February 2003

February 21, 2003 19:12

haven't updated in i a while... not too much new happening.

still working on the beethoven spring sonata, almost done mazas, practicing has been surprisingly easy lately (now that i'm using a shoulder rest as opposed to my sponge, which was starting to give me neck problems, but the shoulder rest feels great).

there's nothing new i need to learn for college, so basically i'm kind of in a rut. well, maybe not a rut, but it's like i don't have anything to be practicing for (well, except this scholarship audition, but i already know the music, it's just a matter of keeping it up to date).

it's a really interesting feeling to be practicing just for me. just for the fact that i want to practice to get better at violin. you see, for the past year and a half-ish, i've been preparing for something, whether it's orchestra auditions, college auditions (one of the most hellacious times of my life, but paid off in the end :). now i'm working a lot more heavily on technique (etudes, scales, scales, and more scales), and technically "easier" pieces that help me in other ways.

when my teacher assigned me this repertiore, she told me "we already know you can play a lot of notes and flashy technical things, so now we can start working you on more specific areas so you're ready for next year."

and so it continues. actually i really love the work i'm doing now. it has more of a purpose than preparing for an audition. i'm playing for me, to improve me, to make me a better violinist (even though it's kind of to make sure i can compete with the conservatory kids next year.. hmm... maybe i'll make a new entry about that later), and i love every minute of it.

-T

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February 5, 2003 19:23

so today i had a "side by side" concert with the baltimore symphony orchestra. for those of you who are actually reading this and care what that means, basically you audition with some orchestral excerpts to play in a concert with the orchestra. this year they accepted 9 violinists (i was third chair first, well, i ended up third stand because we sat next to a bso member, hence the "side by side"). it was so great, even though we played things that everyone's played before (well, at least the bso people all have played them before and nobody looked at them before the concert) like mozart's figaro overture, the grieg peer gynt suite, the copeland variations on a shaker melody, etc... it was just awesome. today was one of those days that i was really confident and happy with my choice of going into music... now all i've gotta do is make it into a symphony after college, but details, details....

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More entries: March 2003 • January 2003

February 2003

February 21, 2003 19:12

February 5, 2003 19:23

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