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a new violin...

August 16, 2006 at 6:23 PM

It has been a while. Mainly because I have been incredibly busy!
The beginning of May I was in the States to play some concerts, with the high point being the day after the last concert in Texas, where a violinist from the orchestra showed me the incredible nature in Texas, which was a nice break from hotelrooms!

In June I played solo in the Concertgebouw, which I ofcourse enjoyed every minute. It is still the most beautiful hall I know, even Carnegie can't quite compete with it, sorry folks!
I also had to look for a new appartment, and the day I signed my housing contract I also got an amazing violin from the Dutch music foundation; a beautiful Nicolas Lupot, of whom one says he was the Stradivarius of France. He is amazing and I enjoy learning all new aspects of sound. A new violin forces you to relook at your technique and conception of sound and I just love being on this new road. However, I hope to one day buy the violin I have been playing the past 10 years, I really am attached to her!

In July and the first week of August I was rehearsing and playing concerts at the Hortus Festival. On the old violin I put gut strings, which we played on. This is also a complete different experience, also gives you a new concept of sound. And I played some open air recitals. To round it up... I started last week again a project with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with amazing repertoire: Beethoven Grosse Fuge and opus 135, Shostakovich Quartet and Octet, a piece by a Dutch composer for 4 stringquartets and more. Tomorrow we are off to Germany where we will be playing at the Schleswig Holstein Festival and next week again at the Concertgebouw. I love my life as a musician and the fact that I really get to do everything; solo, chambermusic, orchestra!

Vacation? Well, maybe later. For now I keep on enjoying myself working hard and having loads of fun!

I'm glad that you're having fun and that your career is going well. What did you play solo at the Concertgebouw? That must have been a thrill.
Lupot, very nice. A lot of those are fantastic instruments. I hope you keep up with lots of solo work. Don't settle down in an orchestra just yet.
Carla,

Isn't the Grosse Fuge incredible? I also just performed it this summer. And the Shostakovich Octet - not played much, but exciting and energetic! I got to do it with a group last year at Encore. It's great that your career is going so well.

.."a piece by 'a Dutch composer' for 4 stringquartets"... . VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE, VAN BREE. I hope now that readers of violinist.com don't forget the name of this composer, because his piece for 4 string quartets is a good piece. 2 amateurstringorchestra's in which I play also play this piece, but because there were 4 better second violinists I have not played the piece.
Again I heard this piece from a professional orchestra in Holland where they also played the world premiere of the violinconcerto of VAN BREE by Eva Koskinen. Earlier I wrote about it in my blog.