summer music

Saturday evening a bunch of us went out for Chinese before the Andre Watts (!!) concert. We had lots of fun- Elliott ate allll the leftovers. Like, these are big servings and he ate the rest of everyones food. hahaha. The concert was great- EPO played Brahms 3rd first and then Andre Watts performed Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto. It was really good.

Yesterday was Sunday. Jen and I ate lunch with Angelica, Rebekah, Nate, and Justin. Afterwords we grabbed an empty practice room downstairs and I brought my laptop down. We watched friends until Rebekah, Nate, Angelica and I had to go to rehersal. After dinner, though, we watched another two episodes and then Elizabethtown. tons of fun. Everyone is so glad I have my laptop. hahaha. Nate was like, "You brought Friends?? ...can we watch it?" he is quite good looking. But, alas, he has a girlfriend. Plus he's only been playing a year and a half. He didn't even play the violin first- he started on the saxaphone. Yeah. I told him that was worse that beeing a Slasher. (slasher- n. Someone who plays both violin and viola, somtimes because they can't handle the competition of violinists and other times because they just prefer the viola. They always end up being better than pure-bred violists. We don't like them)

This morning I had my rehersal. For those of you who don't know, I am in EFO this week so I am performing Thursday. We are playing the hardest program of the summer. It starts with Harbison's "Remembering Gatsby" which has a part for both piano and flexitone (I'm not sure how to describe a flexitone in words....google it). You know those comedy routines that played before movies in the thirties? Where they literally threw pies at eachother and had hats and canes? Well, thats what this piece is like. Except hard. Because it gets all sinister-ish and that's when the strings start playing. Yeah. Next on the program is the Hindemeth. ...that's right, we are plaing Mathis der Maler. The whole thing. It is soooo hard. Like, beyond difficult. I have to hit a high...D? And hold a trill on that note. Which isn't too bad. It's hitting the D on the fourth page of the third movement after an insane 16th note passage with accidentals. In treble clef. And even that is fakable. It's everyingthing else...ack. It's just insane. Verrrry hard. Thank goodness Scott is doing it- he is the more patient of the two conductors. Very, very nice. I worked with him last week, too. Funfunfun. Next is the waltz from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. This piece is so easy compared to everything else. It's fun to listen to. A nice break after the Hindemeth... Last is Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. Which is, of course, beautiful. In an insane kind of difficult way. The runs I'm not sure if I'll ever get. Everyhting else isn't too too bad. Just...insane. It will be a good program though. We have a lot of members getting tendinitis- Nate couldn't play today because his wrist hurt so badly. I'm hoping that nothing happens to me. I'm careful, though. I know how to play correctly and I really try to keep on top of it. I stretch now before rehersal, too. See, it is always my back that hurts. It starts just under my right shoulder blade and then spreads across my upper back. The only way I can describe it is that it's like a spider web. It's weird. Like, it spreads up and I can kinda feel it spread. And sometimes it's real sharp, kind of like a cramp. And it just makes me feel sort of sick, but not really. ...sorry to be so vague. It is hard to describe. It only happens sometimes, like it didn't bother me today. Yeah. That's the end of my rant.

Thank, Barbara and Granddad, for the lovely card. I got it today. I have a collection of all my cards people send me sitting on my desk. NOTE TO EVERYONE: if you send me a card, it could get placed in my very special collection!! Wouldn't that be fun? hahaha.

I went for pizza today for lunch. Jen and I also went to the CD store too. I, of course, forgot the CDs to trade in, but I didn't get some CDs I wanted today so that I could wait until I went back. I did, however, buy the Elizabethtown soundtrack (because it is so good) and the new Regina Spektor CD. I wanted her older CD, Soviet Kitsch, but they didn't have it. So I got this instead. hehehe. I heart her.

Well, I have to go practice. Sectional tonight. There is also a masterclass with the Air Force String Quartet at 4 that I want to go to. So I'll write later. I'll try to write more often- most of the time it's just a matter of making time.....

"If it wasn't this, it would be something else."
-Cameron Crowe, Elizabethtown