NY Philharmonic

Glen Dicterow with the NY Phil!
Waiting for the concert to start.

Picnic-ing while we wait

Roomies!

Joe Alessi Concert and Group Photo

Freakin Fun Park

Wednesday was 'Chamber Group Number 2's' last day off. It was also Christa's 23^rd birthday. Harry Potter was pretty awesome, but not having read the books I'm all anxious as to what happens. Once Melissa got back from her chamber rehearsal, we all headed over to the Peak 8 Fun Park. It was so much fun. Not only was there a fantastic alpine slide with 3 different lanes, but there was also a rock wall, mining corner, human gyroscope, bungee jump, human maze, and a putt-putt course (which we didn't get to…).

The human maze was a lot of fun. The first time around I was the fastest of everyone. Calvin got so lost and took over 15 minutes: The time it took for a small child to do it twice. We did it again later on and all of us were much more successful with our times the second time around. Melissa, Jenn, and I decided to pick cute little butterfly tattoos as our prize for doing the maze in under 8 minutes. We immediately went to the bathroom to stick them on our arms. J

After we had done the alpine slide at least 7 times and done everything else with proper photo shoot moments we headed home. I had forgotten to put sunscreen on anywhere besides my face and I was starting to feel it. I would soon find out how much of a lobster I had become. After dropping everyone off at home, Christa and I went over to Micasa for some dinner. We were just in time for happy hour with $1 tacos and cheaper margaritas. A fabulous dinner option- so much food! There was also a tequila rep walking around giving free samples of different tequila varieties. It was also really cool. As we finished up dinner, Christa and I quickly went over to the Riverwalk Center to hear Chamber Group 1 perform their concert. They sounded really great. However, we only stayed for the first half because we were both starting to feel really crappy from all our time in the sun from the afternoon.

Thursday morning, 7:45 in the morning we all got on our buses to go to Vail Colorado. We were playing for the Bravo Festival at Vail. I think it would have been a much more enjoyable experience if we hadn't had to leave so early in the morning and didn't have a concert after a big break in the time of an hour rehearsal. Not to mention, being in a new and foreign playing space added some new unexpected twists. After our children's concert we stopped for lunch in the Vail Park. We all found spots to sit down and eat, trying to find shade where we could. I was sitting with some other orchestra people next to some fellow audience members. A really cute girl, named Rachel, was visiting with her family from Wisconsin. She played violin and really like our concert. She went around the circle and asked for all of our autographs. After our lunch we headed back on stage for a sight reading of Symphony Espanola with the Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I really enjoyed working with him. I would like to have seen how we would have played had we been rehearsing the last 4 days. I was so tired afterwards; all I wanted to do was fall asleep on the bus. As soon as I grabbed my seat, I passed out. 2 hours later, I woke to the sounds of complaining orchestra people. Apparently for the last hour we had traveled all of a mile. In as much as we only were an hour away from Breckenridge to begin with, I think people were a little exasperated. I was so apathetic about it, there wasn't anything we could do about the traffic, I just wanted people to stop complaining about it. Thankfully, not too long after I woke up, the traffic let up enough for us to pass the construction. When we got back, we had one more rehearsal to do. It was literally a day from hell as far as my body was concerned. Up at 6:30, 2 ½ rehearsals, 1 concert, and a bus ride later, I was exhausted. Thursday was more tiring for me than the 4^th of July even. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was really tired and dehydrated from the day before, but maybe it was just more stressful. Well, either way, we got to play in the Bravo music festival, the summer tour stops for NY Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, as well as guest artists like Anne-Marie McDermott and Gil Shaham. All in all pretty exciting; despite the momentary lack of energy.

As we were in rehearsal with Stilian for our upcoming Saturday concert, we got the announcement that the violins were having a masterclass with David Kim. Oh, and by the way we are all playing Brahms 1 and La Mere for him. *Insert Small Panic Attack*

So today, after our morning rehearsal, all the violinists headed to the masterclass. Erin, Brandie, and Irene played solos for the first hour. I really liked the things he had to say to all of them. Each one of them sounded better when they were done. His masterclass approach reminded me of Felicia. He was all about body stability and letting go. When he was finished with the soloists we all got on stage with our instruments. There was huge confusion. Once we all figured out we were all playing 1^st violin, there was a scramble for seating. Unfortunately, by the time I gathered myself the only seat left was Assistant Principal 2^nd- Very scary when you're sight reading Brahms 1. He helped get our two sections to work more as one and to get the front to play softer and have the back play louder. I liked it when he addressed concertmaster leadership. He likes the head movement leadership over any real large scroll or body movement. It's very subtle but effective. That's something to tuck back for future reference, knowing that my usual tendency leans towards the larger movements.

Our Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 concert is tomorrow evening. Topilow is off for this concert so Stilian is in charge. It will be interesting to see how we do tomorrow.

I Want To Remember

I realized yesterday as I was writing that I haven't written in almost 3 weeks. I was then looking at my past Facebook statuses and realizing how much I'm forgetting. So much has happened, how can I expect to remember it all unless I remind myself about it. So, at the moment I want to briefly reminisce about all that's happened so far.

July 4: 3 concerts; 3 different cities. They say if we can survive the 4^th of July, we can survive anything. With that in mind, we all loaded up in the morning to catch the busses for Dillon. There we set up the stage backwards, with the winds in front and the strings in back. Since the amphitheater was small-ish they gave the sun protection to the strings. I was extremely grateful, but at the same time, I know wind instruments are not inexpensive either. The next destination was Evergreen. That concert was a little more difficult as far as the elements were concerned. The crowd was definitely on the small side for account of the rain. It drove everyone's instruments absolutely wild. The poor woodwinds were having a hard enough time with the altitude change with their reeds, much less the newly added humidity. We don't really need to go into how that affects stringed instruments. The storm didn't fully hit until our last song fortunately. After we were done, we were supposed to have a barbeque outside. Instead, we picnicked inside the Evergreen log building. I don't really know what it was for, but it was appreciated none the less. The last show was in Breck. We got back in time to have a little time to relax before our last concert. I ran over to go see the Budweiser Clydesdales while they were still in town. They were in the parade earlier, but I had missed it on account of the other concerts. They were so pretty, and HUGE! I was glad I got to see them before they left. Our last concert started at 8:30. As soon as we were done the fireworks started up. I was impressed by the show considering the size of the town. I love the 4^th of July. There aren't many holidays where the crowd, first of all, is so involved in the music. Secondly, that you, as a musician, can be so involved with the audience. And perhaps most importantly, that everyone is gathered for the same purpose: A celebration of the past, remembering the glory and honor instilled in our heritage, and the acknowledgement of service. The fact that all of that is experienced through music is amazing. I don't think the 4^th of July would be the same for me if I weren't playing music. It really is one of my favorite holidays. It's one of the few times that I feel unified with the people around me. No matter what our opinions of politics, war, religion, we all seem to be unified for this one day. And for as much hard work we did that day, I was happy and full of life. It was even better that I was able to experience it 3 different times that day with the NRO.

July 6: We got the day before off yesterday and we were all exhausted. Today we start Shostakovich 5 with our first guest conductor Joanne Falletta. But first we have a sight-reading rehearsal of Brahms 4 with Jaap Van Sweden from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Jaap was unbelievable. Whenever anyone introduces a conductor, they usually give their opinion of them, usually to the point of "They're the best in the world" etc. This time I believed it. What he got out of us in just 2 hours was simply amazing. He didn't even have a full rehearsal time, but the results were incredible. He tightened every section of the orchestra and got us to play together, with passion, and musicianship. Maybe what he said were things we had all heard before, but the results were what were different. He is a conductor who I would most definitely love to work with again. I wonder what we, and I mean NRO, would sound like after 4 more rehearsals with him on the Brahms…

July 8: Joanne Falletta conducted our concert of Shostakovich 5 and Smetana's Bartered Bride. I think it was unfortunate to have her conduct the very same day as Jaap, but maybe it was unavoidable. In any situation, it is difficult not to compare. It is most certainly hard not to compare when your put back-to-back like they were. I know this concert was one of the more difficult ones, at least for me. I think the orchestra played extremely well at the concert. I will be interested in hearing what we sound like on recording. Unfortunately, I don't have the best recollection of what we actually sounded like, in as much as I had to wear earplugs for almost the entirety of the concert. Sitting right beside the piccolo, piano, and percussion leave you with little other options.

July 9: A bright and early 9 am rehearsal for Mahler. All of us are brain dead, and just making it through today's rehearsal was at times painful. I don't know why we do these early rehearsals right after a concert. Topilow gets frustrated with us, and then we get frustrated too. Maybe in reality, professional orchestras don't get any recovery time, but somehow I would like to think they at least get more than 12 hours off…

Calvin and his host parents Tom and Darleen took a bunch of us on a moonlight hike. This is our first day of Mahler 6 rehearsals. Quite a few people didn't show up I think because of the past week's schedule and the schedule in front of us. The Mahler Rehearsal was rough, and I don't doubt that people backed out on the hike to practice instead. I'm glad I went though. The scenery was beautiful in a very different way than in the daytime. More than likely I won't ever be able to do something like this again. I certainly don't know the woods and trails well enough to be able to do this on my own. Besides, I don't think I would want to do this with any smaller a group on account of bears…

July 11: Today was Mahler. Perhaps one the most exciting concerts yet. First of all, this was my first good Mahler experience. Secondly this was my longest concert experience ever. I've never played consecutively so long in a concert before. It was indeed a marathon. I don't think I've ever been so tired before I even finished a concert before. We started the 4^th movement and we still had 30 minutes to go. This is definitely a concert I'm buying on CD. I want to be able to experience our playing from the audience perspective. As a side note, Kenji was asked to come in for one of the extra horn parts. It was most certainly unexpected to see a fellow Oklahoman here at NRO. We hadn't played together since Quartz Mountain days. It's cool to see how far both of us have come.

July 12: We got Sunday morning off, but we had a rehearsal later that afternoon to sight read the Rite of Spring. I haven't been so brain dead in a really long time. I am ashamed to say I played terribly that afternoon. But, I was not the only one. I can say without a doubt that the entire orchestra was exhausted. This is the piece that we will be playing along with the Breckenridge Music Festival. I'm excited about it, and it will be fun to see another Oklahoman, Tim McFadden, in the trumpet section. Coming here I didn't expect to be so proud or where I came from. To an extent I thought I would probably keep it on the low profile. The more time goes by; I realize how proud I am to be the only person from Oklahoma here. It's an honor and privilege to be representing my state like I am.

It is late, and I am tired. I have a big last free day ahead of me. Now that I feel like I've at least somewhat caught up with all that's happened I can pick back up where I left off. Hopefully I'll be able to write more periodically to keep the moments fresh. Seeing how wonderful and successful the summer has been so far, I can only imagine what's going to be in store for me next.

Days Off Numba 2

Well, this is now my second try at this. The first time, I had gone about half a page and I lost the document. It just closed on me. So, now here goes my second go.

Monday, almost all of NRO went on white water rafting in Glenwood Springs. I was super excited about since I had never done it before. Calvin, our bass playing neighbor, was freaking out about it. I think it all stemmed from the fact that, 2 days before Tyra watched "A River Wild". Granted we all knew it wouldn't be as intense as that, much less involve bank robbers, but it was funny that we had watched it right before our big adventure. Once we all arrived in Glenwood, we divided into groups of 7 or 8. My boat, "Chu Chu" had Joe and Tim in front followed by Christine, Laura, Melissa, Tea, and me in the back. Our guide, Conner was pretty awesome. Poor Joe got absolutely soaked. Every wave seemed to get him. Connner told us that if we wanted we could sit on the front of the boat, called "Riding the Bull" and hold on to the rope. Tim took up the offer first and went to the front. My seat was slightly less adventurous compared to the front, so I eventually traded with him for the front. I had bought a water proof camera before I got to Glenwood. I decided I wanted to take a picture of an oncoming wave. So, the next set of rapids, I get ready to take a snapshot. One hand on the rope to hang on, the other on my camera, I get ready. Unfortunately, I didn't get ready soon enough. The next wave and WHOOOSH! I fall straight back into Laura's lap. More specifically, my head fell directly into Laura's knee. Somewhere on the way backwards, I took the picture. I'm very curious as to what I actually took a picture of: water or sky. Hahaha!

Today, my second day off, Tim took Christa and I to the dog park to play with his host parent's puppies. It was fun to be around all the cute little doggies. After that, Christa, Melissa, and I decided to take a random trip to Frisco to go to the Walmart there. I wanted to drop off my water proof camera and get the film developed. While on the way there, we decide to get some white t-shirts and tye-dye kit. We're gonna do them in the next couple of days and write "I Go to Rio" on them hahaha. For dinner, Tyra Ten went to the church for free dinner. We got there right at 6 and almost no one else was there. We had chili, corn bread, salad, and pie. Since there wasn't anyone else we all got to take back lots of leftovers, which was super exciting. J

In a couple of hours, Christa and I are going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter VI. We are super excited. Christa's 23^rd birthday is tomorrow. In the morning, we're going to go to the Alpine Slide Fun Park on Peak 8. There's an Alpine slide, mini golf, and lots of other stuff.

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?
---------------------

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.