May 2004

May 28, 2004 14:24

Well it's been a good day. I skipped school "study for exams" since there's really no point in classes two days before exams begin. I really just spent the whole day practicing though, which is so much more satisfying than studying. I re-went over Saint-Saens third movement in the morning after a good hour and some of scales and sevcik and such. Then I did some good ole orchestra stuff, but not for very long. Then I went out to lunch and CD shopping... I say there's no such thing as spending too much on Brahms, Shostakovich, Tchaichovsky, Ravel, and Gershwin. Then I was inspired by Stern's Tchaik, so I practiced that this afternoon for no apparent reason. Always good fun to go back over something though, and I feel wholly satisfied. I think I'm going to go see Shrek 2 this evening as a reward.

Ciao
Elena

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May 22, 2004 10:09

*Phew.*

Last night I played for my school's prom. They could not have paid me enough to suffer through 4 hours of Pachebel's Cannon in D and Sheep May Safely Graze to an audience consisting of spit-swapping teenage prom-goers. By the end, after my partner and i were finished playing through our entire Bach solo violin repetiores, books upon books of background prom music, and after playing eine kleine nacht musik about 50 times, we reverted to having a "fiddling" contest. First we improvised some gypsy music type stuff, switching between playing the bass line and the melody. Then we decided to play as many violin concertos as we knew behind our head, backs, and between our legs. But even that was not enough. We then decided to add some hoe-down "flava" to many classic favorites... which resulted in a Copland-esque Mendelssohn, a VERY strange sounding Bruch, and a downright square-dance-able Saint-Saens. I'm sure if Bach would have heard what we did with the E major, A minor, and double concertos, he would have been very pleased. Hehe. We didn't try messing with Beethoven, although my attempt at spicing up the Prokofiev was a complete and utter failure. Oh well... I just hope the prom-goers were happy... *cough cough*

Anyway, besides that, nothing entirely significant is happening in my violin world (for once!). As far as I know, all concerts, recitals, competitions, and auditions are over with for the time being. *Huzzah! Huzzah!* Except for one orchestral concert next week, which I'm not particularly stressing over (yet).

So... that's enough for now.

Ciao,
Elena

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May 18, 2004 15:40

I'm most definitely in a better mood today, for a few reasons. My recital on Saturday with the last minute Evah Pirazzis was not entirely bad. In fact, I might be using it as a demo. Overall Saturday was a good day. Friday wasn't too bad either, the school recital was fine, although kind of odd because it was being held on a giant stage in the gymnasium. I can't say I've ever performed a solo in a gym, so it was certainly an experience. My good friend Nick was amazing as Frankenfurter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I think it's safe to say that seeing him in fishnets and a bustiee (spelling??) was another experience that won't be rivaled in the near future!

Currently, I'm listening to Stephen Schwarz's soundtrack to WICKED. Awesome show. (I might be seeing it on Broadway in june sometime!!) It's a nice compliment to the first Bartok concerto, which I was listening to all afternoon. Next on my list for tonight: the Rolling Stones.

My younger sister is playing in her school's orchestra/ stageband/ chorus concert tonight. I think it should be nice, and I'll try not to be too much of an orchestra snob! *Note to self: it's only the orchestra of a public middle school in pennsylvania....* Anyway, my sister is playing about every instrument known to man... flute, piano (and keyboard for the jazzband) and singing, (well, ok, only three... but still) so at least I should have a good time watching her run back and forth between ensembles.

Right now I'm focusing on getting things ready for Tanglewood. I still can't find where they've posted the orchestra excerpts. Hopefully I'll find them in time to get some solid practice on them. I think we're doing Bartok's concerto for orchestra, which I'm reallllllly excited about but a little scared! Practicing is going well. Until exams are over, however, things are on a bit of a hold; I've had to cut out about two hours a day in order to study and also occasionally sleep. On the bright side, though, its forced me to really focus on important things while I practice, and practice them really well in order to condense.

So! That's enough for now.
Ciao
Elena

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May 13, 2004 12:58

Blah! Is it possible to be more stressed out??

First of all, I just re-changed my strings, exactly 2 days before a performance. Why, you ask? Well, stupidly, I listened to someone who said to me "hey, you should really try out the infeld blues. I like them a lot." So what did I do? I tried out the infeld blues. And I absolutely hated them. Not that sort of mild hatred that people talk about when they're trying to be dramatic, but a burning firey hatrid that everyone should really avoid in order to keep their blood pressure down. Anyway so I went out and blew like half of my life savings for a new set of Evah Pirazzi's.... not the smartest move, I'm aware, but it was sure better than those awful squeaky pieces of yarn passed off to be violin strings.

I also need to write a paper tonight sometime, except that I'll be at a dress rehearsal at school for our spring concert. I'd skip it, but I have a solo (which in fact I have absolutely NO time to practice for, so I'm pretty much going to wing it).

Biology test tomorrow, about genetics, mutations, meiosis and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't pay attention to. Then I'm going to get my concert dress altered because it's too long (what's up with everyone being like 10 feet tall nowadays??). After that I'm going to see my friend's show... he's playing Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror, which should really be fun :) After that I guess I'll be ok to practice for the concert on saturday, except that its like 1001 degrees, and the humidity is about 90 percent. We have no air conditioning in our house....

hmmmm. I suppose I will write again when I'm in a better mood.

Elena

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May 5, 2004 12:31

Happy cinco de mayo everyone! Today is the only day of the year in which I yearn to become a member of a mariachi band... or... wait, no, on second thought, I've never yearned to be in a mariachi band, but the independence of Mexico is still a cause for celebration. Even though I'm Italian. I do beleive that I will make some enchiladas or some such Mexican delight later.

I simply cannot beleive how much of my precious practice time is taken up by school. 6 hours a day... that's 30 hours a week, 120 hours a month... and I'm doing this in my head and am too lazy to do any more. But what we can conclude is that school takes up far far too much time. What I'd really like is for someone to tell me how mapping out various genotypes and phenotypes of organisms will ever relate to my life, even if I don't (haha) become a violinist. Argh.

Prokofiev! I'm just starting the solo violin sonata to go along with the Prokofiev concerto I'm doing. I love it! So much fun I can hardly stand it. If Prokofiev was still around I think I could kiss him.

On that note, farewell.

Elena

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May 3, 2004 12:33

Well things, as a whole, seem to be going fairly well. The trio concert went well, overall, and I was very happy with the whole situation. Brahms is amazing. I've been asked to do a recital some time next month which is good. I'll get a chance to maybe do Sarasate's Zigeunerweiser which I've been working on and maybe get a good head start performance of the Prokofiev before I put it away for a while. I've really got to decide what I want to learn this summer while I'm at Tanglewood, the thing is I just can't make up my mind. I'm torn between everything from Dvorak to Paganini to Wieniawsky to Vieuxtemps and it just seems that everything is so good that I can't decide! Oh well, I suppose I shall have to consult someone about this, except I won't be seeing my teacher for another week and my parents... well, let's just say they don't know, nor do they care. In the meantime, back to my practicing for another Saint-Saens concert next week.

Elena

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More entries: June 2004 • April 2004

May 2004

May 28, 2004 14:24

May 22, 2004 10:09

May 18, 2004 15:40

May 13, 2004 12:58

May 5, 2004 12:31

May 3, 2004 12:33

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