November 3, 2005 at 9:41 PM

Ugh. I feel terrible. I have a really bad stomachache and a stuffy nose. On Tuesday I was on my way downtown to rehearse some stuff with an accompanist when this awful stomach pains kicked in and I was practically doubled over. I ended up only rehearsing for 15 minutes. And yesterday I skipped a lesson because of it. Today, I went to a two-hour lesson and came out crying because I felt so bad. Then I went home and slept for three hours. Hah. Anyway, on to more interesting stuff:

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning on going to a Halloween/birthday party one of my friends from school was having. But then we realized that the Johannes Quartet (Catherine Cho, who I had a lesson in New York with a few weeks earlier, two very important violinist/violist figures in Philadelphia, Soovin Kim and C.J. Chang, and Peter Stumpf) was performing at the Kimmel Center. We couldn't not go. Despite my being fairly grumpy about missing the party, it was an excellent concert. They played a Mozart quartet on the first half, and Death and the Maiden on the second. Considering they only get together occasionally to rehearse, they were REALLY together and precise. It was amazing! Afterwards we went backstage to talk to them. So that was fun.

My mom bought this really cool little thing online that I can use to practice. It's a mini-disc recorder with a microphone and earphones but it is SO GOOD, and sounds SOO real. So if I need to tape something and play it back, it won't be distorted. (It's such good quality sound that when I was trying to work it, and the phone rang while I was recording, when I played it back I thought, "Now who's calling!")

Next Sunday I'm doing a recital at the Unity Temple in Chicago for my grandfather's surprise 75th birthday party. We're going to be in Chicago anyway for the next From The Top show. I'm going to meet Rachel Barton Pine. Yay. Except I'm having trouble practicing for my recital because I feel so lousy.

--alice

From Donna Clegg
Posted on November 7, 2005 at 8:49 PM

What kind of digital recorder did you get? I have been reading reviews of different brands and all it has done is confuse me. I'd like something simple to use.

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November 3, 2005 at 9:41 PM

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