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On Saturday night I performed the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor with the Missouri Symphony! I have dreamed of playing this piece with orchestra for years so this was truly a dream come true!  Working with the Missouri Symphony this week has been a blast! We had a sort of preview rehearsal with most of the orchestra members on Tuesday evening and then the real rehearsal was on Friday afternoon. Two and a half hours of Shostakovich-y bliss! I felt so lucky to have basically a whole afternoon to work on the piece. It gave us plenty of time to figure out transitions and run the faster movements a couple of times.  The day of the concert I got up early to practice (but made sure I got a good night's sleep) and had the dress rehearsal at 11:00. We did a couple of spots and then did a whole run through of the piece. Isn't the Missouri Theatre beautiful? The rest of the afternoon I practiced, rested and snacked on a few things. It can be hard to find the appetite to eat anything the day of a big concert! I grabbed the things I needed where I was staying like my dress, make up and curling iron and then went back to the hall to get ready. After the overture Ruslan and Lyudmila it was time to go on stage! I said a quick prayer to remind myself that everything is in God's hands and that this performance would be for Him and then walked out to the audience applause. It was such an exhilarating experience playing this whole piece with orchestra in front of an audience! I've played many concertos with orchestras before, but this one was new for me and it was such a thrill! The first movement was dark and contemplative, the second movement was exciting and full of character contrasts, the third was heartfelt and passionate, and the increasingly intense cadenza blasted its way into the fourth movement which kept driving forward all the way to the end! By the time it was over I felt like I had run a marathon!  This was certainly one of the top performances I've been happiest with. I think it's mostly because the piece is just so spectacular, it's amazing to play it at all! I want to sincerely thank the Missouri Symphony Orchestra for their amazing work on this piece. I felt so comfortable playing with them and the accompaniment is not easy! Not to mention putting it together with the soloist! I couldn't have asked for a better set of musicians playing behind me or a better conductor to work with! Thanks, Dad ^_^ I got a couple of pictures backstage during the intermission - here's one with my dad :) Thankfully I had my sister around to carry my violin for me because I certainly couldn't walk up and down the stairs very easily in my dress! :P After the intermission I went into the audience with my mom, sister and grandmother to watch the Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" Symphony on the 2nd half. It was an incredible and moving performance! I just LOVE the Presto 3rd movement of that symphony!  I got to talk to a lot of the audience members at intermission and after the concert. I'm always glad to get to do that and am sorry that I don't get to see everyone! I got a few pictures with some of the kids from the Missouri Symphony Conservatory, which was super fun! Here's a picture with Annika! She was so great and took some pictures for me during the Friday afternoon rehearsal! Thanks, Annika! <3  The next morning I was very surprised to find a giant color photo of me in the paper! I'm SO happy that they found my new pictures on my website!! Thanks again, Kate Lemmon for the amazing photography! It looks INCREDIBLE in the paper!
xoxo,
Chloé
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On Wednesday I had my photo shoot with the fantastic, Kate Lemmon! I spent most of the day preparing for it - picking out all of my dresses, outfits and shoes, putting together a bag of extra make up, hair accessories, hair spray, etc., getting a manicure so my nails were nice and shiny, and getting my hair and make up done at Face Fashion. Preparing for photos takes a long time! We met at Torchy's Taco's in Rice Village at 5:45 for our first set. They have this lit up sign on the wall that Kate thought could be very effective for a promotional photo. It turned out amazing!! 
It was a little crazy shooting photos in a restaurant - especially since I was in a bright red formal gown. But the manager was really accommodating and a few of the customers even offered to move so they wouldn't be in our shot. Overall that was a huge success for this photo! We then drove to Rice University to take photos in Duncan Hall, the foyer of the Shepherd School of Music, the SkySpace outside, then in a few different archways and our in the field. I think we shot photos for about 2 hours! I changed dresses twice and we carried all of our stuff all over campus to get the shots. Unfortunately, all of that carrying and walking around in the Texas heat is pretty hard work! The sweat and mosquitos weren't pleasant but working with Kate was so much fun and the photos turned out absolutely incredible! I don't think I could be more pleased!
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