It’s officially April, which means that the concert season is in full swing! High school orchestras and other youth ensembles all over the country are currently scrambling to put together one final concert before we all break for the summer.
For me, I guess you could say that concert season began in March. Right before spring break, I had the incredible opportunity to play the Dvorak Cello Concerto together with the school orchestra. As I wrote in a previous blog, this is a piece that I’ve dreamed of playing for years, and I’m so glad that I was able to learn it and perform it before leaving for college.
I was nervous going into that week. We’d had very limited time to rehearse as a full symphonic orchestra (an ensemble composed of both “band” and “orchestra” instruments) and many of the entrances were shaky. I was even more worried about my own playing- there were many difficult passages technique-wise that I didn’t know if I could play well enough for the conductor to be able to follow me. However, after lots of practice and a whole three run-throughs of the entire 12 minute long piece on the day of the concert, I’m proud to say that we pulled it off.
I knew we were going to be okay from the very first opening notes of the concerto. This probably isn’t a good way of thinking about things, but for me, if the first passage of the piece goes well in a performance, then the rest of it will be fine. Otherwise it’ll mess with your head for the rest of the concert. Thankfully, it did go well. I think my tone for those first eight notes was the best it’s ever been.
From that point on, everything was exactly where it needed to be. Entrances were on time, balance was on point, my fingers were flying across the board. I think the adrenaline got the best of me as soon as the sixteenth notes section started, but I got back on track eventually. Overall, it went really well and I’m very proud and pleased with myself and with my classmates for being able to pull it off. I hope to perform it again at least once more in the future after it’s had time to live in my brain for a while.
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So what’s next? Unfortunately for my sleep schedule, this next month is when the concerts really start to pick up.
At school, my next performance will be as part of the pit for this year’s musical, Matilda! It’ll be interesting this year because I’m the only string player. Usually there’ll be a couple violinists, perhaps a violist, but I guess the score only calls for a cellist (although I swear I can hear a violin in the recording). Pit is always a lot of fun, but it’s also very taxing and time consuming. Starting this week, I’ll be at school until 9:30pm almost every day until the show opens. It’ll be a lot, but being together with your friends and seeing / hearing the final product at the end makes everything worth it. This year should also be interesting because of the NPAC renovations. Hopefully we’ll have more room and better sound this time around.
For curricular orchestra, our final concert will be on Tuesday, May 7th. We’ll only have five weeks total to prepare this time around; we’re playing slightly easier pieces this cycle as a result. Rehearsal has been going well so far, so I’m not super concerned about that. What I do need to worry about is the senior piece. Typically, the seniors get together and choose a piece to play together at the final concert. Rehearsals are going to be slightly complicated because we’re all in different periods, but I think we should be able to meet during WIN.
Outside of school, I’m part of a local youth symphony and our concert is at the end of the month (it coincides with one of the musical performances unfortunately). Like with all the other ensembles, there’s limited rehearsal time but I’m really enjoying the pieces we’re playing this cycle. The first piece is Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony, the final movement. I’ve played it before, which is nice because I don’t need to learn a completely new piece and revisiting it has been nostalgic. We’re also playing Finlandia by Jean Sibelius- which is a piece that I’ve always loved to listen to and wanted to play- as well as accompanying my friend’s concerto. He’s a phenomenal cellist and he never fails to amaze me with the way that he’s able to play these super crazy passages as if they were the easiest things in the world. He’s been working on this piece for over a year, so I’m glad that he’ll finally get a chance to play it with full orchestra.
But wait! There’s more. I won’t go into detail because I’ve already hit the word count, but I also have some chamber music and solo projects coming up. All in all, April is a very busy month- wish me luck!
Hi Anna-Maria! First off, I would like to say you did an amazing job with your cello concerto at the March concert! I really enjoyed listening to it and all your hard work was very evident. Your experience with the pit orchestra sounds very interesting, especially this year with there only being one string player. That surprises me because we have had string orchestras in other musicals, such as the Wedding Singer which I participated in freshman year, that had many more string players even though the soundtrack seems less inclined to a string orchestra. I participated in the string orchestra during freshman year, but because of COVID we never actually played in the pit, and I have never been down there. Have you ever considered pursuing orchestra as a career? I feel like playing in a pit orchestra in a professional setting would be really interesting. Hopefully the seniors’ piece goes well and we are able to pull it together without limited time. This was a great read, and good luck with the rest of your concerts!
Hey Anna-Maria! Your blog was so cute and amazing. You did such a great job at playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto! I was truly in a trance when you started playing. Even if the adrenaline got the better of you, it wasn’t even noticeable. You made every single note sound majestic. Though I am excited for the upcoming concerts it’s crazy to think this is the last season within high school before we graduate. I can’t believe you’re the only string player in the pit what!! I’m sure the hard work will pay off and you can rest up once the musical has happened. I completely agree with you regarding the senior piece! Thankfully we have our WIN sessions to practice. I’m sure your youth symphony concert will be amazing. I know this month may busy for you but I know you got this!