May 2006

ah, the be reunited with my true love...

May 31, 2006 22:56

Another long week..... 3 weeks today and exam period begins at school, 4 weeks from Thursday I am free from the confines of my school walls. Ah to be free....I really shouldn't comlpain though. I'm getting an "education" when so many people aren't or plain can't yet I feel school (with the exception of Mr. Lines) to be the most stifling and confining experience both socially and creatively. We are supposedly being educated and discovering the world yet I go home night after night feeling frustrated and with largely only animocity and dread towards the education system and the little box that is "good for me" that it's placed me in.

Moving on...I guess this recent outburst of "anger" is because I have my beautiful "new" (it's older than my Grandparents!) violin and it was school that has made it impossible for me to practice my new love this week. A bag of textbooks, roughly 40 pounds of weight, completely crushed my left hand. Luckily all my fingers still work. Sort of. A sprain I sustained on my left hand, pinky finger about a year and a half again seems to have recurred from this incident and so that has rendered my practicing non-existant. *sob* *weep* I WANT TO PLAY MY VIOLIN.

On a happy note, I think it is starting to get better (1 week later!) and today I did a bit of playing out of necessity in a rehearsal of my solo in Summer from the Four Seasons with the chamber orchestra today. I've determined that I am really comfortable in the solo role and would be more than happy to execute this roll, given the opportunity on a more frequent basis. Another "happy" note, I finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley last night! What an amazing book, not happy but an excellent read.

Other news...hm... None! Goodnight.

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for those who wish to hear the saw

May 27, 2006 15:29

For those of you who want to hear the musical saw.....

There is a soundclip in the top, lefthand corner of what the saw sounds like. This isn't quite as haunting as David Hetheringtons performance but you get an idea!

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the saw vs. the theremin.....who will win??

May 26, 2006 16:55

Today started a little untypically. First off, I woke up and looked at my alarm clock and made an executive decision that I could in fact cram my normal morning happenings into a shorter space of time, so I reset my alarm and went back to sleep. When I did finally get up, I turned the radio on and to my delight it was the results of Tom Allen and his show, Music and Company's "Cage Match" The two dueling performances this week were interpretations of the Rachmaninov Vocalise. Competitor #1 was performing this famous piece on the Theremin, Competitor #2 was performing on ....wait for it..... the SAW. Yes, that's right. A saw. To my great pleasure the saw performance won! What made the victory all the sweeter was that I was able to hear the whole performance of the work done on a saw (it was seriously the most haunting, eerie, creepy sound and it worked so well). To make it even cooler yet. The guy playing the saw is a cellist who taught my chamber music group at a music camp I went to a few years ago and in one of the performances by faculty, he played his cello and saw in the space of the same piece! It was amazing! So that was my start to my day.

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a new child is born

May 18, 2006 22:57

what a crazy week it's been! Monday/Tuesday were spent in Vancouver (and driving to and from it) where the heat of summer has come early. I went down for a lesson and my teacher's approval on the instrument that I have selected to be my musical partner in crime for university. So in short, my new child is a 1925 Guarneri model Roth violin in perfect condition and with an ease and playability that I haven't at this point experienced in too many instruments in that price range. Wednesday I was home, went to school for part of the day and taught in the afternoon. I was talking a couple of the faculty at the music school and the school's student chamber orchestra is doing "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and guess who has been asked to be the soloist? Yes, me. :)!! Yay!! Thursday (today) brought a performance at school for the talent show. I wasn't terribly pleased with my performance but how hard is it to pull off the Vitali Ciaccona when you have over 800 screaming teenagers who think classical music is a waste of time, as your audience? I did alright overall though and my Dad got to play the Steinway! Always a treat! I got a few minutes breathing time before going back out onstage to accompany my friend who was singing, on the piano so I too got my chance at the beautiful 9 ft. grand piano. I taught again for the afternoon, my students all did really well today and despite being completely exhausted and worn out from a full day at school (complete with my last test of the year in history for before the provincial final), a performance and everything else, it was rewarding and enjoyable afternoon. I got home and I recieved the news that I will be attending the Young Artist Experience in Vancouver this summer for a 10 day chamber music retreat!

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a little analysis for you all

May 13, 2006 20:06

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May 11, 2006 08:15

Do you ever get that feeling that you are right on the edge of being burnt out with everyone? Lately that's kind of how I have felt. Pressures from school and the year end exams that are starting to glare at me omniously; trying to get the other year end events (recitals, graduation stuff, year end gigs, meetings etc.) organized and out of the way. I'm having stuff thrown at me from all sides! *implodes* ok....well I won't actually implode, I think I probably eat too much to have that be a threat, but anyways. Oh, did I mention I have an audition in Vancouver somewhere in all of the above? ah well...I will make it.... the violin will keep me sane through it all! That's actually one thing I really appreciate about playing an instrument is that when the rest of life is overstressed and out of control or feels like it's out of control I can go and play my violin, in particular Bach and I feel so refreshed and ready to jump back into the whirl-wind of life.

Well some fun things that are coming up, I'm actually semi looking forward to my upcoming audition. I haven't done one in awhile and I'm one of those addicts who likes to perform though I'm sure when I actually arrive at the audition my nerves might have some say as to my feelings then. My school's talent show is finally actually happening! I have rehearsals tomorrow and then the actual show is next week, all week. I'm now playing piano for a song called "Send in the Clowns" from a musical by Sondheim called "A Little Night Music" that my friend is singing. I haven't accompanied a vocalist in public before so this will be a new endeavor and I don't have very long to learn the music, though it seems pretty playable so far! And then of course, the Vitali Ciaccona is going to be my solo piece. Other fun stuff...well the whole violin decision process is now getting to be fun. My local violin teacher has weighed in her opinion of the violin that I am seriously considering and she really likes it and thinks it's a good bargain for the price so now I just need one more approval from my other teacher and then hopefully I will be able to bring home a new violin to show you all!

Well my bus leaves here soon so I should probably consider signing off so I don't miss it.

Oh, before I do say goodbye for the day. Everyone should really check out the Vaughn-Williams oboe concerto (such an amazing work!!! I think I've raved about it here before..) and the Barber cello sonata. I've included a mvt. of the Barber above for all to enjoy.

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Monday - Friday

May 5, 2006 22:10

What a crazy week! A day trip (literally) to Vancouver to try out instruments, an AP English exam, work, now I'm trying to get caught up on the week of classes that I missed at school.

Monday: Relatively uneventful day. I went to my classes, wrote a test, came home early and had a relaxing afternoon/evening.

Tuesday: There's really nothing like spending 12+ hours of a day in a car. Wilder and Davis were out on one of their cross Canada trips from Montreal and I was able to arrange to have some instruments brought out for me to try. From what I deciphered from the various exchanges in e-mails during the months preceeding this trip, I gathered that I would probably have 3-6 instruments to try out. I got there and initially was given 14 to try. As I started the task and wading through them all and separating the possibilities into the "like" and "dislike" pile 5 more violins gradually appeared. My Mom came with me and she sat through a good couple hours of scales as I worked my way through the instruments to narrow it down to the ones that I was more sure and serious about. Gradually I managed to narrow it down to two instruments from the early 1900's. There were instruments from the 1800's up to instruments made in the last few years and even one 2006 instrument! I think I may have found the instrument for me though! I was really lucky in that after playing for a few hours and narrowing the selection down to two possibilities, my Mom and I went for a snack and a brief walk to clear my head a bit (it was an untypically sunny day in Vancouver and we were right on the ocean!) and when we came back a good friend of mine, and violinist happened to be there picking up some stuff she had had worked on and so I got her to play the two I liked most for me so I could hear what they sounded like from across the room. After 4 hours or so in Vancouver, we began the trip back home.

Wednesday: I didn't go to school because of the long day on Tuesday. I did, however teach all afternoon!

Thursday: Ah, there's nothing like having to arrive before 7:30am to write an exam. 3 written essays, 5 multiple choice essays...or was it only 4...I can't remember now....by time you get to the end of such an exam your mind is just mush so the memory becomes a bit foggy. I think it went well though. To celebrate the sucess (we hope!), a few of my friends from that class and I (we've all been in the same English class with the same teacher for two years now) went out for Japanese food and then icecream/bubble tea. We went back to school in the afternoon since we had an English class schedueled still and our teacher had got icecream pizza's for us to have! Now the evil process of waiting until the end of July to get my mark begins. After all that, I taught well into the evening.

Friday: I went in earlyish today, though I didn't attend classes this morning, I was too wiped and needed some headspace and time to start getting caught up from missing the rest of the week. So I spent a few hours studying this morning and went to my afternoon class where I was selected to set up dominos to be knocked over as part of my history teacher's speech. I didn't teach today, though I was schedueled to (my students for today cancelled) so I ended up doing some errand running with my sister and went out to starbucks for a cool drink to ease the heat of the summer. This evening I've been reading a book by Virginia Woolf and I also started Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I love English Literature! It's nice to be able to pick my own books to read now for the rest of the school year!

Now I'm going to say, goodnight!
Oh and I'm going to be brave, anyone who is interested can see my attempts at Bach from awhile back at: here

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More entries: June 2006 • April 2006