Wanted:: Korean Food!!

Hello everyone!

So here we are in week 2 of being at Foulger International Music Festival!
This week has been much more relaxing than the last one, and I have been thoroughly enjoying a bit of a break.  Of course, I am still in a chamber group and I still take 2 lessons per week, but the chamber group rehearsals are no longer 2+ hours long, and my lessons are more focused on tweaking my setup in violin playing, so I don't have to be freaking about giving a solo performance this week.

Today during lunch, my roomies, Meredith and Jean, and I started talking about Korean food, and it has developed into this impossible obsession for me in the past hour or so.  ugh...  I miss it so much!
The food at Foulger, at Kean University, is actually not bad.  However, it is a college dining hall, and we all know how great they are.  I've been eating a piece of pizza for almost every meal since I've arrived here, and not only is that not healthy, but it is also incredibly monotonous.  I remember the one Chinese food night they had at the dining hall since we arrived here, and so many of us were so excited!  too bad the meal turned out to be,,, less than ideal.

And no offense to Americanized Chinese food--because I really do love sesame chicken and orange chicken, and etc--but it does not even come close to what I am really craving right now, which is this:

OH MY GOSH!!!  KOREAN BARBECUE!!!!!   SOOOOO  AMMMAAAAZIIIINGGG!!!!

and Samgyupsal.  droolll....   sigh...

and Bulgogi. and BBQ shrimp.

and Galbi!

The pictures are from the day of my lil bro's graduation when we went to celebrate with food. per usual.  haha.  I really love how Koreans celebrate.  What better way to celebrate than to eat lots and lots of amazing food together, right?

Anyway, that is my fantasy at the moment.  Korean food.  It really can't be that hard to make Korean food for the dining halls, and people would LOVE it.  Just make some sticky rice, make Bulgogi, and set it out with Kimchi.  It really isn't too much to ask, I don't think.  haha

Just 2 more weeks... and I can have Korean food again...
In the meantime, I should probably stop daydreaming and get back to practicing. =)

Happy Friday!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
--Janny

Sight reading sessions. 21st Century style.

Hello everyone!

In the classical music world there is a certain skill, a rather valued skill, called 'Sight reading'.  

As the name suggests, it is the ability to play/read any piece of music on sight without any practice.

It's an ability we get tested on quite often, especially during orchestral auditions, and consequently, hearing the words 'sigh read' strikes fear into many students' hearts.

As musicians, we spend so much of our lives practicing so many different sets of skills that 

when we have to play something that we haven't practiced or seen before, it really unnerves many of us.

Another reason it's so scary is that it's a skill that's rather difficult to 'practice'.

I mean, the only way I can think to 'practice' sight reading is just do it over and over, 

but this sort of practicing is easier said than done.

First of all, who has just a whole bunch of unlearned music lying about?

Most of the music I have at home are pieces I have already worked on, 

and I only tend to buy music when I need to learn certain pieces.  

Secondly, have you ever tried to sight read by yourself?  It's quite boring. 

And when you are alone, you can stop and go back to fix particularly atrocious spots anytime you want, which obviously defeats the purpose of the practice.

This is why the best way to practice sight reading is with your friends!

Because you are reading chamber music (the best type of music in my opinion),

 it's automatically that much more fun and rewarding.

AND because there are others reading with you, you can't just stop and go fix things, 

you just have to keep going.

It's kind of like the tragic scene in Lion King.  

Even if you stumble, you just have to keep on running to avoid being trampled. 

And sometimes, this is exactly how it may feel.  haha.  but it's character building...  I think.

Oddly enough, I actually really love sight reading.

I can already feel the stink eyes coming at me from some of my musician friends  haha  but it's the truth.

Something to do with having to be on my toes all the time, being in the moment 100%, 

being incredibly alert, and the moment of panic at seeing an an impossible looking passage and somehow miraculously being able to play every single note!!  

Sight reading can be an extremely exhilarating experience.

Usually, it's difficult for me to find friends who wants to sight read as much as I do, but since I'm at Foulger this summer with Timmay (cello), I've been having an easier time; all you need is another violinist and a violist, and we can read quartets alllll night long!!  =)

And Timmay, bless his soul, is usually willing to read with me.  And when he doesn't feel like it,,, well, he ends up reading reading with me anyway.  Oh the power of persuasion!  ;)   I love him. I really do.  haha

So here are some footages of our reading sessions.  

And at Foulger, we have brought sight reading sessions into the 21st Century.

We no longer read in this manner.

We read like this

no less than 4 laptops per sight reading session.

God bless IMSLP.

This sight reading session, we decided to pay homage to the old days, and had one actual music and a stand.

We of course had 4 lap tops as well.

 And because we are all college students, and we are constantly eating, we also had snacks.

Something that would have never been allowed in the olden days; can you imagine what the Mozarts would have said if we were spilling peanuts all over their piano?  *gasp*

Happy hump day!

And thanks so much for stopping by!

--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

Daily life at Foulger

Hello everyone!

I can't believe I have been at Foulger International Music Festival for almost a week!  

I can honestly say that I have played more of my violin in this past week at Foulger than I have in the month or so that I spent at home...  

I don't know about you guys, but I find it extremely difficult for me to practice at home; 

there are just so many distractions!

books, Mckinley, grandma, lil bro, Mckinley, dancing, books,,,

It's especially difficult because I have a car at home, and there's always something to do in Seattle!  

Here at Foulger, this is all I have...

my violin.

We are all supposed to practice in our own rooms, but because I got so tired of staring at the 

same 4 incredibly white walls, 

I have since moved out into the living room area...

to look at slightly different 4 incredibly white walls.

In order to understand how I could already be so tired of these walls when I've only been practicing in them for 5 days, we need to take a look at my daily practicing schedule...

For example, here was my Wednesday's schedule.

10 am ish::  Phone dies overnight and wake up an hour later than intended. eek!

10:00 am - noon::  Start practicing after a quick shower

noon - 1 pm::  Skip lunch because Brahms Piano Quartet in g is kicking my butt... (practice practice)

1 -3 pm::  Brahms rehearsal

3:20 pm::  Stumble into my room after the rehearsal 

3:30 - 6:30 pm::  Start practicing for lesson. Not prepared... much thanks to Brahms. 

(but after 3 hours, manage to scrap together Prokofiev and get prepared for lesson)

6:30 - 7 pm::  Wolf down an impressive amount of food for dinner.

7 - 8:25 pm::  lesson.

8:30 pm:: pass out on the bed for a little bit.

the end! yay!

So you see, it seems that my violin and I will be getting to know each other quite well this summer...

And though my finger tips are protesting (my calluses have all disappeared during my stay at home), 

I am truly having a blast playing so much music with so many wonderful musicians  =)

Well, off I go to practice, yet again, for the student concert tomorrow and the Brahms Concert on Sunday!

Have a great weekend!

--Janny

4th of July!

Hello everyone!

Happy Independence Day!
I hope you are enjoying this holiday in true American fashion--you know, parades, fire works, etc etc.

For me, it doesn't really feel like it's Independence Day at the moment because I am at Foulger Music Festival.  There are no fireworks going off, no one seems to be in patriotic clothes, there isn't any parade near the Keane University where the festival is held... but the biggest reason it doesn't feel like it's a national holiday is because we are still working like dogs today!  haha   I'll post about my daily schedule tomorrow, but from the moment I got up this morning until now I've only been away from my violin to take a shower! (I couldn't even eat breakfast or lunch!  dinner time can't come fast enough)

What makes it all worth while is the chamber music group I am playing in right now, the Brahms Piano Quartet in g minor mentioned in this post.  It's with Alex Beyer-piano-who is a fellow like myself, Allison Eldrege-cello-who is the artistic director of the festival, and Hsin-Yun Hwang-viola-who is a beast of a violist, really incredible.  I can't tell you just how wonderful this experience is, and I am learning so much playing with these amazing musicians!  Our concert will be this coming Sunday at 3 pm at the Enlow Hall .  It would be wonderful to see all of you if you happen to be in New Jersey (it's also really easy to get to from NYC), it should be a great concert.  Also, it is going to be streaming live here.

Hope you are enjoying this holiday in true Independence Day style!
--Janny

RIP Mr. Hazelwood.

Dear friends,

I write this in a bit of a state of shock.

There is a man who influenced and inspired me in so many ways during my stay at Interlochen Arts Academy; a man who introduced me to the incredible depth of orchestral repertoire, a man who had enough patience with a mere child who failed to bring in the whole 2nd violin section at a concert, and a man who believed in that same child enough to pushed her to be a leader the next year.

Mr. Hazelwood was an incredibly caring teacher who was always willing to help any and all of his students with whatever they needed, and who believed in them so much that they achieved things they had never thought to achieve before.  I have so many fond memories of the Interlochen Symphony Orchestra in many memorable concerts under his direction, and I can't express in words just how grateful I am to him for showing me how wonderful orchestral playing can be.

Though he achieved so much and did so much for many during his stay at Interlochen, I will remember the little moments with the most fondness; his laugh, the way he greeted us at the end of each break, his diagrams as he tried to teach us how to count polyrhythms, the sparkle in his eyes after a great concert, the post-concert pat on the back or a hug, and how we all, Mr. Hazelwood included, cried as he read the goodbye letter to the orchestra as he left for Bogota, Columbia.

Thank you Mr. Hazelwood for all of the work you have done at Interlochen as well as with different orchestras around Michigan and Bogota, Columbia.  You leave a great legacy behind, and you will be greatly missed.

RIP Mr. Hazelwood.
Much love.
--Janny