Summit Day 11 - Amazing & interesting

Today:
Orchestras - both went well, but I still need to learn my part ... Richard Clark went on a rant about how most orchestras are boring and this is connected to why classical is struggling so much ... he also talked about getting jobs/auditions & what causes you to lose them ... all while doing very amazing conducting ... I honestly think he may be the best conductor I've ever worked with ...

then I ate lunch & practiced for a bit (amazing - I actually had time to practice) ... I then had a lesson w/ David, which went well (in the sense that I learned a lot) ... we worked on Sevcik and making it smooth, but not tentative, and we worked on the thumb position and really hearing things before playing/doing things in a structured way ...

After that, I practiced a bit more, then had Weber coaching, which went really well ... rehearsal afterwards did too ...

Then there's the concert ... that was all kinds of interesting ... they moved it to the Little Theater b/c the A/C is broken in the new building ... less than 20 minutes to figure out lights ... ended up just using the house lights & during intermission toyed around w/ them some more & got a vague idea of how things work ... if we're in there tomorrow, 30 min-1 hr should be more than sufficient to figure it out ... as much as I kinda don't want to waste my time w/ it, I kind of do in order to get the experience ...

Lesson & Jeff Solow masterclass tomorrow ... speaking of Jeff Solow - amazing, amazing performance of the Brahms E Minor earlier - one of the only classical concerts that's really made me want to go back and practice ... it was almost on the same level (for me) as Mr. O's playing ... I really miss that ...

Anyway, I need to go practice ...

Edit: Some words of wisdom from Jeff himself:

"Thanks for the nice compliment, Michael. I find that many people play at an extrordinarily high level these days and play musically--but that is not the same as MAKING music, which is much rarer and, to me, what it is all about."

I love that he sees a difference between playing musically and making music ... A lot of what I'm working on w/ David and at Summit is learning how to "play musically" & how to phrase & stuff like that ... basically, standardizing what I do a bit more, and also letting the piece be more important ... it's important to remember that the performer is always more important than the piece ...

I also really need to go to sleep ...