Rebonjour! (Hello again!) I thought I’d give you all an update on how the last two years have gone for me following my first few months in Paris in 2022 and how I ended up here again. By the time I got back to Wisconsin in December of 2022, I was completely enamoured by Paris, with its wonderful food, architecture, museums, historical monuments, and unbelievably rich cultural life, with concerts of every kind happening practically daily. I was sad to leave but also excited to get back into the swing of things at Lawrence University in Appleton, where I was still studying.
I took piano lessons with a teacher in Paris during the Fall of 2022, which I spent primarily learning music by French composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Messiaen, and Chaminade. I’ve also continued to play a lot of French music since then, including at the TPAC and the Red Barn on Washington Island! Meanwhile, at Lawrence, I stayed busy finishing my two majors in piano and French. I gave a senior piano recital in November of 2023, the culmination of my music major, and a senior capstone paper presentation in March of 2024, the culmination of my French major. My paper was about the ways we listen to words and music and focused on a set of songs by Debussy with texts by the French poet Paul Verlaine.
