2009 Review 2010 Preview

December 17, 2009 at 3:04 AM

It's that time of year again to review my goals of 2009 and set my 2010 goals.

This has been a difficult year for me on many different levels. It has been a year of many losses but also one of many gains. So while I did not achieve many of my 2009 goals, there are a few that I did achieve that stand out.

First and foremost is memorizing Bloch's Suite Hebraique. Not only did I memorize early in the year, but I still have it committed to memory to this day. So much for my excuse about forgetting other details in my advancing years!

Which brings me to my other goal - performing publicly with no fear. During the audition I had a little stage fright, when I played the Bloch at Lenten services back in March, it disappeared, for good. I have since performed several times at my church with no re-occurrences of stage fright.

The Bach by 40 goal. While I didn't achieve that goal 10 months ahead of schedule as I would had liked, I have only 4 movements remaining to learn. Plenty of time to do that by October!

The big viola sound has not only been achieved, but is now posing a bit of a problem in ensembles (sheepish grin). My dynamics still need a little work.

2010 does not have a list full of technical goals, but more personal goals:

For starters, I'd like to perform the Bloch once again at my new church, which is tentatively scheduled for Good Friday. This time around though, I want to move past the technical challenges of the piece and focus into the stylistic and musical challenges.

Secondly, I also like to perform something at Interlochen this summer at either the participant's concert or at one of the informal larger group ensembles. Hopefully this will be Brandenburg #6 with my new viola-buddy.

Since 2010 will be bringing my decade long Bach goal to an end, it is time to start a new long-term goal. With the encouragement and creativity of my friends and former teacher, the new goal is to learn a piece from composers Z to A. Half the fun here will be just trying to find pieces written by composers for each letter of the alphabet.

So there we have it. A much shorter list than in years past, however these goals will draw upon all the smaller goals I achieved (or not) over the past several years. 2010 is about moving past the "me" and into what music can bring to others. I've put a toe on this path over the past year. It's now time to step onto it fully.

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2009 Review 2010 Preview

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