July 2006

giving into peer pressure from fellow v.commies

July 27, 2006 11:18

Ah, everyone is posting pictures! I'm going to succomb to peer pressure and post some pictures in this "bon voyage" entry. The packing has commenced, my room is buried in the things I want/need to cram into my suitcase but I feel good and excited! As a fun thing to do this week to experience summer in the Okanagan before I leave (I didn't go swimming here once last summer) I went tubing down the river channel. I went once, just half way on Monday and then yesterday I met up with some visiting friends who were in town and we did the whole 4 hour marathon river channel. My tube had a huge gaping hole in it and it was completely useless by about an hour in so that made things interesting. Anyways! I leave for YAE in only a days time and I'm getting very excited (and nervous!!! *bites nails*). I've finally got everything I need including food and manditory sunglasses (as modeled below)It's hard to believe how fast the summer has gone since I finished school on the 29th, everything is just coming up so fast but it's been nice to have a bit of relaxation time.

Now, before I go and as above mentioned, I'm giving into peer pressure and posting a few pictures. I don't believe I've introduced everyone to my new found love, a beautiful 1925 Guarneri model Roth violin. So here it is!

Here's the view up the hill from where I live (if you are really keen and good at walking up steep inclines you can walk to this spot in about 5 minutes)

Here are the new shades - looking cool. I made the necklace I'm wearing too in case anyone is interested.

Bon Voyage everyone! See you when I get back!

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music camp and pirating - pay attention you landlubbers!

July 22, 2006 18:19

It's that time of year again! I'm going to music camp! I'm not sure you can technically call it "camp" since I'm staying with a host family in a house a fair distance from where the program is but it's still summer music fun in one of my favorite cities!
Yoga...pilates....dance....theatre.....drumming....chamber music....fellow students....amazing faculty.....and more (!).....it should be fun!
The downside to this outing (which I actually don't consider a downside) is my access to technology will be limited meaning no blog updates or hijacking of threads with "I'm the best violinist ever" or the like. Instead, you will all be forced to greive the loss of me (if you are that attached to my blog and myself) for a time and anticipate my return in mid August which will hopefully include photos from me and a warm welcome from you! Now it's just down to packing and a little bit more cramming to learn my music before I go. Let the countdown to departure begin!

In other news. I am a confessed Pirates of the Caribbean addict. It's mostly Johnny Depp's fault that I'm addicted seeing as every movie of his I've seen, I like and this started back when I was 7 or so. Edward Scissorhands won me over and from then on I was attached. Anyways, now it's hard to watch a movie like the original Pirates or even the second one and not get caught up in the music and the adventure of being a pirate. A pirate! Wouldn't that be cool if a person could be a pirate for a day and experience a life like those under Captain Jack's command? Well it seems as though my "dream" might sort of come true. A dear friend of mine who will remain nameless for a number of reasons, mainly because....well let's just say I might have to kill someone in the near future. Anyways, continuing on. My dear (nameless) friend's Mom read an article in the local paper about a play that was looking for a couple of people to fill the shoes of pirates. My friend took it upon herself to call after I joked around about how fun it would be to be a pirate and apparently we are now both pirates in this play. This might not be so terrifying but I cannot act. My acting stints consist of vocab skits and Shakespeare skits in English and let me tell you, a laughing witch in Macbeth isn't exactly the ideal actor to part match. So, assuming my schedule for September and August don't conflict with rehearsals I am going to be a pirate in a play. I can't act. I'm not really piratey but I will have to get my "Arr" on. Apparently "Yargh!" means, "I agree completely" If I get anything out of this experience at all, may I learn how to fence (I've always wanted to fence) and may my ability to carry myself on stage comfortably improve.

Oh, and before I go. Jasmine requested I pay homage to her so Jazz, yes you are the sexiest violist I know. Happy now?

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Glenn Gould

July 19, 2006 19:29

True artistry and musicianship lives and breathes through Glenn Gould. I came across this the other day and was completely dumbstruck and sat down, face glued to the screen and watched the whole thing. What intensity and energy and expression. I can't begin to even put Gould's playing into words because it's beyond words. You are in Gould's world when he plays, not him in yours.

Glenn Gould plays the complete Goldberg Variations

It was a sad day the day Gould died. May God bless him and his amazing career and dedication to music.

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after a year of waiting the new director is? two?

July 17, 2006 15:33

I can't express how good it feels to be practicing again! I've been playing about an hour of piano a day and have worked up my violin playing to 3 hours again. The last time I did a good 3 hours of playing in a day is so far back I can hardly remember! It feels great to be practicing so much. I've even managed to blister the tips of 2 of my fingers, so progress is being made hehe.

My friend has got me addicted to the band Zero 7 which I've been listening to a lot the past couple of weeks. I'm also really digging the new Vienna Teng album which is being released later this month. You can hear 4 tracks off of it on her website and it's just amazing!

And finally.... The Okanagan Symphony's "vote on a conductor" season is over and the new directora are announced. Rosemary Thompson and Pierre Simard are the two conductors left standing after 6 different ones took their turns conducting the orchestra this past season and the audience was provided the opportunity to vote on which one they wanted. So the final decision will not be made until the end of next year after the orchestra has done 3 concert tours under each director as to which director will become the new principle artistic director. I personally hope that Simard gets the job but we'll see. It will be interesting to work under both of them this next year. I'm still waiting to hear about the repertoire for the season though. Hmm.... I know there's a Schumann piano concerto and some Mozart but that's it.

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let it rain, let it rain...!!

July 12, 2006 15:41

Normally at this time of year tempretures skyrocket and the beach or river channel would be an integral part of my daily scheduel. We've had the heat to be sure. For a week tempretures went into the 100's (Fahrenheit - so 40ish Celsius for everyone else)and things have been generally very warm (which i greatly dislike) but to impede on my annual excursions have been a still fairly busy routine, lack of veichle (and the license to drive one without an older individual present)and the almost daily rain and thunder storms. I adore thunder storms. Lightning and the sound it creates has always been interesting to me. When I was little I used to glue my face to the glass door watching while the dog would cower in the corner of the room eyeing me as if I was some mad woman. The thing I don't like about thunder storms are when it only relieves the heat breifly and gives little long term benefit. Last time I checked forest fires weren't really a benefit. I've been complaining about the heat since the beginning of June and I'm still complaining about it. Well, until today! It cooled down a lot today! I could actually cook in the house and not worry about it heating things up! We don't have air conditioning so electricity output and heat usage is always kept to a minimum during the summer months. Fancy that...I just heard a massive boom of thunder and it's raining now. :)!

I'm practicing my butt off as much as I can as I work up my practicing more and more in preperation for the Young Artist Experience at UBC. I leave on the 29th and am pretty excited and a little nervous too. I think it should be a lot of fun though! I received my schedule for the first day and it includes meeting the faculty, staff and students at the program (it's a very small program with only about 30-40 students), it also includes an introduction to chamber music, a string orchestra/song class rehearsal and small chamber ensemble rehearsals and then refreshments. It's not a full length day but its enough to make you actually feel like you've started the program unlike some where the first day is simply just figuring out where things are. At least I'm already familiar with the campus from having had lessons there and having hung out with my sister there (she's a music major at UBC also :).

Well I will depart. It's my Grandpa's birthday today and there is a cake to be gotten.

Oh, and for any of you interested in what my hair looked like for prom....

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an interesting late night find

July 8, 2006 00:14

An interesting video that has a lot of strings in it

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trip down memory lane

July 4, 2006 13:54

As I sit here and type this I'm taking a little trip down memory lane, so bear with me. I remember my first time going and playing in an orchestra. I was petrified. I didn't have my music ahead of time and I was one of the youngest people there. The enviroment seemed so intimidating at first then someone who has become a dear friend since that first day almost 6 years ago, initiated a conversation with me and helped me find my place to sit and gave me an envelope with my name on it and my music for the year in it. I ended up sharing stands with another newbie who was about a year older than I and we were both in the same kind of overwhelmed state (or so i perceived anyways). We both eagerly opened our envelopes of music, most of the titles I didn't recognize until all of a sudden..... "Nutcracker Suite" ....blared across and brought a big smile to my face! As we began to read through some of the music in this first rehearsal I realised that I was familiar with more of the music than I had originally thought. Khachaturian's Gayaneh Suite which contains that famous Sabre Dance movement turned out to be a really important piece to me. I had learned dances to the other mvts (not the Sabre dance) when I was in ballet! What began to excite me even more was that we were doing a Beethoven Symphony. Can you imagine my joy? I'm 12, I'm familiar with the famous No.5 and 9 and sitting in front of me is the completely unfamiliar No. 4 but who cares cause Beethoven wrote it and I get the play it! That day, after the rehearsal I got to go to favorite cd store in that city (it's about an 80 minute drive away from where I live) and I greedily picked up a recording of the Beethoven and Rossini works we were to learn. Then came the delight of hearing these pieces on the radio! And then finally, at Christmas time, we, the youth symphony of the okanagan got to join the pros in the Okanagan Symphony and play that Nutcracker Suite! Talk about a cool experience!

Now today, I've played the Bruch violin concerto orchestra part countless times, I've played the same Strauss Waltz known as Die Fleudermause and others too many times to count. Coolest of all, I've played almost ALL of the Beethoven Symphonies and that professional orchestra, well now I'm a member of it! But back to this trip down memory lane.... My first gig with the Okanagan Symphony was in January of 2004, I got a phone call on my way back from a rehearsal with the youth symphony asking if I could play because they were desperate for players (my youth symphony conductor is principal second in the OSO). I agreed, I got my music Monday evening, rehearsals started on Wednesday morning. What did I have to learn? Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 and Greig Symphonic Dances. Hmmm.... so how is this a trip down memory lane you say? Well, first off...I got singled out in that first rehearsal which scared the living daylights out of me but it ended up being a good thing (I got a compliment and was supposed to be used as a positive example for the 60 other players....hmm..) those Greig Symphonic Dances I had never heard before then and same with Tchaik with the exception of the last mvt which terrified me already. I practiced and obsessive amount and felt prepared and comfortable by time the concerts came around. As I type this, those same Grieg Symphonic Dances are playing on the radio.

So I guess in summation, the thing that is fascinating and exciting for me is almost everyday I can turn on the radio and hear some piece that I've played, be it solo, orchestral or chamber and that's exciting. It means I've got a large amount of repertoire under my belt and it's exciting to hear those pieces that I've played aired on the radio. I enjoy them more each time i hear them if I've played them because I have a better understanding and vision of the piece and it's more personal. I love it.

I can't imagine life without music and I can't wait for the symphony concert season to begin again. I've so missed playing lots of orchestral repertoire this past year so September is going to be a pure joy!

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More entries: August 2006 • June 2006