The Mother's Day Weekend Move

We got my mom moved to her new place this weekend and celebrated Mother's Day with her yesterday instead of today. We had to fly home today in order to be home tomorrow for doctor's appointments, work, etc., so it wasn't possible to celebrate on the actual day. Over Friday and Saturday we got most of her things unpacked, the essentials organized, and cleaned and got her out of the old apartment.

I am so glad she found her new place. It is an assisted living facility about a mile away from the house she sold 2 years ago. She and my dad bought the house shortly after they married, and she lived in the house for 50 years before deciding that the house was too much for her. For the past 2 years she has been in a very nice apartment complex, but in the past 2 years she has slowed down considerably, and it has been downright terrifying to watch her go up and down the stairs at the old (hurrah!) apartment.

I am so pleased that she was able to find this place while she could choose where to live. She knows people who live there. When we arrived, there were signs everywhere welcoming her as the new resident. For her first week there, a different person has signed up to go with her to dinner, so that she won't eat alone. One of her dinner 'dates' called not more than 15 minutes after the phone started working, and the person turned out to be someone she knew from elementary/middle school! Everyone we met in the hallway said, "oh, you're the new person!" and welcomed her. One of my dad's cousins lives there and has already signed her up to go on a field trip next week. I think she's going to be very happy with her new living situation.

I travel again on Thursday, so I actually get 3 full days at home! Hopefully some time to practice, which lately in cello blogosphere seems to be a shrinking resource. Hopefully we will all experience an expansion of time and cello practice!

The too much travel rant

These past few weeks haven't been good for practicing and playing. I came home on Thursday, after a 10-day stretch where I was home for 1 day. I leave again this Tuesday and come home on Sunday. My travel was supposed to decrease, but instead I'm spending most of the month of May away from home. The mix of work projects and helping my mom move means lots of May in the Bay Area and not much time at home.

I don't like to play on the rental cello that I have in the Bay Area. The bow is hideous and my hand starts to hurt after a 1/2 hour of playing, so I rarely play longer than that (assuming I even have time to practice when I'm there). I not planning to keep that cello much longer, which is why I haven't done anything about the bow. My plan has been to take my current cello down after I get my new cello. I'm still not sure when I'll get my new cello, and when we'll be able to drive to the Bay Area.

Yesterday I was on the piano for most of the time for our Saturday group. We played the Arthur Foote piano quartet (it's really nice!) and the first movement of the Brahms C minor piano quartet. Our first violinist summed up the first movement, "That would be really nice if we could actually play it!" Our 2nd violinist showed up and rescued us from the Brahms and we played the Schumann piano quintet. I love the quintet but have only played the piano part once before, and had a really hard time yesterday with it, keeping the rhythm steady. sigh. I will have to add it to my practice list for the piano, along with the Dvorak and Brahms quintets so that I can be ready to play it when needed. Then the other cellist had to leave, so I switched to cello (yay!) and we played Puccini's Chrysantheum - very lovely! I'd like more time on cello..maybe in 2 weeks when I'm in town again!

Dungey Cello Update

This weekend was really fun. Chris Dungey was in Seattle for a conference sponsored by the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. On Sunday they hosted an event called "Players Meet Makers". Chris had intended to show my new cello at this event, but for a variety of reasons my cello isn't done, so he borrowed one of his cellos from a member of the Portland Symphony to show. I tried out all of the cellos there (Chris had the best cello) and a variety of bows on his cello. It was so nice to play on such nice cellos! There was even a photographer from the Seattle Times and he took several pictures of me playing. One of the pictures got published online on Monday!

But, onto why my cello is delayed. Chris now intends to enter my cello into the bi-annual competition of violin/viola/cello makers in Portland in November, so he's decided to take some extra time with mine. Also, he managed to get some very large pieces of maple from a fellow maker while he was at the show- big enough to make a 1-piece cello back! He's decided to use one for my cello. So my cello will have a 1-piece back! We have it at our house (he flew to Seattle, so we're storing the other pieces of wood until he can come pick it up in November). Here's a picture of the piece that will become my cello back...




The major reason why my cello is late is the cello that Chris just finished in March...for Lynn Harrell. He lent me the DVD of Lynn Harrell playing his new Dungey cello for the first time and the sound is astounding. He's already used his new cello for a few recitals. Chris said that he was so nervous when he delivered the cello...and just so thrilled now about how well the cello turned out. He's going to use the same model for my cello...so if only I could play half as well!

Orchestra - starting up again!

Monday I went to orchestra instead of to the rehearsal for the Dalai Lama event. Attendance was sparse because many people were at the other rehearsal. We read through most of the music we're playing for our next concerts, and it will be fun!

The theme is movies. We're even playing the world premiere of a suite of music from "Year of the Comet". Now I've never heard of the movie, so when I looked, the movie itself has very bad reviews but the music doesn't. I'm listening to some of it on Hummie Mann's web site and the music is gorgeous - orchestral celtic music.

The program is:
Star Trek Through the Years - Custer
Prince Igor Overture - Borodin
Outdoor Overture - Copland
Fantasie Brillante - Borne
On the Beautiful Blue Danube - Strauss
Movie Suite from 'Year of the Comet' - Mann
Our Town - Copland
Raiders March - Williams

We laughed when we played the Star Trek theme - someone started reciting the opening monologue in the appropriate spot.

This program is going to be a lot of fun to play! And it's much easier than the last program, which is a good thing because my travel schedule has gone haywire; I'm going to miss about 1/3 of the rehearsals as well as the first concert (and I thought my travel was supposed to be cut back because of tightening budgets!)

Pulling Back for Sanity

There was no orchestra rehearsal on Monday because we take a week off after a concert. Our conductor graciously offered to hold a rehearsal for any one who is playing for the Dalai Lama event instead, so about a dozen of us showed up. It was the second time I had played through the cello part, and as we went through it at the speed he thought we'd take it for the performance, I realized that it just wasn't going to be realistic for me to expect to be able to play it next week. I'm traveling now, waiting for my flight home to Seattle, and then my husband and I are going to take some time off to celebrate our anniversary. So as I thought it through, I decided that the stress of trying to learn the 4th movement of Beethoven's ninth in 2 days just wasn't worth it. Once I decided, I felt much better.

So I am looking forward to our trip! Our anniversary was on Tuesday, the day I left for my work-related trip. We're going to the Powell River area of Canada, which I am very much looking forward to! He starts a new job on Monday, so the timing is perfect for a few days of R&R.

Better the Second Time!

Today was the 2nd concert - same program as the previous concert on Monday night.

But this time, we played so much better! The acoustics in the venue were better, we fixed some of the problems from the first playing, and the Popper was way better! The whole program went very well - I think this concert was better than the previous one.

We could hear each other much better in this venue - that made a huge difference. I still had a few moments where my vibrato disappeared, but I felt so much more relaxed this time and had a lot more fun playing. It was sheer relief to finish and know that I won't have play the Popper again...for a long time.

My teacher came, with his family. He said that when his 6-year old daughter heard us start the Popper, she said, "I know that piece!" He said our ensemble playing sounded good - yay! My mother is visiting from California, and since she is 82 I'm not sure that she will want to travel here again any time soon. It was very special to have her listen (and I told her that it doesn't matter how old children get; moms have an obligation to attend their kid's performances ). Some of my friends came to listen - I love that! I think having them in the audience made me relax more; I like playing for friends and family because they're already biased and will give me the benefit of the doubt!

I'm so glad we decided to peform the Popper with the orchestra - my teacher was commenting when I left my lesson last night that over the past months as I've been getting ready to perform that my playing has improved a lot - the nice thing about a goal and deadline!

Now for the next deadline, the concert for the Dalai Lama - in 11 days!

Concert! First Popper Performance!

We played the Popper last night - first performance!

I don't remember the last time I had sweaty palms or the shakes before a performance...but I had both last night. But by the middle of the piece I felt a little more relaxed, and was feeling less of that out-of-body experience. I'm glad I had all of the hours of practice as a background because there were moments when I was playing on autopilot.

I've played it better in practice; in fact we've played it better in practice. I lost some of my vibrato during my solo bits, but we managed to stay together most of the time. My husband said that he could hear me over the orchestra, that was good!

The rest of the concert went very well. We played 3 of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances (#2,#3, & #4); Vaughn Williams' Norfolk Rhapsody; the Popper Requiem for 3 cellos; and Kallinikov Symphony No. 1. I was exhausted at the end of it...the Kallinikov is a very tiring piece to play.

I want to play the Popper better for our second concert on Saturday! But what a relief...my debut with the orchestra is done!