Our orchestra played concert #1 of 3 last night. The theme was music from film. It is a fun program! I thought we played very well. The program was
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
On Sunday we play an outdoor concert at the Ballard Locks, and we will add
The Colonel Bogey March
The Liberty Bell March
and Stars and Stripes Forever
I have been outed...sort of. When I arrived at the venue, our conductor stopped me and said, is cellogeek your blog? I said, why yes, it is. He said that he figured out it was me...someone who plays cello in the Microsoft Orchestra and who travels a lot (I miss a certain number of rehearsals because of travel)...had to be me. He was right!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Summer Play
We played lots of string quartets this weekend!
Saturday we played 3 Schubert quartets. One very early (D74) and the op post. 125,1 and I can't remember the other one. Our violist liked them so much that she borrowed the book so that she could see if anyone in her other string quartet had them...so that they could play them for an upcoming gig. They were very readable, fun to play, and sounded really nice. We read the first one and kept going through more because they were so much fun to play.
Today we played a number of pieces, incluing Vivaldi Summer, a 3-cello piece by Beethoven, and the first movement of Beethoven Piano Trio op. 1 no. 1, and ended with Dvorak 'American' quartet. The group has been working on it and today we had a lot of fun playing it. My favorite movement is the 2nd one, which has some awesome cello solo parts. We ended with a high - playing the last movement the best we've played it. We finished and said, wow! that was fun!
Chris Dungey called me yesterday with an update on my new cello - he is hoping to have it done by late summer/early fall. His complication is that he had started my cello with a 2-piece back, and when he decided to switch it to the one piece back, it delayed my cello - the gist of it being that he is working on 2 cellos simultaneously and isn't very well set up to work on more than 1 (given where they are in the process - molding the ribs to the back). He absolutely needs to have it done for the makers competition in November in Portland. He will borrow my cello and enter it into the competition. I am busily trying to improve my playing as much as I can so that I can be ready for it! He also told me that Lynn Harrell is touring and playing almost exclusively with his Dungey cello - I'd love to hear him play that cello...
Saturday we played 3 Schubert quartets. One very early (D74) and the op post. 125,1 and I can't remember the other one. Our violist liked them so much that she borrowed the book so that she could see if anyone in her other string quartet had them...so that they could play them for an upcoming gig. They were very readable, fun to play, and sounded really nice. We read the first one and kept going through more because they were so much fun to play.
Today we played a number of pieces, incluing Vivaldi Summer, a 3-cello piece by Beethoven, and the first movement of Beethoven Piano Trio op. 1 no. 1, and ended with Dvorak 'American' quartet. The group has been working on it and today we had a lot of fun playing it. My favorite movement is the 2nd one, which has some awesome cello solo parts. We ended with a high - playing the last movement the best we've played it. We finished and said, wow! that was fun!
Chris Dungey called me yesterday with an update on my new cello - he is hoping to have it done by late summer/early fall. His complication is that he had started my cello with a 2-piece back, and when he decided to switch it to the one piece back, it delayed my cello - the gist of it being that he is working on 2 cellos simultaneously and isn't very well set up to work on more than 1 (given where they are in the process - molding the ribs to the back). He absolutely needs to have it done for the makers competition in November in Portland. He will borrow my cello and enter it into the competition. I am busily trying to improve my playing as much as I can so that I can be ready for it! He also told me that Lynn Harrell is touring and playing almost exclusively with his Dungey cello - I'd love to hear him play that cello...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Cute Little Cello
Tonight I returned the rental cello that I've had in the Bay Area. I've been here all week wrapping up some projects and will go home on Friday. After that I finally get to take advantage of the budget cuts we've been asked to make (i.e. reduced travel) and will be happy to stay home most of this summer. Hooray!
When I returned the cello the owner of the shop showed me a 1/10 size rental cello that had just been returned. It was incredibly cute! It was just slightly bigger than a viola. I had to scrunch my fingers up to play it. The bow was about 1/2 the length of a full-size bow and and the frog was smaller. I wanted to tuck the cello under my arm and strum it like a ukelele. I did tuck it under my chin to pretend it was a viola.
Puppies, kittens, 1/10 size cellos -- they are all so cute!
When I returned the cello the owner of the shop showed me a 1/10 size rental cello that had just been returned. It was incredibly cute! It was just slightly bigger than a viola. I had to scrunch my fingers up to play it. The bow was about 1/2 the length of a full-size bow and and the frog was smaller. I wanted to tuck the cello under my arm and strum it like a ukelele. I did tuck it under my chin to pretend it was a viola.
Puppies, kittens, 1/10 size cellos -- they are all so cute!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Innovation
Right now I have one of the coolest jobs I've ever had. I get to spend my days thinking about innovation. One of the projects I've spent a lot of my time on recently is a contest sponsored by my employer, Cisco Systems, looking for innovative ideas from outside the company. We just had an article published in Business Week about the contest. We were trying to learn how we could tap into innovation globally and have been amazed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the participants from all over the world.
Disclaimer: Because I've actually named Cisco, I have to add this disclaimer that says that what I've written in this blog posting reflects my personal views, and not necessarily those of Cisco.
One of reasons why I've been fascinated with Christopher Dungey is the commitment he has to change his process of making cellos to improve the sound. He's invented a new endpin and a new tailpiece that make cellos sound better. I've been able try out some of his prototypes and give feedback. It's fun to be part of the process of improvement, which is why I suppose I don't mind the process of learning how to play the cello - which for the entire time I've been playing has been all about changing what I've been doing to try to make my sound better.
Disclaimer: Because I've actually named Cisco, I have to add this disclaimer that says that what I've written in this blog posting reflects my personal views, and not necessarily those of Cisco.
One of reasons why I've been fascinated with Christopher Dungey is the commitment he has to change his process of making cellos to improve the sound. He's invented a new endpin and a new tailpiece that make cellos sound better. I've been able try out some of his prototypes and give feedback. It's fun to be part of the process of improvement, which is why I suppose I don't mind the process of learning how to play the cello - which for the entire time I've been playing has been all about changing what I've been doing to try to make my sound better.
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