![]() Performing Shostakovich with the Missouri Symphony was an absolutely unforgettable experience! But it was immediately on to the next thing as I got together with 3 of my colleagues to put together and perform Beethoven's Quartet Op. 18 No. 4! The Hot Summer Nights Festival's first Chamber Concert was Monday night so we got right to work rehearsing on Sunday afternoon. The really great thing about this performance was I got to work with one of my super good friends, Rachel! We've known each other since we were really little - her mom plays oboe in the Knoxville Symphony and my dad was music director there for many years when I was young - but since I'm in Texas and she's in Tennessee we don't get to see each other very often! I was so glad that I got to play together with her for this piece!! ![]() The other two members of our quartet were actually Cleveland Institute of Music alumni! Sharon on cello and Tyler on viola - Tyler and I actually overlapped at CIM for a couple of years but I don't think we ever ran into each other :( We had fun with this quartet though! We rehearsed for a couple of hours on Sunday, then did another short rehearsal on Monday before our run through at the church. We ended up performing last on the program, and it ended up being PRETTY warm on stage, but I think we were all really happy with our performance and I certainly had a great time! ![]() After my concert on Saturday I saw a lot of young audience goers who were members of the Missouri Symphony Conservatory. They were so thrilled to meet me and see me play that I offered to give a few of them lessons. I taught two of them today - Solveig and Annika. They're both 12 and are doing absolutely wonderfully in their violin studies!! They were such sweet and hard working girls, it was a real treat for me to work with them! Tomorrow I work with three more kids and I can't wait to see what they bring for me! ![]() Tonight was the Missouri Symphony's first Family Concert of the season. The concert was titled, "What Do You Like On Your Pizza?" The concept was to teach the audience about the Theme and Variation form of music by comparing pieces to building a pizza. Such as how Pachelbel's Cannon uses a ground base, which is like the base crust of a pizza on which you put all sorts of toppings. And how some pieces have variations based on nationalities (we used an arrangement of Pop Goes the Weasel that had Swedish, Jewish, Viennese and American variations) - much like how you can use different toppings to make many national-flavored pizzas. Near the end of the program was our March section where the kids in the audience were able to come up on stage to have a chance at conducting the orchestra. Rachel and I got to sit in the back and help the kids work on their conducting skills before they stepped up onto the podium ;) Very fun concert, and I definitely went out for pizza after! 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! |