Violins on Fire

Hello everyone!

Last night was a pretty momentous occasion for Shepherd School of Music because for the first time ever, all of the violin faculty shared the stage performing Vivaldi concerto for 4 violins!  Wow. All four of the faculty here (Mr. Lin, Ms. Winkler, Mr. Kantor, and Mr. Goldsmith) are all a violin legend in her/his own right, and hearing them all performing at once was definitely an experience.

rehearsal..  I mean, look at this.  so much awesomeness on one stage.

after the performance...

With the whole Vivaldi group!

Other pieces also on the program included Maurer's concerto for 4 violins, Golijov's Last Round, and a couple of Piazzolla pieces.  It was one of Shepherd's 'Sharing the Spotlight' concerts where the students and faculty collaborate together, so all of Mr. Lin's students were in the program (minus a few injured) as well as a student cellist and a violist.

I got to play the Golijov's Last Round for 2 quartets and a bass, and when I heard it, the first thing that came to my mind was 'man, it's like Piazzolla on crack...'  If you don't believe me, here, give it a listen.

And as it so often is in the professional world, the rehearsal period for this concert was incredibly short.  As student groups, we get to spend a whole semester on a piece before we perform.  This concert?  we had 3. Yup.  And at one point at the dress rehearsal, everything disintegrated and we had a train wreck. I mean, just listen to the piece, it's incredibly easy to train wreck that movement.  See, when stuff like that happens in student groups, we would rehearse it at least one more time just to make sure that wouldn't happen again. So the 4 students in the group were expecting to do that after the run-through, and the faculty goes 'ok, I think we're good for tonight!'  and just like that, we were done with the dress rehearsal!

Surprisingly, the concert came around, and the faculty were right... no train wrecks at the performance despite the questionable dress rehearsal, just an incredibly exciting performance of the piece.  I suppose they know a thing or two about performing, huh?  ;)  haha 

The whole concert was an incredibly exciting one with a whole lot of fiery playing from everyone.  and as one piano faculty commented, 'a whole lot of e-strings on the stage!'  haha.  I don't think I have ever been a part of a chamber concert with so many violinists in the concert.  and man, all of them were on fire  =)   One of my friends who came to the concert said he was not expecting that kind of a concert on a Wednesday night!  haha   he was struggling to stay awake during the day (hump day you know) and he said when he got to the concert, he was so overwhelmed with intensity that he felt incredibly disoriented at first: I believe the exact words he used to describe how he felt during the first part of the concert were, 'omg, where am I?'  ;)

It was such an exhilarating concert, and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it!  getting to play Golijov with so many awesome players was awesome. Thank you Mr. Lin for programming such an awesome concert and asking us to be a part of it! 

Most of Mr. Lin's studio + former student + Mr. Tim Pitts that awesome bass-twirling bass faculty of ours  ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Penguin Suits and Wedding Dresses!

Hello everyone,

Last night, I got to be a part of an amazing concert, "The Golden Age of Operetta: Take 2!"  And man, was that a fun concert!  I say 'concert' but it was actually more of a 'production' that included a director, singers, an actor, a string quartet, and 2 pianists, all having a part in acting and playing with props.  Oh, and all of us were dressed in wedding gowns (until the second act when the singers changed into black dresses) and penguin suits (tail coats)!

The show followed the history of the operetta, and included works by such composers as Offenbach, Strauss, and even Gershwin!  All in all, it was a very fun and engaging concert that the audience members (both the musically inclined and the not so much) thoroughly enjoyed.

I was a part of the string quartet with Boson, Mr. Norman Fischer, and Mr. Ivo-Jan van der Werff, and we had such a great time!  I found out that Mr. Fischer has an amazing voice (because we were also given parts to sing, much to my horror), and that we have some hilarious people on our faculty  ;)

It was also fun getting to meet and play with Linda, the awesome pianist!  I had attended her recital, and have always thought that she was a great pianist, so it was really fun to get to play with her   =)
Boson and the ladies  ;)

A huge thank you to Ms. Susie Dunn for asking me to be a part of this wonderful production, and also a huge congratulations to her, and also to everyone else involved, for a wonderful night of music and much laughter  ;) 

*sorry about the quality of the photos; the lights were quite dim, and I forgot my camera at home, so only had my little iphone camera...

I hope you all had a wonderful Saturday so far!
If you are in Houston, stay dry out there! or better yet, stay inside and avoid the flash floods!
--Janny

Lincoln Center!

Hello everyone!

Last Sunday the participants of the Foulger International Music Festival gave 

our final performances at the Lincoln Center!!!  

There were two different concerts (one at 11 am and one at 6 pm), 

as well as a masterclass with the violinist, Chee-Yun, 

and our octet was chosen as the closer for the first concert.

As you can imagine, everyone was super excited to be performing there, and there was a constant buzz of incredible energy throughout the whole day.

Music making is such an incredible thing because so many things affect the performance, and it's super exhilarating to be a part of such a large group that is feeding off of the energy.

I could already tell the difference before we went on stage because all eight of us were so focused,

smiling, confident, and extremely energized.

Then when we got on stage?  well, we've never had more fun  =)

with the beautiful backdrop of the Manhattan skylines

love these folks

the thing about the energy high is that...  well, you must come down sometime.

and when you do, and you were sleep deprived before, this happens.

enjoying some sun before it started pouring before the evening concert

It was such an incredible experience, and I feel so blessed to have been given such an opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this year happen,

 it really was a summer to remember!  =)

sigh...  lovely people.
I will miss all of you so much!
till we meet again.  soon.
--Janny

A Feast of Brahms

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend!  As I mentioned in my last post, I was very excited about my weekend full of concerts, but I could not have imagined just how incredible the weekend turned out to be.

Saturday night was the student concert, and I was blown away by my fellow students at Foulger.

Of course, all of the student performers were incredibly talented, and it was fun to hear so many 

different student performers, but what I was really impressed by was the support we all showed for one another and the sense of camaraderie which has already developed.  

There is a very large range in age among the students, so some of the older students are in their 

upper 20s while some of the younger students are only 10 or 11.  

If you think about it, this is a very large gap, and I can't imagine many other circumstances 

when students with this large of an age gap can come together as a community.  

However, there we were, clapping enthusiastically after each performer, supporting our colleagues 

even when the concerts ran long, and goofing off together before and after the performances.

age gap:: upper 20's to teens.  Friends who musically goof off together, stay together?  haha
(violin lesson for Alex, the pianist)
Photo cred: Allison Eldredge  

And on Sunday, we had the 'Feast of Brahms' concert.

I can't tell you how incredible this day was.

Actually, the whole week of preparing for this day was incredible.

As I mentioned before, I was performing with two of the faculty, Allison Eldredge (Cello) and 

Hsin-Yun Huang (Viola), and a fellow fellow, Alex Beyer (Piano).

From the first rehearsal when I heard all of them play, I was in awe; they were so amazing!

I must admit, I was a little bit cowed at first, and felt rather inadequate in my own playing.  

I mean, how could I not when so much of the Brahms we were working on had duet work among the group members and I could so clearly hear the stark difference between the colors they were able to produce and the ones I was able to produce... sad...  

so I worked. and worked.  remember this post?  

now you know the reason behind my unusually intense practice regime.  haha  ;)

But actually, later in the week, as we neared our performance, what was hindering my performance 

during rehearsals was actually the very feeling of inadequacy which had driven me to practice so much 

earlier in the week.

The kind of character I feel most comfortable portraying is the robust, exciting, fiery, 

give-it-all-you've-got, kind of a character in music, and I knew I was in trouble when I was given 

comments like, "you need to give more, be more exciting." and "Lead more."

These were things I had never had to worry about before, and I knew I was not being fully myself in my playing.  I was trying to be more sensitive, which IS a comment I usually get, 

and I was obviously over-compensating.

It's a funny thing, this mental block we develop as musicians. 

Sometimes it's of the silliest things, yet it can be so detrimental to our playing!  And though my mental block was not silly--they really are so much better than I am--I knew that I had to get over it in order to give a great chamber music performance. 

As someone who lives by the motto 'mind over matter', I am ashamed to say that it took me an absurdly long time to break through this block.  Allison even told me to view her and Hsin-Yun as colleagues 

in this group rather than as faculty, and though I understood it completely, I was still unable to put it to action. 

What finally did work, was one of my friends at the dress rehearsal telling me I sounded like a pansy.

What?!  I NEVER sound like a Pansy!!!!

Unacceptable.

So by the time the concert came around, I was able to just let everything go, and really enjoy making music together with these amazing musicians.  The whole concert of all three Brahms Piano Quartets was wonderful, and though I can't necessarily put into words what the concert was like and do it justice, I think everyone, both on stage and in the audience, felt it.

It's definitely an experience I will treasure for many many years to come, and I feel extremely blessed to have been given such an incredible opportunity.

The whole Mary Foulger Institute.  Fellows and Faculty.

Our group!!!  

<3     =)

my fellow fellow!  we matched and everything  ;)

Mr. Kim, the Executive Director.
This would never have happened without him! yay!

I am so thankful for everyone involved who made this concert and the institute experience possible.

Though the Mary Foulger Institute is over, there are still 3 more weeks of the festival remaining, 

and I'm so excited to continue to grow and develop here.

Oh, and have I mentioned how awesome my fellow students are here? 

Stay tuned for more student-life related posts to come  ;)

Happy Monday!

--Janny

Weekend of Concerts

Hello everyone!

Last night we were privileged to witness the first concert of the first season of Foulger International Music Festival!!  woot woot!  and what an extraordinary concert it was! I am still excited just thinking about it!

It was a Foulger Virtuosi concert of Faure, Popper, Schubert, Schumann, and Shostakovich, and it was so inspiring to see our teachers and coaches performing.  

Popper Requieum for 3 cellos and piano.  Beautiful...

(Allison Eldredge, Mark Churchill, Daniel Levitov)

Schumann Piano Quartet--notice the double cello action!

Schumann Piano Quartet has such a gorgeous slow movement...

(Tae Kim, Miranda Cuckson, Scott Kluksdahl, Karin Brown)

Tuning for Shostakovich Piano Quintet

yay! they were so good!!

(Max Levinson, Christof Heubner, Anton Miller, Tomas Landschoot, Miranda Cuckson)

Shostakovich has a special place in my heart, and their performance of the quintet was incredibly exciting!

All of the students were gushing about how wonderful the recital was all the way back to our dorms, 
and many were so inspired that they went straight to practice when they got back!  
Our poor roommates who wanted to sleep...  haha.  but seriously, we have some incredible performers on faculty here, and I'd highly recommend streaming the faculty concerts (and the student ones too!) from the FIMF website.  =)

The concert was extra fun/inspiring for me because the teacher I have been working with this week, Miranda Cuckson, was performing in two of the pieces; the Schumann Piano Quartet and the Shostakovich Piano Quintet. (she's the one in the yellow dress) wow. she is incredible!  

The thing is, one of the pieces I am working on is full of spiccato strokes, so we had been working on spiccato a lot during our lessons (spiccato is a bow technique where the bow is doing a sort of a continuous controlled bounce on the strings).
So here I was, struggling with spiccato allll week--my roomies have heard so many disgruntled noises while I practiced this week haha.   Then, at the concert, we heard the faculty play the Schumann Piano Quartet 2nd movement, which is basically all incredibly fast spiccato-ing, effortlessly.  
My friends and I couldn't help but chuckle...
I mean, what else can you do when they make it seem so easy?
It was like they were enjoying playing it!  ;)  haha
It was definitely a moment of "ohhh, so THAT's what it's supposed to be like."

Tonight at 7pm, there will be the 2nd concert of the season at Foulger of the student performers.
I will be performing 1st and 2nd movements of the Prokofiev Sonata for Violin and Piano #2 with pianist Tae Kim, and I'm definitely feeling the pre-performance excitement this morning =)
But before I get to perform that tonight, I still have the open rehearsal for the Brahms concert at 1 pm to prepare for our concert tomorrow at 3pm!
So many performances!!
If you aren't able to attend these concerts but would still like to hear them, tune in here.

Well, time to get ready for these marathon weekend of concerts!
Thanks for reading!
--Janny