Posted on September 26, 2015.
Disclaimer: For some reason, none of us thought to take pictures (read: we forgot to save them from our Snapchat stories), so this is not actually a buzzfeed-style listicle. #sorrynotsorry #ImActuallySorryThatWeDidntTakePictures
- The CYSO has it really nice. They rehearse in Curtiss Hall on the tenth floor of the Fine Arts building downtown, which has this gorgeous view of the lake. I would be jealous of them if going to the tenth floor didn’t depend on those non-electric, human-operated elevators. (They sound really cool in theory, but a nightmare in practice. I mean I bet musicians have to get there 30 minutes to make sure they’re not late for rehearsal. And I feel like only about two bassists would be able to fit per elevator????)
- Apparently, I have to be German in order to play Brahms properly. (Does that mean the Petrograd Quintet needs to be Russian to play Shostakovich properly? I mean I can’t say much about my performance, but I find that very hard to believe based on their phenomenal one.) At least man who wants me to be German to play Brahms thinks my technical skills are good. That’s a surprising plus. Except also the first movement doesn’t even have very many super technical parts? Weird.
- Sightreading Mozart is (surprisingly) conducive to audience participation/pseudo-coaching/whatever you want to call it when they give suggestions to the musicians who are doing the sightreading.
- Except for when one of the audience members thinks that you need to be German to play German music.
- “Have you ever been to Germany?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know German?”
“Yes.”
*man says something in German*
*Emily responds in German*
*commence whole conversation in German between this man and Emily*
Needless to say, it was one of those moments that’s simultaneously what-the-f*ck-is-happening-right-now and hyper-awkward. What a way to learn that someone is a Germanic studies grad student, amirite?
- Sightreading a string quartet written by an undergrad who doesn’t play a string instrument is super fun with respect to bowings. But the coolness of playing student compositions outweighs that, right?
- Except for when one of the audience members (kind of) quotes Foucault and says “The composer does not exist” when Joseph Neidorf, the student composer, is referencing his score when giving constructive criticism to the quartet that’s sightreading his music.
- BABY CELLOS ARE THE CUTEST THINGS. (We got a tour of the WHL shop aka behind the scenes of WHL aka where my cello was conceived.)
- I think
if when we do this again next year, it’ll be better. Hopefully there will be no German man who thinks we need to be German to play German music. But if he is there again, I’ll be sure to play some Tchaik and see if he thinks I should minor in Russian studies in order to play it well.