July 2004

July 27, 2004 20:59

Wow, the new Shyamalan movie is great!!! "The Village" (which premiers July 30, but this was a private screening) I think was a lot better than "Signs" his previous movie. and best of all, Pascale (who we call Calla), my younger sister, was in it! (She had speaking lines in a school-house scene.) William Hurt was at the screening too. (It's weird how amazing someone can look on the big screen, and how ordinary he can look in real life.) Autographs all around. My (non-musical) friend Alfia went too, because her dad worked on the set.
In other news, I did my Mozart D Maj. solo two days ago. The orchestra was the best I've ever soloed with. The solo went well, and I got a standing ovation. I guess I could have played better but I had fun with it and that's all that's supposed to count...right? (I was accosted by a certain middle-aged bass player who told me enthusiastically what he claimed to have always told his daughter before she played with an orchestra, "You've already done all the hard work, the technique and all, and now you get to just relax and have fun! OK? So, what are you going to do? RELAX AND HAVE FUN! What did I say?! You have to HAVE FUN, got it???" I tried my best to avoid him after that. He was making me nervous.) One man drove all the way from Washington to hear the concert, and he very kindly wrote a review, which you can read at the newsgroup rec.music.makers.bowedings, under the title with my name (Caeli Veronica Smith). Hopefully we raised enough money for Haiti, but I don't know yet. (Estimated $10,000 so far but not all the contributions are in.)
Today I had my second mandolin lesson. I really like my teacher. I wasn't so sure about him after the first lesson, in which he pushed about a year's worth of information into my head in an hour, but we reviewed a lot of it and even went onto some new stuff today. All the different techniques of muting and shifting and pick direction are so interesting! He lent us a CD of gypsy mandolin music to listen to, which I really like.
Hopefully I'll get some busking done before the warm weather ends! But it won't stop raining! Aaa!
My oldest sister's high-school graduation party is in a few days, and my uncles are bringing their mandolins/guitars and maybe we can jam. ;)
--alice

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July 5, 2004 07:21

Haven't had the chance to write in here for a while. Got back from Apple Hill a week ago. I liked it, but I don't think I'm going back next year. It was weird to be with mainly adults and not just kids. They did a lot of similar stuff to Kinhaven, like we went contra-dancing one night. I think it was a good experience, though. I played the first, second, and third movements of Dvorak's A Major sextet, and the second movement of Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" sextet. The range of abilty and experience in the players was really wide. There were some groups that played wonderfully, and some were just beginners, but everyone was really supportive of everyone else.
Happy Fourth of July! I felt a bit guilty yesterday because I didn't have time to practice, but I'm going to make up for it today.
When I got back from Apple Hill, I went with Thea and Calla (cousin and sister, respectively) to the little Settlement string camp. I wasn't participating (it was way below my level) but helping out; tuning violins, getting staff paper, and a little bit of coaching too. Was very fun.
In other news, I got a bit of a surprise recently. Richard Casimir, my old Suzuki violin teacher, bumped into my mom at a gas station a few weeks ago and asked if I'd like to be part of his concert benefiting the flood victims in Haiti. He also said that I could solo with an orchestra in the concert, and play Mozart D first movement! The orchestra sounds really fabulous, it's going to be made up of a few Philly orchestra members and Curtis students (!!!!)
OK...so now I have to go practice.
--alice

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July 2004

July 27, 2004 20:59

July 5, 2004 07:21

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