A Glimpse at my Emotions

arco, vibrato, bravado

2018-07-21, 12:46 PM

So...most of you all know that I play at my school's orchestra. And so I have once again this term, as the orchestra's concert master for the second time.

For me, this is a pretty rare accomplishment. Despite me having not played my violin much (it's impossible for me for the four months I was in China, since I didn't bring my violin at all), I was somehow able to pick things back up again the moment I picked up my instrument again. And I don't think anyone has ever been concert master for a university orchestra more than once during their undergraduate career.

Either way, I was honoured. I felt honoured to do this once more with the people I've been working with for the last few years, and to work closely with the man who took over the conductor's position partway through my university career. He's known me from the beginning, and I'm honoured to have gained his trust.

The concert was two days ago, in a hot sweltering church. Well, the church had AC, but the sanctuary we performed in lacked that. Instead, we relied on electric fans, and even that didn't do much to help. Despite me wearing a formal black dress, it did nothing to help me cool down. 

Oh well. We had to make the best of the situation--especially with my parents who came in wearing formal clothes themselves, but then automatically "complained" of the heat, so we went outside more than we stayed inside the actual concert hall.

And anyway, overall the concert went pretty well! We performed a lot of great works, such as Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Haydn's "London" Symphony, and Debussy's Petite Suite. Here are a few pictures my mom sent me of our performance.

(She also took pictures after the concert of me and a few of my friends in the orchestra, but I'm not going to put them up here.)

I mean we're all just playing stuff throughout, so the general gist is the same over and over. Still, though, I felt absolutely happy after it all. It was a good concert albeit the slip-ups in the songs. (Not to mention, I was sweating pretty hard, too, and my chin rest kept slipping from under my grip.)

Personally, I'm glad my mom made such a huge fuss over my outfit and everything. Everyone complimented me on the dress--said it looked fantastic--and though I sweat a ton in the performance I thought the dress really made my concert go with a bang. Last time, I just stuck to wearing my black dress shirt and dress pants, but this time my mom made me wear a formal dress and high heels. Guess that really helped me stand out from the rest.

Words alone can't describe how incredibly privileged I am to take this position twice now, and to bring the audience to their feet, too. The standing ovations at the end of the concert really moved me, it moved all of us, and now all I can think about is how much of an impact I really made to everyone in the orchestra and in the community.

Yesterday, I had another performance with a smaller ensemble--a piano trio, consisting of a violin, piano, and cello player--at a community retirement home. I think the music department arranged this a while prior and I had no idea about it until two weeks ago, but seeing all the seniors there enjoying the Mendelssohn trio that my group prepared really moved me. And now I can't wait to see what will happen at the concert tomorrow evening, when we perform at a recital for a larger crowd of people from the school and the community alike.

I'm just so, so glad that music has been a major part of my life. Maybe I will never become the next Lang Lang or Joshua Bell, but I'm happy with what I have accomplished so far. All I can hope for is that music can continue to bring me so much joy moving forward.