Alice Smith http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/ Alice Smith's weblog on Violinist.com. Alice Smith's weblog on Violinist.com. en-us © Alice Smith http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20083/8388/ Hi everyone! I would love to get your opinions on two takes of Prokofiev 2, first movement. Which do you think is better? Take 1: Take 2: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:40:56 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20071/6386/ I'm so confused about school. Everything I feel about it is is mixed up. The pros and cons are so staggering, and I can never figure out if I'm happy there or not. I'm in such a completely different environment than I was last year. It's like being in a freezer and then being dropped into a pot of boiling hot water. I really enjoy being with all the kids there; that's the best part. Maybe the only good part. The adults at school, for the most part, are just horrible. There are so many people that don't care where they are, that seem like they wish they weren't where they are at all and not doing what they're doing. Maybe they're just depressed because they ended up working in public school as a carreer? I don't know. For an example, this morning I was late and didn't scan in. I didn't know that I couldn't just go up to my advisory and tell my advisor I was there, because of course I was never told about how any of this stuff works, because apparently everyone already knows about it. But a woman, one of the cops always guarding the doors, said something like, "Nuh uh, girl, you got to go to the office and get a late pass." So I did, and asked very politely to the woman with very scary three-inch nails behind the desk, if I could get a late pass. She told me very rudely to go to another desk outside, and that woman told me very rudely I had to go back to the office....I was bounced around until the first woman told me what I had to do (which was very simple, go to this machine in the corner and scan my ID, and get a little card that printed out.) Just the way people deal with things in general is so totally uncaring and they act so unhappy all the time. I always am polite as possible to the teachers, and this afternoon when I asked one of them geometry teachers if she knew where another was, she interuppted me before I was done talking, said "No" so harshly I was astounded and brushed past me out of the room. It's just shocking. And a lot of the teachers are just extremely stupid, don't know how to teach or take control of their classrooms. I guess it's true; you get what you pay for, and in this case I'm paying for nothing, so that's what I get? Sometimes I wish I could go to private school or homeschool. I really like a lot of the kids at Masterman though, they're the only good part. If I homeschooled it would be harder to get as much social time. Though I would be a lot freer on weekends. I have no idea what to do, I'm totally stumped. I don't get to practice enough. I don't get to see my out of school friends enough. Should I homeschool and sacrifice really close relationships with people at school for so much more free time, more time to practice and pursue other things? I feel like in some ways my quality of life would be so much better. But right now I can't make a decision. Tonight I watched the State of the Union address for extra credit for history homework. I wasn't as bored as I thought I'd be, and I could understand most of it. Then I spent a bunch of time trying to get it perfectly onto this stupid worksheet our teacher gave us to make him happy. I just had a conversation with a friend I was pretty close to last year who went to a different high school and who I haven't seen all year. It made me kind of depressed because I do miss him. I miss so many people so much, like my Kinhaven friends. I can't make myself believe that I'm never going back to Kinhaven. Literally everytime I think about it my eyes well up. At all times, there's no place I'd rather be than there. It's like my home away from home and I can't believe it's not going to be part of my life anymore. This entry was sufficiently long and depressing! Fri, 26 Jan 2007 03:15:10 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20071/6309/ On Sunday, my quartet Seraphina opened a concert performed by Time for Three, which was a fundraiser for Musicopia to raise money for their programs in the schools. L-R: Ranaan Meyer, bass; Madeline Smith, viola; Zach De Pue, violin; Genevieve Tabby, cello; Caeli Smith, violin; Nick Kendall, violin; Sabrina Tabby, violin I've known the T43 guys for a few years, because they were in the Rittenhouse Square documentary with me, so that's how I first met them. The Tabby twins were meeting them for the first time, but they love them as much as I do! These guys are really amazing, not only as players and a group (we were blown over listening. It was really inspirational to us as a quartet) but just as people too. They're so friendly, and sweet. Ranaan, the bass player, offered to coach us sometime, which would be wonderful! I just hope that between our busy schedules we can fit something in. Here's a video of the tangos by Michael McLean we played to open the concert. Also, this weekend I'm going to Malibu for a From the Top taping. I cannot wait! I've never been to Southern California, let alone to what sounds like such a glamorous place. --alice Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:18:47 GMT Alice Smith violin, music http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/200612/6254/ Hey everyone, Hope everybody had a great holiday and is enjoying their break. Here is a link to a really interesting article about my violin teacher in New York, Joey Corpus. Also, I have a sort of medical question; for the past few days my arm has really been hurting, when I run it through the position you hold it to bow. As you can imagine this makes it pretty painful to practice! It's kind of an achey feeling, surrounding my elbow/forearm. It hurts to practice, but also when I'm doing other things, but it's on-and-off. It's only in my right arm and I'm not sure it' sa violin-related injury, but has anybody ever experienced anything like this? --alice Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:34:39 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/200611/6043/ My quartet, Seraphina, played a recital yesterday. You can watch us here! Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:38:22 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/200610/5962/ How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Very, very hard. That's pretty applicable to my recent experiences. Two nights ago I had my Carnegie Hall debut! Well, my quartet did. From The Top made a 13-part TV series that will air on PBS in April, and the episodes are pretty much just like the radio show, except you get to see the performers obviously, and they were all taped at Carnegie Hall. My quartet was asked to play a quartet by a 17-year-old Navajo girl living on a reservation in Arizona. It's called Moon's Lullaby, and it was pretty short, but very beautiful. Even though the performance was on Friday night, we drove up Wednesday morning because over those two days we had to attend rehearsals and such. In our free time we got to explore New York! We went to Times Square and went shopping and got a caricature of ourselves done on the street. It was a really fun vacation from school, and amazing to play in Carnegie Hall. Some of the other kids on our show were an 11-year-old Korean pianist who was playing some amazingly technical piece, and a saxophone player from Kentucky. Also, an 18-year-old violinist, Charles Yang, and a 13-year-old cellist played the Dumky trio (one of my all-time favorites) with Christopher O'Riley, the host. I'm playing the third movement of Wieniawski next weekend with a local orchestra, the Bucks County Symphony. We've had one rehearsal so far, which went swimmingly except for, the conductor wants me to the gypsy part really slowly, slower than any recording I've ever heard. The thing is, I don't think he really knows the piece though, so I feel like I'm right, but I don't want to be disrespectful. I've decided to compromise by keeping the tempo about the same but using a lot of rubato in that section. To Be Con't.... --alice Mon, 30 Oct 2006 02:04:10 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20069/5715/ I've been pretty busy and haven't updated my blog in a while. But so much stuff has happened! I never really did a personal blog about ENCORE while I was there, but it was amazing. I studied with Mrs. Cerone and Rossitza Goza, her assistant. I learned and got Intro. and Rondo Capriciosso to performance level, worked on the Bach Chaconne, and I started working on Devil's Trill, which I'm almost finished at this point. I went to Kinhaven for the fifth year, on viola. It was wonderful of course. I miss it so much and it's really hard to think that that was my last year I can go there as a student. I played the fourth movement of the Dvorak American which I love, a contemporary piece by a composer named Rebekah Griffin-Greene, and a Mozart quartet. I also learned a lot about playing the viola, since there's a lot of difference in technique than playing the violin. I was talking to my private teacher at Kinhaven about what I'd be doing next summer. He suggested I go to Quartet Program at Bucknell University, which I've heard a lot of good stuff about from different people. Has anyone gone there or had any experience with it? What I really would love to do is go to Kinhaven Sr session next year, even though the level of playing isn't as high…I just love that place so much. I'm also thinking about MIM (Music in the Mountains) and Tanglewood. So I had about a week or two after Kinhaven of being sad that summer was over before school started. Of the two public magnet schools I was considering, I decided to go to Masterman, the smaller one. There are only two other freshmen besides me who didn't go to 8th grade there, because they don't usually take people from the outside. The 8th grade class is bigger than the high school class and they try to accept as many as their own kids as possible. I've had two days there and I really like it already. It's a lot different from my old school, and of course a lot bigger, but the teachers and kids are really nice. I'm thinking about joining the orchestra there but it means having to get to school an hour early, and I don't know if the sleep is something I can sacrifice! Another really cool thing is that I've started working daily with an accompanist. Timothy Ribchester, who accompanied me last spring for a local competition. Last Wednesday night I went to his apartment downtown and we ran through Intro and Rondo, the Devil's Trill, and Wieniawski just to get a feel for playing together. Next week I'm going to bring the Spring Sonata, which will be pretty much my first sonata played with piano. That's where the big hole in my repertoire is. I've started with this new teacher named Joey Corpus. I've only had three lessons with him but I like him a lot. He lives in New York, which means more drives up there in the car (and more Starbucks on the New Jersey Turnpike!) Already he's taught me a lot of good stuff about technique. People say he's the "secret weapon" you need to get really good technically. We finally heard back from From the Top about the TV series this year – and my quartet was accepted! We're going to play in Carnegie Hall on October 27. I was so excited when I found out. I've only been to Carnegie Hall once, to hear Dylana Jensen play, but to be able to play in it will be an entirely different thing. We're going to play this piece written by a 15-year-old girl from Arizona, called Moon's Lullaby. It's short but very beautiful. Speaking of FTT, I got the schedule for the shows this year. Not all of them are confirmed, and I'm not going to all, but I am definitely going to L.A. Yay! Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:04:18 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20068/5548/ Hi everyone, I'm back from Encore! I have to do a huge update later to tell about all the stuff that happened...but right now, I have a quick question for anybody who has ever played the Devil's Trill. I started working on it this summer, and the cadenza is, for lack of a better word, devilish. I have the International edition, and so all of the trills that are in the cadenza, which is most of the page, are not written out in trill form but in chords, with brackets to show which notes to trill. Because it's written this way, it's really, really hard to break down. Does anybody know of an edition that has all of those trills written out? Thanks, alice Sun, 06 Aug 2006 17:04:38 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20066/5263/ Compliments of Bill Platt! Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:28:12 GMT http://www.violinist.com/blog/alicelizard/20066/5246/ I got some good news today. The conductor of the last orchestra I competed to solo with, the Old York Road Symphony, called me today and told me I was one of the winners! So that's really great. Still no news from Juilliard... Oh and...do you like my new profile picture? I was looking through old pictures today and found it. Sat, 03 Jun 2006 01:47:03 GMT