Weddings

Congrats to Ben and Erin!

Tonight I played for my student Ben’s wedding.  He has been taking violin with me for close to two years and asked me to play for his wedding.   I was honored to do so!  I met his fiance (now wife) Erin at the class recital in June and the two are a great couple.

I wanted to take some pictures during the ceremony but I thought it would be obtrusive as we were seated up front.  I used the retro camera app on my phone to take a few beforehand.

View from our seats of the Artists Guild in Clayton
What a gorgeous fall day!
The chairs were all around these gigantic flower beds
Their Huppah

All in all, it was a beautiful wedding.  We had been invited to stay for dinner, but there was a small series of unfortunate events and we had to leave beforehand.  The venue was really nice (Artists Guild in Clayton) and the band sounded fantastic (I’ll have to ask Ben who they were, might have been friends of his as he is a musician.)  Congrats to Ben and Erin and best wishes in the future!

Weddings

Two down, one to go!

It’s a three wedding day.  I have done two so far, and I took some neat pictures that I wanted to share.  I have an HTC Hero and have recently been messing around with some camera “apps.”

 

Butterfly House in Faust Park

 

The first wedding was outdoors.  Originally they set us up in the sun next to a bunch of flowers, which were buzzing with bees.  We moved to get a bit further from the bees (imagine that!  Not wanting to play for over an hour next to a large amount of bees.)

The second wedding was at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Soulard.  When we got close, we saw that it was a gorgeous old church. I tried a few different camera settings for fun.

My friend Ranya actually took this one, and I love it!

 

This was the "Polaroid" setting.

 

 

Inside the church, using the "retro camera" app.

 

My next wedding is outdoors in Clayton at the Artist’s Guild.  I am playing for a student (and friend)’s wedding and am looking forward to it!  The weather should be just perfect, and we are staying for dinner of course.  It should be a nice evening.

 

Performing

Andre Watts Concert

Just got home from a wonderful concert with the SLSO (or should I say, St. Louis Symphony, as they are “rebranded”).  Grieg Piano Concerto with Andre Watts, Dvorak Symphony #8 and Steven Mackey “Turn the Key”.  Gilbert Varga was conducting.

The first piece (Mackey) was cool, especially the beginning where the audience was clapping.  At first, I just thought some crazy guy on the main floor was clapping (stranger things have happened) but then the conductor seemed to be encouraging it.  Suddenly people were clapping in rhythm (well, somewhat) and then we joined in from the balcony.  Finally I saw that Will James (principal percussion and a friend of mine) was leading the clapping from the main floor.  The conductor encouraged us to clap louder, and then cut us off abruptly as the orchestra started.  A great beginning!

The Grieg was full of colors.  Andre Watts was fantastic.  I know I have played with him somewhere, but I just can’t remember where.  I DO remember when I used to play with the Youngstown Symphony he canceled at the last minute two different times. We in the audience really wanted to hear an encore, but he didn’t seem to be up to it.

Last but not least was the Dvorak Symphony.  I have loved this piece since I played it as a member of WYSO at Interlochen Arts Camp in high school.  The orchestra sounded better than they have in a long time.  There was wonderful dynamic contrast, lyrical string playing, and some really lovely wind parts as well.  I think the last movement is just so much fun!

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable concert, much better than I have seen the orchestra play in recent history.  BRAVO!

 

Running, Teaching

Thursday teaching marathon

I made it through another Thursday!  They are getting easier…today was 7 students at the school then 5 at home.  Two cancellations today (yes, I have 14 on Thursday’s schedule.  Yes.)  Now I’m done teaching for the week, except for a teaching “interview” I have tomorrow afternoon at a school. A couple of my students really impressed me today with their practicing during the week–some practiced 5 or 6 days, yay!  A couple did none though 🙁  Perhaps someday I will have only students who practice 5 to 7 days a week…

After all that teaching I even managed to get to the gym.  I wanted to do a three mile run tonight, and I managed (wasn’t sure how I would feel as I’m still recovering from Sunday’s race).   I am  trying to run more without having to take walk breaks.  I did intervals of 9 minutes running/1 minute walking until I hit the 3 mile goal, then I walked another mile waiting for Chris to finish up.  It occurred to me last night driving home from the gym (walked 3 miles) that most folks don’t work out 6 days a week.  I didn’t until this year.  It feels great!

 

Weddings

Washington, MO

From my recent posts, a reader might think all I had been doing recently was running.  I’ve actually been quite busy with teaching and weddings as well.  The race was my most exciting weekend event, but not the only thing.

Saturday I played for two weddings.  The first was at the Piper Palm House, which is a wonderful venue.  I’ve played several weddings there, both inside and out.  I’ve also attended a reception there, and in a few weeks Chris is playing a chamber music concert there as part of the Symphony.

The second was in Washington, Missouri, about 1 hour west of St. Louis.  It is a beautiful drive, and a beautiful town on the banks of the Missouri River.  I had played a wedding in nearby Krakow and remembered that I really enjoyed the drive there.  Today’s wedding was at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church.  The church was VERY tall, lots of steps to climb, and had great views.  My friend Ranya and I took a few pictures.

Looking up at the steeple of the church
Beautiful inside!
The organ pipes were blue!
View from the church. The sun was just starting to set.
Running

One last L & C post

I’ve been walking on air all day!  I am just so excited that I completed my race, and faster than I thought.  I remember when I looked at my watch and thought, “hey, I bet I can do this in under 3 hours”, and that kept me running much more than I wanted to for the last couple of miles.  So happy to have reached that goal (though impromptu 😉 ). 2:57:33.

Tomorrow is my first meeting with my new trainer.  I’m still a bit sore from the race (legs improving, left shoulder hurting a ton for no apparent reason but must be related) so I’m hoping it’s a fairly easy session…I learned that he ran the race as well (a bit faster than me, I looked it up and he was under 1:30) so at least he’ll understand.

I’m planning a couple shorter races to finish out the year, and then it’ll be Phoenix Rock n Roll Time.  I am so amused by myself–a few months ago I was laughing (kindly of course 🙂 ) at people who were crazy enough to run and now I’m totally psyched to keep going.  Funny how that works!!

One thing I forgot:  Here’s an up close photo of the medal I received for finishing the race (now hanging on my bedroom dresser mirror).

Go me!!

(The “One Final Journey” refers to the fact that the race was bought out by the Rock n Roll people and will be elsewhere next fall, so it was my first and last Lewis and Clark Half.)

A

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.