The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne

On Wednesday evening, I performed with the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne.  I've seen their posters up around Brisbane for years, but never been to a concert.  But this year, I was asked to be a 'ring-in' player for their Brisbane concert.  A touring group of 4 German players, with 2 Aussies thrown into the mix for the tour, they had 3 extras for the Brisbane concert.  Plus a flautist.  We had a 4pm rehearsal and an 8pm concert.  I expected the rehearsal to last until about 7, a short break for dinner, then the concert.  No.  Rehearsal until just after 5... 

Rehearsal was more of a 'top and tail' affair, which was good in that they expected us to know this music, and to be able to count and read key signatures.  And having less rehearsal ensured my adrenaline was running for the concert.  One of the pieces was the Bach Double - I'm quite familiar with the solo parts.  I have never played the tutti parts (I was the 2nd violin tutti part for this).  I have also never succeeded in playing either of the solo parts of the 3rd movement without stuffing up rhythm.  This made me very nervous.  But it went off without a hitch.  Most of the music was well-known (Mozart, Vivaldi's Winter, some Paganini and Monti) and it was refreshing to hear a different take on these works - not to mention how inspiring it is to see and hear this music performed live, with such energy.

Dinner was at a Japanese place on Adelaide St (with a view of the cathedral).  I had the miso ramen and a chilled green tea.

If you get a chance to see these players (they have 16 more concerts on this Australian tour), I highly recommend them. 

The Camerata Concert

I am a little bit embarrassed to admit this, but... last night was the first time I went to a Camerata of St John's concert not in the cathedral.  And wow, what a concert! 

It was rather long - and even longer because we had an applauding audience.  But it wasn't one of those 'sit down and listen to a symphony' concerts.  All the works were descriptive but quite varied.  We heard the Ravel Quartet in F Major arranged into a Chamber Symphony by Brisbane violinist Gail Aitken; Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Piazzolla, arranged by Desyatnikov; a Cuban jazz pianist (this was the wild card, and I can't actually remember which jazz standard they performed); the world premiere of Impressions of Erin, by another Brisbane violinist (now composer in Hollywood) Cameron Patrick; and Appalachian Spring Suite by Aaron Copland.  See what I mean?  A huge programme!  And all with the guest soloist/leader Dale Barltrop, another Brisbane-born violinist.

I had a fabulous seat in the Conservatorium Theatre: A1.  Yep.  Even the guy on the door who took my ticket commented I had the premiere seat.  I do generally prefer to be a bit further back, but I think because it's such a small group I didn't feel I was just getting first violin sound, and it was so close you could see them breathing.

As another new thing - I actually bought some of the promotional merchandise during the interval.  I'd had a sneak peak during the week and couldn't resist.

The Grade 3 Approach

I can remember learning how to read, but I can't remember learning how to read music.  Although this is great in some respects, it does put me at a slight disadvantage when it comes to teaching students how to read music.  The Colour Strings method is fabulous for this, but I have limited opportunities to teach this - many of my students also learn violin in a class situation.  When this is the case, I have assumed their class teacher is teaching them how to read music.

However, one of my current grade 4 girls is really resistant to the whole reading music thing.  Which surprises me and frustrates me as she is quite a bright child, and plays beautifully, but will work out all the notes before playing.  Imagine the problems we are having now that we have full page pieces instead of 2-phrase pieces.  I started teaching her at the start of term 4 last year, and it was honestly only at the end of the most recent holidays that I realised why she doesn't read music.  And not just her, but many of the grade 4 children in my ensemble.  The strings teacher teaches them how to play strings.  And with a whole class of about 25 kids all at once and 4 different instruments and 3 different clefs, I don't blame her! 

This term, then, with the start of private lessons for the current grade 3s, I am taking a different approach from before.  I'm focusing less on bowholds and more on note reading (not neglecting the bowholds though!).  They get to write more music - both writing the songs they already know how to play as well as making up a song for me.  And I'm using the Colour Strings/Kodaly method as much as I can.  The school at which I teach is a Kodaly school (this is such a blessing, my work-load is halved) so the students already know so many good songs, and the music teachers have the same approach that I would use with the strings method.  One of the principles of the Kodaly method is spiral teaching, revisiting known material to learn knew elements.  For my grade 3 students, then, I have them write out the songs they know from strings class, and we are learning to play songs they already know from music classes. 

The drawback of this, though, is that once they know which song they're playing, and which finger to play first, they stop reading the notes and just go from memory.  Phase 2 begins tomorrow.  I'm printing a sheet of short songs for them, some that they know (or should know) and some that I'm just making up.  This week they get to read the notes without me spoon-feeding them which song is which.

As an aside... One of my semi-colour strings girls at home is also in grade 3 and learning through school in group classes as well.  Last week I tried her on singing a song we already know (like Mister Sun) and then playing it on the violin, starting on different fingers and strings.  Not a problem.  This week we tried a slightly more complicated song (Look, Lamb, Look) - still not a problem.  Then we did the G major scale in 2 octaves - still not a problem.  If you're not a string player, this involves 2 different finger patterns and (when I teach scales anyway) keeping on thinking for much longer than normal.  Her dad doubted she'd earned a sticker but I think it was justified!

Today's photo:

I had lunch at Jeannie's today (yummy buckwheat pancakes) and sitting on the deck, the sun came through the clouds and back again enough to make this photo exciting in the taking. 

Something to do with Five

What do you do when you have a quartet of a cello, 2 violins, and 2 violas?  Ah, no, this is not a joke... You have a quartet night of Mozart Quintet, Mendelssohn Quintet, and Haydn Quintet followed by quartets of movie and tv-themes (optional second viola).  Good times.

So, this all started because Viola Man and I were discussing quartets.  Normally it's hard to find a cellist, but as my brother is one, I've got that covered.  My brother's flatmate plays viola, and Viola Man (who is also a violinist) has a friend staying from Canada - who also plays viola.  All in!  I think the Mozart was written (this is just a theory) because he had either a violinist he didn't like, or a violinist he really liked who wasn't any good.  It was the most boring Mozart part I've ever played - but the most interesting my brother has ever played.  The Haydn had Joseph's name on it but was apparently really by his brother, Michael.  And Mendelssohn.  Ah, Mendelssohn.  A teensy bit hard to sightread, especially as Mendelssohn likes to do a bit of the Jackson Pollock style so you wash about a bit, hoping you've counted correctly, until you all miraculously have the theme at the same time.  Love it - but a bit unnerving if you're unfamiliar with the part.  Or even if you are familiar with the part. 

We held this at my place, so I got to cook.  I've had a Tana Ramsey cookbook for a few years now and have cooked almost everything in it.  I'm not a fan of lemon chicken so have always skipped over the recipe for lemon chicken stew, but it stood out the other day.  Apparently the chopping is meant to take 30 minutes - I did it in half that time (go me!).  Knowing what her recipes are like with quantities (massive) I browned the chicken, in batches, in my frying pan, then proceeded with the recipe after that - all in the pot, basically.  Simple.  And tasty!  The lemon was more a suggestion instead of the overpowering force I expected, so I was happy.  Also, note the crusty bread in the background...  The serving suggestion is for rice but I'm not a fan of rice.  I made sure we had real, not imaginary, crusty bread, to soak up the saucy bits (unlike Monday).

I wasn't sure how much we'd want dessert, but with 3 blokes I thought it would be wise.  I was correct.  Earlier this year I bought, on impulse, a cookbook for fruit.  So far I've made fruit and cinnamon muffins... but nothing else.  I looked through the entire book, with my current stash of fruit in mind, and settled on the date and cinnamon squares.  (Yes, I love cinnamon).  Really yummy.  I put out half the slice, and it was all gone by the time we'd finished laughing at side-splittingly funny Youtube videos.  The slice is your standard slice mix, but because of the liquid with the dates, it is fabulously moist.

(Recipes available on request, I didn't want to take up buckets of space and reading attention with them though!).

Today's photo:

I walk past this tree nearly every day.  I love the carpet of green that encompasses the roots - but it is proving awkward to photograph.  I expect there will be a few more attempts before I capture it to my liking.

Summer School

January.  Big plans, small achievements.  But not this year!  All last year Jeannie was making me promise I would do summer school with her this year.  "Sure", I'd say... Screaming on the inside.  The thought of 2 weeks of my holidays taken up with assessment and being forced to interact with a bunch of people I don't know didn't fill me with joy. 
Yesterday's registration didn't really make me feel any better, especially as I found myself put in a class 2 levels higher than I wanted.  It's been a long time since I've made myself work this much.  This morning, I found I was still in Level 6 instead of the compromised Level 5 but our director was unflinching.  He thought he was being nice to me, letting me be in Level 6 instead of Level 7 or even 8.  But - he was right.  I didn't drown.  A lot of the material was revision and I could tell I wasn't at the bottom of the class. 
The string teaching programme is such a good environment, only 9 of us, supportive and useful materials.  Plus I already knew 3 other people so the 'bunch of strangers' doesn't really apply.  So far, everyone seems pretty friendly and it is such a good feeling to have neurons firing in my brain again.