January 2006

Regionals!!!

January 30, 2006 17:48

Well, today we got the results from Saturday's regional auditions. But, before I get ahead of myself I'll back up to Saturday.

5:30 am (too early!) - we met at school for a 6:00 bus. And as there were only four of us from orchestra, we got stuck on the band bus, but that was fun.
8:00 - arrived at the audition site, checked in, and did nothing for about an hour
9-10ish - warmed up, and did more nothingness (meaning cards)
10:00 - go to wait for my 10:36 audition...
11:00 - still waiting
11:20 - finally got to play. The threee scales were great. The first etude was ok, better than it had been. The second etude was horrid, worse than it had been. The third etude was also really nice. And, the two sight reading selections were pretty ok.
11:30-12 more nothingness
12-12:45 wait on the bus while the band director tries to find a nother student
1-1:30 lunch at the mall
3:30 pm get back to school
4-4:30 quick rehearsal
the rest of the afternoon sleep
7:30 Mozart concert. This went so well, the two duets were never before that clean for us. Also, at the start of the second piece, the music was upside down (we were doing the table top duets), and I didn't notice, but thankfully the other person did, and she turned the music - much to the delight of the audience. Also, the MC was really funny - you had to be there, or know him...

So anyway, back to today... I found out that I made 9th overall (yay!), which puts me at 5th chair, 1st violin - a fine spot in my opinion...

6 replies | Archive link

January 27, 2006 20:37

Happy Birthday Mozart.

Regional auditions are tomorrow... The bus leaves my school at 7, meaning I have to be up at 4ish........

I'm playing in a Mozart festivaal tomorrow night

Here's a fun game from school:
To know the game is to play the game, so by reading this, you are playing the game, and will be for the rest of your life. The point is to not remember that you are playing, each time you remember that you are playing the game, you loose a round. You then have 30 minutes to inform people that you lost, and restart the game.
Confusing enough?

3 replies | Archive link

Where did all the cellists go...

January 23, 2006 16:38

So...... as a high school orchestra, our sections aren't very well balanced. For example, last semester there were the following people:
1st vln - 6
2nd vln - 7
3rd vln (treble cleff viola) - 4
Viola - 3
Cello - 2
Bass - 2
Piano - 1

So when, at the start of this semester we lost our principle cellist, we were hurting a little. But then, an hour before rehearsal, when our director found out that that our remaining cellist had dropped the class we were in trouble..............

At the beginning of class today, the call was put out to any violinist (except our concertmaster) who could read bass cleff and wanted to try cello. Anyway, our principle 2nd, and 3rd chair 2nd both volunteered to try the cello. With them out of the section, I got to switch to principle 2nd (very exciting!) and someone from the firsts moved to the seconds.

So, wish us luck...

2 replies | Archive link

January 21, 2006 13:23

So, yesterday I had an interesting lesson -
3 octave major and minor scales
Kreutzer 2 and 8
Sevcik double stops 52 and 53
Concerto in G Major (Rieding)

Anyway, after an hour and a half of working on the bowings in the concerto, my teacher ended up complementing my playing (not a common occurance); that was nice.

Regional auditions are a week from today, so is a Mozart Festival that I'm playing in.

At the high school, we are playing a horrid jazz piece (yuck!), and some other fun, simple pieces.

Also, I've started teaching my mom to play piano - thats kinda fun.

Thats all for now... except, I finally got my school schedule changed so I can be in band. It was so much fun, and the rest of the flute line in really nice. So now my class are as follow:
Chem
TA music history (work in music librbry)
Orchestra
Band
1st lunch
2nd lunch
PreCalc
Pre AP English - BritLit

I can't say that I'm complaning...

Archive link

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 19, 2006 16:26

Well, we got the final results for orch seatinig. It wasn't as good as I had hoped, but better than it was. I'm back to 4th overall (now the top four are once again the four of us from last year, which is great) which is 2nd chair 2nd violin. Anyway, its nice to be able to see the conductor again... Plus I'm still playing 1st violin at the college, so I can look forward to that.

(Thanks, and I'm glad you liked my last title)

Archive link

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 18, 2006 18:20

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! I moved up at least one chair in the high school orchestra. I won't know exactly where I'm sitting till the last two people audition.

Thats all for now.

3 replies | Archive link

January 15, 2006 22:11

Today, the Phoenix Symphony was performing in town. And, as I've come to expect, they were wonderful.

They played Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite. I liked this piece, it has a fun story behind it, and the solos are really pretty. And, oh WOW! I have never before heard a bass that high!!! It sounded lie the upper range of a cello, but the only person playing was one of the bass players. It was AMAZING!

Next was James MacMillan's Veni, Veni Emmanuel, for Percussion and orchestra. And let me just start by saying that the percussionist was wonderful. But.... in my honest opinino, it just didn't sound that great. I'll admit there were some neat parts - the big, loud gongs, and the entire orchestra playing chimes at the end - but for the most part, it sounded like a great orch piece with random percussion over it.

Dvorak's 7th Symphony. This piece was also really pretty. I personally like Dvorak's 5th symphony better, but this one is really nice too.

So, thats all for now. Ummm.... in school life, theres a Formal next Saturday, then Regional auditions the next Saturday. The musical this year (Little Shop of Horrors, doesn't require any srtings (so sad!), ummm... I can't think of anything else to write...

1 reply | Archive link

24 people fit in an orch pit for 6 hours

January 13, 2006 15:50

Today was so much fun!!!!!!!!

First of all, school starts at 8, but I take an Early Bird class, chem, at 7am. But I'll admit, I have a double lunch - 11:15-1:01.

Anyway, back to today. Like I thought, the pit was a little squishy. We were right at the beginning of the program, so, after we played, everyone had the choice to stay in the pit or go watch the rest of the show. About 5 of us and our conductor stayed in the pit. It was so much fun - reading, drawing, passing notes, playing cards... The first show was pretty bad (its always nice to be able to warm up...). After that it got better, but after lunch, the timing with one of the actors got off.

For those who are interested, we were playing Morton Gould's Spirtuals for Strings I. Gospel Train and II. Were You There. With three day's rehearsal, they sounded pretty good.

Also, off subject, why is it that when your (maybe just in this case) E slips overnight in your case the other three strings each go sharp by at least a half step?

Also, between shows, we had some fun conversations about all our past orch trips - that was really fun, being able to remember all those fun times. Nearly missing buses, staying at hotels, ice wars, fun times...

And then a friend and I were trying to play a piece together, but neither of us could remember how to play it, but that was fun.

Archive link

How many people fit in an Orchestra Pit?

January 12, 2006 18:09

Just a quick update-

Today, when I was taking the 20+ year old, out dated lables off files in the music liberary, I found a message under one of the lables saying (in a heart) "Kelly and Brie [I think that was the other name] Love 4 Ever" It was really cute, and got me thinking about all the people who have been in my high school's orchestra over the years (including my orch director from freshman year...). The same thing happens when you get a copy of music that has been written in....

Then, theat performance tomorrow that I was talking about in my last posting. Well, we're playing 1st hour (8:05am), 2nd hour, 3rd hour, we have 4th hour lunch, 5th hour, 6th hour, and 7th hour (which ends at 3:09. Its going to be so much fun! And, I get to miss every class except Chem (7-7:45am). However (though this may just add to the fun), because of time constraints, and the choir and drama classes performing too, the orchesetra is stuck in the pit. Now, my HS has a really nice theater, but the pit is so small, it was designed to hold about 10-15 people; our orchestra has 24 people for this show....... that should be fun....

7 replies | Archive link

January 10, 2006 17:06

My first blog of the new year, I feel so behind...

Yesterday I had a strange conversation with the band director at the high school (background- in December I had auditioned for one of the bands, and I didn't think I had made it, cause my name hadn't been posted on the list)
Him: "Are you going to still be switching into Symphonic band?"
Me: "I didn't think I had made it; I didn't see my name on the list."
Him: "Sorry. I forgot to put your name on the list. You're welcome in the class."
So anyway, thats exciting... all in preperation for marching band next year, and a concert tour through Germany, Italy, and Austria next summer.

School started again yesterday; it was fun to be able to see everyone again...

In February, I'm getting another Guide Dog puppy to raise; they were born on Jan 1st. This will be my third guide, and I'm very excited.

The HS orch has a concert on Friday, and we just got the (hard) music today...... oh well, its fun

Thats all for now - sorry for the randomness...

4 replies | Archive link

More entries: February 2006 • December 2005