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...