daniel smith

It’s now Sunday, the day after the concert. Rather tired and sore. Yesterday started with a dress rehearsal for the concert at 11am. The concert itself went from 9.15pm to 11pm, followed by dinner at midnight! The concert went really well. The orchestra played wonderfully. Alas, now there are now three days break before auditions [...]

Just next to the theatre, we have a beautiful bakery. This helps when you have a busy day and need to get an energy boost :P Today was one of those busy days. Worked Beethoven’s 1st Symphony with the orchestra and am very honoured to say that I will be conducting this in the final [...]

Today was quite a long day. Started at 9.30am with a rehearsal with some piano soloists (students of Michele Campanella). These hours were spent going through Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto so that as a conductor, we know what they are doing, their interpretation, tempos, rubatos, etc. Following this, the orchestra came and rehearsed the work [...]

Last night I had the most fantastic dinner although I didn’t eat much because it was a little more expensive than fast food (not that I’m eating fast food!). With some friends I have here (who I met last year), we drove about twenty minutes outside Siena to a medieval village (that looks as if [...]

Ciao tutti! Today, rain! It was very, very, very much appreciated. Not much to report today. Did the weekly grocery shopping today. I particularly like the Special K here, it has chocolate pieces throughout it. All-Bran here are flakes instead of those little stick looking things so I will give that a go too. Water [...]

Today was my first day off since arriving in Siena. Not exactly the kind of day of I would tend to have in Sydney. This morning began with study. We have been warned to make sure Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto be ready! Following this, did the usual washing of clothes ceremony. This time however I [...]

Siena is by far one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. However, as the famous ‘Palio’ nears, the pageantry has commenced. Thus sometimes as late (or early!) as 1am, parades will go throughout the city with snare drums as loud as possibly played and singing to the extreme. Difficult to get a [...]

I would just like to make a few thankyous :) Liz & Mal, thank you so much for the Italian dolci! They help me study every day! Andrew, you are incredible! This website is incredible and you help so much with it – thankyou! And to my parents, there is not just one thing to [...]