March 2004

March 31, 2004 13:16

Wow! I'm listening to Otis Redding. Quite a departure from my usual rotation of various violin CDs. But a welcome one, I must say.

Today was good, I have a lesson in a few hours on the first two movements of Prokofiev. Reading through new pieces makes me very nervous, even with my own teacher. So I'll go warm up for a while in a little bit. Then I've got orchestra. Looking forward to that, although I am in desperate need of study time for bio. Oh well, violin comes first. Naturally.

Last weekend I thought I could start looking forward to being able to tune my violin easily: aka, spring was approaching. However all the excitement was to no avail, because it's about 35 degrees here today. I need to migrate south. Although I don't know how I would live without my refuges of New York City/ Philadelphia nearby.

So last weekend there was a "reunion" for the members of our touring orchestra to remember our recent tour to Brazil. I missed it. Apparently they were showing pictures of of the master classes with the Chicago Symphony which I really wanted to see. Mostly because I was the only person from our group that was actually able to play in them. Anyway... maybe I can get ahold of them some other way.

I'm looking into joining PYO next year. That means more auditions. *sigh* If only there was an easier way!

This cold rainy weather has wiped my mind clear of any traces of intellectual activity. I think I'll go get something to eat before I go practice.

Ciao

elena

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March 29, 2004 19:11

Ah. There is nothing like a satisfying weekend of concerts and recitals to purge the soul. The best thing is, I have nothing musically to stress about for at least a week. Needless to say, the Saint-Saens concerto with the orchestra went fantastically as did my Bach recital. Now I can spend some quality time with good ol' Prokofiev. Yipee.

I am still waiting on my Tanglewood letter. Poop.

*A small anecdote to ponder:*
I spoke to my school guidance counselor today on the telephone. He was inquiring as to what areas of study I was interested in. I should have known better than to say music. Seriously, I should know by now that guidance counselors know nothing of this strange culturally advanced intellectual activity. I was very naive. I told him my first choice as of now is Oberlin Conservatory. He then proceeded to ask me how to spell the name, where it is located, and what its best fields were. I think that I would have gawked stupidly for the rest of the evening if he hadn't gone on to tell me that I should take a look at Penn State. *End of humorous anecdote*

Also:
Yesterday, whilst I practiced (let it be noted that I was using a PRACTICE MUTE) I apparently vexed my father quite a bit while he was working. He got very angry at me and actually went into the basement, came into my room WITH A DRILL and threatened to drill a hole through my violin (which is not actually mine; it is on loan to me from my teacher) if I didn't stop practicing right away. Talk about support. So I had to wait until after everyone went to bed to go into the back room and finish. *sigh*

On a lighter note, I had a lovely session with Courtney going over the Brahms today. We rehearsed for three hours even though we only checked out the practice room for one hour. We forgot to stop. I love when that happens. Also, I decided to get a friend from MSM to take me up to New York City in a few weeks when we can find something good to get tickets to. I'm torn; Broadway or Lincoln Center? It takes me forever to save money because I have to pay for half of my lessons (50 bucks a week! can you beleive that!???!) so I want to make this a good trip seeing as I won't have money again for maybe years. We shall see. I must look into what's playing.

I'm trying to amuse myself until my parents go to sleep so I can practice, but it is only 9:15pm at the moment so I'll have to find something more productive to do for the next two hours. I suppose I'll actually get some bio homework done, but that would make too much sense wouldn't it? I mean, kill two birds with one stone? That is way way too efficient for me. Maybe I'll take a nap since I'll be up for a while tonight. Teeheehee.

Enough.

I'll see what I'm up to tomorrow. Maybe I will have the good humor to follow up this insanely pointless entry with something even more amusing. I bet that would make my day.

Adios Amigos
Elena

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March 27, 2004 15:25

ok.
i just got back from an amazing rehearsal of brahms' first trio in b. what an amazing piece! i feel bad for kate, our pianist, though. all those hemiolas and so few actual melodies. but it doesn't hide the fact that it's an absolutely fantastic piece. my favorite has got to be the last movement, even though it still needs a lot of work before we do this thing in competition. we finally were able to find some to enter (we were having trouble because courtney and kate are both grad students and i'm...well...in high school. damn) and so we'll see how that works out.

i hate saturdays. the reason for that is because every saturday i can't help but sit back and reflect on how i could be at julliard prep. i mean really. why would my parents let me audition, and then refuse to let me go only AFTER i get accepted? *ponder*

so... i'm about to be off to an orchestra rehearsal. we're doing bernstein's west side story symphonic dances and whatnot. its a really interesting piece... although all the good stuff goes to the brass. poop. oh well, i shall find a way to deal with it i suppose. then i'm going to a DIFFERENT rehearsal to run through my saint-saens for tonight. shouldn't be too bad though, i've done this piece a bunch and i feel really comfortable with it, so i'm just going to let the piece just happen the way it wants to. i always find that to be the best way.

so i guess i should probably eat something at some point or do something other than playing violin (for once) but i find that i'm never very successful at anything while i'm in violin mode. like the time i put max bruch as an answer on my biology test by accident. but that is a different story completely.

i must depart. farewell.

elena

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March 26, 2004 14:27

woohoo! look someone new! go me... anyway i kind of stumbled into this site and it looked interesting, especially for someone like me. so anyway, let's see what happens with this whole thing.

so overall i've had a good week for the violin. yesterday i found out i got into interlochen, which is good, although i'm still waiting on the results of my tanglewood audition and its driving me crazy! also, i'm performing saint-saens' b minor concerto this weekend and next week, and i'm also doing bach's d minor partita, my favorite! (especially the chaccone). so that's all pretty cool i must say. i'm starting on the prokofiev concerto... which should certainly be interesting. its one of my favorites though so i'm really excited.

today was great though... there was continuous testing all day so i pretty much skipped school and practiced all day, all without even being marked out. good stuff, go public school! i think i'm going to work on some bach and play through the fugue of the first sonata just because i feel like it.

and let's hope this site works out for me, i'm excited about joining.

elena

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