Final Blog Post :'(

This was a very sad concert for me because it was my last one, but it was a fantastic performance overall. I think we have made a ton of progress as a group, and we had so much fun when we were playing . Our pieces all sounded great, and I think our sound quality/intonation has gotten so much better since the beginning of the year. The musicians in this Orchestra are all very talented and I think  that this particular group works together very well and I hope they stick together. As for the actual concert, I think that we were very well prepared and had a wonderful and fulfilling last concert. American idiot sounded great as our last piece, and the odyssey  was a perfect opening to our concert. The order of the pieces was perfect, and I think that we all stayed together and looked up for the most part. I won't say we could have done better, because we put so much work into this final concert and I am sure that everyone put their best efforts into it. It has been a privilege and an honor to have been a part of this orchestra for the past two years, and I will certainly be looking forward to rejoining hopefully as a member of symphony in my senior year.

Concert Order

I think that for our concert, we need to be sure to make a dramatic and lasting impact on the audience so that we leave a lasting impression for a great deal of time. The pieces that come one after another should definitely be contrasting, such as willy wonks and the river flows in you. Our concert will start with the Odessey, and that is a perfect introduction piece because of its grace and power. The next piece should be the river flows in you, as it is very relaxing and we will already have the audiences undivided attention from our opening piece. After that, we should play willy wonks because it is also very upbeat and differs dramatically from the river flows in you and will perk up the audience right away. After that, we should go straight into the evil eye and the hideous heart, because that piece is also attention grabbing and creepy. It will certainly perk up the audience and hold their attention for the rest of the concert. Our last piece is already decided as American Idiot, and that is perfect to end the concert and also to end our year together, because it showcases how much we have grown as an orchestra together.

MSBOA 2014 Reflection

Festival this year with a new group was really exciting, a lot of fun, and a lot of hark work. I would attribute everybody's individual hard work and our strong team work ethic to our success this year. Festival is always a fantastic experience, and I'm really happy that we did as well as we did. Moving on to our specific pieces, I would say that in my personal opinion, The Faraway Place was my favorite piece to play, even though it did not go as well as during our rehearsals. We had some out of tune notes from all of the sections especially up on the higher strings. Our confidence as we played seemed to waver in various places, but we were able to all come back together for a nice and solid finish. This is a really beautiful piece, and I really like dour interpretation of it, because it flowed very nicely and had a very deep, mellow sound. I would say that our tempo was verging on a little too slow, because some notes started to blur together giving us a slightly muddy sound in some areas. Overall, not our best piece, but not bad at all. Rondo Energico sounded true to its name, as a very vibrant and energetic piece. Our beginning was slightly weak, but as what seems to be a reoccurring theme, our confidence builds throughout the piece leading up to a strong finish. We had an excellent interpretation of this piece, with a very nice clear and sharp sound overall. We had a great dynamic contrast, with the fortissimos ringing out clear and sharp, and distinctly different from the piano sections. From where we started ( and practiced for 63 minutes), our pizzicato was together most of the time and sounded very nice and clear. As always, there are a few things to improve on but overall an excellent performance. Bells was certainly our best piece, as agreed on by most of our class and the judges. We started out very strong, and maintained that strength and aggressiveness throughout the entire piece, leading to a rich tone and clear sound. We fell apart at a couple of parts, but recovered very quickly. This piece had beautiful dynamic contrast, and was very together overall as an ensemble. Overall, we did an excellent job with strong dynamics and rhythm. This performance was very high quality, but could be improved with attention to tone and style throughout the whole orchestra.

Pre-Festival Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oObXAsStnA&feature=youtu.be

This is an excerpt from Bells! (Les Cloches)

Concert Reflection

Concert Reflection

I think that our ensemble performed very well in both of the pieces that we played. In After the Rain, I felt that our entrance was a little bit shaky and unsure. I could hear people around me start to come in, then doubt themselves and wait. That happened a couple of times until most of us started together. After we got into the next few measures, the tone of the orchestra started to come out and become richer. I used vibrato on all of the half, three quarter and whole notes and I could hear immediately how much better it sounded, and I think a lot of people were using vibrato because the tone sounded very warm and clear. The whole second violin section seemed to be together for the most part, because the watchers such as myself and my stand partner were closer to the back and the people that tend to cue and help keep the section together were in the front. There were not very many people cueing this time, but I think that is because it was the first concert and most of our new orchestra members weren’t used to cueing to keep the section together. After we played our first piece, I really enjoyed the harp solos and duet. The harp has a very pretty and clear sound that rings out and falls over the whole audience and creates a peaceful feeling. I enjoyed the first solo and the duet the most. I feel that the sound of a harp might complement some of our pieces in Orchestra. The trill on the harp would have sounded really nice in the background of After the Rain, and some of the lower notes might have sounded nice in the background of Illumination. I felt that our second piece Illumination sounded very good. The second violins worked on letter G in our sectional time, and I think we got the notes and the rhythms down really well. The divici notes also sounded really good, because the high and lower tones complemented each other and really made the mood of the piece come together. The moods of After the Rain and Illumination seemed to contrast, with After the Rain being sadder and quieter, and Illumination being more upbeat and energetic. The length of the pieces were also perfectly timed, not too long and not too short. I felt that our ending to Illumination was very good. Looking around, I could see that most people had ended at the same time and at the same part of the bow.

First Post of this Year

So the school year just started about 3 weeks ago, and we have had quite a few orchestra rehearsals since then. Reflecting back on last year, I can see that I didn't work at my full potential last year and that definitely will change this year. Over the summer, I had a few private lessons where I mostly worked on relearning the fundamentals. I found out how important it is to learn to do the correct posture and bow hold from the start, instead of forming the wrong habits and then having to relearn them later. I worked a lot on my posture(sitting up straight on the front edge of my chair, left hand position, keeping the instrument over my shoulder instead of down in front like a necktie) and especially my right hand bow hold which I had a lot of trouble with last year. I'd like to say I'll be playing everything perfectly from now on, but learning music is a journey that lasts a lifetime. I am definitely better prepared for what this year will bring, and I will be putting in a lot more practice outside of school. I think the problem last year was not only using the same bad habits that I had learned from middle school, but underestimating the amount of time I would need to spend on practice. Hopefully this year will go a lot better for me, and my video of the passage I worked on in After the Rain will be up by Sunday at the latest.

Dido and Aeneas Overture

This is my new video which is finally up, it was supposed to be done a while ago but my laptop wasn't working right and it wouldn't upload. Anyway here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LIY0p52UyA&feature=youtu.be