All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Cat

Groundhog Day

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When I lived in Cleveland I always felt that “only” having six more weeks of winter was a pretty nice thing.

It seems that most people like to look to the groundhog in New York to see if the winter is ending but growing up we considered Groundhog Day to be a pretty local thing, not something nationwide. If it was cloudy that meant that winter was over. It didn’t always work though.

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Either way though, it seems that six more weeks of winter are in order for me. If I believe the whole groundhog day concept, which I’m pretty sure is definitely scientific fact, even more so than climate change and vaccines saving lives.

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Look! A cat in box…in a box…

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Look at those eyes. Is it empathy….or murder?

Yes, this is a gratuitous cat pictures blog post. I thought it might help your Monday be more enjoyable.

Random thoughts

Is everybody watching the Superbowl without me?

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I’ve had a wonderful weekend. I’m not going to lie. It’s been awesome and lots of fun and I’m sad that it is nearly over.

The fun started Thursday night when I met April for dinner at Gringo. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned but Louie and I have decided to follow a vegetarian diet for about a month. So it’s been a fun challenge to see how to avoid eating meat. We are still eating cheese and eggs and all those delicious animal products but avoiding actual flesh.

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So I read the description of my meal and I’m not sure what I expected but it was basically nachos with egg and avocado. Not too bad but not what I thought I was getting! We also split the guacamole which I love and had a few margs…well I did at least 😉

Friday was a busy day. It started with a trip to the dump and ended with dinner at Ranoush on the Loop and watching The Imitation Game. The movie was very good but I had a lot of questions afterwards about what was fact, what was fiction, and how a bunch of cryptographers failed to initially check for the most common word combinations when trying to crack a code. Turns out that part was fiction.

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Saturday afternoon we took a hike, another from the book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of St Louis. I picked a hike around Howell Island Conservation area, but we made a few mistakes with that. Firstly, it was incredibly muddy at the beginning of the hike…which was also the end of the hike. And we didn’t realize there would be hunting. I think I read the phrase “conservation area” and assumed that meant “not killing stuff” and didn’t keep reading. But we did the long loop anyway, didn’t get lost in a field where the trail went kind of cold, and had a great time.

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It was kind of a bleary day, but was actually really nice for January. It started drizzly towards the end and we got a bit nervous but it never turned into much.

After the hike we decided to go out to dinner, so we hit up Stellina Pasta since they had a few good looking vegetarian options. I got tagliatelle with spinach, mushroom, and a garlic cream sauce and it was really delicious. I wouldn’t ordinarily order food with a cream sauce, but the beauty of not eating meat is that you can get your calories from other fatty sources. Or at least I tell myself that. It’s nice, by the way, following a diet that isn’t about ME and is about not eating meat. I don’t know how I feel about this sort of thing sometimes…it’s hard to know what the best thing to do is, but it does seem that eating less meat is probably a good thing. I haven’t missed it too much because I’ve upped my pasta intake. I also plan to return to eating meat, because I don’t want to WORRY about things.

Today we had a family brunch (well, Louie’s family) with delicious pumpkin waffles made by his brother! I think I ate about 100 of them. Or four. Also the grapefruit was excellent. Then I actually had to do some work (ugh, work!) on the computer for a variety of things and we did manage to get to the gym. One of the things we are both trying to do is get workouts in when we can, and if that means mostly on the weekends (this time of year my weekends are light and freer) then we do it then. It works for me. I’m trying not to stress over what I can’t do and focus on what I can.

Oh, and I’m NOT watching the super bowl. I didn’t get any party invites and I don’t watch football (possibly related) so I’m just at home, thinking about dinner and Dr Who. And my to-do list for the upcoming week, which is of course huge and much more than I will actually accomplish.

I considered waiting to publish this until tomorrow due to the game, but then I remembered 1) any readers won’t be watching either, they will be just playing with their cats and 2) I don’t ACTUALLY have any readers since I don’t blog regularly enough nor on any actual topic.

Teaching

I believe the children are our future

One of my students showed up with a 2 by 2 Rubik’s Cube. I didn’t even know that was a thing. He showed me how to solve it in about two seconds. By that I mean, he attempted to show me how to solve it, but I still didn’t get it. Maybe with practice. But he solved it, repeatedly, in about two seconds. Maybe next week he’ll bring the bigger one!

My first student’s sister gave me a violin book that was evidently on my front steps. At first I thought, wow, that’s been there all night, but then I remembered that I did indeed leave the house to run errands earlier in the day. And didn’t remember seeing it. The book in question: I know the student who it belongs too, and she had thought she’d forgotten it the night before. Evidently she’d dropped it, but I wonder if she dropped it down the street and somebody saw it and knew I taught violin and that it might be mine, and dropped it on the steps for us? Either way, lucky it didn’t rain overnight!

My other students were fabulous in their own ways. My last student had a great lesson involving playing duets by Hindemith from the Doflein books (I’m trying them out on him and having a great time with them…I’m not sure he is, but I think it’s wonderful all the “modern” music in them…by “modern” we are talking early to mid-1900’s) and then a fun time with Brahms Hungarian Dance doing lots of “DRAMA.” I love when you get a student to the point that they can start making real music and teaching them how to show emotion in their playing. Not that you can’t do that, kind of, from the beginning, but there are SO many technical things to worry about.

Music is fun. And while I actually enjoy nerdy technical things while I’m playing and actually enjoy (sometimes!) practicing technique and thinking about all those amazing things in the Basics book especially in regards to bow technique, it’s especially fun to teach a student about rubato, and timing, and expressing emotion ( not necessarily YOUR emotion, but just emotion in general, like acting) in the pieces. That’s the most fun. Teaching beginners is so much harder for me!

My youngest student today kept requesting activities during her lesson. Granted, they were different activities than the ones I was suggesting, and probably easier, but I love when they suggest their own activities. It also reminded me that I need to do the easy fun activities more often with other students. Sometimes I forget and worry that they are going to want to learn more new stuff and get bored…when I need to focus on continuing to improve what they already know. Another student worked diligently on a c sharp minor scale and didn’t even complain it was too hard, which was amazing.

I should write more about the good stuff. Teaching is exhausting many days, but today I feel invigorated. Of course, I had two day off cancellations and my last student wasn’t coming either, so it was a shorter day…maybe that’s why I feel better about it. But maybe it was just a good day, where I feel like, yeah, these kids are all right. People like to complain about kids these days and how they aren’t as smart, or strong, or hard-working as “we” used to be. I would disagree. My students are generally remarkable and give me hope for the future. And they are, as far as I can tell, pretty normal kids.

This article from the Washington Post was going around the web the other week. Nothing in it surprises me in the least, but maybe it would be of interest to you. I like the line, “We shouldn’t be surprised we can train the brain.”

Performing

Good Review

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I don’t normally get reviewed, so this was super exciting for me!

“Concertmaster Hannah Frey played exquisitely in Beppe’s lyrical offstage violin solo.” 

From: Miller, Sarah Bryan. “Opera Review: ‘L’amico Fritz’ Is an Enjoyable Production of an Operatic Rarity.” St Louis Post-Dispatch 27 Jan. 2015.

This might be in fact my first mention in a review! Anyway, I’m thrilled and my friends seem to think I’m famous now. I don’t sign autographs though.

Other than the opera I had a wonderful weekend. Louie and I went up on Saturday to visit friends who live in Spanish Lake. We did some hiking around Fort Bellefontaine. It was a really nice day for it.

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The view from their house.

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Part of the men’s bathhouses?

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The Fort? We got a little confused in places as to what was actually going on, and the “ranger” guarding the entrance was less than helpful. It was however a beautiful day to wander around outside and nice to have a day off to relax with friends.

In the evening Louie and I went to the Sheldon to see Angel Romero play a guitar recital. It was great! I didn’t really care for the soprano he played with, but his guitar playing was fantastic. It was also a treat to see a friend and colleague on piano, Peter Henderson, who is just fantastic all around. I really mean that too. It’s hard sometimes when I run into people from my previous life with my ex-husband—some ignore me, some are awkward, and others are just the same. I get that people feel awkward and don’t know how to act. Other people can’t imagine that I could even survive on my own as a musician, so there’s that awkwardness…I mean, what, freelancer? You don’t have a full-time job? How does THAT work? Okay, maybe I’m overreacting…perhaps my reaction there is the same when people ask me why I don’t have kids of my own. Perhaps it all comes from a position of curiosity and caring and not rudeness and failing to see how other people could be different.

SPEAKING OF KIDS. So I have this wonderful niece in Arizona that I have only seen once. She’s growing and I thought I’d share a picture of her since she is simply the cutest.

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I am going to see her for a week in March. I’d hoped to try to get out earlier but my schedule and affordable plane flights just didn’t add up.

Better go dry my hair now! I went for a run immediately pre-lunch, ate lunch, and then showered, and now I had better get in gear to get ready for teaching. Being self-employed SURE is hard!

Cat, Random thoughts

L’Amico Fritz

This week is an opera week. I am concertmaster of the orchestra for Winter Opera St Louis and this weekend we have performances of Pietro Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz. A joke I heard was that this is the second opera of a one opera composer.

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So here’s a funny story  about the music. I’d heard from my friend Sarah that there was a big violin solo in the music so to be sure to look at it in advance. The music was ready after the new year, so I picked it up, went home and didn’t find any “big solo.” I texted her that she must have been mistaken…then I decided to listen to the opera online. About 13 minutes in there is a GIANT violin solo. Which wasn’t in my music! So I began panicking and shooting off a large variety of text messages to Sarah about the solo and not being in my music, and then about how AWESOME the solo was and finding the music online. Anyway, in a nutshell. The publisher didn’t have the solo in the part. In fact, the publisher didn’t have the solo at all. But it’s a really fun, giant, huge, violin solo in the opera that I’d never heard before but had a wonderful time working up. And honestly, it is one of those pieces that sounds harder than it is. Anyway, if you are interested, come out this weekend to see/hear the production! Friday at 8, Sunday at 3 at the Skip Viragh Performing Arts Center.

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I’d love to report that I’ve been up to really interesting things not related to the violin, but I’d basically be lying or definitely be exaggerating. As soon as vacation was over I was basically back into teaching 70 million students a week and complaining about how much I needed to practice for my various rehearsals and stuff. Oh, and also actually doing some practice, but I find it’s more important to walk around sighing a lot and stressing over the work that needs to be done while drinking coffee…

We get to that point of my blog post where I mention the weather. AH. It’s been gorgeous. Which reminds me we have done a few things. Saturday we ran around Forest Park and Saturday night I played on a New Music Circle concert on this piece.

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The rest of the program was really interesting too. I don’t always enjoy listening to new music, but I do enjoy learning new things and new ideas, and I found the whole experience to be really great and I’m glad we went. And if you’re looking at that music, we added the little bar lines to make it easier on the eyes—they weren’t there initially.

Wait, I’m back on music again! WEATHER. RUNNING. FOOD.

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CATS IN BOXES!

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BREAD PUDDING

Okay fine, dear readers. I’m off to drink more coffee, practice, run, teach, and play an opera dress rehearsal. Fun day ahead! Think of me and send me your cat pictures.

Random thoughts

No January Blues Here

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This year I took an additional week off from teaching in January than I often do. It DOES make the month fly by! This week I started up again, and though I must admit I was dreading the first day of lessons, it ended up being a fun week seeing everybody again and getting back into the swing of things. Some of my students impressed me and practiced tons over the break. Some took some time off and are (hopefully) ready to get back into a routine. One told me he hadn’t practiced much at all, and while we were discussing how much he could practice this week to try to get back on track his mother overheard and told me that he had actually taken one week off from practicing over Christmas but then after that practiced every single day except the day before.

Incidentally, it’s been a busy week. I’m practicing for a quartet concert and a sonata concert in February. I met a couple of new people for “networking” purposes, one a long time twitter friend and freelance photographer, another a musician who lives nearby. I found out that the director of the band I gave way too much time to last year has decided to “let me go” because he deemed that a violinist who can also sing backup would be a better asset…which is okay because several of the other players that I admired most and enjoyed working with won’t be returning either, nor was I planning to, I was just waiting to get paid…(sigh).

One of the things that came up during one of my coffee meetings this week was my freelancing life. And it also came up talking with a friend from the band. That I am a fairly successful freelancer AND somewhat experienced at it. I keep forgetting how long I’ve been doing this…sometimes it feels like I just got started. But then people ask questions, and I find that I have (some) answers, and that while I make plenty of mistakes, and don’t make enough money, and probably let too many people walk over me, I have learned quite a bit over the years and might have advice to give people.

Okay, this sounds ridiculous, but it really struck me the other day when I thought, HEY I am doing some things right and I do have knowledge and experience in this and I am doing okay! Like, look at me. I’m a freelancer. I make a living playing and teaching the violin and (here’s the real kicker) some people might think that that is pretty cool and be perhaps, even slightly jealous. Not that I want them to be jealous, nor do I think they should be, but that all over the world there are people who wish they did music full time…and here I am doing it. Living the dream, if you will.

So I’m trying to think of myself as more of a success story than a failure. Granted, I worry about money quite a bit, and don’t have nearly enough saved for retirement at this time. But I’ve only been doing this for around 15 years, and I could probably work mostly full time another 30…so that means I’m only 1/3 in. Plenty of time to save, to earn more, to create, to learn, and to dream. (I added that last phrase for cheesiness purposes.) But honestly, looking at myself as a successful musician, a person who has been successful at making a living as a violinist her whole working career…that’s a really strange way to think about things for me. But I kind of like it. Perhaps this is the year of thinking more highly of what I do.