It was really hard to leave Columbia, MO yesterday. I have a lot of family and friends there, and even though I was there for almost 2 weeks, it still didn't feel like quite enough time. I was very happy to get to spend some time with my friend, Rachel, and my mentors and supporters of the Missouri Symphony, Edward and Judith Chmielewski. I get so see all of them so rarely, it was a special treat to get to spend more time in town with them. I spent most of yesterday morning picking out a new camcorder at Creve Coeur Camera. I bought my current camcorder in 2007 and it has given me problems ever since! I'm sure most of you have noticed the quality of my videos and the fact that a lot of them "re-focus" continually. No longer! I bought the Sony HDR-CX430v so now I should have crystal clear video and amazing surround sound audio. FINALLY! :) The trip home was pretty relaxing - I spotted an amazing sunset again and managed to get some pictures! Today, my student in Dallas, Ellen Kim, had her senior recital! She began violin with my mom when she was around 5 and I've been teaching her for the last 3-4 years. The recital was a combined recital with her friend and violist, Tiffany. Ellen played Praeludium and Allegro by Kreisler, Kabalevsky's Violin Concerto in C and Prokofiev's Court Dance from his 5 Cinderella Pieces. They played the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia to finish :) She was awesome!!! I'm so proud of her!! She has really come a long ways in terms of technique and musicality, and especially in breaking out of her box and reaching out to the audience more in her performances. She will be attending Dartmouth in the fall - her top choice school! I'm really going to miss her, but I think we might try to continue lessons over Skype which we were already doing pretty regularly while I was in Houston. Congratulations, Ellen!!!!! I'm back in Houston now for a couple of days to play in church and give my studio their last lessons for the summer before I leave for Colorado. My car hit 100,000 miles today!! AHH!!!!
Keep in touch, everyone! xoxo, Chloé
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Reunited!
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!! Tyler, Sharon, Rachel and me! Awesome Beethoven Op. 18 No. 4, you guys!!! 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! Annika shows me which of the pieces she's working on is her favorite! 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! Our assistant conductor, Adam, hands out batons to the next kids in line! 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 Yesterday I had my bi-annual student recital at the New Heart Christian School of music! There were a couple of students who weren't able to participate, and a few who dropped out the week before, but I did have 12 students who played and performed superbly! All ages and levels took place in this recital, from my 5 year old performing pieces in Suzuki Book 1 to my juniors and seniors performing Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 and Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy". It was a really exciting concert! My friend and amazing pianist, Kyle Orth, drove all the way down to Houston from Dallas to rehearse with my students on Friday and Saturday and then accompany them in the recital. It certainly made things a lot less hectic having a great pianist who can play pretty much anything on the fly! Thank you so much, Kyle! I am so proud of all of my students and all of the hard work they've done. They really did splendidly yesterday, especially considering the fact that I've been gone so much the past month, and for many of them this is their last week of school! Great job, everyone! I can't wait for the next recital! :)
xoxo Chloé |