What a month!! I've been in Vail, Colorado with the Dallas Symphony for the Bravo Festival this past week and it's been amazing!! We had a lot of rehearsals and a couple of concerts in Dallas the week before we left. Playing in the Meyerson is an absolutely amazing experience. The acoustics and the atmosphere are heavenly. If you are in the Dallas area or are making a trip anytime soon, please make sure to go to a symphony concert! The symphony hall alone is incredible and when combined with the fabulous Dallas Symphony Orchestra it's absolutely mind-blowing! I drove up to Colorado on the 27th of June and rehearsals and concerts immediately began the next day. Our first two concerts were pops. On Friday we played a jazz concert with the amazing trumpet player, Byron Stripling, and on Saturday we played a movie themed concert with lots of music by John Williams. I was so excited that we played the Imperial March from Star Wars and the March from Superman!! On Sunday Jaap van Zweden arrived and we performed Boridin's Prince Igor Overture, Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with Garrick Ohlsson, and Dvorak's "New World" Symphony No. 9. It was a fabulous performance and we had a great turn out for the crowd. Monday night was probably my favorite concert of the tour. We played Mozart's Idomeneo Overture, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 10 with Anne-Marie McDermott and Alessio Bax, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. I'm always amazed how rehearsing and performing Mozart always puts me in such a great mood. It's probably the best thing to wake up to in the morning! Performing Beethoven with Jaap is an experience like no other. It's extremely intense but there's also so much nuance and sensitivity. His tempi are exhilarating and everything flows so smoothly. He has a really wonderful feel for Beethoven. Tuesday was our one free day, so after I practiced a bit in the morning we drove to Boulder to spend the day there. We had some really wonderful food at Salt and Med and I found some great buys at a consignment shop! A new dress for my tango performance and some amazing never worn Enzo Angiolini shoes. I have to figure out what performance to wear these for!! The sunset on the way back from Boulder was incredible. On Wednesday I only played in the Pines of Rome which was the last piece on the program. The rest of the program was Songs by Schubert and Strauss and Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. It rained a little that evening so there wasn't the best turn out unfortunately, but playing Pines outdoors was a really thrilling experience. The offstage brass stood on top of the roof!! Our last concert was on July 4th so we had our annual Independence Day Concert. It's not always the most fun music to rehearse, but with a completely packed audience all waving their flags to the music, it gets pretty epic-ly patriotic :) There wasn't a whole lot of time to do much sightseeing while we were in Vail, and I spent most of my free time practicing, but I did get to enjoy a lot of AMAZING food with friends in the orchestra for pretty much every meal. If you are ever in Vail, definitely check out Sweet Basil, Vendetta's, Matsuhisa and La Tour. You won't be disappointed ;) Take care!
xoxo, Chloé
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