How is it Friday again? I have been keeping busy and not in the mood to write…today I have a day off so I thought I had NO excuse not to blog a bit.
It’s been a good week. I played at a retirement home on Tuesday night with my good friend and wonderful pianist Jennifer, and we had a blast. We’d been working on some music for awhile for a concert in October (it would have been earlier, but Jen got diagnosed with cancer this year and she’s been busy dealing with that. Things are going great now and we are all looking to a wonderful future!) and this was our first “concert” putting a few things together. Brahms and Prokofiev Sonatas might not be the most excellent choice for a retirement home, but we figured there wasn’t any reason NOT to play them, and hopefully people would enjoy it. I think I heard one person say, during the Prokofiev Sonata, “This isn’t music!” but it IS and it’s a delightful piece to play. We did the whole “talk about the music” before you play it that is the norm these days. I think it’s important to give the audience some background on the composer, the piece, and sometimes a bit of personal information about why you chose the piece and what you love about it. People like to moan and groan about how classical music is dying, but if you look back, people have been moaning and groaning about that for nearly 100 years or more, and we’re still here. If classical music is so dead, why are there so many people pursuing careers in it? I say it is alive and well and we just need to expand our audience by getting other people to love music as much as we do!
As much as I hate when people tell me I am so lucky to have such a “talent”, I do feel lucky that I get to make money doing fun stuff like playing sonatas with a friend, and bringing joy to other people. I don’t feel as lucky when I look at all the (unpaid) hours and years of hard work I have done and have yet to do. It’s a mixed bag sometimes, but Tuesday was fun, last week’s quartet concert was fun, and I’m looking forward to many more performances in the future. In between there is a lot of work and rehearsals!
I played at a student’s wedding the other week. We even played a short piece together, which was kind of awesome. (This was an adult student, not a child.)
I have to figure out what to do differently with my teaching next summer. Keeping track of my schedule has been a very time consuming challenge. During the year I have a very regular schedule with teaching, each student has a time on a day each week, but in the summer I’ve needed to be more flexible, but this has led to a few double booking problems, people forgetting, and generally spending way too much time emailing, calling, or texting in order to make sure the week is in order. I don’t know quite how to fix it—teachers, what do you do in the summer? Is there a way to make this easier yet still continue to teach, or should I just take a month off each year? Suggestions are more than welcome.
There’s been plenty of time for fun though. And plenty more cakes being found and still more yet to come.
That last picture was actually for a gig, not “fun” but whatever. I go all over the place playing weddings, and more often than not there’s a cake at the location, ha!
What’s on the docket for the weekend? Work tomorrow of course, but Sunday is a DAY OFF. I guess it’s possible that my busiest time of year is finally over and July will be a bit more relaxed, at least as far as working goes. I’ll have plenty to do, don’t worry, and my band is going to be playing in Chicago in July…and a quartet concert in August, and opera coming up too…so wait, maybe I should just appreciate today and Sunday and really try to catch up on my inbox, my voicemail, and cleaning. And practicing.
I’m doing something a little crazy and thinking about playing a Bach Solo Sonata on a recital in October which means I’m working on that…nothing scares me more than the word “fugue” and I thought that was a good reason to do it! We’ll see if I change my mind as it gets closer, but for now it’s a great challenge. I spent many years only playing orchestra music and I have to say, I’m enjoying playing chamber music and solo works for awhile now. Of course I miss orchestra, but if the symphony isn’t going to be calling (evidently they won’t be, rumor has it, even though they deigned to put me on the sub list based on audition…)I’m not going to just sit around. I feel like I have a lot to offer the world with my playing and my teaching, and I’m tired of sitting around feeling like a loser because I don’t play precisely in the manner that a committee would like me to. If I sound bitter, you’re obviously an orchestral musician 😉 If I sound determined and hopeful, that’s what I’m going for.
I leave you with this cat in a sink. It’s Leslie’s cat—they have been having major plumbing repairs. Evidently it doesn’t matter WHERE the sink is, a cat will still sit in it.
