Welcome to… Jurassic Park!
We have finished the penultimate week of the festival! It feels like I arrived here yesterday! But it has been six weeks already! How crazy!
So we will depart into the week!
Violin repair & rehair
Luthier Brian Kelly was visiting campus this week and offering to do bow rehairs and instrument adjustments. Naturally, after playing on one bow for the summer, and since before my recital in April, I needed some new hair on my bow. I have loved his rehair! It is so smooth to play on, and I feel so fluid as I play.
Now, here is the really cool thing. I had him take a look at my bridge because I was thinking it was leaning or warping, and he looked at it for a while puzzled. He rummaged through his boxes of tools and then started measuring my strings and my fingerboard. Turns out… my bride was nearly 2 millimeters too tall for the angle of my fingerboard! Holy cow! I know my strings were very difficult to press down and the tension was super high, but I didn’t think anything of it. Brian took my violin and adjusted my bridge, and since getting Lizzie back, I love her even more! Her sound is so open and ringing, and the ease of playing has increased exponentially! It was the greatest change in years!
Composer readings
This week, I had two opportunities to read brand new pieces composed by the students here at Brevard. The first was with the Sinfonia and the second was with a smaller ensemble, the Sinfonetta, a part of my New Music Ensemble work study. I was the principal second violin in that ensemble. It is always an amazing experience to play these pieces for the first time ever. These students have been using electronic replications of the instruments and using that as their only source recording. But to bring the music to life and literally birth the music is truly amazing.
Chamber Performance
This week, my chamber group performed the first movement of the Coleridge-Taylor piano quintet. It was an absolutely exhilarating performance! We have spent the last five weeks slaving over this music and the performance was nothing short of amazing. This was one of the very first pieces that Coleridge-Taylor wrote in his chamber collection. We were battling issues of manuscript and published score discrepancies. We had to work out so many minor details and write the score ourselves. However, everything paid off in the performance. So, check it out below!
(If you are viewing this post in your email and not directly on my website, click this link to view the video.)
Yuja Wang Performance
Legendary pianist Yuja Wang was invited to come and perform with BMCO this week! I was not in the orchestra, but I was able to watch from the grass. We had every seat in the audience filled and so many seats on the lawn were also filled! She played two concertos, Ravel “For the Left Hand,” a very interesting piece only to be played using the left hand. It was written for a friend of Ravel’s who had lost his right arm in WWI. The other concerto she played was by Prokofiev. She also performed three encores! What an amazing experience to watch a prodigy perform live!
The Magic Flute Opera
There have been a few different operas that have been put on by the students at Brevard. I had not been able to see any yet, but I made a point of going to see The Magic Flute! This opera was the first I had performed at BYU, so it has a special place in my heart. It was definitely a different approach to the traditional story, which gave major “Greatest Showman” vibes. The vocalists were all so incredible, and my colleagues in the orchestra were amazing! I look forward to my next opera performance!
Jurassic Park
My orchestra this week was scheduled to perform Jurassic Park in concert! What an incredible and amazing experience! There are not enough good words to say about how I felt performing this music. John Williams is one of the most incredible composers of our lifetime! While often extremely difficult, it was a very rewarding experience. Our orchestra rehearsals are scheduled to be 2.5 hours with a 20-minute break, standard union rehearsals. The movie itself is about 2 hours and 7 minutes long, nearly the entire length of our rehearsals. Our maestro, Shih-Hung Young, was very incredible with conducting rehearsals in an organized and timely manner. We only rehearsed what was necessary, and with that, we saved a lot of time. At the end of the day, this was a very memorable experience, and I cannot wait to play another movie!
Studio Class
Today, Sunday, we had a combined violin studio class discussing the mental fortitude required to play the violin. We talked about performance anxiety, auditions, setbacks, memorization, imposter syndrome, mental preparation, and so much more! It was really amazing to be able to ask real questions to real performers in the business and get information on how to survive. I hope to compile my notes over the next few weeks and make it a topic of discussion for my blog posts during the semester.
Sunday meeting
Today, Sunday, the other students I attend church with were able to put on a musical sacrament meeting for the Branch we have been attending. What a joy and pleasure it is to be able to share my testimony and light with everyone through my music. Words and music were shared in variety to the members and by the end, we had everyone in tears asking us to return every summer, or better yet, MOVE to Brevard! Haha!
I played violin with my friend Bethany on piano. We performed “Love is Spoken Here,” the Jenny Oaks Baker version. It is a piece I have performed many times and it always brings the spirit in full force. I shared a brief testimony of the love I have felt this summer from the Brevard Branch. Travel alone is often difficult for me because I don’t know the people. I struggle to find love and peace when I am away from those who are close to me, but I had found that here at Brevard with the people I have met. I will be forever grateful for the people in the Branch as well as those I have met at the festival. They have become my family and I will never forget them.
Other things this week!
Ice cream sundae party!
Q & A with Yuja Wang & Teddy Abrams - It was very interesting to hear about the life of a prodigy and an incredible composer and conductor.
My husband sent me food!
Chocolate milk & coco puffs!
We got a new lock on our door! No more keys!
Don’t try to order Papa John’s on the phone and expect it to be easy and fast…
This final week will be bittersweet as I am moving on to new adventures in Canada, but I will miss the friends I have made and the experiences I have had this summer. I look forward to this final week with joy and gratitude.
Happy practicing!
Ciao!
