February 18, 2005 at 7:58 PM

Let's do this chronologically.

Last night: I met an interesting violinist from the Zeneakademia. His name is Gábor Kis (last name first in the Hungarian manner) and he will be performing the Tchaikovsky violin concerto on June 16 at 4:00pm in the Nagyterem of the Zeneakademia. The way that we met was that we both wanted to attend a violin & piano concert at the Magyar Rádió Marvyterem, but figuring out how to get into the building with both of the exits closed clearly took more than a 174 I.Q.. I was standing at the end of Múseum kor., wondering what the h*ll I was supposed to do with my night when he came up to me and hazzarded a correct guess as to my situation, which happened to be the same situation he was in. So we went to a kavehaz and killed some time. He's a very interesting fellow, I hope we get to be friends.

I met another student today at Darius Music where I was picking up a Leopold carbon-fiber bow for a trial. I think his name is Etienne. He was very nice in offering to let me try the bow on his violin, but, my dears, I have vowed not to perform in public until I can rightfully demand, "Which Caprice?" That, and I didn't particularly feel like embarassing myself. And I was late for my violin lesson.

I haven't had enough time to evaluate the new bow. I will be using String Magazine's 16-point checklist to compare it to my other two bows (Mr. Straight Pernamuco and Mr. Crappy Student Bow). Quite honestly, though, I love it already. Not only does it piss off my violin teacher's father (a strict traditionalist who also hated my Warchal strings at first, just because they were Slovakian), but it feels just perfect on my hand. Yet, my first impression is that it's a little soft... We'll see.

Today's lesson went well. I told my teacher that I needed more time with the homework, so instead we worked on my left hand, violin placement, and bowing. I also gave him, as a Christmas/Birthday/Sorry Your Teacher is Dead present, the sheet music for Ravel's "Tzigane." He looked as if I'd given him a death sentence. The look on his face and tone of his voice said, "Oh my God, who does she think I am, Itzhak Perlman?"

Ah, so I think I learned today that he teaches violin at the conservatory (musical high school) level. I'm not sure, however. This is not a problem right now, but I may need to find a new teacher when I reach the level of feeling like I can tackle the Caprices (3-5 years, I think)

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on February 18, 2005 at 9:45 PM

Did you go to Hungary to study music?

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February 18, 2005 at 7:58 PM

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