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April 5, 2006 at 8:24 PM

There's nothing like getting sick on a weekend when you have time off to actually do something but it's even worse when it falls over into the week. I thought by Sunday that I was home free and had just had a 24 hour flu but by early Monday morning it became evident that I was getting a cold. I went to school....Tuesday I went to school and a piano lesson...today. Well there's a reason I'm writing this. This is the first time that I've ever felt so gross taht I've had to phone in and cancel all my lessons for the day.

Now onto music related stuff. There's a few concerts that I'm really hoping to take in this coming fall. 1st concert is in October in Vancouver. The Vancouver Symphony is presenting Arvo Part's Berlin Mass which is an absolutely stunning work, the program also features Vaughn-William's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis which is another terrific piece! Next concert up is in Vancouver again with the Vancouver Symphony and James Ehnes. If I get to go, it would be my third time seeing Ehnes play and he never fails to astound. The repertoire this time around? Well I've seen him perform Saint-Saens and Walton and this time the concerto slated is Barber's which I've actually heard a radio broadcast performance of his interpretation of it before but it's a concerto I have dearly wanted to see live for a long time and even more since I've played it myself. The third concert that I would like to go to is not in Vancouver but in fact only a 30 minute drive from home! My teacher from Vancouver, Jasper Wood is performing as part of a community concert series near here that consistently presents some amazing musicians. Angela Hewitt, Denise Djokic, Jamie Parker, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra are just a few of the ensembles that have been presented in the past.

And now onto personal music practicing stuff. The past while I've been spending most of my time available to practice on technique and really slow practicing or short segment practicing in order to acheive what I really want to with a particular section or phrase. The technique practice has been almost enjoyable and I can really feel a difference already. It's been really nice to be able to do technique the way I want to now in terms of practicing since I don't have any of those exams that dictate what and how I have to do it. I pick a key a day (sometimes two) and cycle through most of the Flesch system for that key and then move onto Dont 1, 8 and Kreutzer 24b (evil fingered octaves!) and the much easier Kreutzer 2 to work on my straight bow issues.

So a clash of tea mugs to getting better and continuing to practice and improve my technique and an entertaining and diverse 2006/07 concert season!

The program looks great.
I also love the Tallis fantasy.