“Before EMF, my playing was a little timid and I was shy to make too loud of a sound; however, throughout the program, especially through the studio classes, I was exposed to stronger, more rooted playing that I incorporated into my playing.”
This summer junior Katherine Ropp spent the summer traveling across Europe to cap off a semester abroad and then participating in the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. Celebrating its 62nd season this summer, the Eastern Music Festival (EMF) is hosted at Guilford College and is a five-week intensive classical music festival and summer music program.
After spending the spring semester abroad in Paris, Ropp was able to travel with friends across Europe, gaining new cultural insights along the way. She then used her time at EMF to get back into the habit of daily practice and advance her skills on the double bass. As a music education major, minoring in French, her summer adventures have reinvigorated her post-graduation goals of teaching music to young children.
Hi! My name is Katherine Ropp and I’m a junior at UNC majoring in Music Education with a minor in French.
During spring semester, I studied abroad in Paris and made many friends that I traveled with for the first month of summer break. We started our travels in Nice followed by Milan, then Venice, Vienna, and Berlin. We traveled mainly on trains using the EuroRail pass giving us 5 travel days during the month where we could take however many we wanted. For housing, we all pitched in looking for hostels and Airbnbs and covering the cost. In each city, we got to walk around, explore, and enjoy the sights and different cultures of each country. In Vienna, we even did a free walking tour of the city which pointed out spots that were significant to the World Wars. Though my voyages did not necessarily improve my performance skills or playing skills, it did open my eyes to different types of people and ways of living. Learning about differences in thinking aids me as an educator to better understand my future students and where they’re coming from.
This summer I participated in the Eastern Music Festival, a renowned summer orchestra workshop hosted at Guilford College just 60 miles from Chapel Hill in Greensboro. This previous semester, with my study abroad program, I was not able to play for several months, and through EMF I got back into playing. In addition to performing several orchestral selections, EMF also had the benefit that my double bass professor at UNC-CH, Leonid Finkelsteyn, is on faculty there and I could continue lessons with him during the summer. To apply, I had to make a recording with a mix of orchestral excerpts and solos as well as a resume and cover photo. In March, I received my acceptance and a small scholarship as well. Another benefit of EMF is that it fit well with my schedule; it started in late June a few weeks after I returned from my semester abroad and it wrapped in time for me to have a few weeks back home before heading into another rigorous program at UNC.
Learning about differences in thinking aids me as an educator to better understand my future students and where they’re coming from.
At EMF, I met people from all around the US and the world, from China to Cuba, and who study at UCLA to UT-Austin to the Eastman School of Music. Everyone had different techniques for playing their instrument and I greatly learned from that. Before EMF, my playing was a little timid and I was shy to make too loud of a sound; however, throughout the program, especially through the studio classes, I was exposed to stronger, more rooted playing that I incorporated into my playing. I particularly appreciated a viola masterclass with Sheila Browne in which she picked out the stronger and weaker parts of the bow. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but hit close to home and was a new way of looking at the bow. I will be taking this new rooted sense and knowledge of bowing to improve my playing this year and become a stronger player.
After Carolina, my goal is to teach music to younger kids and participate in an orchestra or other ensembles. EMF reinvigorated my passion for music and especially for performing. With a performance every week, my practice time was very concentrated and I refocused on what I needed to practice. It has shown me that I want to continue performing in ensembles once I get a teaching job.
