Texas Music Festival Week 3

Goodbye Houston!

The final week!!!

This week was absolutely insane! There was so much to do and not nearly enough energy to do it all!

One of the highlights of the week was the musicians’ yoga class. I wish I had a chance to go to the two sessions the last two weeks, but I am so glad I made it to this one! We didn’t do some of the “typical” yoga poses like downward dog and plank because of the pressure those poses put on the wrists, hands, and shoulders. This was a time to experience the full range of motion of our bodies and find ways to release tension while stretching and strengthening the muscles we use to perform. It was a very smooth, fluid process that stretched all of the major muscles groups but also focused on the small muscles in our wrists, fingers, and shoulders that musicians use daily. This is definitely something I would like to talk more about in the future as I continue to employ these practices in my daily routines.

In my lesson this week, we worked on finding the different voices and colors in a piano dynamic by using bow speed. I struggle with producing a variety of different colors at a piano dynamic. So in this lesson, we worked on developing different ways to achieve this.

Chamber was so much fun this week because we finally got to perform! All of our hard work came to its culminating point. I can’t say it was perfect. But I can say we put everything out there. We played musically and emotionally and worked together as a group. I am so honored to have performed with these musicians. I will post the video soon!!!

This week I had the opportunity to perform in a masterclass with Dr. Xaio Wang! I worked with pianist Shupang Wang to perform Paul Hindemith’s Sonata in Es Op. 11 movement 1. This piece is very interesting as it doesn’t have a central key in which the melodies and phrases surround. It is constantly modulating, and in fact does not have a printed key signature. It has a very fast paced opening and a very soft, mysterious melodic middle. So I guess you could infer the form to be AB(C)BA. The initial performance was so freeing. It felt amazing to have performed with no strings attached, no labels.

Orchestra this week had many ups and downs. The music was very difficult and didn’t make a lot of sense outside of a whole group context, so practicing individually was difficult. This year we are celebrating the 200th birthday of Bruckner. Before this festival I had only heard of him but never had performed his work. We worked very hard on his 9th Symphony this week. I was very proud to be sitting third chair in the 2nd violin section for this concert. Leadership on orchestea is important to me and I never had the opportunity in my undergrad to be a leader. So to be this close to the leaders and work with them was amazing. Grammy award winning conductor Hans Graff was our director this week. Being around such experienced, talented musicians is a very special feeling. The concert was amazing but exhausting! I was so proud of the work we put in and so happy for the final result!

Overall, would recommend this festival. The amount of performance opportunities, rep covered, and variety of experiences is better than other festivals I have attended.

I hope to see many of the friends I made again soon! Whether it be in Utah or at another festival next summer!

Now I’m off to prep for grad school!

Cheers!