Faculty Concert Take Two

Hello everyone!

On Friday night we witnessed the 2nd ever faculty concert of the Foulger International Festival! It was a concert of Schubert, Strauss, and Schoenberg, and yet again, I feel so incredibly blessed to have the chance to work with such amazing musicians.

It's been so great for me because both weeks, I have been able to see the teacher I have worked with during the week perform in these faculty concerts.  Last week it was Miranda Cuckson, and this week it was Nicholas Kitchen, who performed in two of the pieces (Strauss violin sonata, and Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night).  

Mr. Kitchen playing the Struass

I love getting to see my teachers performing because it's a great way to witness the things I am working on in lessons come to life.  This week, I have been working a lot on sound production and fiddling around with playing without a shoulder rest.  At the moment, it's really difficult for me because I have never played without it before, but I'm willing to try it out for awhile.  Perhaps I will decide that's how I want to play, perhaps I won't, but I think it will be beneficial either way since I can hear that the sound really changes when I play without it.  


Mr. Kitchen always plays without the shoulder rest, and oh man. his sound...  it's so captivating.  The first piece he played was the Strauss violin sonata with Mr. Levinson, and I have fallen head over heels in love.  The gorgeous 2nd movement, the exhilarating last movement... I just want to play it all!  It was an incredibly exciting performance, and the audience was more than appreciative.  3 rounds of bows and a standing ovation!

see what I mean?  haha

I also found it fascinating that he plays off of a computer!  I mean, we have been playing off of a computer during our sight reading sessions as mentioned here, but in a performance!?  It's really cool though because he has this foot pedal that scrolls up or down which makes page turning effortless.  He also said that usually when he performs, he puts the score on a projector so that the audience can follow along.  How cool is that??

And then they played the Schoenberg.  All through music history classes, I had never been a fan of Schoenberg.  It sounds just so. weird.  When I think of Schoenberg, the first piece that comes to mind is the Pierrot Lunaire, and I think many will agree with me in saying that the adjective 'beautiful' is the exact opposite of what we think of during most of that piece.  But this piece, Verklarte Nacht?  So. Incredibly. Beautiful.   And they really captured the characters and the emotions of the piece.

What an emotional roller coaster of a night.  It's really amazing what great music can do to one's emotions in such a short amount of time.  I am usually not the most emotional of people, and my friends at the concert and also Abro (because I called her during intermission. My heart was just so full of.. everything after the Strauss, and I had to inform her that was the next sonata we will be working on together haha) can attest to how dazed I was by the end of the concert--I don't take emotional roller coasters very well apparently haha.  

I cannot wait for the next two faculty concerts!  yay!

Mr. Kitchen and I

Thanks for reading!

--Janny