Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory

RMSC is fun, you should do it.

Auditions

Let's see. I'm audition for Boise Baroque soon, so hopefully I'll be playing in there last concert of the season. That'll be fun and mildly profitable. Then I'm auditioning for the Philharmonic over the summer, that'll be more than mildly profitable. Very exciting.

Oddly, my roomate kind of left... abruptly... and I have only vague clues why. Fun! Now I have to find a new one or face moving back home.

Lately I've been obsessed with The Killers cover of the Dire Straits "Romeo and Juliet", also been examining other musical renditions of Romeo and Juliet, such as Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, etc. I thought it would have been neat if Wagner did a Romeo and Juliet, but then I realized he did, he just called it Tristan and Isolde.

Spring Break has mostly been me staying up until about 4:00. Strangely, I have the most energy past about 11:00. I worked with this guy who claimed to have a type of insomnia where he could sleep in the day, but not at night. I would say I might have this, but I suspect it's largely made up.

Recital

I totally have my junior recital planned out! It's going to go something like:

Brahms Viola Sonata in F minor
Scott Slapin's Nocturne for Two Violas
--Intermission --
Something Else

I plan on playing only complete works, recitals that feature a bit of this sonata, half of this concerto, etc. are upsetting and seem sort of unprofessional. Admittedly, a school recital is hardly a professional affair. But, regardless, I want to do whole works. The only problem with this line up so far is that my junior recital is about two years off.

After discovering the Peter Slowik fan club on Facebook, I've decided that I must do graduate works with him! The problem here is, Oberlin doesn't have a graduate performance program. Yikes! As such, I have to come up with a plan to get Peter to switch schools! Yikes!

Lame (part 3 or something)

My bike was stolen (or is simply trying to escape the its mishandling at its master's hands) this evening. This is incredibly lame and has served to lower my faith in humanity by however much percent. Send me something cheesy and inspirational. Cheesy inspirational music is always a plus! It'll probably cheer me up more than the Schoenberg I'm listening to now and the Guibaidalina viola concerto that's coming up...

I other news. Shostakovitch in orchestra along with Rhapsody in Blue makes for a very awesome program. Linda's coaching quartet tomorrow two!! I think I might have exclaimed my exuberance a little too loudly in orchestra when Mr. Purdy announced this, but he's got enough violinists sucking up to him already, he doesn't need me. Also DIII tomorrow, will go watch high school violists kick my butt and thus be inspired to practice more.

I'm going to get beat up

Somehow my blog showed up on this Chopin blog. I'm psyched about the exposure, but in order to avoid getting mugged, I'd just like to clarify that I don't hate Chopin, or even dislike Chopin. Other composers simply appeal to me more, like Schumann! If you are a Chopin-lover (not that that's a bad thing), and you think I should be too, feel free to contact me with some of your favorite Chopin (perhaps the more Schumann-esque [which is not really a word] ones).

In other non-Chopin related news, I had the audacity to record myself playing some Bach d minor today. This was probably the freakiest thing ever. Fortunately, however, it helped me diagnose a lot of problems with my playing, so now I can go about eliminating them in an organized fashion. Very exciting! I also practiced my one-position scales three times today, which makes me either a prodigy or a freak, I can't tell yet.

Anyway, now for a viola joke:

Why do violists stand for long periods outside people's houses?

They can't find the key and they don't know when to come in.

I'm not a big fan... of Chopin

I went to see a fantastic doctoral recital (by some Arizona Post-Grad, BSU doesn't have a Doc program) programmed entirely of Chopin works. I was slightly apprehensive, as I've never taken a deep liking to Chopin, but I went anyway, mostly because I really have nothing else to do. Well, I could do homework, but this seemed like a reasonable alternative. Anyway, went to see recital, but was mostly bored. The playing was great, but Chopin isn't incredibly exciting. He's kind of like Mozart + Chromaticism, which wasn't very exciting. Needs more Schumann.

I have about ten gazillion things that need to go back to the library. It'd be nice if they would just kind of migrate back on there own, but that hasn't happened... yet.

Weather's clearing up, which means more bike rides, which is awesome!! Sickness is clearing up to!

Lame

In an incredibly lame turn of events, I'm sick on the super special day this week that I get school off! However, this does mean that I got to duck out of ECO this week. Rehearsal time has been moved back to 7:00, which is just absurd. Traffic isn't the reason why people show up late! It's simply because nobody wants to be there, and moving rehearsal time back won't change anything, it'll just mean that I get home later.

In searching for music I wanted to listen to this morning, I rediscovered Coldplay. Lots of fun.

I aprehensivelly tried gargling warm salt water at 3:00 in the morning, it actually works, which is cool. I suspect that the water should be warm because that's a lot less disgusting than swisching cold salt water around your mouth, Mmmm. Needs more drugs...

Jen and I hacked through a number of chamber music camp options last night over Flying Pie (the official pizza of Darkwood Consort!). There's this thing in Oregon that looks like lots of fun. You pretty much just read quartets for a week, which is a great plan. They also have a MASSIVE library!! The application date is kinda past, but it's possible they might make exceptions for awesome violists. When I can speak intelligibly and without sniffling, I might give them a call.

Finally, this is the best piece ever and should be performed by the BSU Orchestra in lieu of the crappy music we usually play.