Home!

I'm finally home after a long two months filled with lots of music and lots of orchestra experience. It's really amazing how much repertoire we covered in such a short amount of time, considering the fact that we're a music "camp," not a professional orchestra. Here's the list of rep we did on concerts alone...that doesn't include other readings.

Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major

Berlioz: Les Troyens; Royal Hunt and Storm

Bizet: L’arlésienne, Suite No. 1

Bizet: L’arlésienne, Suite No. 2

Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major

Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

Debussy: Petite Suite

Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G Major

Haydn: Symphony No. 87 in A Major

Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor

Smetana: Overture to The Bartered Bride

Strauss, R.: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major

Wow that's a lot...and it's really hard, too. We're not talking arrangements of Bach concertos, we're talking rep that you would hear at any concert by any professional orchestra.

The Final Stretch

Well, it's down to the last week now. I can feel things starting to wrap up and I couldn't be more excited to go home. It's been a great experience but I really am burnt out. I've started to wonder that if I can't survive eight weeks of this, how am I supposed to do it 52 weeks out of the year? I think doing it as a job would be a lot different than doing it as a summer camp, so that is reassuring. As an orchestra player, music would just be a part of my life, rather than a consumer of my life. I think my stamina for long rehearsals has definitely grown, so my lack of enjoyment is not necessarily a physical issue, even though I have had some problems with my wrist. I think I'm burnt out because I'm honestly just sick of doing the same routine every day, seeing the same people, none of whom are my family, and it just gets old after a while.

In the next post I want to list all of the repertoire that I've played this summer, because it really is a huge list!

Next...

Wow, I only have two concerts left! It's amazing how fast this summer has gone, but at the same time I can't wait to go home.

Earlier today I played in an opera scenes masterclass. A reduced orchestra performed scenes from operas of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. It was a pretty good experience; I really love opera music and this Classical-Baroque style is enjoyable for me to play. A lot of full time orchestras continue performances in the summer, but instead of traditional symphonic concerts, they perform as the orchestra for an opera company season. I've never played opera before, so this gave me a nice introduction. The only problem I have is that unlike a regular concert, the orchestra is crammed in a small pit and usually the instrumentalists have to live and perform in the shadow of the singers. Let's face it, the patrons care more about operatic divas than a rockin' viola section. However, it can be very rewarding if you approach it with a fairly selfless attitude.

Next concert: Strauss Til Eulenspeigel, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, Beethoven Symphony No. 6. WOW! Lots of notes to learn...

What a life...

I've been thinking a lot lately about orchestra salaries. I don't think I knew how much you could actually get paid just for being in an orchestra. Cincinnati base salary STARTS at $91,000 for a 52-week season. Chicago? Almost $150,000. It's amazing to me that I could get paid more than my parents make combined just for doing my "hobby." I do have to give myself a reality check from time to time though...there's no way I'm going to hop right into one of these orchestras after school. It's going to take time and lots of work. I'll probably have to pull myself up a ladder...start with a lower-tiered orchestra and move up the rungs of prestige to a Cincinnati or Chicago. But hey, it's a pretty sweet deal to make six digits doing what you love.

I'm hopefully going to take a couple auditions this fall to get my feet wet. Lexington is having sub auditions and rumor has it Dayton will announce a section opening. Kentucky would be nice, but I don't know if there's going to be an opening.

I decided that I would really like to play in Cincinnati and live downtown, either in a condo in the gateway quarters or an apartment in the Banks. Yeah, cause I could totally afford to drop $1000 a month since I'd be making bank in the Symphony!

Back into gear...

Well we had a week off of orchestra, but rehearsals start up again tomorrow. I think it will be good for me to get back into gear. It's been nice having some time off, but I do miss orchestra a LITTLE. Our concert coming up is Mozart Symphony 40, Haydn Symphony 87, and the Shostakovich Cello Concerto. This should be a fairly easy concert considering Mozart and Haydn didn't write very difficult viola parts. It will be a nice way to get back in the swing of things.

I had a really refreshing lesson today. My teacher was really positive and I think it's exactly what I needed to boost my attitude. We worked on Kreutzer, Bartok, and Bach. It's such a nice feeling to have the Hindemith competition over with so I can focus on some other repertoire. It's a really nice breath of fresh air.

Relief!

Well, the viola preliminary round of the competition was tonight. I played pretty horribly and I'm really disappointed in myself. I was really upset at first, but I've been getting progressively better. In the music world, you can't always succeed, and I think it was just my time to fail. It's definitely an experience I want to forget, but at the same time I can learn a lot from it. I'm really just glad it's over...it's a huge burden off my shoulders. I also feel like it was hindering some progress I had hoped to make in AACA, so now I can focus more on developing technically.

Finally, a break!

Sorry it's been so long. I've been very busy trying to prepare for the concerto competition and for our most recent concert, which was today. We performed Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses, Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, and Berlioz's "Hunt and Storm" from Les Troyens. This concert had sooo many notes to learn. I hate to admit it, but I worked more on my faking skills than on the actual music. I feel a little guilty, but at the same time I have to set my priorities. Right now, the Hindemith competition is most important.

Luckily, I haven't been called for the next concert so I get the week off. This is perfect timing because the competition takes place on Monday, so I have several days of free practice time.

I'm going to get to bed, but I will do better with updating!