Katherine Raymond – entry 5

We're now barreling into the last week of the festival, and by now everyone has established a fairly steady routine. All of the interns are invited to a big party tonight at the house of one of our favourite donors. It's mexican-themed, complete with a pinata and fajitas from a local restaurant. It should be a nice way to celebrate the end of concert programme IV, which was in my humble opinion, an amazing programme.

Robert Gardner won the audience over with his swaggering stye and beautiful baritone voice in his interpretation of five songs by Charles Ives. Clarinetist Anthony McGill proved that Music@Menlo is truly one big family of artists, coaches, and students when he thoughtfully surprised David Finckel with a short piece composed by David's father, bringing tears to Wu Han's eyes.

The concert ended with an exciting octet by Shostakovich that showed off each and every artist participating. As I was listening to their collaboration from the back of the beautifully gilded ballroom, I was reminded of why I decided to pursue a career in music administration. There is hardly anything so spontaneous and exciting as the creation of living art, and it's wonderful to be involved in it in any way, even if it's just straightening the chairs in the hall or putting up the signs outside to direct the audience to the performance. My job mostly consists of the nitty-gritty details, but I know that those details ultimately make a huge difference in how smoothly the concert runs.