... I think it might have been because it took FOREVER to caramelize the onions, but it was totally worth it!

mmmmmmmm   so. yummy.

all I had to do for the eggplant is slice it, salt it, broil it, and peel it!  I may have eaten a few just roasted like this before I could peel  it...  and it was glorious. 

I followed the recipe pretty closely, so I won't reprint it.  just check it out here, but I did make a few changes, of course ;)

For one, I added fresh garlic (2-3 cloves) to the sauce before putting it through the blender, and I loved the taste.

and instead of leaving the pasta like this,,

I added kale and baked it for 10 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees!

The resulting dish was surprisingly good!  As a kale lover, I loved the added texture and flavor that the kale gave to the dish, and I have to say, I actually prefer this mac n cheese to the normal super cheesy ones!  =)

Hope you are having a great day, and let me know if you try this recipe out!  =)

--Janny

Busy Week Life Saver :: Overnight Oats

Hello everyone!

wow, this week has been..  really crazy.

Don't get me wrong, I am loving every moment of it, and I feel so blessed to be able to play with the Boston Phil, but adding their rehearsals and concerts to my schedule has completely... swamped my schedule.  

I will have to do another post later when I have more time about what I've been doing exactly during the absence from the blog, but today, I just wanted to stop by and let you guys know about something that has been really saving my life during this week.  It has single handedy prevented sooo many fast food runs when I haven't had time to go home to make lunch or dinner.

So the star of the post?  

the Overnight Oats!!

There are many different kinds and variations of overnight oats, but Shawn, my roommate, introduced this particular way of making them to me, and I am forever grateful.

All you need to make this filling and super quick meal-to-go is!!
-a mason jar
-1/2 cup oats
-1 cup almond milk (or any other milk)
-and toppings!
This time, I chose 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tbsp peanut butter, and some fresh dates.

You can make this meal in literally 1 minute.

I'm not kidding.

all you do is, dump in your oats (1/2 cup if you are hungry, 1/3 if you aren't), pour in your milk of choice (double however much you put in for oats), and add your choice of toppings!

and shake it off, shake it off~ shake, shake~

couldn't be easier right?  

I know it doesn't look all that appealing, but I promise it's delicious.

You just have to let it sit for a couple of hours and it will be ready to go!

Pack your cute little mason jar and a spoon, and you will be saved from running to the fast food restaurant for every meal during your hell week!

Have a wonderful weekend, and I will talk to you all soon if I survive this weekend (actually, add monday and tuesday to that...)

thanks for stopping by!

--Janny