Well, I changed my strings today and suddenly life had color. I think I might have been WAY overdue for an A and D string. Its nice, because a lot of things sort of fell into place today. Tomorrow morning I"m leaving for Lenox for another lesson with Sato. I'm going to leave a lot of time to fight the potential holiday traffic. After the lesson I'll stop in Ware and visit Aunt J. 5 days and counting until the audition! All the excerpts seem to be settling except for brahms piano concerto and the blasted La Mer (but only because I hate to practice La Mer).

Ok, off to bed.

Well, its been a while since I last posted. My summer has been pretty uneventful but strangely busy! I am preparing for the Springfield symphony audition (which is now next week! YIKES) and although I've been prepping most of the summer, I feel strangely unprepared still. I am such a mental case.

Last week my Uncle Jerry died unexpectedly. This was very sad as he was only 55, and going through some rather stressful and sad things, and there were many people that needed closure with him that did not get it. R and I played all the music for the Funeral Mass, and we were so happy to be able to do it, but the experience was sort of tiring and overwhelming. I had been planning on going to Lenox to see Sato and have a lesson on Monday or Tuesday and now its been pushed to this Saturday. Needless to say, not a lot of audition prep was done when we were driving back and forth to Boston. Our rehearsal in the church was also a little hard, as the fire company decided it test the fire alarms while we were playing in the Balcony (next to the fire alarms).

Yesterday I drove to Portland, ME to play for the principle of Portland Symphony to get my name on the sub. list. The lesson went fine, except for the fact that I really didn't have a chance to warm up before I had to jump into Dvorak Concerto. Since I've had 2 surgeries on my hands, a warm up is necessary or else my arms just freeze up. Yeterday I believe I drove 8 hours in all and came home exhausted. Today I was hoping to practice a lot but ended up just recovering from the here and there of the last few days.

Tomorrow is a practice day. No phone, no distractions. Saturday I am going to Lenox (maybe a stop at the coffee shop??) and Sunday I'm going to play in 3 Masses with R to get myself playing in front of people. MOnday is practice, tuesday morning is Ken and Wednesday is the audition. After that I'm going to take a few days off, go to the Lake with R and Lucy and maybe drive up to Vermont with Aunt J. Beyond that I want to sleep and get myself back to gether for (hopefully) my new job (tehe) and the next round of auditions.

Lastly, Health care. Ours is so expensive BUT It seems in Mass we can buy it due to the law here. Hm..I"m looking into it!

Studio Recital Preparations

Teaching still seems to occupy my life lately. My studio recital is on June 20th and after that I"m really hoping to be able to focus on audition preparations and a recital this summer.  My recital seems to be coming together. I have most of the student's rep prepared, I"ve started on my pianist's book (and hired a pianist for that matter) and I have pretty much decided what I am going to play (just a quick show piece...Popper Hungarian Rhapsody and maybe the Swan or possibly a duet with Jen if she's interested).  I also have a cello choir from WCS I'd love to have there. This year we did a choir version of a movement of the Bach Da Gamba sonatas, and The overture of the Barber of Seville.  It would be very fun to have them there, but we'll have to see if people are available. 

I guess thats it for now, not a very exciting post. I"m stil working on Robert's piece, as its pretty hard, but I really like it!

Busy Busy...When's the break?

Well, life is still busy it seems. I feel as if I haven't had a moment to come up for air since I've been back from Kansas.  Tomorrow I"m auditioning just for the sub list for BMOP.  I injured my thumb working on r's piece so I had to find a quick alternative piece to prepare-that didn't have thumb position and was written after 1950. I came up with Bloch's 3rd Suite...the first movement. I"m also playing the Gigue from Bach's 3rd suite.  A standard for me...

Thursday I'm leaving for Dartmoth College in NH for 3 days to play with the orchestra there. I'm pretty stoked about the program....Brahms 4, Brahms academic overture and a mozart piano concerto.  Fun music, and free housing at a  hotel near by!  yay, no driving and free internet!

This summer I"m trying to lay low and prep excerpts for the possible NYPHIL audition next year, play a recital-AND learn r's piece. I did agree to do a week at the Bard Conductor's Institute Orchestra in upstate NY, and I have to teach at a Suzuki Camp in July. I've been quasi wait listed for another program and I'm hoping that I might be able to attend that. I'll write more about it if it were to become a reality. 

I guess thats it for now. Tonight my students played a recital in Whitinsville, and I taught most of the day. My mom's dog is here and he's not been well so I stuck a vet appointment in the center of it all and found a way to squeeze a little practice into the day due to tomorrow's audition. I wish I had a little more prep time!

Nothing really that exciting...

      This weekend E came over and we shopped, a lot.  :-)  We also worked for many hours on R's cello piece.  ITs coming along, but it is very difficult and I'm thrilled/grateful to have her help with it.. I"m excited about the challenge, it will be a good summer project and I think its an amazing piece.  

     My teaching is taking up a lot of my time lately, due to the fact that I've been taking auditions-I'm way behind in make up lessons, ugh! Next week also marks the beginning of the recital season-which makes fitting in make up lesson even harder and adds recital rehearsals into my schedule.  Beyond that I"m still feeling run down and trying to sort-of rest and get myself sorted out and back in some sort of order and practice schedule.  Next week I'm also going to NH for a few days for a gig. Maybe in june I'll be able to stay in Massachusetts for a bit. 

Generally things are good, and I"m chugging along and in pretty good spirits!  Tomorrow is a hair cut, Chiropractor (My neck is super tense from all the playing lately) and then teaching for 7 hours.  

Pictures

I have no control over picture size it seems!!!  YIKES..some are big some are small...and I have no idea why!

Kansas City part 2 and back to the grind....

Obviously, the situation that I flew into didn't really set me up for a stellar audition...I"m over that-but I do want to figure out how to wow them on my next audition....sigh

After the audition E and I got together and decided to take Olathe.  We went out to eat and then went to the mall of the midwest or something (Its a virtually deserted mall) but it had GLOW IN THE DARK GOLF!   Golf was hilarious. E couldn't keep her ball on course at all!!!  We also did a little shopping and fooling around in the mall.  Afterwards we went back to the hotel (and my suite) and skyed with Jen.  All in all a fun day after a hard and slightly disapointing audition day.

Wed E went home and M came and picked me up to go to her house in Leavenworth, KS and proceeded to shop for the next 3 days. I'm sad she's moving to Germany b/c she'll be a lot farther away, but at the same time Im' super excited for her!

Saturday morning I flew home without any hitches, and was met by my boy and a dozen roses.  What a faboo man he is!  

So whats up now? Now there are lots of make up lessons to teach, a summer to plan, a recital to plan (more than one actually-for me and my students).  I already have my pianist and ball gown for my recital...I just need to find a hall and a date!

Kansas City...part 1

Ok, I'll start with a little bit of the Kansas story today...

I flew in after my BPO concert that started at 3pm.  I was supposed to take off at 8pm, but my flight was delayed slightly and I took off at 8:30. I had a layover in Milwaukee and then I was supposed to be in Kansas City by 11:30.  Unfortunately KS was having tornado watches and Flash Flood warnings so my flight ended up getting in around 2:45 am.  My poor friend Chris was nice enough to pick me up-even with my delay.  SUCH a good friend.  On the decent into KS I really thought we were going to die...I saw lightning going right by the wing, and the turbulance was INSANE.  Anyhow....we survived.  My hotel was another 45 minutes from the airport, and when we got to the airport it seemed like they DID NOT reserve a spacific room I had requested.  Due to the misunderstanding they decided to put me in a SUITE!  HURRAH...it was such a fabulous room. By this time it was about 4:30 am and we (E met up with us) decided to have a really early breakfast and then go to bed. Breakfast was so much fun...and I got to sleep around 6am.  NOT really the best set up for a successful audition. I do not do well with all nighters. I had a lot of trouble sleeping and probably only got about 4 or 5 hours of restless sleep.  

The next day I practiced, went out and bought some audition snacks (if I were to have to hang around the audition site at all) and tried to take it easy.  My practicing felt a little sporatic and not always organized but I think that had a little to do with how exhausted I was (due to the rehearsal/concert week and all nighter). 

Tuesday I got up around 5:45, had breakfast and went into a hotel banquet room to warm up. I left for the audition on the shuttle around 8:30 am (for a 9am check in) and picked number 2 for my timeslot. The prelim round was Haydn D, Mendelsohn Schertzo, Beethoven 5, and Also Sprach Zarathustra.  

In the audition I felt as if everything went ok. Haydn had a few scary moments, but it was the first time I'd ever taken Haydn D out for anything. I tried my best to sound as if the concerto was well broken in, but who knows. Maybe it sounded a little hesitant. I need to get this concerto under my fingers...my cello loves it. I just need to! ;-)  Beethoven 5 went well, maybe a little slow, Schertzo went fine (with my bouncing bow) and Strauss might have needed to go faster but it is an excerpt that I love to play.  All in all, n0t bad, but unfortunately not good enough for 2nd round. I swear the day that I finally get to the next round will be the day I get to finals...sigh.

TO be continued. Time for bed now. 

Natalia Gutman

Last week I played a BPO concert with Natalia Gutman. Natalia Gutman is one of the best cellists I have ever heard (at least, in my opinion).  She played Prokofiev's Symphonia Concertante..and it was amazing.  Natalia was chosen to play this piece at Richter's Funeral...and with her personal connections to Rostropovich (and his personal connections with the creation of the piece with Prokofiev) she had a lot of information to give in regards to what Prokofiev wanted.  It was amazing and an experience I wish all of the cellists out there could have.  To have her ability to bring moods/emotions and colors so easily (along with Kick butt cello technique, both with articulation and left hand) was astounding. She gives a killer lesson just by being able to watch her. I was able to get  a picture with her and practice my pigeon German by speaking with her. Unfortunately I used the informal 'You" with her...SO embarassing.  We had 4 rehearsals, and 3 concerts last week, and then at 8pm (after the 3pm concert on Sunday) I jumped on a plane and went to Kansas City.  I was supposed to land at 11:30 KC time, but instead landed at 2:45..and felt lucky to be on the ground safe...due to the tornados in the area. The weather definately made me less than excited at the prospect of living there....

Ok, more about the trip and the audition tomorrow...I have to sleep now!

I"ll post soon!

yes, yes...I know I haven't posted in a while. I promise to update...about everything (Kansas City etc) in the next few days.  I"m just catching up on rest, student scheduling, and recital preparations....AND my 4 year anniversary is this week! :-)

yay macbook!

I"m officially on my new macbook and I LOVE IT.  I can't believe how nice it is to be on a brand new computer...everything is faster, easier. Its fabulous! 

Today I woke up at 7 to practice, then went to school to  listen to Jurys, taught a chamber group, a suzuki cello group class,  came home for a quick dinner, and left for BPO rehearsal.  We are playing Brahms 2 for this concert, and the second movement is kind of driving me crazy. Brahms 2 is a huge cello excerpt and I"ve really spent a lot of time working on it...its not an excerpt that comes easily to me.  For this concert the bowings are completely screwy, and they keep changing, and I"m a little worried about how its going to affect my audition.  Tuesday we were playing the first and second measure as a down bow, then RETAKING and playing 2 more measures down bow. Today we played the first note upbow and the rest of the phrase down bow, then another up bow (one note) and all down bow again.  Its making me crazy, because in my opinion it does not support the phrase line.  

Ok, enough of that rant. I need to go to sleep. I have a lesson with Sato tomorrow...and need to rest up!

busy

Well, I haven't really written in a while. Things are going fine, but I"ve been struggling with general fatigue.  These last few weeks are really packed. Last week was holy week of course, so I had to help out/be at church a lot. This week I have BPO rehearsals, teaching, Juries at school, and a lesson (along with Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra to learn before Friday). Next week is a full  BPO week (4 rehearsals and 3 concerts) and then after the sunday concert I drive to Logan and jump on a plane for KC.  PLUS I have to prep for it throughout this schedule.  I"m trying to balance everything but getting enough sleep is sometimes hard. I did order my new mac, and I'm excited that is coming so that I can have a computer that doesn't crash all the time. Also, my baby Brack case FINALLY got here, so I have a waterproof case again. I am very happy with it! 

Ok, time for bed. Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to be able to get at least 5 hours or so of practicing in before I teach in the afternoon!

I"m home!

I"m home! Today I had a lesson with Stepansky and loved it! I was so excited to take a lesson with the "Barber" man.....E and I had lunch afterwards and off I went home. I hit a bunch of traffic and it took me about 4-4.5 hours to get home. I am hoping to apply some of his techniques and go back to NY in 2 weeks.

Tomorrow is sadly the opening day for the Red Sox which means complicated driving for me. I HATE the red sox season...I wish they would move to Maine or something. I have BPO tomorrow night (string sectional....Brahms 2 and Prokofiev Symphonia Concertante) so tomorrow I have to go over those and prep for KC!

NY PHIL

Well, its Saturday and yesterday was my audition. On Thursday I spent much of the day practicing because I felt that I had a lot more to do to prepare (for such a big list/big audition) that I sort of freaked out about everything and E had to take the cello away from me and send me to bed! :-) I just felt like it was such a big audition that it was totally spooking me and I probably would have stayed up all night primping my excerpts. (Or hid under the bed all day....) My check in time at Avery Fischer was 8am so I tried to be in bed and asleep by 930, but unfortunately I struggled to sleep most of the night. I woke up every 1 to 2 hours or so thinking about how much longer I had to sleep.  

     Friday morning I called a cab and was at the stage door at about 7:40am. Ironically another TMCer walked in right after me (and another one was in my round). Its a small world I guess.  There were 6 of us in the 9am round and we pulled numbers to get our order. I pulled a 4 so that gave me a good amount of time to warm up. After we pulled numbers we were each brought to our own dressing room.   Seven minutes before we were to play (on the stage no less!) we were brought to a "holding room" and shown the excerpts we were going to be playing, along with the order. I had planned to play Dvorak for my solo (and had the prelude of the 2nd suite and gigue of the 3rd suite for bach). I found out I could choose my solo, so I decided to go with the Gigue of the 3rd suite first, becuase I knew it was my strongest excerpt. I have had some problems with my 1st finger cracking/splitting/cutting and my shifts have been a little unsure lately (due to playing with or without a wrapped finger...or due to my having to compensate around the cuts). I hadn't really practiced the Gigue much, but I knew it had been strong for my TMC audition, so I went with it.

     I walked out on stage and saw that there was a really long screen (I"d seen them setting it up on the dressing room  monitors ) and I think there were something like 10 or 15 chairs behind the screen (3 banquet tables worth at least).  There was a long rug leading up to the chair which had been placed at the end of the stage facing the side of the stage where the committee was sitting. I started with the Bach and thought it went really well. The committee asked for an additional solo-spacifically my concerto so I played the Dvorak. The Dvorak was OK, but again a little unsure from time to time due to the finger issues. (I believe)

Next I was asked to play Ein Heldenleben. The 2 excerpts they wanted from it are usually very strong for me, but for whatever reason I missed the first shift...a really stupid move as its not one I've ever struggled with. The rest of the excerpt went ok, and they skipped the second excerpt and moved on to Prokofiev's romeo and juliet. I was sort of bummed because I can really nail the bottom of the 2nd page of the Strauss, but I soon realized the comittee really didn't follow the order we had been given.

Prokofiev seemed to be a bit of a disaster for me. This was the one excerpt I didn't prep much in the last week because the bandaid situation made the shifts so hard to do. I had a measure in the middle that was totally out of control and although I recovered, I felt that maybe the damage had been done. Lastly, I played the first 2 pages of Smetana's Bartered Bride, and felt they went pretty well. 

     I didn't progress, (no one did in my round), but after talking to one of the BSO members I"m trying to figure out (beyond the mistakes here and there) what I'm missing to progress in these auditions. He was sort of shocked that I didn't progress, and that sort of shocked me because I had not even thought about it, I guess in my head I didn't think I was going to progress...and I'm wondering if that might be the problem. I'm sort of kicking myself that I didn't go into it thinking I could...UGH. Every once and a while I become totally spooked with my playing and where I am (when I've come from virtually starting at 22) and I never think I"ll actually "get there."  This is the second audition where I've gotten a surprised reaction from someone that really knows what they are doing.  I think my next job is to go home and start practicing for KC with the thought that I really can win it. NY was a great experience for me because it has begun to change my mindset for the future...Here goes!

nothing new

Ok, I"m trying very hard to get this 8 hours of sleep thing right...but its hard to go to bed by 10pm! I"m off to bed now (its 10:15)...

Today went well. I have moments where I feel prepared and moments where I feel like I have so much farther to go. I have days where Strauss and Schoernberg go well, and days when I fall flat on my face. Today was a BAD Strauss tuning day, but yesterday was good. I have to gain the consistancy I suppose.

What a boring blog lately!

I have 3 days left, and I leave Wednesday morning for NY. Sunday I have a lesson at MSM with Stepansky...I"m SUPER excited about it!!!

IN other news...I"m getting a new mac...I"ve had it with the other one....now just to be able to afford it! :-)

preparations...

Today I woke up at 6am and was practicing by 730am. I'm trying to get myself on a schedule that supports an 8am audition check in...but with my normal schedule being late (due to concerts and driving time) its a hard thing to switch. The most ironic part of all of this is that I AM a morning person-but my lifestyle makes me a night person. I think I was supposed to live on a farm but suddenly find myself doing quite the opposite. Ironically once this audition is over I have to change my schedule back to "nights" to survive holy week and the next BPO concert cycle.

I feel like I have so much more to prepare, and not enough time. Wednesday I take off for NY! Tomorrow I will practice (duh), pack a bit, and try to fit a quick gym trip in. So much to do in so little time!  I also need to contact the rest of my students and tell them I will be "out of town" this week.  

 

nothing new and a crashing computer.

6 days until my audition! Today I had my hair cut, practiced most of the day, and listened to my lessons again. Exciting, huh?  The boys upstairs fixed my Mac but then it froze up again. I'm on it again, but its acting fishing again. I really need a new computer, but its just not in the budget right now!

um, how is it suddenly 11:15 pm?

Today was a practice day for me, but I feel like I really didn't get enough practice-and I 'm not sure why. I ended up having a phone call in the morning that sort of pushed the start of my day later, and I went to practice at church with R for 1/2 an hour...but aside from that? Maybe 5 hours of work, but I'd really like to be at 8 hours for the next few days (minimum). Oh well, we all have days like that. I did listen to my lesson with Sato, and although at times it was "colorful" it was helpful and I"ll wake up early and apply some of his thoughts to my excerpts.
Lets see, I made an appointment to get my hair cut Saturday at 12 noon in Lexington, and a cello adjustment apointment for 7:45 am on Tuesday. I also sent out my deposit for Ny's audition. Wednesday after rush hour I'll start my commute to Ny. Lastly E also did some great detective work for me..such a good friend!!!
Did I go to the gym today? Unfortunately not, I start to get anxious that I"ve not practiced enough and suddenly the day is done and the gym is closed. I did make a fruit smoothy though, and it was fabulous!

In other news, I'm really excited about R's new solo cello piece. Its so much fun to play and I think a fabulous piece. I"m dying to work on it more, but find myself so over my head with excerpt work that I can't right now. Its so frustrating, but I'm trying to see it as a little "prize" for myself once I finish this audition and Kansas City.

April 3rd at 9AM

Today I received my audition slot...April 3rd at 9a.m. OMG I'm auditioning for Ny phil in one week. SO much to do in so little time. At 8am I report to the stage door of Alice Tully Hall! Pretty crazy. 9 years ago I couldn't really read music...so bizarre to me that I'm actually doing this audition now.

Today I taught for 6 hours. Tomorrow begins a week of intense finals preparations for the audition. I think I might have one more lesson, and then on April 1st off to NY!!!

Another lesson

Ok, I'm not that great at this Blog thing. Today I had a lesson with Sato. It was great, I learned a lot from it and I was exhausted when I got home. I have found my lessons go from abotu 2-3 lessons each, and we cover a lot of excerpts. After years of not having lessons, its nice to have someone pointing things out for me. Its kind of wierd, being at symphony hall after TMC, because it seems like I really know a lot of people there now.

Tonight I was going to practice and totally forgot that I had to teach a lesson. I had to quickly get out of the "practice" mindset and get into the "teaching" mindset. AFter that I spent about 2 hours arranging my teaching schedule for the next few weeks and catching up on general emails.

I'm waiting for an audition time for NY phil, and I"m practicing like crazy. I cant' believe these auditions are coming up so fast...April is going to be a Bear!!!

Cello Blake

     Yesterday I spent a long time on the phone with Midwest airlines. It seems that they don't think that I should be given frequent flyer miles for my cello EVEN though I always buy a second seat for it.  I was passed from manager to manager until I found someone that thought the policy might be unfair too. They are going to have a meeting this week about how they can rewrite the policy. hurrah!  When I first tried to sign it up, the representative said "I can't sign up a cello!  What would I use for a name?"  and I said "Well, Cello Blake of course!!" I wish I'd signed up for Frequent flyer miles in September with the Milwaukee trip, but I didn't think I'd be using Midwest airlines again...oh well!

     I"m kind of amazed how as we get older the days go faster and faster. I used to think the time from 2:30-5:00 was such a long time (when I used to get out of school) now I think that time slot flies by, and I can't seem to get nearly the amount of things done that I would like.

Yesterday I received my time slot for Kansas City's cello auditions, and  I purchased my flight and booked my hotel.  I'm still waiting to hear about my CD for NY. Atlanta still hasn't set a date for their auditions, I really do hope they follow through.  

Today is a practice day and I think I"m going to teach 1 student in the afternoon. I also need to practice turning pages and pulling stops for R's piece at church and I want to get to the gym.  

Here i am.

     I've decided to move from Live Journal. I'm sorry to my Live Journal friends...I hope you continue over here.  Maybe I'll go back sometime...

Anyhow, here goes.

     Today I taught all morning and then went to Boston Philharmonic for a night rehearsal. The drive back was a little hairy because the streets and highways were totally covered with snow. I"ve lived in this area my whole life and I've NEVER driven all the way home from Boston without seeing a Sand/Plow truck. Its crazy really...Massachusetts must be completely broke.  

     This concert is Lutoslawski Concerto for orchestra and Rach #3 piano concerto with Gabrielle Montero.  The concert is a little hairy right now...I'm hoping it will straighten out.  I wish I'd not lost over 2 weeks of practice, my hands still feel a little shaky, but I'm sure it will straighten up over the weekend.

     I'm currently waiting to hear about TMC. I"m a little nervous, as I was so completely sick when I auditioned.  I"m trying to be at peace with whatever happens. My feeling is that if I don't get in, I'm supposed to practice for the summer.  I'm sure I'll hear about it in the next week. Cross your fingers!!!

Tomorrow. String teacher meeting, 8th period high school boys cello class, Elementary group, drop of R's car in Boston, and then concert.  PACKED day....