This last month I gave my first full recital since my master's recital back in 2012. Let me say that if I thought performing a recital when it was the center of my life was challenging, preparing and performing this recital while teaching and working was just insane. I woke up early and practiced for a couple of hours before I taught, and then I tried to get another hour in of practice from 9 -10 pm at night, after teaching. I gave up what remained of my weekends to practice.
I managed a few lessons with a teacher I work with, but not many. I think one of the hardest things about this first year out of school is adjusting to not having weekly violin lessons, because I simply can't afford them with my student loan payments. Last time I gave a recital, I had a lesson every week. I had a ton of rehearsals with my pianist. I had a dress rehearsal in the hall where I was performing, with my teacher there to listen for balance. This time, I had three lessons. I had four rehearsals with my pianist, all of which involved at least an hour of commuting, and I had maybe 45 minutes in the hall right before the recital.
Needless to say, I did not anticipate a lot of these challenges. I got through it, however. I found a new, wonderful collaborator in Wade Meyers, and discovered that I had a capacity for efficient work and beautiful chamber music making that I had almost forgotten.
My primary career right now is as a teacher, and doing this recital reminded me that there are two halves to my musical heart. I love my students more than I knew was possible and thoroughly enjoy discovering each one's strengths and artistic potential. Teaching has helped me treat myself as my own student (and I've discovered that I am both a hard taskmaster and a lazy student, which makes for interesting practice sessions....). But there's another half to my heart, and that's as a performer. I absolutely love performing. I love the adrenaline rush. I love playing music I love for an audience. I love that I can introduce people to the world of classical music and make it come alive for them.
So, I'm hopeful that there will be more performances coming up this year. I won't necessarily be pursuing a typical performance career track, but I will definitely be putting more of myself and my music out there.
In the meantime, enjoy these recordings from last weekend. There's a Mozart sonata, a Beethoven sonata, and the fourth movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espganole. Just the Lalo is embedded below, but click on related videos to get the rest!
I managed a few lessons with a teacher I work with, but not many. I think one of the hardest things about this first year out of school is adjusting to not having weekly violin lessons, because I simply can't afford them with my student loan payments. Last time I gave a recital, I had a lesson every week. I had a ton of rehearsals with my pianist. I had a dress rehearsal in the hall where I was performing, with my teacher there to listen for balance. This time, I had three lessons. I had four rehearsals with my pianist, all of which involved at least an hour of commuting, and I had maybe 45 minutes in the hall right before the recital.
Needless to say, I did not anticipate a lot of these challenges. I got through it, however. I found a new, wonderful collaborator in Wade Meyers, and discovered that I had a capacity for efficient work and beautiful chamber music making that I had almost forgotten.
My primary career right now is as a teacher, and doing this recital reminded me that there are two halves to my musical heart. I love my students more than I knew was possible and thoroughly enjoy discovering each one's strengths and artistic potential. Teaching has helped me treat myself as my own student (and I've discovered that I am both a hard taskmaster and a lazy student, which makes for interesting practice sessions....). But there's another half to my heart, and that's as a performer. I absolutely love performing. I love the adrenaline rush. I love playing music I love for an audience. I love that I can introduce people to the world of classical music and make it come alive for them.
So, I'm hopeful that there will be more performances coming up this year. I won't necessarily be pursuing a typical performance career track, but I will definitely be putting more of myself and my music out there.
In the meantime, enjoy these recordings from last weekend. There's a Mozart sonata, a Beethoven sonata, and the fourth movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espganole. Just the Lalo is embedded below, but click on related videos to get the rest!
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