End of Week 2

I remember when I was visiting my sister last summer and it came up one day that she didn't know what she was playing. I made a general aghast sort of response to how could you not know what you were playing. Well, now that I have "walked a mile in those shoes", I come to sympathize and understand this general emotion. There are so many concerts; so many rehearsals; and all of that music just iss in your folder waiting to be played. It doesn't take long before it all gets a little confusing. It takes a lot of preparedness to keep on top of what you are playing for every rehearsal much less being prepared to play it.

As much as we enjoy being here, we definitely appreciate the days off. It gives us a chance to enjoy our surroundings; take a hike; sleep in; soak in our hot tubs; or go to surrounding cities even. This weekend we had practically 1 ½ days off. It was very exciting. After Saturday's concert, we had nothing to do until 5 pm Monday. With this weekend, I made sure to get a hike in. It's my goal to hike at least once a week. The first week I did Spruce Creek Trail with Joe, Laura, Christine, Michael, Dani, and Tim. 7 ½ miles of pretty intense hiking. This week was way easier with McCullough Gulch of 2 ½ miles of moderate hiking. Calvin's host parents showed Calvin, Jenn, Titus, and me a lot of interesting things along the hike that we wouldn't have know about otherwise. I definitely took a lot of pictures (as usual) of the scenery and such. Apparently, Calvin's parents are going to do a midnight moonlight hike sometime later this month. I'm super excited about it.

Earlier in the week I went to dinner with some other people to Ralph's place. He had a dinner last week and all I heard were rave reviews of his cooking, wine, conversations, and general experience. Since this dinner was on Friday I was able to come. Jenn couldn't go so Joe and I took her spot. Last week, it was at the same time as my host parent's dinner. I was glad I got to go. I met some more people, ate some great food and wine, and had a great time.

Sunday night was my second dinner with my host family. Andy is still out of town until Tuesday, so Niki invited some of her friends over to "help" with conversation. One of the people there works at one of the wine and cheese stores off of Main Street. So, she was able to use her expertise and bring some wonderful wines for dinner. Andres (my "brother") was late and missed the first bottle or two of wines. Oh well, all the more for us. J He eventually showed up, slightly embarrassed for having fallen asleep. After dinner Niki brought out a rhubarb cobbler. I was so excited, I had been craving some rhubarb for quite a while. Niki made sure to send me home with some of the pie filling leftovers. J

Today, before our rehearsal, we had a seminar about music therapy with Deforia Lane. http://nromusic.com/index.cfm?PID=1303&ID=5174,19621,22949

It was really amazing the things she talked about. She showed us ways music can help people from healing sickness, educating children, and even correcting social bigotry. I almost cried when she talked about some of the remarkable changes that she has witnessed over the years. There was certainly apart of me that related to her story of how she came to her current career, much of it involving this guilt of "not making it". Knowing there are other possibilities with music makes my future look less bleak. There's so much that weigh's on a person's heart when all they have is the choice of success of failure in front of them. I appreciated her seminar and will keep this in mind as the coming years progress. It reminded me of when I would play in hospitals, retirement centers, and adult day cares. The service that was involved and the sense of satisfaction knowing you had made a difference in someone's life was always wonderful. Who knows what's in store for me. Being open minded for anything can only further my success and happiness.

The evening ended with a rehearsal that ended at 10, followed by a gathering at the Breckenridge Brewery. Monday's are lady's nights, where ladies drink beer for free and guys for $1. We can't usually pass that up. In fact, most times, I don't think people do. It's amazing to think that this is the beginning of our 3^rd week here. In many ways it feels like months, at other times it feels like just yesterday when I drove into town for the first time. I hope there are more wonderful experiences in front of me as there is still more wonderful music to play.

Meet the Parents

Couldn't you just live here?
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Today was a full day for the violin section. Not only did we have the two rehearsals with everyone else, but we also had a master class with David Waldman from the Colorado Symphony. We had less than an hour off all afternoon. Whew!

It was funny during the last 15 minutes of rehearsal today, we were about to start the William Tell Overture. This is one of the pieces we're going to be playing on next week's concert. After some momentary confusion, the entire violin section ran off stage to go figure out seating because things had apparently been changed at the last minute. It was funny to see Topilow turn around and ask where all the violins had gone.

After rehearsal we all walked over to a park a couple of blocks away for the donor and host-parents barbeque. It was a lot of fun. For those of us who signed up for it, we got to meet our designated host-parents. My "Parents" are really cool. They're originally from England and they've been in Breckenridge for the last 8 years running a bed and breakfast down the street. They've apparently been host-parents for NRO for the last 5 years of so. They offered to take care of any of my needs I might have in the future. I can't think of anything besides maybe a good dinner, but it's nice to have the offer just in case. I also have a "brother" Andres. He's a percussionist in the orchestra. Our "Parents" invited both of us over for dinner on Sunday night. I'm looking forward to it; it should be fun. After the barbeque I walked home with some friends and took pictures of the mountains and clouds. I'm such a dork. There's a very real possibility that I'll come away from this summer with more pictures of scenery than actual people. But can you blame me? It's just breathtaking sometimes. Not being a morning person, I generally roll out of bed groggy and grouchy. All I have to do is take one look outside, and I'm happy to be awake!

After I got back to the condo, I was able to get some much needed practice in on the William Tell Overture. I got my package in the mail with my practice mute, dress pants, and turquoise ring. Now I can practice in the condo without feeling completely guilty about disturbing everyone. It's a good thing too because William Tell just about ate my lunch during rehearsal (yikes), and I have a lot of work to do on some spots. It's such a popular piece, yet somehow I've never played it. I had no idea the 1st violin part was so hard- hahaha. Oh well, what can you do? Learn the part, and hopefully it will be easier in the coming years inevitable, numerous engagements. I suppose that's sort of the point of NRO… duh

Tomorrow is our first full orchestra rehearsal at the Elementary school. This could be interesting. I think we're all supposed to bring folding stands. It will be funny to see how many people forget.

First Impressions

So it's interesting to see the responses people have after arriving to NRO. For myself, I know I was having a lot of self-doubt whether or not I really deserved to be here. Funny, in retrospect, considering the fact that everyone here was hand picked by Maestro Topilow. Just gathering from conversations these first few days, I know that I'm not the only person who had these, however momentary, doubts. For myself, I think the doubts are starting to fade with the rehearsals. Seeing myself 'keep up' with the section is reassuring. Of course, there's always practice to be done.

During our "Orientation" this evening Maestro Topilow mentioned that our audition tapes and comments are available for us. It's silly how I'm already here, but I'm still nervous about how I did for my audition. Despite my misgivings, I really do want to go listen to it. I'm interested in knowing what the comments have to say.

Topilow started out the orientation today with the comment (however corny) that our time here depends greatly on "Attitude, Attitude, Attitude". I'm super stoaked to be here and having a great summer ahead of me. Needlessly focusing on the negative isn't going to get me there.

Thankfully, focusing on the awesome shouldn't be too hard. I'm excited with just about everything, just short of our initial food stipend J I'm staying in an amazing condo with 4 other great condo mates. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. I wake up every morning just loving the mountains. Breathing is, slowly but surely, getting easier with each passing day. Orchestra rehearsals, while we all have our things to practice, really are enjoyable. I look forward to our upcoming concert this Friday with Scheherazade and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.

Well, now that I have successfully wasted my evening watching tv and blogging, I'm heading to bed. Rehearsal is tomorrow at 9:30. I would like to actually warm-up tomorrow before hand.

 

First blog

So, it's officially my 3rd day here at NRO. My condo mate Christa helped me set up this blog. Apparently a bunch of people here are blogging about NRO and I thought it would be cool to document my experiences too. So, hopefully sooner than later I will get some appropriate inspiration to write about. Yep.