Elena G

Aug. 19, 2004 at 6:00 PM

It was an eventful, exciting, inspiring, incredible summer.

Tanglewood is one of those places that every musician wishes that he/she could move to and live a blessed existence for the rest of eternity. With practice sheds sprinkled across the campus, all the free concerts anyone could ever want, and an incredible opportunity for learning orchestral and chamber music with great teachers, why would anyone come home? Not to mention the beautiful setting and all the great people to meet. I can hardly imagine a better summer setting.

*sigh* I miss it already.

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Jul. 1, 2004 at 1:24 AM

We left for Philadelphia around 1:30pm (only after I had made myself sufficiently nervous for the whole ordeal) and drove down listening to Milstein's Bach and Perlman's Beethoven Sonatas. We arrived at around 3, and I convinced my dad to sit around in a Starbucks until 4, when I was to meet Ms. Kwalwasser. After searching around for a bit (she had inadvertantly given us an adress with one wrong number), we finally found the place, and took the elevator to the twenty fifth floor of the building. I had to knock a few times; apparently her husband was giving a piano lesson on their Steinway grand.... (how DO you get a grand piano onto the twenty fifth floor of an apartment building??). Ms. Kwalwasser finally answered the door and let us in to a beautiful and spacious apartment with a fantastic panoramic view of Rittenhouse square, and the Delaware river on the other side. She led me down a hall and into a room with ANOTHER grand piano ( so not only had they gotten one into the apartment, but down the hall and into an office...).

"Ok. Play something," she said.

I introduced the first movement of the Bach D minor and started playing. Man, was I nervous. The beginning was a little shaky, I'll admit, but in the end it didn't turn out so bad. When I was done, I was to play a G major scale, and she rattled off every possible way of playing it. Octaves, thirds, different rhythms, bowings, and distributions. After a short "hmmm" and a nod, she told me to do something from a concerto. I started playing the third movement of the Saint-Saens, which was not bad, but also not fabulous.

"I never liked that piece, play something else." Ok, so she's very frank.

I had to think for a minute. I hadn't expected this. I radomly chose the Beethoven, which was dumb of me, but I've been practicing it a lot anyway. Again, I got through about the first two pages before she stopped me. Another nod.

"Do you play Bach concerti?"

I launched into the Bach A minor, third movement. Stopped again. She asked for the second movement. I did. Stopped. Another "hmmm." No facial expressions, just a "hmmm." It was all making me extremely nervous. She thought for a moment, and told me I could play one more piece, anything I'd like. So I chose another Bach. G minor, first movement. I actually got all the way through it. And it was really, really good. When I finished, I gave a HUGE sigh of releif (inwardly, of course) and I was told to sit down. And finally, she did what every student wants to see from their teacher, or an auditioner. She smiled. Yessssss! I was in! Hallelujah! After a brief discussion about possible lesson times and my willingness to commit to a studio, we actually had a lovely little conversation. Ms. Kwalwasser is quite a charming lady, and she has a lot to say about life in general. She was a Galamian student; sent to New York at age 13 to study with him. Fascinating.

Then my dad and I went to dinner at a pizza place, and took a trip to Barnes n Noble to buy some books. And drove home. I listened to more Beethoven as the sun went down and I felt really really good.

Tomorrow, I leave for Tanglewood. I still have to pack, so I should probably get crackin' on that. 6 weeks. Phew. I can't wait to get there.

I wish you all lovely summers, and stay musical!

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 29, 2004 at 6:06 PM

Firstly, I don't have ANY obligations today, which means I can stay home all day and practice. In fact, I'm right now in the midst of my break between orchestra excerpts and Bach.

I had a party last night. I spent forever cleaning up my backyard, only for about 40 rowdy high schoolers to cram into and trash anyway. Oh well, it was good good (clean) fun.

Tomorrow is my lesson/audition/whatever with Helen Kwalwasser. I am pretty darn nervous, to be honest, but excited too. The Bach is in a good state, and so is everything else I had to learn/prepare. So, we shall see.

Tanglewood is coming up. In fact, I'm leaving on Thursay. We're going to drive up to Boston first to visit my uncle, and then head over on the 4th. *Teenage-esque squeal of excitement*

I feel like I have a very short attention span today for anything other than violin. Forgive me for my randomness; sometimes I just can't help it. Heh.

Met a girl.

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 19, 2004 at 6:54 PM

In other news, Tanglewood is drawing nearer, and I am getting very excited. Except for this one excerpt from Rach's symphony in E minor that confuses the heck out of me. I still have some time, though, which is good.

Nothing much else has been happening in my very uneventful summer... my best friend got a trampoline, but I was too paranoid to use it for fear of a hurt wrist or shoulder. Sad, isn't it? I got a huge new amp for my guitar, and I've been occupying myself with being "hardcore" once in a while. Also, I'm playing for Kwalwasser on the 30th. Wheeee.

My dad is making me write a college essay, which is odd, because I don't need to even start applying for colleges for another year and a half. Whatever. Heh.

Well I've got laundry to do, Bach to practice, and a very late lunch to eat, so I'd best be departing.

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 16, 2004 at 4:19 PM

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Jun. 16, 2004 at 12:43 AM

My lesson was not nearly as bad as I was envisioning. In fact, it went pretty darn well. Except for the last page of the Rach. Symphony, my teacher and I were both pleased with the Bach G minor (Adagio and Fugue so far....) and my headstart on Wieniawsky. So. Good. I can sleep well tonight.

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Jun. 15, 2004 at 9:05 PM

My violin has been in the shop for the past week, and I've been practicing on quite an instrument: warped bridge (that is way too high), open seams, bad tone quality, and a cheap bow that is in desperate need of a rehair. And, I have a lesson tonight. In about an hour. I have seriously slacked off this week, and my excuse has been the violin, even though I have a stack of music about a mile high to get through in this lesson. Uh oh... I guess I was due for one of those dreaded bad lessons.... wish me luck.

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 11, 2004 at 9:53 PM

Last night I had a dream that I quit violin to go to law school. In the dream everyone kept saying how it was a waste of time to continue playing, and so I just went along with it. I decided to become a lawyer, and in the end I had a big house and a nice car and my kids went to prep school. (?). Still, it was one of those dreams where you wake up feeling all out of breath and sweaty, and you're just really really glad that it wasn't real.

Anyway, I got a haircut today. It's very short, very spiky, and very red. My dad hates it. Hahahahaha.

I think I will continue working now, so I don't have to end up in law school. I would make a horendous lawyer anyway. I can't do paperwork, you see.

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 9, 2004 at 8:39 PM

So I had a lesson today in Philadelphia. A long lesson. At the end, my teacher sat down and gave me one of those serious looks and our following conversation went as so:

"Elena, it sounds good."

"Well, thanks. I've been working really hard lately."

"How would you feel playing all this for my teacher?"

"Your...um... teacher?"

"Helen Kwalwasser."

"OOhh... wow."

"Yep."

....Rightio. Well this woman is a pretty big deal. She's one of those who had a successful solo career during the time when women were not even allowed to take auditions. She taught Sarah Chang, along with tons of others, who have successful careers, etc. Not to mention, she teaches my teacher, who I respect and look up to enormously.... so. It's pretty exciting.

Well, happy practicing, I'm going to go lock myself in a practice room for a few days.

Ciao,
Elena

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Jun. 6, 2004 at 1:43 AM

Oh well, in further news... I have finally officially decided on something to work on: Wieniawsky No.1. Just to add some more pyrotechnics to my repetiore. I have many things to work on (which I'm pretty sure I have already taken the time to complain about...) which, I'll admit, is a good thing. In the summer, it is my philosophy to stay completely busy at all times. Otherwise, who knows, I'm subject to show up at the mall or something without warning; that would not be a good thing. Or, even worse, watching TV. I made a bet with my best friend to see who could go without TV the longest about two years ago, and she caved in, but I found it so releiving and revitalizing that I just kept going. This doesn't count for my favorite movies, of course. But I find that by eliminating *most* distractions (ahem... violinist.com....) that I can manage to be so much more efficient in practicing and school, etc etc etc. Go figure!

So last night I played at my school's graduation. It was four hours long. (!). I ended up playing a bunch of Bach while things were in transitional phases. The coolest thing was, though, that it was being held in this HUGE arena, and I was being amplified of course. But there was some kind of wierd dely on the speakers, so when I did, for example, the preludio of Partita No.3, it had this really neat effect of two violins playing to one another. Ahh the simple pleasures of violin playing... Anyway I thought it was so cool that I ended up playing around with it; first I tried different bow strokes to see how they would sound in the fast movements, all in front of probably a couple thousand people (I have a humongous school, and there were about 600 graduates, so if 4 people came for each graduate, well... you do the math...)Then I tried the fugues, which were interesting indeed on delay. I doubt anyone actually found it as fascinating as I did, but it kept me entertained for a good while. Plus, I got to sit behind the stage and listen to Tchaikovsky, Bach, Ravel, and Gershwin while they handed out diplomas.

I guess that's about it for now. Happy practicing, and stay cool (unless you live somewhere like northern Canada or Greenland or Norway or something, in which case I have nothing really to say to you anyway...).

Ciao,
Elena

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