Happy New Year!
January 2, 2010
Today is a palindrome: 01022010 (meaning it reads the same forwards and backwards)
Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2010 filled with light, love and laughter!
Love,
Calisa
Tour de Duo
November 4, 2009
Pianist Margaret Halbig and I are gearing up for the first of our three concerts this season, starting with this Sunday at 7 pm.
We’ll be performing the Prokofiev Sonata in D Major for flute and piano, as well as the Zyman Sonata. Margaret and Bridget Callahan will play Clark’s Sonata for viola and piano, which one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever heard. They both play it beautifully.
We’ll also be performing at 10 am Sunday morning at Santa Barbara’s First Congregational Church. So if you want to get goood music and a great sermon all in the same setting, please come join us.
The evening concert is at 7 pm in Geiringer Hall at UC Santa Barbara. We look forward to seeing you there!
-Calisa and Margaret
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
September 30, 2009
I am honored to be attending the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It is truly an amazing place. The building is stunning, the acoustics are beautiful, and it is centrally located to just about everything this city has to offer.
I work at the San Francisco Symphony a few days a week, which is two blocks away from the Conservatory. The opera house is next to that and Herbst Theatre, another great performance venue, is just next to that. All of these buildings are across the street from City Hall, which is a sight to behold.
I am constantly inspired here. I get to study with Timothy Day, the principal flutist of the Symphony, and then I get free tickets to see him perform with one of the best symphonies in the world. I heard them play Mahler Symphony 1 last week and was beyond blown away. Words cannot describe that experience. Suffice it to say that it was the most amazing concert I have ever been to.
In addition, I’m performing in several of the ensembles at SFCM, including the Symphony Orchestra, the New Music Ensemble, and the String Chamber Program. Outside of school, I’m working with a fantastic guitarist, Tony Kakamakov, which is extremely exciting. Keep your eyes and ears open for some very exciting things coming from this flute-guitar duo!
And if that wasn’t enough, I still get to teach wonderful young flutists both privately and in a chamber music setting at the Peninsula Youth Orchestra in Redwood City. We work one-on-one, as well as in duets, trios, quartets and full flute choir. The students at PYO are amazing and I love working with them.
I have lots of concerts coming up, so please always check my homepage for the latest updates!
-Calisa
New Beginnings
August 12, 2009
I’m officially moved in to my new apartment in Cole Valley, San Francisco! I can’t believe it! I’m so ecstatic and still in awe of everything that has happened.
I love my apartment and my roommates. We live in a quintessential San Franciscan flat with moldings, stenciled wallpaper, a 1/2 and 1/2 bathroom, and beautiful bay windows with flower beds right outside the window. To top things off, there is an amazing falafel restaurant just ten feet away, and it is only a 12 minute MUNI ride to SFCM (San Francisco Conservatory of Music)!
My best friends and I moved me up from Southern California to San Francisco on Sunday morning in a fancy Uhaul, threw everything in my new room, and drove back early Monday morning to get back to work bright and early Tuesday! It was a crazy 24 hour period, but it was so much fun. The storage unit is even emptied out!
I’ll go back up to SF Sunday afternoon after my performance at the All Saint’s Church in Santa Barbara, and then I have a meeting on Monday, and the SFCM orientation is Tuesday morning! Next week will be crazy… meetings, orientations, registrations, and auditions!
Did I mention I’m excited? Everything has worked out so well I keep pinching myself because it just seems too good to be true! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things keep staying so positive 
Cheers to new beginnings, new friends, new places, new opportunities, and of course, to new music!
-Calisa
Share Our Strength: There is Strength in Numbers
July 6, 2009
Wedding of Tobias and Julie
June 30, 2009
On Saturday, June 27th I had the priviledge of playing solo flute at the wedding of Tobias and Julie Hollerer at the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Gardens.
Not only is the venue absolutely beautiful, but it is free as well! Because it is public property, anyone can get married here for free. The downside, however, is that you can’t reserve the space. I’ve always secretly wanted to play at a wedding here since I found out about this, and am thrilled to have played at Tobias and Julie’s wedding.
Sure enough, everything was absolutely perfect! The weather was gorgeous, there were no other weddings on the entire property (at noon on a Saturday!), and the atmosphere was just lovely.
It was a small affair, around 30 guests, standing room only. Tobias and Julie used to play the flute, so I had the opportunity to play some of my favorite sonatas and concertos; Telemann, Bach, and Mozart to name a few. Nothing superficial for this couple! I was thrilled to play some legitimate repertoire And we topped it off with “Fly Me to the Moon” at the very end.
My favorite part was during the ceremony. Each guest ready a stanza of a pre-selected poem, and in between each stanza, I played a phrase of Bach’s Sicilienne. The timing was perfect; the last stanza ended with the last phrase of the piece.
It was simple, beautiful, and incredibly special. Everyone was so happy to celebrate the love of this couple, and I was honored to be a part of this incredibly special day.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself- am I really so lucky that I get paid to be a part of the most important day of a someone’s life? I suppose so. Being a musician can be hard work sometimes, but days like Saturday make it all worth it. The wedding was a reminder of how remarkable it is to find love in this world, and how fortunate I am to witness it on a regular basis.
Congratulations, Tobias and Julie!
~Calisa
The Classical Beat
June 21, 2009
Clearly, I’m into blogging. It’s a really great way to read some very frank opinions on current events and issues. As a musician, I’m always looking for some relevent entries that address classical music’s current issues.
“The Classical Beat” is a great blog through the Washington Post!
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/
Anne Midgette created an “official forum for the dialogue we need to keep this field vital.”
Thank you, Anne! Thank you for addressing this extremely important issue and providing an area where anyone and everyone can talk about it. People even respond…with real answers that are more than a sentence long!
She recently posted about classical music and its relationship to civilization. Why are we trying to keep classical music alive, anyways, she asked? Because we are trying to pay the musicians, or because we truly feel like there is something to be saved? (the answer is probably a bit of both) And what is civilization? How does classical music relate to it? I strongly recommend you check out what she and her readers have to say.
Why do you think we should keep classical music alive? How should we do it? When you go to a concert, what peaks your interest and keeps you captivated?
As you may know, I’m working on starting my own non-profit chamber music organization. So any thoughts that you have are not only interesting, but incredibly valuable to what I’m working on. I appreciate anything and everything you have to offer!
-Calisa
Calisa Hildebrand, Master of Music
June 21, 2009
I officially graduate with a Master’s Degree in Music Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara, on June 14, 2009.
Pretty exciting stuff! I can’t believe how incredibly fast those two years went. Nor can I believe how different of a player I am. UCSB and my teacher, Jill Felber, completely changed me… for the better!
The best and the worst part of Santa Barbara was its location. Santa Barbara is incredibly beautiful, and also incredibly removed from other cultural “scenes.” This allowed me to step away from a lot of daily stress and reflect upon myself and my own playing. For me, it was a recipe for success! I was able to discover my own personal prescription for happiness: practicing, yoga and friends/food.
Not all of my time there was perfect by any means. But I came out of it a much stronger person and player, and I am now ready to enter a very vibrant cultural scene in San Francisco come August.
A big thanks to all of my friends, family and incredibly teachers for supporting me throughout my degree program. I am so thankful to have you in my life!
-Calisa
Jazz Flute
June 3, 2009
Last night, guitarist David Malvinni and I had the wonderful opportunity to play at a reception for the Santa Barbara based non-profit organization, Girls Inc. It was on the rooftop of the beautiful Canary Hotel in downtown Santa Barbara and was so much fun!
The group requested an “all-jazz” set list, which a year ago I could not have done. But fortunately I’ve been working on my jazz chops with at Cafe Buenos Aires and David and I pulled off a great performance! We had a really fun set, including some latin jazz, salsa, and tons of standards, such as: Fly Me to the Moon, Besame Mucho, Girl from Ipanema, April in Paris, Autumn Leaves, All of Me, and many more.
Improvising is such a liberating experience. I’m thrilled that I am getting to explore that world more and had the opportunity to perform live last night! S’Wonderful! 
-Calisa
Wow! What an amazing event! Santa Barbara’s Taste of the Nation (part of Share Our Strength) was a huge success and I feel so incredibly lucky to be a part of it. As a committee member I got to watch it develop over an entire year into a benefit that raised over $36,000, 100% of which goes to make sure that no child in America grows up hungry!
It was Sunday, May 31st at the Montecito Country Club. Here is a view of our event; there were 25 wineries and breweries and 20 restaurants. Over 500 people came, all to support ending child hunger.
Did I mention I got unlimited and amazing food and wine? and beer?! Ya baby!
As an added bonus, one of my ensembles, The Kashmir Quartet, opened the day by performing at the entrance while people checked in and picked up their wine glasses (hand washed by yours truly).
Members of the quartet include:
Calisa Hildebrand, flute
Shannon McCue, viola
Bridget Callahan, viola
Katie Mendenhall, cello
Here is a picture of us right at the entrance, you can see me in the blue dress (thanks Bridget!)
We had a great set list, including music by the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Phantom of the Opera, Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, and more. I love playing events like this because I get to play all of my favorite music.
And, to top things off, the Kashmir Quartet was auctioned off along with a private chef from New West Catering as part of an in-home, 10 person, privately catered dinner, wine pairing, and evening of music. We sold for almost $2,000!
It was seriously one of the greatest things I have been a part of, and to get to plan it and then perform was amazing! Congrats to the whole Taste of the Nation team for an incredibly successful event!
-Calisa
