2 Very awesome experiences. First, the concerto competition, it was great to get to work on the Elgar Concerto w/ Dr. B & Dr. Kuan. I feel like I'd be able to play that movement with anyone at this point, and playing it with piano really expanded my conception of it. It had a really interesting result, which is that it was declared that none of us won ... the official reason for that was that the judges & the orchestra conductor felt that none of the pieces would be ready for a public performance... it's very strange to say the least... We still do get to read through it with the orchestra though, so that's cool. Personally, I don't really care that I didn't win per se... as cool as it would have been, I've got so much stuff going on anyway that it's just Dust in the Wind...
Amahl... let me start off with the bad, and get it out of the way. I missed a show!!! Um, holy fuck. Can we talk about my worst nightmare?? I've only missed a gig once before and I utterly hate doing it. It's only been in the last 6 months too... never before has this kinda thing been a problem... there used to be a time where I was always early for anything I was doing... that's changed here at Manhattanville. I'm working on changing it back...
Now for the cool stuff:
1. I got the Oboe player the gig, she was a friend of mine (Caitlin Walters) from the Mville Orchestra & it was great to have her in the pit... turns out that she new David Jutt's (the pianist) sister and that they had been out of touch for a while... nice to know that I helped facilitate that exchange of info.
2. I got to play with a mix of students & pros & semi-pros. Playing with pros is great, b/c they of course are at a whole different level than you are. The Bass player's daughter apparently does Electric Cello stuff... was cool to discover, she said she's gonna send me a cd. The Harpist has an ensemble that does celtic music (how cool is that??).
3. David Toby is a really cool guy. He started off freelancing and has done a ton of really interesting stuff. It was great to get some stories & perspective of someone who has done all that stuff. But much cooler than that, he apparently plays with Von Cello (Aaron Minsky) from time to time!! How amazing... he's hopefully gonna put me in touch with him, next time they're in touch. That would be so cool.
4. I ran into Ms. Garnett!! (an old art teacher who I was out of touch with because she retired). I got to talk to her a bit & it was so exciting, she gave me her number so that I can give her a call. She was such an awesome teacher & person. Looking back, I just think of the amount of creativity & achievement that came out of her students. There were some really talented kids under her wing (some of them were/are friends of mine too!)
5. I've now played an Operetta, it was a fun gig all in all, even though I was exhausted and burnt out for most of it...
Anyway, on to the next post...
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