Solo and Ensemble Critique

Written by Joshua Iyer
Published: March 3, 2014 at 12:33 AM [UTC]

After being sick for a week (and missing out on practice time; it felt so good to hold my violin again and play on Thursday), I was able to prepare for my three performances in Solo and Ensemble clinic on Saturday at 10am and 11am. Basically, you play your solo or duet or whatever piece, and then there are people that critique it and give you advice, amongst three other players and parent listeners. The first performance I gave was Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto, the second movement, and I got some good tips on phrasing and such. Of course, that was piano, so I won't talk too much about it... The second one was a duet with my friend Marissa. I composed a "Nature Suite" in five movements in December 2013, and we played II. Gavotte and III. Air. The judge there said he really liked the fact he could talk to the composer about the piece and really enjoyed the piece; mostly, he gave tips on various double stops I give (having equal pressure between the strings) and also making sure the two of us play the piece together. Finally, for my Hungarian Dance violin solo, while I fully expected him to talk about the chords, yaddayadda, cos I WAS sick and didn't have all the time I wanted to really master them, he focused on having different speeds of vibrato, and gave me some exercises to practice with it. So that'll be something I'll work on this week....
Overall, it was a fun morning, and after we had a great lunch with my grandma (and I had the Mozart concerto in my head for some reason).

I know I have a concert this month, I believe in a couple of weeks, so I'll have to start preparing for that. I had composed a movement of a violin concerto in f minor just a few weeks ago, and I was hoping I could learn that with my teacher in the next few weeks. While Solo and Ensemble (and auditions!) are over, the world of music performance just continues on. Which is good, cos otherwise I'd be bored and probably never pick up my violin again... Just kidding. And since I've been sick and doing virtually nothing except homework and sleeping, I haven't really been doing any composing at all, so probably mid-way through this week as I start to feel better I'll start working on some project. I'm also looking into getting composition lessons, too... So yeah! Sorry for yet ANOTHER update entry, but, you know... That's the way it goes, I guess!