Tyrone Wilkins

New Inspiration

The amazing Serbian violinist, Andrej Kurti came to my school today to help the violins with our all state pieces. He is a really cool guy in my opinion. Very funny and easy to talk to.I love his attitude. He wanted to play a little bit of his CD for us and he said something about wishing he had brought the sheet music with him so we could all follow along.(Most people hadn't heard of the pieces he was talking about) Me being the classical music freak that am....I raised my hand and suggested that I should plug my laptop into the t.v. screen because I have all the pieces on file :)

It worked out. Everyone got to see the beautiful madness that is Ysaye. He thanked me for helping by giving me one of his CDs for free! He even signed the booklet\poster inside!!! At the end of his helping I went to talk to Mr.Kurti. He asked about my concerto concert audition (remembering that I was the one that played the Accolay) he said he was very impressed, especially since I've only been playing for 2 years. He asked about my plans for college and what I want to major in. After all that he suggested that I go to Northwestern to study with him. He said 'Institution is nice, but you really need a good teacher to get you moving , free you up,etc. because you're serious about this,not just *makes giggly noise* around. Julliard and Curtis are greats school but really hard to get into. I'm not trying to discourage you in any way,if that's what you want to do, but you know I studied at the Moscow Conservatory and you've heard me play, ah?' After telling him I'm a sophomore he said he wasn't sure where he'd be teaching in 2 years but encouraged me to study with him.

As you can see he's pretty awesome! Very confident but not cocky at all. He's really down to earth and very funny. Anyone who gets the opportunity needs to see this guy play! I'm going to attend his performance of the Ysaye sonatas in spring :) Maybe one day he'll be my teacher...you never know. Well I've got to get back to practicing. Till next time.

T.W.J

2 replies

The Paiten International Music Competition

Hey guys. I've been gone for a while due to my busy schedule (theater,school work,violin of course) I will update my thoughts about my audition for my schools concerto concert another time but for now I'd like your opinion. There's a violin competition that I'm interested in entering. These are the prelim. requirements.

' 20-40 minutes of repertoire of own choice in contrasting style. (Preferably: 1 sonata movement, 1 solo Bach movement and 1 virtuosic piece'

Live Round Competition Required Repertoire:STRINGS:
1. 2 contrasting movements of solo JS BACH.
2. 1 complete sonata with piano (i.e. Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart, etc.)
3. 1 virtuosic piece (i.e. Ysaye, Sarasate, Wieniawski, etc.)
4. 1 movement from a concerto from the standard repertoire (i.e. Walton, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, etc.

I know that my selection should reflect my personality as a violinist,but I just want to know what you guys would choose if you were going to enter! :)

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