Orchestra Rehearsal

February 4, 2007 at 11:40 AM

I had my first Youth Orchestra rehearsal today. After taking a year off, I'm really glad to be back in the scene, even if I am at the back of the seconds. It's a full on schedule, and I'm looking forward to it all.

Our first program consists of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Shostakovich's Festival Overture. Personally, I think they're fantastic pieces, by fantastic composers, but whether they're the right pieces for the orchestra I'm not sure. I seem to feel that the chief conductor has a thing for the Russian composers, and seems to just tackle these works because they're Russian, not really taking into account that Scheherazade contains some bloody difficult solos. Add to the fact that we've got a very young Concert mistress, who while she is a fantastic player, I'm slightly worried that it might be tough for her.

I wore my violinist.com t-shirt to the rehearsal today, and an considering wearing it to every rehearsal. I'm one of the few active Australian violinists on this site (though I know there are a few that read the site), so I'm hoping that by wearing the shirt it will spread the word and we can start getting more West Aussie violinists on here.

Practice is going well... I'm aiming for 3 hours a day for the whole of February. The aim is that I spend my free time practising, instead of spending my money, so that at the end of the month I have a bit of money to spend on my room (wanting to redesign - shelving system from Ikea, double bed, and eventually a new laptop). Also hopefully by practising every day, it will develop into a habit and I will continue to practice 3 hours every day, because I really want to, but have been a bit lapse in the past.

I've made my own Practice Schedule, modified from the Virtuous Moments from Violinmasterclass.com that I'm trying to stick to. Yesterday was bad... didn't get any, but was busy with my girlfriend. Today I've had a three hour rehearsal with the orchestra, but I'm still going to get some technical work in... work on some stuff from Basics for an hour or so.

I'm not sure whether I want to head into Teaching or Performing (orchestral) at the moment. Teaching is something I don't mind doing, and would be able to support myself with hours that I wouldn't mind having... working in the evenings and on saturday mornings. But It's whether it's possible to get that many students in Perth. It might be, and if I can slowly grow my studio it might very well be possible.

However, I really enjoy playing in an Orchestra, and would love to be able to make my living doing that. It's a lot of hard work between now and me getting a position, and lots of hard work after that, but it is something that I think I want to go for. My parents always try to talk me into things such as teaching, thinking that because I've been in a performing environment that I want to go that way, even though I might not enjoy the solo side and the stress that comes from performing solo. But they don't understand that I don't want to be a soloist. I want to be an orchestral musician. Yes, I need to audition solo, but after that, the stress isn't there. It would also allow me to explore my other interests, but they don't understand. They have never been in the music industry, and they don't understand the possibilities. No, unlike a Bachelor of Education, or a Bachelor of Computer Engineering, the Bachelor of Music is unlikely to put me into a job straight out of uni. But I don't mind that. I understand that if I want to get into an orchestra, it might take an extra couple of years of private lessons and lots of practice to get the position somewhere. But that is something that I just have to accept if I want to go there, and is something I'm willing to do.

But oh well, we'll see. I've got another 3 semesters to really decide, and there's no reason why I can't build my studio during this time, practice my heart out and teach for a couple of years afterwards, and then get a position and move onto the orchestral role.

From Laurie Niles
Posted on February 4, 2007 at 8:43 PM

Thanks for wearing your shirt! :) I love playing Scheherazade; it's just so nice and string-y.

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Orchestra Rehearsal

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