SPAC

I've been in Winchester, VA since the 29th of June - about 2 and a half weeks I guess. The first week was for the Shenandoah Performs festival, where we did Beethoven 9 (which is awesome, because I'm taking an audition that requires that excerpt) and the Berenstein Serenade (which is awesome because Anne Akiko Meyers is awesome).

The past week and a half, I've been working at the Shenandoah Performing Arts Camp as a counselor and a chamber music coach. I guess I'll point out the highlights of both below.

Counselor:
-My 5 campers are great. Two of them were only one week campers, but they are all really cool and respectful, and great musicians all around. I have 2 pianists, two trombonists, and a tubist. They are all really hardworking and seem to have really great musical sense and maturity that goes far beyond their years. I know that any of them would be successful musicians, if they choose to go that route.

-Camp Olympics was great. There were several contests, but the best was definitely the donut on a string eating contest.

-That's what she said jokes. Constantly.

Chamber Music:
-The first week, I had a quartet that played the Schubert quartet in Bb Major, Op something or other. I was a bit worried giving them such a hard piece for only a week of rehearsals, but it went really really well. I was really proud of all of them. The most remarkable part was how quickly they were able to really sink into each other's sense of musicality, especially the 1st and cello, and the 2nd and viola. Great musicians all around.

-This week, I'm coaching two violinists doing the slow movement of the Bach concerto for 2 violins in d minor, and a quartet on the Brandenburg 3rd concerto. The Brandenburg is pretty easy, and it's nice for that quartet to have a bit of a break and play that piece. The Bach is killer for rhythm and tempo, but I'm sure that in a few days it's going to be really solid.

So, I'll be here for something like 5 more days and then it's back to MD. It will be really nice to get back to the apt and get to practicing and teaching again, but I sure will miss it here. I really enjoy this kind of work: making sure the kids get a solid musical education for a couple of weeks, and have fun at it at the same time.

Until next time...

Greetings from Baltimore...

So, I'm currently in Baltimore, watching American Pie on my laptop, and finally blogging again, almost a year after my most recent entry. I've never been able to keep a consistent journal, not on my own or online. Perhaps if I had a way to do it more conveniently, like on a mobile device or something. Well, perhaps I'll update this a few times over the summer.

Updates on life in general:

-I finished my first year of my Master's at UMD. The year was good in lots of different aspects: my quartet received an honorable mention after the chamber music concerts during the fall semester; my lessons went well with Dr. Stern, and I finished the Mendelssohn concerto and Mozart 4; UMSO had some really wonderful concerts and some awesome guest conductors (especially Heinz Fricke for Bruckner), and my classes were all great. I didn't end up with a 4.0, but i'm probably around a 3.9, which I'm happy with.

-I feel like this summer I'm turning an important corner with my violin playing. It seems like a lot of the things that Dr. Stern taught me last year are starting to really starting to sink in. I feel generally stronger and more confident when I'm playing, and I don't feel completely inept when I'm teaching. I'm also learning music much more quickly than I used to, and I feel like I'm becoming a real violinist. Hopefully this will show next year when I'm auditioning for orchestras and DMA programs.

-Teaching has been GREAT. I started teaching with Arena Sound Music Instruction last August, and currently have 9 violin students with them. The pay is AWESOME (over $40 an hour), and my kids are all wonderful. Teaching has quickly become an integral part of my life as a musician. I still gig a lot and play with Loudoun, but teaching makes me probably 80% of my money.

-Gigs this year have been good, but not great. I wasn't able to gig as much as I had wanted due to teaching and my busy school schedule, but I did have some good gigs. I played Messiah a whole bunch of times in December, a couple of weddings, and I had to turn down 3 Easter gigs because I had accepted one around January. I also had two gigs with the Trinity Chamber Orchestra in DC. It was really interesting to have gigs with an orchestra outside of LSO. I mean, I've played in pickup orchestras before, but subbing in another orchestra is kind of a rarity for me. It was fun to play in the orchestra, and they have already asked me back for another concert next year that they are anticipating needing ringers for.

-This summer has been really nice. From mid May until Mid June, I was mostly just teaching, gigging, and relaxing, getting over the semester and having some much needed time off. I was able to hang out with Justin a lot which was awesome, and Dan came down to go to Dave and Buster's and have a bike ride, which was really fun.

-After my month "break" I came to Baltimore (where I currently am writing this blog) to teach the Second Violin section in the Young People's Orchestra at the Baltimore String Orchestra Camp. The camp is really great, and I am really enjoying being a faculty member at a music festival. It is so much different (I daresay, BETTER) than being on staff as a counselor at SU, even though I still teach chamber music lessons at SU. I love the SU camp, and would love to be faculty there. I really do enjoy being a counselor, but I feel like in a few years, I'm not going to want to be doing that any more.

-Anyway, after BSOC is over, I'll be headed down to Winchester on the 29th to start rehearsals on the 30th for Shenandoah Performs (Beethoven 9 and Berenstein Serenade), and then I'll immediately start working at the Shenandoah Performing Arts Camp as a counselor and chamber coach. I'm hoping that I can get some good practicing done during that camp.

Well, I'm tired and done writing. Perhaps I'll write again in fewer than 9 months.

Well, it's been a long time

So, it's admittedly been a while since my last blog entry, when I was feeling particularly politically motivated. I haven't really lost my political motivation, but I figure that I vote and I know where I stand, so perhaps that's enough for now. At least, it'll be enough until election season when I'm sure to start complaining about the lack of arts funding and stuff because I don't have a full time orchestra gig yet.

Anyway, lots of stuff has happened since my last blog. Instead of writing a long paragraph, I should probably just list the important stuff:

-I finished my senior year at SU, and graduated in May with honors, which is pretty sweet.

-I was accepted to University of MD, and rejected at Peabody (which I expected) and Boston Conservatory (which I didn't expect, but I wouldn't have gone anyway). I didn't even bother auditioning at Temple, NYU, Miami, or Catholic because UMD has a better strings program than all of them. It's actually getting really competitive: this year there were around 90 violin applicants and they took 15 of us, so I feel really privileged to have been admitted.

-Despite the fact that we're long distance now (but not THAT long, just 90 miles), Stef and I are still together and still going strong. She's been applying for jobs: the most recent being a managerial position at the Warner Theatre in DC. That would be pretty sweet if she got it. Even if she doesn't get it, I know that if she applies herself she's bound to be successful. She's put in the blood, sweat, and tears in her education and jobs, and now I think she's more than prepared to start her career.

-I won a job with the Loudoun Symphony as their assistant concertmaster, which is a really sweet gig. The conductor is really nice, and so are all the other players there. It's a per-service thing, so it doesn't pay a ton, but it's great to have for extra money. Plus I get a ton of gigs from it (church gigs, weddings, etc) because the concertmaster, Teresa, gets more gigs than God.

-I had a little brother in PMA and he made it to the end! Dustin (the aforementioned's name) is basically the man, and I'm really glad that I got to know him. I hope that our friendship is one that lasts a long time, because I can definitely see us being friends for a while. Hopefully when I visit Winchester I can hang out with him (and his cool as hell girlfriend, too).

-I had my senior recital, and by all accounts it went really well. I played two movements from the Bach g minor solo sonata, the first movement of the Khachaturian, and the whole Beethoven g major sonata. I was going to play the Wieniawski Scherzo Tarantella, but I had to cut it for timing and technical purposes. It wasn't as ready as the other pieces, and it would have pushed me WAY over the time limit (my program as it was already had pushed me over by about 10 minutes, and the Wieniawski would have added at least another 7-10). I had it recorded in both audio (by the one and only Brian Smitty Smith) and video (by my dad), but I haven't really listened to either. I listened to the CD for about a minute, and haven't looked at the video at all. I should probably do that.

-My brother and I went to Disney World for 5 days in June as a joint graduation gift from our parents. It was really awesome -- I can't really remember a time where I've had so much fun. It was awesome to hang out with my brother, and I think we got a lot closer over that week. Hopefully we can do some kind of trip every summer; that would be awesome.

-I was a counselor at the Performing Arts Camp again, and made bank. It was really fun, and all the counselors were really cool again. A lot of us came back, and there were some new ones who were also really cool. I think it was a successful summer, overall, and I hope I can go back next year (as long as I don't do any festivals or anything that conflict with it).

-While at the PAC, I was also in the Shenandoah Performs Festival Orchestra. We played Shosty 5, Mahler 5, and a violin and trumpet concerto. For each concert (one symphony and one concerto), we only had like 4 rehearsals, so it was really intense, but it made me a much more confident player, and it forced me to learn how to get music up to a good level with not a lot of practice time, which was a very important lesson to learn.

Of course there were a ton of things that happened over the past year, but that's all I feel like writing right now. I'll hopefully be updating this more regularly. I should, considering I'm just hanging at home and practicing until school starts. I wish there were more August gigs....

a quick musing...

So, ok. I found a way to justify abortion. Well, not abortion, but my "pro-death" stance, where everyone is forced to have an abortion. Preferably with a coat hanger.

What is Hitler had been aborted? Or how about Saddam or Bin-Laden?

Basically, we have to protect ourselves by aborting all the fetuses we can. Who's coming with me?!

a short list of things that piss me off

1. People who say abortion is about a woman's body.

This must be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Implying that abortion is all about a woman's right means that the man is not a part of what is getting aborted (or coat hangered, whatever). Further, this brings up the case of a woman wanting an abortion and the man wanting to keep the child. If it's a woman's choice, that presents a bit of a problem. Me personally, I'm pro-death. I think everyone should be forced to have an abortion.

2. People who oppose gay marriage.

Assholes. First of all, if two guys want to get married, I say go for it! Two consenting adults entering into a legally binding agreement. Easy. Legal. Fair. It's not going to lead to people marrying animals and shit because the basis of the marriage is TWO CONSENTING ADULTS. Personally, I think we need to end straight marriage and only have gay marriages. Don't knock it until you try it.

3. Assholes who think Creationism/Intelligent Design should be taught in schools.

Basically, these people can blow me. And the assholes who say "well Evolution is only a theory" are the dumbest of them all. Gravity and relativity are each "only a theory" but we don't see anybody disputing them. Evolution is a scientifically verified theory (and yes, both macro and micro evolution have been observed). It doesn't take faith to realize the theory of evolution is true. Plus, "evolutionists" are not going to go crazy if there is another theory that can be scientifically proven, but creationists are just crazy.

I'll continue this later... I have to play a concert now.

So I decided that I kind of understand why I do what I do. Why I sit in the practice rooms for, oh, 7 hours a day. Why I can't help but do what I do to the fullest extent possible.

It came to me the other day when I was driving home through West Virginia about to hit the MD border...

I don't know how long my life is going to be. That is my motivation. The fact that it all might end tomorrow... hell, the idea that it could all end in 5 minutes. I want to do something GREAT with my life. And that means I can't waste my time on bullshit. I need to do what actually matters. If I want to leave a mark of greatness, then I have to work HARD. If I want to be remembered after I'm gone, I need to be the best that I can be. Not only in music, but I need to be a good person, I need to touch lives. I feel like the best way I can touch lives is through music, whether it's teaching, performing, researching, anything. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, which tends to be a good thing, I think. Even if I can't be the BEST, I want to be the best that I can be. And I think that's a good aspiration.

In other news, I think I'm going to buy Olivia's English violin.

And I also think I am going to apply to the RAM, but we'll see about that when the time comes.

pictures

OK, so I generally don't do pictures unless they are of some significance. Basically, I've gone through a physical change since, oh, December. Below you'll see a before and then an after pic. (This is mostly for those of you who haven't seen me recently, that is, if anyone actually reads this thing).