Category Archives: Performing

Performing, Weather

Super Tuesday

1 Comment

Can you believe the election cycle is still going on? I am trying to think of ways to cope. Sometimes I get too upset and angry over things, both in the news and in day to day life, and I really need to work on staying calmer and reminding myself that the world is a richer place when people see the world differently. And reminding myself that I have chosen a different path in life.

SO…my weekend was crazy. Saturday morning was the Castlewood Cup, for which I was quite undertrained and so was Louie, but we had a great time and I didn’t even come in last…even though I thought I did at the time. I am a seriously slow runner. All of you who say, oh, I’m slow. No. I am. And there was also so much mud, and I thought I was going to die and/or get sucked down into it, lost forever. I might write a proper recap another day. But we lived and we made it! And Louie is a more natural runner than I am and he did quite well.

Then it was pizza and showering and then a Perseid Quartet concert at the Tavern of Fine Arts. We played Dvorak and Smetana and had a great time. This ended up being one of my favorite programs—I’m such a sucker for a romantic program. We had a large and enthusiastic crowd and just had a great time overall. I was starving by the time the concert was over and so really enjoyed my food there too. They have a relatively new chef and he’s fantastic.

IMG_4794

Sunday was a double opera rehearsal day, but at least I got to have a relaxing enough morning. The conductor for the opera, Darwin Aquino, is really great…he’s also a composer and I’m currently listening to a piece he wrote for violin solo. I’m brainstorming a solo violin (only me, no one else) recital program…there are so many cool pieces out there for solo violin, and I’m also finding some (and looking for more) by female composers. That’s another blog post for another day too, probably Smile

So then Monday flew by with lots of students, practice and a rehearsal. Today I had a short rehearsal and then a vet visit. Both of the pets are somewhat on the mend…Chloe’s eyes have definitely cleared up though we have to continue her medication for that, and while Mackenzie isn’t exactly healed, she is doing a bit better for now. I will naturally keep you posted.

IMG_4780

The rest of the week is for teaching, dress rehearsals for the opera, and rehearsals for a young composer’s concert at Webster on Saturday. Should be fun, I guess?!

Performing, Random thoughts

An Evening Off

It’s amazing to have an evening off. I got home from my fall student recital, put some laundry in, practiced scales for approximately 1 hour and now I’m relaxing. I figured I’d better write a blog post before I fall asleep…even though it’s only 5:20 it’s pitch black outside (well, except for street lights) so I feel like it must be nearly bedtime.

This fall has been out of control. I can’t believe I’m looking forward to the holiday season because things will be less busy. It’s also possible I’m totally wrong on that prediction.

Let’s work backwards. This afternoon 14 students played on my student recital. Today was the first time I’d organized a fall recital for my private students and I’m so glad I was able to get it together. I know the kids learn so much preparing for and performing on recitals. I was particularly proud of a few of my students, one with cochlear implants playing his first recital, another who surprised me by playing from memory when she’d planned to use the music, and two adults who had the nerve to play on a recital with a bunch of kids! But I’m proud of ALL of them, and was so happy with everybody’s performances. I was proud of the students who made mistakes, the ones that stood tall and focused better than they do in the lessons, the one who lost his nerve and had to sit down (especially him, and I hope he doesn’t give up on recitals!)…everybody learned something, and accomplished something that few people in the world are able to. How many of you have played violin on a recital?

Last night the Perseid Quartet played at the Tavern of Fine Arts with Diana Umali. We played Beethoven’s Quartet Opus 59 #1 and Dohnanyi’s Piano Quintet. This was our second performance of the program, and I was glad to have had the first one under our belt. This program was no joke and was a big challenge to have undertaken, but I think we really pulled it off. I believe we are growing as a quartet, and even though we aren’t able to rehearse or practice as much as we might if we weren’t all full time violin/viola/cello teachers as well, we really made some great music! I was pretty stressed about the performance but part way through I really started enjoying myself.

IMG_3846

Many thanks to the Tavern for providing a fun place to perform and watch concerts. I’m sure it’s the case in many places, but Louie and I are constantly struck by how many concerts and performances one can attend practically every night, and especially on the weekends. Mostly we are sorry to miss performances, but when we do get to see them we love it!

Friday night we managed to get to Jazz at the Bistro to see the group Omaha Diner.  I taught right beforehand so we decided to make a night of it and get dinner there. The food was alright—it’s catered by Catering St Louis and I think it’s an improvement over the food they used to have but nothing to write home about. However, being able to eat while enjoying excellent music is a real plus!

IMG_3833

We initially had seats in the balcony, but for the second set (you can stay for no charge if there is availability) we sat on the main floor really near the stage. Both sets of seats were great!

IMG_3838

We ended up sharing our table for the second set with a nice young couple and had a great time chatting with them while waiting for the band to go on again. So, not only great music, decent food, but excellent socialization opportunities? And while I’m not a giant jazz fan (Louie is) I really enjoyed this band—I think it was my favorite concert I’ve attended at Jazz at the Bistro.

Thursday night was our usual Taco Thursday. We’ve ended up going with our friends Ben and Roz quite a few times (they are great to humor our late night dinner schedule! The main issue we have with the event is finding places that serve dinner until 10 pm on Thursday, which is more difficult than you’d think here in STL) and Thursday we did again. We tried Chava’s in Soulard, where I had been years ago but not recently. I had the fried fish tacos and they were pretty good. I’d go there again.

So that’s the highlights of the week. Otherwise it was just teaching, practicing, and rehearsing, with some running (3 times a week pretty consistently), reading (enjoying Gretchen Rubin’s Happier at Home recently) and of course, lots of pets…

IMG_3817IMG_3820IMG_3823IMG_3814IMG_3841

Now it’s nearly dinner time—sweet potatoes and red peppers are roasting in the oven, to be added with beans to tortillas for tacos!

Performing, Running

Computer Updates

2 Comments

So this is my first time blogging from my “new” computer. By new I mean that after I updated it to Windows 10 it was running really slow, and barely working, so Louie installed a solid state drive and now it is running like a dream, but Windows Live Writer (the program I use to blog on) is all weird looking! I guess I can probably mess around with it, but it was hard enough finding the program in the first place (or “app” as the kids call it, and by kids I mean Microsoft, and it’s driving me insane that everything on my PC is called an app when I’m pretty sure Apple came up with the nickname because it was sort of like the first syllable of the company name…but I digress…which is perhaps the point of parenthesis anyway…) so I am a little nervous to mess around. Maybe after this blog post I will do something.

So this week went by fairly quickly. Lots of the usual teaching and practicing and a few rehearsals. I especially enjoyed playing with Bach at the Sem this week—all Bach is just such a delight to play. It makes me grateful I have the opportunity to spend time learning solo Bach too.  I am also working with a didgeridoo player for a performance at a festival this coming weekend (he wrote the music, and also plays some guitar) and have been having a lot of fun preparing that. I’d love to have a few more serious concerts on my schedule, but it’s not like I have nothing going on. (I sometimes think I go through concert withdrawal…I love performing, even though I sometimes get really stressed about it, and then when too long goes by without a solo/chamber music performance I start to really miss it!)

Last night my friend April had some folks over for a birthday party. She’s a few years younger than me (and holding) but she’s turning a year older on Monday and wanted to celebrate early. Now, Louie is having a birthday in a few weeks but he said he’d rather celebrate late than early…where do you stand? I feel like celebrating AFTER a birthday is anticlimactic, but he likened celebrating early to opening Christmas presents before Christmas… To each their own, obviously, but please weigh in with your opinion if you don’t mind. This is also a test to see if you are reading.

I was a little sad I didn’t run the Mo Cowbell run this year. The medals looked really cute, little cows on them…I’ve run it 3 years with NO cows, and this year they do cows. Probably I’ll run next year and there won’t be cows. I can’t find a picture online that I can share with you, unfortunately. I did a ten mile run the other day for my own half marathon training and started thinking about how once I get my speed up a little more I should do a marathon. It was my goal a few years ago and then life got in the way…I think I’m ready to start thinking about it again…

photo 1photo 2

You can tell I’ve been running because I have a couple of running selfies on my phone. It looks like this weekend is a half marathon—I haven’t run a race all year, can you believe it? I’m nervous Smile and I feel like that can’t possibly be true, but I can’t think of a race I’ve run, so…I think the last race was MO Cowbell last year! I’ve been having a great time running lately, so my smiles are genuine.

Okay, this isn’t the most exciting blog post of all time, but life doesn’t have to be exciting all the time, does it? Life is good and things are going well, and I’m grateful for what I have…and looking forward to a great month!

Performing

No creative juice left for blogging!

1 Comment

I always think summer is going to be more relaxing and less busy…so I end up taking on too many projects! And by too many, I mean, just enough that I am insanely busy at times and just busy enough at other times. I have been firing on all cylinders for weeks now, with play rehearsals, practicing for my upcoming concert with my friend Jen, preparing for and entertaining overnight guests, and having a 4th of July party…on the 11th because that’s the when the fireworks in the neighborhood were.

Sometimes I have a million blog posts I want to write. Not lately. Which is crazy because I’ve been doing a lot of stuff and having loads of fun, but also I’ve been stressed out and overwhelmed, and wonder why other people seem to have time to have lives and see friends and clean their houses when I can barely stay on top of all my projects and students, practicing and bills, and phone calls and so many people impatiently wondering if I can fit their child into my fall schedule!

I sound a little overwhelmed*, but I’m also just REALLY looking forward to vacation. And it’s not been all work. *arguably I could spend my time much more wisely than I do, so perhaps I’m overusing the word overwhelmed.

IMG_2942

Fun times at the zoo with my parents. We enjoyed the polar bear the most!

IMG_2991

From our preview performance of The Runaway Cupcake. Two performances down, four to go! It’s been a great experience putting music to the show and working with a wonderful cast of hard-working actors and actresses.

It’s been a lot of work though, between rehearsals, practicing, and working on memorizing all my cues and figuring out what to play when! I’ve been having a lot of fun playing a real role in a play (Basically I play various themes that we came up with that either are in the background, as transitions, or to introduce or re-introduce characters. My role is “The Fiddler” and I keep the action going!)

IMG_2990

IMG_2994 

IMG_2999

This morning Louie and I were able to get out into the woods for a hike. We went to Greensfelder County Park and hiked a trail that we think was the DeClue trail (based on my book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of St Louis.) It was great to get our hiking boots a little more broken in…and muddy. The hike wasn’t super scenic, but there were lots of bugs and mud. Wait, the good thing…hmmm…it was lovely and green and we got to practice going up and down hills. Also, the park is located right next to Six Flags so as you are hiking you can hear the screams of people on the roller coasters, and the machinery! If I didn’t know better I’d be concerned it was the Smoke Monster from Lost.

IMG_3008

IMG_3001

I feel more confident in my hiking boots, which was important to me, so that in two weeks when we are on vacation and doing hiking in REALLY scenic places (Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons) I will be ready! And I’m ready to hopefully leave some of the humidity and bugs behind…

On tap this week and next:

Chartreuse is performing and visiting! My youngest sister Carrie is coming to town to visit and play a concert with her modern music trio. I’m very excited to host them, to see her play, and to get to hang out for about 20 hours (the approximate time that my family members like to visit, evidently! 🙂 )

And then the last event before I hit the road—playing Messiaen, Ravel, and Franck with my friend Jen on piano. In the future I need to remember that summer should be more relaxing!

 IMG_2965

More of THIS and less work!

But then again, if I weren’t busy working, I’d be pretty bored, I think. Balance is overrated—who needs work AND life when you have great colleagues and an awesome understanding boyfriend, even when it means he has to go to social events alone sometimes…

July is going by really fast but I’m having a great time (did I say that too many times? I do mean it, I swear!). Even if the next 13 days are a ton of work, it’ll be all worth it when we head out on our road trip and don’t look back for over two weeks. Keeping my eyes on the prize while trying to live in the moment IS a challenge though 😉 (Did I use enough clichés? I also said today that life is in the journey, not the destination, so there’s another one.)

And I get to see my niece Athena soon, so be prepared for some cute baby pictures then! Until then, here is Chloe about to drink a can of sparkling water.

IMG_2956

Performing, Travel

Is it Monday already?

1 Comment

The weekend was stressful and busy but fun. Saturday was needlessly stressful due to some weddings and things, but the evening was super fun, and Sunday’s quartet concert was fun too. Friday night we went to the symphony with my friend Jen and her husband Chuck and went to Small Batch afterwards for drinks and a snack.

IMG_2388

We had awkwardly close seats as usual. I wasn’t super impressed by the Rachmoninoff (Piano Concerto no. 3) balance wise, but I blamed where I was sitting, but our friends had better seats and they said the pianist was hard to hear as well. I find so many times I’ve been to symphony concerts (not just in St Louis) and don’t hear enough of the soloist. I don’t recall that from ushering back in the day in Cleveland, but it’s possible my standards are higher these days, who knows!

IMG_2397 IMG_2396

Saturday night at the Tavern of Fine Arts with my Irish group. We had a good time. Olivia, the flute player, is moving away in a few months so we won’t be able to reprise, but it was a lot of fun and I’m glad we were able to play the show again.

Sunday afternoon the quartet (Perseid Quartet) played in Edwardsville at the First Presyterian Church. It was a small crowd, but a good one, and I was tired but had a wonderful time performing. Two of my students attended, and I have to say: I LOVE when students come to my performances. It really makes me feel honored and appreciated, and I also hope that I inspire them!

I didn’t take any photos but I stole this one from our quartet facebook page. Most of my “in performance” photos are from my good friend April who is never shy about taking photos during a performance.

This time of year is just busy, isn’t it? I do feel like this was a particularly stressful weekend to “cross off” and the next two are not as bad. We’ve finished all of our scheduled quartet performances so now we are back to brainstorming and planning (if you would like to offer us a spot on your concert series or a place to perform we would definitely consider it!) and that’s always fun. Planning means new possibilities, and that’s one of my favorite things. And honestly I think until fall, things truly have settled down a bit. (Famous last words, I’m sure, and I shouldn’t forget about July’s piano-violin recital, but there’s nothing to MEMORIZE on there at least.)

Speaking of planning. Italy. I’m just so excited, though it doesn’t seem real! I’ve got the Rick Steves book on Rome, since he was my lifesaver in Paris, but I have barely looked at it yet. (Plus most of the planning isn’t really up to me, and that’s fun too, but we do have some decisions to make). I have 3 more concerts left, a gig, and a student recital in addition to my regularly scheduled activities (teaching mostly). It’s been a wild ride this spring, but as I was driving to a 9 am rehearsal in Edwardsville I was thinking, yes, I’m a little tired, but I’m managing, I’m having enough time to exercise, eat well, and occasionally see friends, and more importantly, I’m having a blast performing! It took me a long time to get to this point in St Louis, and I’m pretty happy about it. And what’s funny is that I’d LOVE to play even more, and I still try to figure out how to squeeze more into my life, even as I come here to the blog and complain about my lack of balance and how busy I am. I might be crazy?

IMG_2404

We decided to go out for Vietnamese food last night. We tried a new-to-us place called Linh Mi Gia and were NOT disappointed. The food you see pictured was delicious (I have such a weakness for the broken rice/pork type dishes). This is one of my new favorite restaurants for Vietnamese, and I definitely will go back and try a few other things.

Performing

Good Review

1 Comment

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.

IMG_1634 

The view from their house.

IMG_1641 

Part of the men’s bathhouses?

IMG_1656

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.

IMG_1620

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!