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