February 8, 2006 at 4:57 PM

I'm back home from California! It was so nice there! It felt like spring in February. So the two shows were in Carmel and Palo Alto. Carmel is gorgeous, and me and my mom got a chance to go down by the beach. It is really touristy, of course. There were tons of hotels and nobody we met seemed to actually live there. We did find places to eat even though most of the stores in the town seemed to be art galleries and sweater shops. The Carmel FTT show was great; I got to do a humorous quiz with a 12-year-old pianist, and "interview" Clint Eastwood. Yep, you heard that right. In Palo Alto, the show was held at Standford's auditorium. I did a skit with a 12-year-old cellist about her website, and a little interview with a soprano about her tastes in music. I absolutely love doing those shows. When one is over I get sad, so I was really happy that we had two in a row next to each other. My younger sister came with us, but for the most part stayed with our aunt and cousins who live in Albany.

It's settled--for the musical at my school we're doing "Fiddler on the Roof". I wasn't too happy when I heard about this (the decision was made while I was in CA). I know they picked it because there are a lot of female parts, something we need in particular this year, but the real main part is the father (or so I have been told) and none of the boys are particularly talented in this area. Also, I'm not saying that Fiddler on the Roof is a depressing musical, but I was hoping to do something a bit more....comedic. Perhaps I'm just biased because I don't know it, the plot, or the characters very well yet. But I'm still a bit melancholy about the whole deal. We had the auditions for the parts the other day--if you could call them auditions. It's VERY informal, and since who is even in the musical is a lottery, a lot of the kids can hardly carry a tune, except for a few of the girls. It was really fun. I sang "Sixteen Going On Seventeen".

The other elective I'm in this semester is knitting. I'm sure this sounds odd to the other middleschoolers/highschoolers out there, but that just goes to show what my school is like! It's a good skill to learn of course. It's very funny because me and my friends spend the time sitting in a circle and knitting and talking and feeling like old ladies. It's very fun though.

Now, the Bruch performance with the orchestra is on Feb. 26. So I have 18 days left. It's coming along nicely. Though most of the time I feel confident, I have periods where my brain is like, "AHHH! What am I doing? I can't play a whole concerto yet!" But I have done the equivalent before, so I know I'll be fine.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

baby sea lions!

Two views of the beach.

I have been practicing my butt off today.

From Linda Lerskier
Posted on February 8, 2006 at 7:55 PM

I am so glad you had fun. *is jealous*

In fact, I like that liscense plate. I like it a lot. More than that Uncle Sam Poster I saw...

From Karin Lin
Posted on February 8, 2006 at 8:39 PM

Hey, C., some friends of mine went to that taping and they said you were great and had lots of stage presence. I'm still kicking myself for not buying tickets before they were all sold out.

From Colleen Russo
Posted on February 8, 2006 at 8:50 PM

Heyy! I think knitting has just like started to pick up in highschoolers around the country, cuz tons of people at my school are knitting now! I'm not sure if we have an actual class, but i know there's a knitting club!
Congrats on the shows.. but like what shows are these exactly!? haha .. Am I the only oblivious one here? Proabably.. ;)
You'll like fiddler on the roof, listen to the soundtrack, the songs are catchy!

From Linda Lerskier
Posted on February 8, 2006 at 9:11 PM

Are you ever going to preform in NY?

From Bill _
Posted on February 9, 2006 at 12:58 AM

Knitting and Violin:

http://www.catherinecho.com/recordings_knit.html

scroll down!

From C. Veronica Smith
Posted on February 9, 2006 at 2:17 AM

Thanks, Karin. Hope you catch another one :-)

Colleen, the shows I'm talking about are From The Top shows.

Linda, I am going up to NY this weekend to do a show, but it's sold out! There will probably be another one soon.

Bill, did you know that's my teacher? ;-) Aren't those scarves cool?

From Colleen Russo
Posted on February 9, 2006 at 3:12 AM

Oh yeah.. I remember you talking about that now! Wow, those shows must be a blast to do! :)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on February 9, 2006 at 10:24 AM

C., those photos are beautiful. I wish I were there.

How did you land the position at FFT?

I'm sure you'll do a great job on the Bruch. I hope you can post some clips so that we can hear you.

From Patty Rutins
Posted on February 9, 2006 at 4:12 PM

When I was a kid, my family got to be very close friends with a neighboring family, and shared holidays with them. Now, this got fun, 'cause we celebrated Christmas and they celebrated Hanukkah... (yes, this is going somewhere relevant)...

So Mom, ever the Evil Mastermind, conspired with us kids to put on a three-girl show of "Santa on the Roof".

Definitely a more comedic version than "Fiddler on the Roof". We were even asked for an encore performance the following year, by which time I'd actually started the violin so could really be the fiddler. :)

We pretty much cut out the part of Tevye. You could always do the same! ;)

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February 8, 2006 at 4:57 PM

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