OhMyTrill Returns

My schedule for the past week or so has been: wake up for Schoenberg rehearsal at 10-2, come home, walk the dog, take a nap, wake up and get ready for Mahler rehearsal at 7:30-10, go home and go to sleep. repeat.

Sturgis played Schoenberg 1st quartet at the Clinton Library last Tuesday...the performance wen't reasonably well, although it was definitely far from perfect. We had put tons and tons of work into it, rehearsing for four hours almost every day for two weeks. Its a beast of a piece, by far one of the hardest quartets I have ever played (Schoenberg 4, Pearle, and Plylar are all among the hard ones). The audience seemed to like it as well, they aren't used to hearing music like that as it isn't usually performed around these parts. But we didn't lose too many people, and they seemed pretty excited about it.

ASO played Mahler 2 this past weekend...I had never played the piece before, and had to do bowings from a completely blank part...so, needless to say, I kept changing everything during rehearsal. Oops. One of our cellists had to drop out at the last second, meaning we performed the concert with only 7 cellos...Mahler writes "as many strings as possible" in the score...I guess in Arkansas, seven is the max.

My parents were in town for both concerts...we dined at Loca Luna, Capital Bar and Grill, Flying Fish, Juanitas, and the River Market. They seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the concerts, even if a hike up Pinnacle Mountain turned out to be a very bad idea. Oh well...

Busy + Flu Vaccine

For whatever reason, January-February are turning out to be quite the insane/crazy time for me this year. I'm subbing with the Quapaw Quartet for their next concert (Jan 19) which just happens to be next Tuesday...we have been rehearsing for a while now...Shostakovich 3 and Brahms 1. Its coming together, but that Brahms is just soooo hard...it seems like no matter what you do, it just never gets any better...ugh. I have talked to several folks about it, and they all agree...just doesn't seem to work very well!!

This week we are playing our 4th Masterworks concert of the year, which means we are also auditioning our 4th conducting candidate: Fusao Kajima. He was on a roll at our rehearsal on Tuesday night...naming cities in Arkansas for every rehearsal letter...he turned out to be very charming, and lead a pretty decent and effective rehearsal. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. He picked a pretty orchestra and audience friendly program: Villa-Lobos Sinfonietta No. 1, Grieg Piano Concerto, and Dvorak 8 (which just so happens to be one of my favorite symphonies...mainly thanks to a certain performance led by James Levine and Tanglewood...sigh).

In my infinite wisdom, I decided that I needed to get my flu vaccines...since we play for some many schools, I didn't want to pick it up from anybody, and I hear that H1N1 is coming around again...(I think Arkansas was hit pretty hard by it last time)...so I went over to Arkansas Children's Hospital (where I volunteer every other week) to get my shots...both seasonal and H1N1, one in each arm. About 8 hours later, during orchestra rehearsal I starting feeling a little sickish...by the next morning I had aches and a fever...still went to my Rheinberger rehearsal (since that concert is coming up on Feb 5)...but after that I made a steady decline...had to cancel an informal Quapaw Quartet concert and a Sturgis Quartet rehearsal because I had a 103 degree fever...ugh...sat around all day, and it got better and better...so I'm about to head out to orchestra rehearsal...we'll see if I make it or not...I'm feeling fine though.

Good Food etc...

I think I need to stop giving Daisy tennis balls. She loves them, and will chase them every time you throw them across the room, but she always ends up chewing them up into a million pieces and I end up picking all these tiny little rubber chunks out of my rug. And there are a bunch of tennis ball scraps around all the time, as pictured. But she likes them so much, I'll probably just keep giving them to her.

My mom gave all of the dogs (Daisy, Gus, and Jo) tennis balls for Christmas. They all had fun chasing them around for a few minutes...Gus and Jo lost interest, but Daisy kept destroying them for days...and we got a few to take home. I gave her one yesterday when I got back from Chicago, and you can see what it looks like in the picture...

I went home for a week and a half...we celebrated my dads birthday, my recent audition success, and of course, Christmas. The highlight of the trip (besides getting to see my parents of course!) was eating at two of Chicago's best restaurants in one week. The first was Arun's, a Thai restaurant: no menus...they just bring you a 12 course tasting dinner (6 appetizers, 4 main courses, 2 deserts...with 5 different wine pairings) The highlight of the meal was definitely the one bite salad...so much flavor in one bite...it was kind of insane.

My favorite of the two was Topolobampo...you may have heard of chef Rick Bayless from Top Chef Masters (which he won)...we all got the tasting menus here too...only 5 courses this time (with a wine pairing going along with each course)...each one of my courses used a different kind of mole (who knew there were so many?!?!?) It was probably the best meal I've ever had!

Quick Catch Up

Things that have recently happened:

1. On December 5th, I auditioned for and won the principal cello job in my orchestra. There were only three candidates, but they were all very good. I practiced really hard...doing a mock audition everyday, including two at 9am (which is when the actual audition was). It was the most prepared I've ever felt for an audition, and I'm happy with the results (duh)
2. The following day I played the Messiah at UAPB (University of Arkansas Pine Bluff). Their choir is very very very good, and its always fun to hear them. It is also the most complete Messiah I've ever played...I think they leave out 2 numbers. Maybe 3?
3. I have been super busy as I have been playing with Sturgis (my usual quartet) as well as subbing in the Quapaw Quartet fairly often. I'll be playing a recital with QQ in January, so we have already started rehearsing.
4. I went home to Chicago for the first time in several for Thanksgiving. I mostly just practiced that weekend. And I met my parents new dogs: Gus(tav) and Jo(hannes).
5. I played my first Nutcracker this past weekend. I was a little bit nervous, since it was my first service sitting principal and I had never played the piece before. I think it all went pretty well though. And we only played it twice, so I don't hate it yet.

Things that will be happening this week:

1. Several rehearsals with QQ (we are playing Shostakovitch 3 and Brahms 1).
2. Holiday Pops with the ASO (a brand new show...should be fun)
3. Rheinberger rehearsal at Cathedral of St. Andrew (performing with Drew and Phil in February.
4. Not 1, but 2 gigs!! This is unheard of for me in Little Rock...
5. More blog posts? Maybe people will read this if I actually write something once in a while. Hmmmmm...

Halloween?

I'm have a very relaxed Halloween this year. No parties, no costume...I just walked Daisy, didn't see any trick-or-treaters...or anybody in costume for that matter. I wouldn't even know that it was Halloween if it wasn't for the fact that today is Halloween. Instead, I hung out with Phil...we went to Buffalo Grill (there was a crazy raccoon hanging out there, excitedly eating berries off of a tree...random), and then saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampires Assistant. I kind of liked it...but I'm sucker for anything with vampires in it. It was cute.

Now I'm hanging out on the couch with Daisy...gonna watch some Dexter and then head to bed. We have a rehearsal for our children's concert tomorrow night...which includes La Mer and the famous cello excerpt...we will only have 6 cellos (5 for one of the concerts) so its gonna be awfully exposed...and joy! I'm playing the top line. So basically, I will be hanging out at my apartment all day practicing (there are a few hard pieces on the concert that I've never played before). I'm glad we are presenting actual music to the kids!

Fortune

I just got back from dinner with my friend Phil...we went to Pei-Wei, so of course opened fortune cookies. He opened his which said:

"No need to worry! You will always have everything that you need."

And then we were joking about mine being the opposite...and when I opened it, it read:

"Live, think and act for today. Tomorrow may be too late."

That is kind of the exact opposite in my book right? So to make the situation better, I opened a second cookie and the fortune read:

"Try to channel excess energies into rejuvenation." Do you think I should be concerned??

Busy

I just finished putting together my part for the Bach Cantata we are playing next week. For whatever reason, all of the solo movements are written in the bassoon part, but they are actually played on cello. But all of the recits are written in the cello part...so I just combined them together. Now I need to sit down and really learn this stuff...I've worked on the main "cello aria"...but I have to go back and work on the recits...as you all know, this is something I really excel at.

Not so much...

Our season starts this week...Bach rehearsal on Monday...orchestra rehearsal on Tuesday...its going to be a bit busy for awhile, especially since I will be teaching at least 5 students at a church in Pine Bluff and teaching a college class at University of Arkansas @ Pine Bluff (string methods)...I'm still not exactly clear what is happening with this class...but I'll be meeting with the Music Department Chair tomorrow afternoon (and then teaching the class right after!!) Hmmmm...should be interesting.

And I really need to start going to the gym again. I think I will go biking this afternoon. And I will actually go!!

Quick Summer Update

1. After the Braun wedding I went home to Chicago for a few days.
2. Heather came down to Chicago a day later. We had fun.
3. I received my new Chris Dungey cello in the mail...its pretty great.
4. Kimberly flew into Chicago and the 3 of us rehearsed for a day.
5. Then we went to Taste of Chicago...it was fun.
6. Then we drove down to Arkansas. It was also fun. But a long drive, as usual.
7. Jonathan Ware drove up to Little Rock, the 4 of us rehearsed for a few days.
8. Kimberly's and my picture was printed in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette...however, her's was next to a picture from Legally Blond with a woman holding a small dog.
9. We played two concerts in Little Rock, one at the Cathedral of St. Andrew with Phil) and one at UALR to benefit the AIDS Foundation. Both went fairly well, and we had a pretty good audience.
10. We parted with Jonathan, and the 3 of us drove back to Chicago.
11. We boarded a plane to Oregon, and then stayed there for about a week to play 3 concerts in Ashland (Kimberly's hometown).
12. I got to meet Chris Dungey, he drove down to Ashland to hear me play the new cello and do some adjustments. He is a super nice guy!
13. We spent a day in Portland decompressing after the many many concerts. I met up with Chris again and he did some minor work on my cello.
14. The 3 of us parted ways and I flew back to Chicago and stayed there for a few days.
15. I needed some alone time, so I drove back to Arkansas.
16. But 4 days later I drove back to Chicago.
17. K-Huf flew into Chicago, and the 2 of us drove up to Stevens Point, WI for two weeks of Suzuki Training.
18. We took Cello Book 1 with Jean Dexter...it was a fairly involved course with 28 hours of class + 15 hours of observation + some homework assignments + two optional lectures everyday.
19. We survived, but we were pretty tired everyday. Coffee in the morning, redbull in the afternoon.
20. We drove back to Chicago last Friday...K-Huf and I parted ways on Sat...I spent a few days at home taking care of some odds and ends and haning with my parents.
21. Yesterday I drove back to Arkansas and was treated to dinner by the one and only David Barker. It was a very nice welcome back to Arkansas.
22. I went to sleep cause I was really tired...and woke up this morning and paid some bills.
23. Then I wrote this entry. Hope I didn't leave anything out. It has been a crazy summer.

Wilmette-Milwaukee

I'm back at home in Wilmette now...I drove up from Arkansas on Tuesday. For some reason, it slipped my mind that I would need to be going home at some point, so I was kind of scrambling to get things together on Sunday and Monday...but it all turned out just fine...well, except that I left my dress pants back in Little Rock, and I need to wear them tonight and tomorrow for the Braun wedding extravaganza. But since Moby ate my extra pair, I was in need of buying some new ones anyway...so I did...yesterday.

Since I've been home, I have practiced a bit, done a bit of CCE scheduling for the time we will be in Little Rock (well, really just typed up what I had already scheduled) and brought my bow in to get rehaired. All very exciting for you to hear, I'm sure.

In just a few short minutes, I will be en route to beautiful Milwaukee, WI where I will meet up with the one and only Heather Braun. Her sister is getting married tomorrow and I will be playing for the ceremony, and doing double duty as Heather's date.

Fun times!

Oh!! And my cello should be arriving on Tuesday!!! Yay!!!

Photo Shoot x2

I have spent the majority of the last few days sitting under the burning hot sun getting 365 photos taken of me by the fabulous Sharrell Holcomb. Beth (who lives in my building) hooked me up with here, and the three of us met on Friday afternoon at the Clinton Library...and ended up taking about 200 pics around the grounds there...and then when were weren't satisfied...met the next morning and went over to the North Little Rock side of the River Trail and took a whole bunch of pics on a cement formation in front of the quarry...and then drove up to Fort Roots and snapped a few more!

Needless to say, it was a pretty tiring two days of sitting in the sun.

But I did get a whole lot of pretty cool pics. Sharrell has a great eye for catching some really interesting shots. Unfortunately I have been kind of sluggish in the eating and exercise department so I came out looking a little more porky than I wanted to. There are a whole slew of super artistic shots though, and some where I do look quite handsome...if I do say so myself.

The main reason (for me) was to get a head shot with my instrument that I could send to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette for the article they may or may not be writing about the upcoming Cape Cod Ensemble Concerts in July and I definitely got a few that I could use for that. I think I'm going to go with the one posted at the top of this blog. What do you think?

Dog Sitting

For the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of dog-sitting Zhuzha. Zhuzha has stayed with me before when her mother (Tatiana, the violist in my quartet) has gone out of town for a day or two. However, she has been gone for nearly a month, and Zhuzha has settled right in with me. Its kind of nice to have someone to keep me company when I am sitting around at home!

I'm also getting very used to having a dog...and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to replace her when Tatiana comes back home. Well, at the end of the summer at least, since I'll be in and out of Little Rock for a few weeks!

Today I am doing double duty...my upstairs neighbor Beth is out of town for the day, and I'm taking care of her Dog, Ginger, as well. This morning I tried to walk both of them at the same time...but Zhuzha was not terribly happy about this (although they have shared plenty of walks before)...and I was going to have Ginger hang out in my apartment so she wouldn't have to sit by herself all day...but Zhuzha was not very welcoming, so poor Ginger has spent the day by herself upstairs. And they have been getting walked separately.

More exercise for me I guess.

Busy Busy...Busy

The past few weeks have been super busy...much more so than I could have anticipate. I guess I was just super scared of having three months with nothing to do (since the ASO is off season right now) so I went ahead and over-scheduled myself.

I have been working hard on finding a venue for the Cape Cod Ensemble to perform...after many phone calls and visits, I finally was able to schedule Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall at University of Arkansas @ Little Rock. This concert will benefit the Arkansas AIDS Foundation...so tell everybody to come!! (Monday July 6th at 7:30pm) Special guests Kimberly, Heather, and Jonathan will be in town for the concert!!

This past weekend was the Arkansas AIDS Walk...I basically signed my life away for two straight days volunteering for this event. Friday night we had a wine and cheese kick-off event at the Boswell-Mourot Art Gallery in the Heights. I drove around with Michael all day picking up stuff for the event, and then getting the gallery ready. And then I had to play for an hour and a half! Then the next morning was an early morning and more running around picking up last minute items for the walk...set up and talk down...and many many hours standing out in the sun (it was a beautiful day)...needless to say, I passed out soon after I got home.

All in all, both events went very well and everything was a great success! Now its on to getting all the details in line for the concert...its only three weeks away!!

In other news...I was supposed to be going to Denver on Thursday to pick up my brand new Chris Dungey cello...but I got a call last week saying that he had fallen ill (possibly with the swine flu?!?!?) and he wasn't going to be able to get the varnish on there in time to bring it to Denver (and in fact, he canceled his whole Denver Trip)...so I'm not going to Denver anymore (sorry Mary...) and I'm waiting to hear what the new delivery plans will be! Should be any day now.

Lets Catch Up

Its been too long between updates on here...but strangely enough, many things have been going on...or so it seems. We are wrapping up our season here at the Symphony and I'm trying to get everything organized for the summer. Here's what has been going on:

1. The Sturgis Quartet (along with the Rockefellar and Quawpaw Quartets) drove up to Mountain View, AR to do a short residency at the Ozark Folk Center. Sturgis had a fantastic time...we did two demos at the at the Folk Center for some kids from the area...took part in a concert in the evening, and then went down to the town square for a jam session with the folk musicians. I didn't participate in the jam since I can't play that genre of music to save my life...the musicians at the folk center are really great...and they dance while they play too. This was definitely one of my favorite things we did all season! (and we had some nice quartet bonding time too)
2. My parents were in Little Rock this past weekend for my birthday (which was Sunday)...we hit up all kinds of Little Rock restaurants including: Brave New Restaurant, Community Bakery, Ferneau, Damgoodepies, and Loca Luna. They all brought me some nice items from IKEA...I still need to put together one of them...it looks complicated.
3. Played a wedding in Hot Springs with Sturgis at the Garvan Woodland Gardens. My parents came with me and they got a very mini tour of Hot Springs. They weren't impressed.
4. Rehearsed for a pops concert to be played on my birthday (which included a terrible arrangement of Star Wars per my bday request) which ended up being canceled due to rain (it was outdoor, duh) I'm not complaining!!
5. Sturgis played our final demo of the season in Lewisville, AR on Tuesday. Maybe next season we won't have to drive so far for all our demos? hah...yeah right.
6. Finally got my Suzuki stuff in order...I actually got a scholarship to attend the Stevens Point Suzuki Institute...so after this summer I will be officially Suzuki Certified!! Maybe I'll get some students now...hmmmmm.
7. My final symphony service of the season is this friday... I've got about 2ish weeks off before I pick up my cello and the CCE tour begins. Its all very exciting. This will be a fun summer.

This Week I...

1. Played at the Designer House on Mother's Day (and called my mom of course!!) It was kind of rainy and weren't to many people there for the first hour or so. We also had to play trios since Andy's finger is injured right now. I think my mom enjoyed the card I sent too. I hope.
2. Volunteered at the AIDS Foundation Monday-Thursday-and Friday (well, I will volunteer on Friday and I'm there right now). It has been pretty quiet around here lately.
3. Background gig at the Capitol Hotel on Tuesday evening (once again a trio) for Little Rock Arts Week. I'm not sure what Arts Week is, or what goes on as part of it...but we played trios for two hours while an artist sketched us. Its was kind of cool...and there were a good number of people there. Wish I knew more about the event though...
4. Played a demo in De Queen...this was a very very long drive, about three hours each way. (basically to Hot Springs, and then another 2 hours past) We were almost in Oklahoma. We also saw a very large woman wearing pajamas riding a moped with her helmet straps flapping in the breeze. Only in Arkansas.
5. Went out to the Whitewater Tavern on Tuesday and met Aaron (new friend) there. It was the first time I have been out in months and was exactly what I needed. Cheap beer, decent music, and cool people...whats not to like? I'll def be going back. And I may have even found a cello student? We'll see if she contacts me.
6. Actually started to feel comfortable here in Arkansas. Kind of scary...but much better than feeling uncomfortable I think. With the lack of auditions being announced and the lack of people actually getting hired (NY Phil took nobody) it seems like I might be here a little longer than planned. Which is not necessarily a bad thing...just not where I expected to be.

Crazy Summer??

So, when I realized that I was going to be faced with a summer with no music festival...the first summer this has occurred in sometime...I was a little bit worried about what I was going to do with all my free time (since the ASO only has one concert on July 4)...people told me I will love having nothing to do the whole summer...but I'm not who does well with a lot of time on my hands, I like to be busy as much as possible...so here is how my summer is looking so far:

1. May 29...My final symphony service of the "season" playing at the Arkansas Children's hospital...
2. May 30-June 12...two weeks off, I'm probably gonna volunteer at the AIDS Foundation a whole lot...and maybe be completely insane about working out so I can get in good summer shape...yeah right...
3. June 13...The AIDS Walk...I'm working on getting an Arkansas Symphony Team together...do you think $500 is a resonable goal? or should I go higher?
4. June 14-20something...I will be in Denver at some point during this time to pick up my new Chris Dungey cello
5. After I spend a few days there I'm gonna drive over to Chicago (with both cellos in hand) so I can be at attendance at Heather's Sister's Wedding in Milwaukee...I'm playing something or other, not really sure yet...but it will be the first public appearance of my new cello!!
6. After the wedding is complete, Heather and I will head down to Chicago and pick up Kimberly, who is flying in on June 30...we will rehearse a bit, hit Taste of Chicago, eat some burgers as cooked by my dad...and then head down to Little Rock...
7. Heather and Kimberly get the joy of subbing with the ASO on our annual 4th of July Concert (I'm sure we will have a total blast!!!)
8. The three of us (possibly plus Jonathan Ware) will put on a concert at St Andrew's in Downtown Little Rock (program to include Rheinberger, Beethoven, Dohnanyi, Pleyel, and possible Dvorak...yikes, thats a ton of music)
9. After this, we head back up to Chicago and then fly out to the West Coast where we hang out in Portland a bit, and repeat a very similar concert somewhere in Ashland...I'll be out on the West Coast from July 8-15.
10. I'll probably hang out at home for a few days...but head back to LR for a bit as well (since I'll have been gone for about a month!!)
11. But July 26-Aug 6 will find me at Steven's Point with the one and only K-Huf doing some Suzuki training...
12. And after that, I will be hunkering down to learn Ives 1, Carter 2, and Rochberg 3 for a concert sometime in Little Rock...yikes...
13. And then regular ASO starts up again...I'm tired now...

If you will be in or around any of these locations...please let me know!!!!

This Week I Will:

1. Go to the gym or bike everyday (most likely go to the gym, since the weather forecast looks a bit rainy)
2. Clean up my apartment a bit...I am slowly getting everything in order.
3. Play a quartet demo in Corning, AR...this is in the far far Northeast part of the state...I haven't been up there yet.
4. Go to the dentist.
5. Play a Pink Floyd concert.

Hello Friday

Since I have been extremely lazy in updating lately I will provide another list of the things that have been going on in my life. Its not very exciting:

1. This week has been quite busy at the symphony with rehearsal almost every night for our concerts this weekend. The program: Appalachian Spring, Don Juan, and Symphonie Fantastique. I'm glad I've played them all before!!
2. The usual volunteering at the AIDS Foundation...it has been quite busy here...we just sent out two very large mailings about the AIDS Walk!
3. Played concerts in Russelville and Jonesboro last weekend with the ASO...this was not exactly fun since they are kind of far away...but I do like playing Schumann 2!
4. Beath and Fim are coming to Little Rock this summer!!! We will be playing a super fun concert at St Andrew's Cathedral...and then we will head off to Oregon. I can't wait!!!!
5. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARY 'COUNTS' KEENER!!! YAY!!!

Whats Going On

I haven't posted in a while...guess this is overdue...here is the current happenings:

1. Met to discuss possibly quartet concert with ASO friends...program to be Ives #1, Carter #2, and Rochberg #3...its kind of a crazy undertaking...but would be super fun! Estimated concert date sometime in August. Rehearsal all summer.
2. I volunteered a whole bunch at the AIDS Foundation...as usual.
3. I got my materials together for my Suzuki Teacher Training applications and recorded all needed materials (and converted my first masters recital from VHS to DVD).
4. When I assembled said materials and tried to compile some DVDs of recordings...it didn't really go as planned and I scrambled something together to send.
5. I still need to figure out how to get my two book four favorites onto a DVD (Breval Sonata and Chanson Triste).
6. Spent some time and my friend Michael's new condo...he has been doing some work getting ready to move in. I mostly just watch though.
7. Played at the Children's hospital on Friday...it was a quick visit.
8. Played at the Symphony Designer House twice...its kind of cool...still not sure how it has anything to do with the symphony...but its kind of cool.

Part of Your World?

Since I have Disney on the brain here are two videos for you. And yes, we are playing this on our concert...but without a singer. (I feel like I've posted this before? Oops)

Haydn vs. Disney

I just got back from our first of two performances of "The Magical Music of Disney"...I've found myself having a ton of fun playing this concert (probably more than any other orchestra concert this season...including the classical ones...oops) I haven't thought about any of these movies in years and years and its fun to go back and play things like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast...all these movies that everyone saw and loved when I was growing up.

When The Cape Cod Experiment played Haydn's Sunrise Quartet a few summers ago, we used the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast as an image at the beginning of the first movement of the quartet (when the running 16ths notes start...) When got to the "Bonjour" part in rehearsal last night, I was totally expecting it to be the Sunrise Quartet...oops.

Here's the clip from Beauty and the Beast...in case you are confused...