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!

Going strong...

It's time for another cycle of music already. It's so hard to give a concert and have such a quick turnaround in terms of repertoire. There are still so many things that I feel need work in the Stravinsky, but I have to completely rid that music from my mind for the time being and focus on the next set of music. Tuesday we will be performing Smetana's Bartered Bride Overture, Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor and Brahms's second symphony. This isn't light music...there are tons of notes that require lots of work and focus and I'm still trying to develop ways of practicing more economically...we'll see how that goes.

I have noticed a huge difference in my energy levels from day to day. I think one of the big keys is to let off the gas pedal as much as possible. It's not that I half-ass a rehearsal, but I don't put as much physical energy into performing as I would at a concert. One other thing I have noticed is that good posture really helps how I feel physically after a long rehearsal. Who would have though that proper body balance and alignment would be good for you? The biggest key is keeping feet planted flat on the ground, no matter how tempting it is to cross your feet or stick them under your chair. I'll be experimenting more with this as the week goes on.

I'm still trying to figure out how to use these sound clips...

Until next time...

One down...

After a week of lengthy preparation, we finally performed our first concert. Surprisingly, I had a really good time. I think I had the most fun I've ever had at a concert. I had a great stand partner and fed off of her energy as well as the energy of the whole orchestra. It's so nice to play in an orchestra in which every single person is talented and knows how to communicate on a musical level. Times like these make me want to never leave orchestra!

I think I did a great job saving my energy for the concert. I realized that in rehearsals, it's not always necessary to put in even half effort. In the case of AACA, the rehearsals are mainly for the conductors anyway, so there is no point in wasting energy when it's not necessary. That way it is actually possible to pull out all the stops for the concert without becoming completely exhausted. That being said, I would love to reach a point where I am able to put in a fair amount of work for each service, whether it be a rehearsal or concert, but I think that skill is something that develops with years of experience.

A few weeks ago I played in a master class with Lynne Ramsey from the Cleveland Orchestra. She was talking about all the great orchestra repertoire and to sum it all up she exclaimed, "playing in orchestra is FUN!!!" This is how I feel right now. I'm so lucky to have the opportunity to play so much amazing music with people I enjoy working with. Sometimes it seems like getting paid to do this full time would just be icing on the cake.

Stress City!

We've started rehearsals for our first concert. The program is Barber's School for Scandal Overture, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 8. I've played the Dvorak before but the other pieces are fairly new...and there are about a million notes to learn in each of them. I feel like I got slapped in the face with this music at the first rehearsal! Our concert is Tuesday so I have a couple days to learn it, but I have a lesson on Sunday so I have to prepare solo repertoire as well.

I might enter the concerto competition for low strings; the viola piece is the concerto I'm working on now, Der Schwanendreher by Hindemith. It's a good goal to have since I need to learn the rest of the concerto anyway, but it is definitely hard balancing it with orchestra work. I realize that this isn't something I would necessarily have to do as a professional orchestra player, but the added stress is certainly not helping my attitude towards a music career.

So...it's time to get organized and sort out priorities. Practicing seems like a good idea, but I need to organize my practicing to make it as efficient and effective as possible. It would help if I didn't have three hour rehearsals tomorrow and Sunday, but that's life...that's the "professional" schedule. I'm going to try to take it easy in tomorrow's rehearsal to hopefully save some energy. I'll also work on my sitting posture to see if that helps at all.

A good day of music always starts with a good night of sleep...

The fun begins...

Tuesday was the first official day of work at the festival. Some of the orchestras don’t start rehearsing until later in the week, but the AACA orchestra kicked off the week with repertoire readings. These sessions give the student conductors podium time without too much stress in terms of rehearsing since this music is not programmed for performances. It also gives the orchestra a chance to play through some repertoire to build experience and improve sight-reading skills.

The reading sessions we have had so far have been pretty enjoyable. We’ve read through Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, and Debussy’s La Mer. It’s nice to play music for fun with quality players you enjoy working with; I had a lot of fun with some of the other violas in the section. However, all the hours of playing have taken their toll. It’s hard to find motivation to practice after expelling so much energy with orchestra. This is one of my major fears of an orchestra career; unlike a typical nine to five job, being an orchestral musician can be extremely strenuous on both the body and the mind.

My lack of energy might be due to the fact that I haven’t had a regular orchestra schedule for about a month, but I think I have learned right off the bat that I need to build my stamina and save my energy. I think the stamina will come with more and more rehearsals, but the energy rationing is something I will have to work on more deliberately. We’ll see…