May 27, 2005 at 10:30 PM

Well, the school year has been over with for a week, and I've finally been able to practice all I want. I have the first movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole down now, thanks to the few hours I've been able to practice every day. I've been working on my Kreutzer Etudes. I'm on number 6 this week. It's nothing hard, but my teacher wants me to play is slowly in order to get the martelle stroke down. I have a little bit of a problem with tensing up my thumb. When I relax my thumb, my fingers tense up, but my teacher showed me a way to change that tension into pressure downward on the bow, which helps me stop on the martelle stroke. I want to audition for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, but do I have what it takes to get in? I need to find a youth orchestra that I want to get in. My teacher wants me to join the Franklin Pond Chamber group this summer 9since it only lasts one season), and then think abotu joining a youth group. There are a few to choose from in the Atlanta area. there's BYO, MYSO, and ASYO, plus a few that keep sprouting up each year, with little success, like the Emory University Youth orchestra. I know I would stand a better chance of getting into BYO and MYSo than I would the ASYO, but since the ASYO is well known, I'd like to join it. I need to figure out want concerto I want to play. I could play Lalo, or maybe Mozart's 4th VC... I don't know about Mozart, though. The only reason I would consider him is because he is so hard to play. I know that if I play Lalo, I'll probably play the first movement. I know I would be more comfortable with Mozart since I learned it 6 months ago. Mozart is too easy to mess up. But with lalo, I have all of those runs, ugh, and when I'm nervous, everything goes wrong. If I play Mozart's Fourth Violin Concerto in D major, I'd like to play the third movement, because I like it a little more than the first. Any suggestions? Maybe I could learn a Bruch concerto, or would that be too easy? I could sight-read the first page when my teacher showed me No. 1 in G minor.

Anyways, I've worked on my technique. Kreutzer does miracles for me, mainly because it focuses on one thing to work on, unlike mazas. I just don't enjoy Mazas, mainly because it is work to learn an etude. I can sight-read most of them, but when i go back I always find something i missed, whether it be some dynamics or bow strokes.

I practiced scales for half an hour on monday. G, A flat, A, B flat, B, C, D flat, D, E flat, E, F, F sharp major, parallel, and relative minors. Scales and arpeggios. It took me the entire half hour with no stopping (except to fix a bad note here and there). Anyways, it does help. I noticed a big improvement on the one part in the first movement of Lalo's Spanish Symphony that has an A flat minor scale/arpeggio in it (on the third page if you have the IMC edition).

I'm pretty sure (this is what my teacher told me) that if I wanted to get into a professional symphony orchestra when I get older (specifically the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), you have to play either Mozart 3, 4, or 5, in addition to the excerpts and scales. I think you may even have to play Bach.

Huh, I could play Bach's VC in A minor or E major for the ASYO, because i forgot about those. I doubt Bach would do any good, since I'm sure there are people auditioning that can play Brahms (haha) and Saint-Saens (Ritchie Zah).

Have a good day

From Mark Hunt
Posted on May 28, 2005 at 1:31 AM

I love Lalo, I haven't played it in a few years though, but my favorite movement out of all the movements is the 5th movement! Mozart Four is a good choice for an audition if you can pull it off, you're almost guranteed to get in. Thats what happend to me and a friend last year, I played mozart no.4 and he played Dvorak Concerto, and they picked me over him, they said: While we're concerned with technique, musicallity is a prime factor for our auditions. So Mozart would be nice! ooh If you have aim or something maybe we could talk! my aim sn is: GreekTragedy52

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May 27, 2005 at 10:30 PM

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