Sunday - DONE.

What a great feeling.

Sunday

The concert was today and it was pouring rain.  From the moment I got up to a little bit before we performed, the rain came down relentlessly.  Despite this, the show had to go on.  We arrived at the Palace Theater at about 12:35 and we thought we were late - which, you know, we were - but there were a lot of people who weren't there yet.  I went to the stage and unpacked my violin and went and got it tuned by Asya.  None of the rest of my quartet was there yet, though.  I went back down to see if they had gotten there yet but they hadn't.  It's actually amazing what this camp does to you: when you're supposed to be in your quartet, you feel very out of place and lonely when the rest of the quartet is gone.  Anyway, I went back upstairs and found Matt and Alex (yay!) but no Melanie (no yay).  Turns out, she was stuck in traffic (it took her three hours to get to the Palace Theater!) and so we all went back down and warmed up while we waited.  Melanie arrived just in time for us to do a quick sound check before the concert started at 2:30.  Even though some of the coaches were not there yet because their train had broken down (they transferred to a new one but were still a little while away), she decided to just start the concert.  We went back downstairs to change/warm-up/etc. 

The concert seemed to go a lot faster this week (probably because the first four were relatively short), which was sort of nice.  We went up and waited when the Mendelssohn group was playing.  They did really well; I mean, Asya gave them a "bravo" and I had their piece stuck in my head even after we performed the Shostakovich. 

We performed after the Mendelssohn finished.  It was interesting because this was probably the least nervous I've ever gotten for a performance.  The only times I was nervous at all was during the third and fourth movements and even then, it wasn't the usual body-shaking fear that I'm used to but more of a subtle nervousness, if that makes sense.  We did well, though.  Because all of our movements were attacca, it took a while for the audience to start clapping but that's okay.  We also got a "bravo" from Asya - score! 

I think we did really well and I'm really pleased with the work that we got done this past week (and the week before that).  My group and I had a lot of really good moments during this camp that I hope I remember because some of them are truly hilarious.  One such instance was when we were rehearsing a part where Matt has to cue because he's the only one with the downbeat but he gave kind of a half cue and no one came in.  We stopped and said something about him having to cue and he says in sort of an upset voice, "I hold E natural for eternity; come in whenever you want!"  It was actually one of the funniest moments that I can remember having in a quartet rehearsal. 

I loved camp this year.  I loved my group, I loved my music, I loved my coach, I loved everything.  Until next year

Saturday

Saturday - Nothing like a swift boost to the confidence like a pat on the back from your biggest critic. Just in time, anyway. The four of us were quite ready to waltz on stage by Sunday and make some dignified fools of ourselves. But now that we’ve got the option, I’d think we would rather make our onlookers proud. Alright. Sounds good.

Saturday

Today was the last day of rehearsal!  The concert's tomorrow.  Oh, man.  We had the master class this morning and it went really well.  We played the end of the first movement and the second, third, and fourth movements.  Since we're last on the program this week, we had a long time before we had to go out to the master class.  We used this time to practice these middle movements.  We probably ended up playing them a good 10 times (or I suppose in the case of the beginning of the second movement, 20 times).  It was a long wait, but worth it.  We went out after the Mendelssohn started performing and they sounded really, really good.  The good news is that I didn't get too nervous about that like I did before Borodin last week.  The weird thing about this performance is it was opposite of the way my performances usually are.  Usually, I get nervous in the beginning and then relax as I get into it.  This time, I wasn't nervous at all really until the third movement and then it really hit me.  I was super nervous during the third/fourth movements, which was less than ideal.  We did well, though.  We got some good comments from the coaches and Asya was really pleased.  After lunch, we went over the comments that the coaches had and took those into consideration.  We worked on the spots that they pointed out intonation problems and then some.  After that, Asya went to help the Dvorak American quartet and left us to fix the things we had just gone over and to practice the first and fifth movements.  A little after four, we got Asya and we went out and performed the first and fifth movements for her which also went pretty well.  I'm excited for the concert tomorrow; I think it's really going to go well

Friday

It's Friday!  We move to the church today and we all know what that means: the concert is frighteningly close.  In the morning, we had our last rehearsal at the Palace Theater before the concert. Melanie arrived late and for that reason, we couldn't perform the piece straight off after we arrived.  While we waited for her to arrive, we utilized this time by working out a lot of the little nitty gritty places in Shostakovich.   After Melanie arrived, we did another performance of the entire piece.  It went quite well.  Asya said that there were definite improvements but that the general mood of the piece had been better the last time we had performed it for her.  We then proceeded to go over the spots she had. We then moved over to the church and had lunch.  After lunch, Asya helped out a different quartet for a little bit and during that time, we worked on the second movement and playing it through up to tempo without stopping.  We never actually succeeded in this before Asya came back. There was one specific part that just wasn't working out.  We then worked really hard on the first and fifth movements and now they sound really good.  We then went back to the second movement and Asya helped us deal with what was not working before.  It ended up being two parts.  The first part was where the cello and viola needed a split second of extra time and the second was where the violins needed extra time.  By this point it was drawing close to Round Robin time.  We decided on what movements we were going to do for the master class tomorrow and then kind of just went our separate ways.  For Round Robin, I played the Schubert quartet in A Minor with Dan, Darius, Isabelle, and Autumn.  We went through the first three movements before we took a bathroom break.  On the way to the bathroom, I sort of got sucked into the group who was sight reading Borodin - Matt, Eloise, Mark, and Chris.  After a few minutes, someone suggested I go get my violin instead using Mark's so I went and asked Dan if it was okay if I played Borodin and he said it was fine.  So, I went and played the first violin part for Borodin #2 which I played second violin for last week.  It was actually a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it immensely.  Finally, we all came together and played the Vivaldi piece that we played last week at Round Robin

Friday

We don’t even have a thing to wear. What does that tell you. Anna and I would have had this all figured out by day one. Color scheme nailed down and silly outfits on hold at Forever 21. Just a hint at how unprepared we are for this concert. Oh no, but don’t let that bring you to the assumption that we’re unprepared music-wise. No, no. We’re playing just fine. The clothes are all I’m worried about.

Thursday

There was awful traffic today.  I think today's commute to Stamford was longer than any of the other times we've come.  We got to the Palace Theater at about 8:55 and all the practice spots were gone!  I always take the Coat Check and practice in there but because we had gotten there so late, it was already taken.  Chris and I decided to practice in the balcony places and so we moved our stuff there and got stands and everything and started practicing.  Not ten minutes later, Miranda came and said to Chris, "Chris, are you having your lesson now?" Turns out she was teaching in that room so I had to move (while Chris stayed there and had his lesson).  So I moved my stuff out of that room and looked for a new place to practice.  I finally found a good place by the elevator in the hallway over next to Phil's room.  By that point it was like 9:20 and I really had to get a move on my practicing.  I mean, I had a lesson at 9:50. 

I went down and had my lesson with Asya during which we went over one part in the third movement of Shostakovich.  The rest of the time, we used on solo work and we started the Bruch Concerto, which I love.  After my lesson, I went back to my practice spot only to see that Chris had stolen it.  What is it with people today and stealing my practice spots?  Anyway, I was mean and kicked him out.  But it's okay!  Because I let him have it alter.  At which point I tried practicing in the elevator.  I was not a fan.  It gave me an awful headache.  Why can't elevators stay in one place if they aren't being used?  Is it really necessary to keep going up and down floors when no one is telling it to?  Anyway, I had to depart the elevator or else I'd be rendered completely useless due to my throbbing head.  Chris and I then shared that practice spot for about 10 minutes and then decided that since it was about five minutes to lunch, we may as well give up (because at this point, I was giving Chris a headache). 

We went to Falafel for lunch.  I didn't like it too much and neither did Chris or my brother.  It also took a long time to get food there especially since it was so sub-par.  When we went back to the Palace Theater, Eloise, Matt, Chris, Ricky, and I played a game of Blokus.  Daniel was going to play with us but he got snagged by Miranda and had to go do something regarding the second movement of his piece, I think.  Matt didn't do outstandingly well (he lost first), Ricky and Chris ganged up on me (I lost second) and then the two of them battled it out for the winner (Ricky was really just playing for Eloise) and Chris won.
After lunch, we performed the entire piece for Asya again.  It was definitely better than yesterday's try but it still has some problems.  We then went over a lot of things that Asya had written down during our run-through. 

After that, we only had about fifteen minutes left of the day and so Asya decided we should focus on trying to play the entire second movement at 120 which was kind of hard.

Then we left.  We got ice cream on the way home (thanks Mrs. Cavalea!) and then I took an unexpected nap (mmm, sleep) when I got home

Thursday

Well we actually worked today. So that’s pretty cool. That leads me to believe that the sound of our quartet is improving. So I’ll go with that. And I imagine by this point I’ve probably communicated effectively that I’m not nearly as confident with the outcome of our fate for the concert as I was about this time last week. But for whatever reason, I feel not an ounce of concern. Just a little bit more on the sleepy indifferent side. We will play well. The audience will clap. And the world will continue to turn.

Wednesday

What a long day.  It shouldn't have felt long but it just dragged on and on.  Don't get me wrong; nothing about it was particularly bad in any way.  I think it was just because it's Wednesday.  Does anyone else have the problem where no matter what is happening on Wednesday, it just drags?  Well, I do.  I think Chris agreed with me on this one, too.  Wednesdays just suck.

This morning when we arrived at the Palace Theater, I went and unpacked my instrument on the stage.  Matt was already there and Asya had us work on Matt's solo in the third movement.  Basically, it's the part where Matt has an incredibly high, hard cello solo while Alex and I have insane, busy runs that we have to make sure are heard (and Asya said that they sort of give Matt a sort of backbone to his solo?).  Honestly, our part pegs me as the music that one would put in a movie from the point of view of someone going insane at like...a circus.  It's bizarre and very cool all at once.  After everyone arrived, we moved to the front of the stage to perform the piece.  Asya asked the nice Palace Theater people to put the lights on which they did.  We went to perform the piece but we ended up having to stop a good amount of times in the first movement.  So basically we had a really beneficial coaching session with Asya on the first, second, and third movements and the beginning of the fourth.  Before we went to lunch, we decided that we would work without Asya after Fan Tao's lecture while she works with another group.  Then we would perform the entire piece for her at 3:30 - for real this time.

Fan Tao's lecture was really, really good.  He gave it half in a purely intellectual way (physics, etc) and half in a purely musical way.  It was really interesting.  I think the thing that struck me the most out of everything he said was regarding the bow hand and how it's really an extension of the bow itself.  The bow is made with good wood so that it's really bendy and responds well to the person controlling it.  He then went on to explain how, for lack of a better word, stupid it is to clutch the bow and make your bow hand tense.  Basically, by doing that, you're nullifying the hard work that that bow maker put in to making your bow (your bow hand would be like a hard piece of wood stuck on to the end of your bow).  It makes it so that you can't control the bow as well and the bow, in turn, just doesn't work the way it's supposed to.  Now that he put it that way, I can really understand how stupid it is to clutch the bow...and let me just say, I've definitely been guilty of that on occasion!  In addition to the wonderful information he provided us, he also gave us free strings! Yay!

After Fan Tao's lecture, Melanie had a migraine so she rested for a while while Matt, Alex, and I worked on specific spots in our piece.  Then, Asya came back and Melanie returned to us and we performed the entire thing.  It was disturbingly rough...we're going to do two more performances of it tomorrow.  And we also have individual practice/lessons.  I think it'll be a really productive day tomorrow.

Then we got in the car and went home.  During the car ride, Chris taught me how to snap my fingers!  This is really exciting, guys.  Seriously.  No one's been able to do that for 17 years.  It's quite an accomplishment

Wednesday

Perhaps we have been issued a challenge. On a premeditated track set from the beginning. With an inherently showstopping piece of music that we were perfectly capable of executing to some nth degree to raise our confidence as a quartet to a healthy sense of elitism. All according to plan. But here comes our test. Could these spunky, little musicians perform to their same standard, maybe supercede the expectation they’ve set for themselves two times in a row. Struggling against our new role as little baby fish in a bigger pond, the pure exhaustion of week-two burnout, and our own newly jacked-up egos. But don’t worry, we tenacious little musicians’ll end up taking anything.