October 21, 2004 at 11:53 AM

I am not dong so well yet on the 6 hours a day thing. I think I need to make that contract that Laurie has for her students. But I have been practicing every day and more impressive, every day either at 7am in the pool, or working out in the gym...
This past week I had an amazing rehearsel with Ton Hartsuiker, the former director of the Amsterdam and Utrecht Conservatories. He is a pianist and specializes in 20th century music. I am playing at a concert on November 7th in Amsterdam with him the 1st violin sonata of Willem Pijper. For everybody that does not know it: get the music: it is a very beautiful sonata. It reminds quite a bot of Debussy, but still has a lot of identity of his own. Mr. Hartsuiker has played this piece for many years, and it is a lot of fun to work with him.
This weekend I will be travelling to Zurich in Switzerland where Mr. Perlman is playing a concert. I will also have a lesson with him, which has been a while. I am very excited to see him again and to play for him. Also I am meeting up with the owner of the violin and my best friend is also coming to Zurich where we will be spending the weekend in a nice hotel, doing all girls stuff, like whirlpool, sauna... I do have to practice, but who says life as a musician is stressful. As long as you don't get stressed over delayed plains and such, then it is quite ok.

Today I sat down and used excel to come up with a balanced plan for preperation for the competition. I am going to work in units of 45 minutes each. Depending upon the schedule of the day, I will have up to 11 units a day. This should help me get things in my fingers. The only thing that could get in my way is the fact that my neurologist called and said he would like me to go back into the hospital for a while for some tests, and the planning right now would be in the week I would be flying to Korea. So I asked him if it would be possible to change it and he is going to try. I have to say, I find it much more difficult to motivate myself now, knowing that there is a chance I have to go back to the hospital, even if it is only for a week. But till now it has not beaten me down and it won't either. I will keep on fighting and I really hope everything will be ok, so I can return to Juilliard in January without any problems. However, any prayers from you are very welcome!

I got to go practice again... I have 5 more units today! :)

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October 21, 2004 at 11:53 AM

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