I haven't shared much about Brevard yet, and now we're 6 weeks in with 2 weeks left to go! The schedule here is more draining than I anticipated - it's not like we walk around exhausted all the time, but there's a lot of music to learn, rehearsals to attend, and concerts to perform or watch. Some of the highlights for me have been seeing performances of the Liebermann flute sonata (it was SO good), Schumann piano quintet, a new piece called "3 Riffs" for 3 cellos and timpani, the Shanghai Quartet (whoa), a couple members of ICE giving a recital where I really liked some pieces, and really disliked others, but they were awesome performers either way, and seeing Garrick Ohlsson play Brahms and then do this transcendental performance of Clair de Lune as an encore that actually left many people silently wiping away tears.
For my own performances, the most exciting part of the summer so far was playing Souvenir de Florence on Bill Preucil's recital. We did a side by side of 3 faculty and 3 students. I think it's the most professional-like demand I've ever experienced, as I'd never played it before, and we had 3 rehearsals and a dress to put it together (not to mention that half the people involved were very professional.) I met a couple times one-on-one with the other cellist though, which helped a lot to prepare for the first full rehearsal. The performance ended up being super fun and kind of surreal! I also played a program that included Stravinsky Symphony in C, Strauss oboe concerto, and Haydn 60 with Matthias Bamert leading, who is one of the best conductors I've ever played under. (That's a picture of the cello section with him afterwards, a couple pictures up.) We opened up the season playing with Itzhak Perlman, which was a lot of fun, and last weekend played Brahms 2 and and Prokofiev 2nd piano concerto under another conductor that I really enjoyed. He was a great musician and effective leader, and he cracked me up because for some reason he would exaggerate certain words or syllables. He is originally from Peru - I don't know if that had anything to do with it - and would say things like "take the fiRRRRSSSSTTT ending," or make a comment about the "TEMpo." It was the most intense annunciation I've ever heard! Awesome. Tomorrow is Beethoven 1 and Dumbarton Oaks, and my mom is coming to visit! Hooray :)
ps: All photos of the sextet by Stephen Houseworth photography.
