We had a couple of concerts last week, one at St. Joseph's in the village and the other at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. We were performing with a truly great singer, Alexander Kisselev. He is the best Bass soloist I have personally heard.
This was the first time I have sung in Weill. One thing performers say about it is that it is "dry" acoustically, which means you don't get much feedback. This is true, and it makes it difficult to gauge the sound in the hall and to hear the other singers, especially those standing in front. On the other hand some sounds are more immediate and this was an interesting change.
The concert was what I would call a resounding success. In fact I have not personally been part of such an enthusiastic response from the audience. We were even asked to repeat one of the pieces which was fun.
On short notice we were recently asked to perform in another concert at Carnegie hall. The concert is this Thursday and is titled "Stars Of The Kirov In Celebration of Russia Day". "Russia Day" is in celebration of Russian independence from the Soviet Union. We are going to do two opera choruses and the big finale from our last concert. It should be a fun celebration.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Job at Brookhaven
I accepted a tenure track job at Brookhaven National Laboratory yesterday. As I mentioned in my last post, astrophysics is a new direction for the lab and I am their first hire in that field. It will be partly my responsibility to build a strong cosmology program there. To start with we will hire one more astrophysicist this year, and we will bring in a postdoc the following year.
I will also spend one day a week in the city at Columbia or NYU where I have collaborators and there are regular seminar series. That way I can stay in contact with the community while we build a program at Brookhaven. At Brookhaven we will also start our own seminar series to bring in interesting speakers and make the lab an active center for astrophysics and cosmology. It would be good to coordinate this seminar series with nearby Stony Brook. We also plan to expand the group in the near future to include more tenure track positions.
At first I'll continue my work with SDSS data and preparation for the Dark Energy Survey. The lab is also a member of LSST, a longer term project in which I will become heavily involved. People at the lab are building the detectors and I would focus on software pipelines and analysis.
This job is a great opportunity and a good fit for me. The kind of resources I need for my work are plentiful there and our long term goals are well-aligned.
I will stay near New York where I've made a lot of good friends, and I will continue with the Chorus. This is the first move since I left home that I don't have to completely dig up my roots, and that's a good feeling.
I will also spend one day a week in the city at Columbia or NYU where I have collaborators and there are regular seminar series. That way I can stay in contact with the community while we build a program at Brookhaven. At Brookhaven we will also start our own seminar series to bring in interesting speakers and make the lab an active center for astrophysics and cosmology. It would be good to coordinate this seminar series with nearby Stony Brook. We also plan to expand the group in the near future to include more tenure track positions.
At first I'll continue my work with SDSS data and preparation for the Dark Energy Survey. The lab is also a member of LSST, a longer term project in which I will become heavily involved. People at the lab are building the detectors and I would focus on software pipelines and analysis.
This job is a great opportunity and a good fit for me. The kind of resources I need for my work are plentiful there and our long term goals are well-aligned.
I will stay near New York where I've made a lot of good friends, and I will continue with the Chorus. This is the first move since I left home that I don't have to completely dig up my roots, and that's a good feeling.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Job Update + Concert this week
Job Hunt
I've been looking for jobs the last few months. I applied to 25 or so of the listed astrophysics jobs, essentially all those which I thought fit me.
I'm on the "short list" at three places currently: Pittsburgh, Yale, and Brookhaven national lab. Each place makes a short list of 5 or so people for their job and bring them in for an interview.
I've interviewed at Pitt and Yale and both went well, and I interview at Brookhaven in a couple of weeks. For those not familiar, Brookhaven is a national lab on Long Island. National labs are government funded science labs. This is different from a university in that there are no students, but they do have tenure track positions like the one for which I applied. I would be the first astrophysicist hired at the lab. They have traditionally focused on high energy and nuclear physics, but they are branching out.
There is no set timescale, but I would expect offers to come out in a month or two. I'll keep everyone posted.
Concert
We have a concert at St. Ignatius of Loyola. This is part of a series of concerts called Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. We sing at 7 and are followed by the choir of St. Ignatius at 8. We are exploring the development of sacred choral concerti in Russian music, and they will begin their concert with such a concerto by Schnittke.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
980 Park Avenue, at East 84th Street (on the southwest corner).
7pm
Update on the stolen wallet: So far all is well, I got my cards canceled and there have been no odd occurrences with my bank account or anything. It was surprisingly easy to deal with this.
I've been looking for jobs the last few months. I applied to 25 or so of the listed astrophysics jobs, essentially all those which I thought fit me.
I'm on the "short list" at three places currently: Pittsburgh, Yale, and Brookhaven national lab. Each place makes a short list of 5 or so people for their job and bring them in for an interview.
I've interviewed at Pitt and Yale and both went well, and I interview at Brookhaven in a couple of weeks. For those not familiar, Brookhaven is a national lab on Long Island. National labs are government funded science labs. This is different from a university in that there are no students, but they do have tenure track positions like the one for which I applied. I would be the first astrophysicist hired at the lab. They have traditionally focused on high energy and nuclear physics, but they are branching out.
There is no set timescale, but I would expect offers to come out in a month or two. I'll keep everyone posted.
Concert
We have a concert at St. Ignatius of Loyola. This is part of a series of concerts called Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. We sing at 7 and are followed by the choir of St. Ignatius at 8. We are exploring the development of sacred choral concerti in Russian music, and they will begin their concert with such a concerto by Schnittke.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
980 Park Avenue, at East 84th Street (on the southwest corner).
7pm
Update on the stolen wallet: So far all is well, I got my cards canceled and there have been no odd occurrences with my bank account or anything. It was surprisingly easy to deal with this.
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