music...
To have us repeat the days of the week, my Italian prof was going around the table, asking us what we did on various days, during random periods of the day. As it happened, whatever time and day she posed to me, I answered "suono la mia viola" -- I am playing my viola. Sabato mattina? --si. Giovedi sera? --si. Lunedi pomeriggio? --si. Sempre.
Allora, what do I do with this all?
Vignettes:
Come summer, I play Bach and Mozart on the street with my friend Laura. We get strange looks and spare change, which we use to buy mango smoothies from the fruit-shake cart opposite the shade of the music library, in which alcove we've set up shop, clothespins gripping the pages of bach to the blue wire stands. We try to get through a Brandenburg concerto without one of the stands falling over, and without having to both drop out in the middle to readjust blowing pages. We tire of hard music and a vagrant audience, and play many Mozart duets, reading as we go. Now and then a cello suite, an appreciative passerby who will drop five clams into the green-velvet case we have open.
I take lessons from Joseph de Pasquale, this 80-year old curmudgeon who, despite his temperment, teaches me lots of useful things. Right now I'm working on Sevcik études (WARNING: May induce deep sleep!), the Eccles g minor sonata, and the third cello suite. He says listen to Casals for the music. I will, and don't need to be told twice.
Basic Piano lessons with Marcantonio Barone! I had six or seven years when I was little, but somehow over the years all of that Yamaha training fell out of my head and fingers and now I'm happily plunking out cadential six-fours and one-seven chords (my two favorites so far) under the scathing and omniscient gaze of Tony. It's great fun. Bartók provides lovely atonalities with his Mikrokosmos, which everybody else here seems to hate, but I love it.
Yes, this is me. I have finally become the viola. Three hours a day of practice is my goal, but on top of that I play in about seven ensembles (though I've really stopped keeping track--that takes more work than it's worth, given the ongoing flux of myriad orchestra concerts in combination with gigs here and there). An incomplete list is below.
