A week or so ago, I had 3 huge concerts back to back; Mozart Violin Concerto #5 with Matt Scinto's orchestra, our Meadowlark Piano Trio Concert, and BU Symphony Orchestra concert for which I was the concertmaster.
I meditated regularly through it to help manage the stress levels, and mentally I felt pretty grounded through it all. Systematically knocking them out one by one is what I found to be the best strategy! haha My body, however, couldn't keep up, and I ended up getting gastritis/ulcers from exhaustion. Thankfully, I have had a few days off from performing before I have to prepare for another 3 back to back performances, so it has gotten much better. I've been enjoying eating healthy-like a rabbit-, and sleeping at least 7 hours a day. =)
Anyway, I wanted to share a few photos from the performances taken mostly by David. Bless his heart--his social calendar filled up dramatically once he started dating me because of all of my concerts! =) It's always nice seeing his smiling face during/after concerts though.
with some of my favorites! Matt, the awesome conductor and Grace, the fearless concert master ;)
Another person who was there for all of the back to back concerts was Bayla, my amazing teacher. I didn't expect her to come to all of them, or even any of them, since she is so busy, but she was there. For all of them. But that wasn't all of it! She also spent so many extra hours with me at dress rehearsals and coachings outside of the performances, and I am so grateful for her presence in my life. She probably has no idea how much it meant to have her there, but she is one of the most supportive, encouraging, and wonderful mentors I could have ever asked for, and I feel incredibly blessed to be studying with her. =)
This photo (April's face) perfectly captures Bayla's personality - she tickled us as we were standing there being all good for the photo haha Love. Her!
It can be easy to get into the complainy mode when you are sleep deprived, your body is sore from 10+ hours of playing the day before, and you're looking at another 10 hours today... but there is really nothing better than making music with all of the people I love, constantly working on and improving myself in my craft, and getting to work with such amazing mentors that I have in my life. As cliche as it sounds, even though this was a hard path to choose 4 years ago, I would not change any of it (even the exhausting parts) for the world =)
It got a little sentimental there, but you know, sometimes, it's like that. and that's ok. Nothing wrong with being thankful for what we have, and what we have been called/chosen to do with our lives =) (especially if you don't know how you are going to survive the hectic schedule for the next few weeks haha)
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!
--Janny
