May Violin Class

Say hello to Jiyoung’s baby girl!  Danah arrived on June 22. Congratulations to Jiyoung and her family. We miss you and look forward to working again in the fall!

Bravo2014-LetterCalendar

Dear Parents,

That was a wonderful recital on Sunday. I’m very excited by how far your kids have come this semester.

I promised that I would let everyone know what my teaching days would be for the next six weeks. Some of my schedule will be unknown until I start Bravo, so this is as close as I can estimate. There may be some changes. Please check out your calendars and preserve some spots.

I can teach:
Monday after 3:30 and Tuesday all day, June 9 & 10.
Mondays, June 16 & 23.
Friday, June 27 before 5 p.m.
Saturday, June 28 from noon until 5.
Monday, June 30.

In July I can teach:
Friday July 11 until 5 and Saturday the 12 until 1 .

After mid July I will be doing some travel, and those dates are not firm yet.

Just a reminder about our dress rehearsal Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and our recital the following Sunday, June 1 at 2 p.m. Please give me an idea of how many relatives and friends you’ll be inviting.

It will be a time for everyone to play for each other. Since it is not a performance class per say, it will be much shorter than usual.

I hope you are all working hard on your performance pieces. We won’t be having a Group A class at 10. Jiyoung will join us, and the Schubert String Trio will play as well. Please confirm the Saturday lessons with me.

Saturday night the SPCO with Roberto Abbado and Veronika Eberle transported us to the halls of God, even us secular humanists. I kept wondering what it would be like for Beethoven himself to be there. He certainly never heard his violin concerto performed with this kind of majesty, precision, drama, and transcendence. No one in the audience and barely anyone in the SPCO knew of Veronika Eberle. This is a testament to the fact that there is an abundance of great players in the world, and that having a recognizable name does not equal greatness, and greatness has nothing to do with fame.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about its disastrous premiere:

Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day… The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the occasion being a benefit concert for Clement. The first printed edition (1808) was also dedicated to Franz Clement.

It is believed that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance.[1] Perhaps to express his annoyance, or to show what he could do when he had time to prepare, Clement is said to have interrupted the concerto between the first and second movements with a solo composition of his own, played on one string of the violin held upside down;[2] however, other sources claim that he did play such a piece but only at the end of the performance.[3]

The premiere was not a success, and the concerto was little performed in the following decades.

The work was revived in 1844, well after Beethoven’s death, with performances by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Ever since, it has been one of the most important works of the violin concerto repertoire, and is frequently performed and recorded today.

Believe it or not, it has been one month since our last Performance Class! Our next is this Saturday, May 3.

Meriel, Finn, and Giovanna can come at 8:30 to rehearse with Jiyoung. During this time, Imala and Anna can rehearse.

At 9:15, the Group A kids can rehearse. At 9:30 Finn, Anna, and Giovanna can play for class and Group A can follow. We break at 10:00 and at 10:15, Meriel and Imala will play, followed by the Schubert trio playing the third movement.

This Saturday, we have a guest quartet of Bruce’s U of MN students coming to play for you at 11 a.m. We’ll have a second short break. Those of you who need to leave are welcome to, but I encourage you stay to listen after refilling the kids with snacks and juice.

Speaking of which….please bring snacks!

See you Saturday.

Hi, Parents and Students,

A friendly reminder: performance class on Saturday, April 5.

At 9:15 Jiyoung and I will rehearse with the Group A students, then have class immediately following. Break is at 10:15.

The Schubert trio will rehearse as usual at 9:30. At 10:30 we have older kids play their solos in the second part of class, and then their Schubert trio at 11.

The Schubert kids need to be prepared to play the first movement  for class.

I’ll bring the juice and the banana bread. Please bring snacks!

See you all Saturday.

Look what just came in my snail box:
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra would like to offer you and members of your studio $10 best available tickets to upcoming performance of Haydn, Stravinsky and Kernis—a savings of up to $32 per ticket! Tickets for children ages 6-17 are always just $5.
See below for concert information and ordering instructions. We hope you will join us!

Haydn, Stravinsky and Kernis
Thursday | April 24 | 7:30pm
Friday | April 25 | 10:30am
Ordway, Saint Paul

Stravinsky: Apollon Musagète
Kernis: Viola Concerto (world premiere, SPCO co-commission)
Haydn: Symphony No. 101, The Clock

Roberto Abaddo, conductor
Paul Neubauer, viola

Roberto Abbado’s first program of the season combines Haydn with twentieth-century masters. Stravinsky’s ballet score Apollon Musagète, one of the composer’s most elegant works, evokes the splendor of Haydn’s devilishly inventive Clock Symphony. This program also features the world premiere of preeminent American composer Aaron Jay Kernis’s Concerto for Viola, performed by one of the instrument’s finest proponents, Paul Neubauer, for whom the work was composed.

TO ORDER:
Visit thespco.org to select the seats you would like. At the final checkout page, click “use discount coupons,” enter code “kernis10” as the coupon ID and click “add coupon” to get $10 tickets (coupon code is case sensitive). Or, call our Ticket Office at 651.291.1144 and mention code “kernis10.”

Limit 4 tickets with discount. Valid for Thursday April 24 and Friday April 25 concerts only. Not valid on previously purchased tickets.

Kate Roarty Audience Development Manager
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
T 651.291.1144 | F 651.292.3281

Our Witherspoons are all over this.

Please check out this evocative book trailer made by Jon Engman for my book, Blond Boy. It is from another side of my life; I promise to keep these page-crossings rare.

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