Weekend (and pissed at myspace)
Myspace will burn... I had to re-type all of this because it wouldn't let me copy, and then it deleted my entry... *beats head against wall*
So here's the goings-on of this weekend! It might explain to some people why I'm not at school right now... hehehe!
Friday night I had my rehearsal/concert at the PLACe (which none of you showed up to!). It went pretty well, I thought. I played the Weber, the Debussy, and the Mozart. The first two sounded pretty good in my opinion, and even the Mozart didn’t sound bad considering I was reading it.
Afterwards, I had to grab Miriam before too many people started talking to me cuz my daddy wanted pictures. One of them he wanted us together, and the other he wanted like we were playing. So Miriam actually started playing the Debussy! Problem? I still had my A clarinet from the Mozart, so that was really funny! It’s like: pretty intro…. ½ STEP FLAT?!?!?!
Then I talked to a whole bunch of people. Lee and Dawn (family friends) actually came, and Dawn was talking like she’d never heard anything like that before… I’m like, ok… but it was very nice for them to come and spend their Friday listening to me. I also got to talk to Danny and Rachel when I was setting up and again when I was packing up. I was really surprised to see both of them, cuz I thought Rachel was back at USC and I didn’t think Danny would come anyway, but it was nice to see them again.
So then afterwards I was up late because we went out with my aunt to grab some chow, and then I had to come home and get cleaned up for Saturday.
I had to get up early again Saturday morning to go see Steve. AND TERESA WAS THERE!!!! I was totally shocked, cuz Steve opened the gate, and there was Teresa shouting at me! So I probably reacted strangely, but that was a mix of tiredness and shock. By the way, Teresa, it sounds like you worked your ass off up at NAU! Fearless Leader is so proud of her Lenin!!! *hugs uber muchly*!
So Steve and I mostly talked about college auditions in the lesson, then we worked a little bit on the Mozart (I didn’t wanna play the Debussy and stress my wrist out before the competition, and I’ve been on as much Ibuprofen as possible this whole weekend). I wasn’t too happy with how I played the exposition for him, but he had a bunch of good things to say, even if we did only get through the first 8 bars.
So my ma and I had a couple hours to kill after my lesson, so we went and ate at the best Middle Eastern Bakery ever…. mmmmmm…… And afterwards we hit the Buffalo Exchange (one of the most frustrating places ever) and then the Natural Health Food Store (mmmm…. tea and trailmix are good….).
Finally, I went and signed in for the PSG competition, went and changed, and then stretched out/warmed up on the 3rd floor (like Miriam advised, cuz the PSG warm up rooms had a 10 minute limit). I went down to my audition room with 5-10 minutes to spare only to find out that, surprise surprise, they were 20 minutes behind. AND that the principal clarinet of Youth Orchestra was going right before me. So I mentally prepared around the corner till she went in and started playing, then I took a walk and another potty break. My ma was freaking out when I came back cuz she thought I didn’t have enough time left to prepare again and swab out/soak my reed, but since the judges took forever, I had more than enough time.
I thought the actual audition went pretty well. It wasn’t as good as Friday’s performance, but part of that was because my fingers were freezing. Miriam thought I did pretty good though, so that was cool. It took them forever to give me my music back, but when they did, I talked to Rachel Trenbeath for a while before my ma and I hit Chili’s for dinner. And the waiter gave me shit for drinking like 7 glasses of whatever I was drinking that night. I’m like, hey, you try doing what I just did. It makes you thirsty, bud, and I drink a lot no matter what.
The building was empty when we came back to find out the results, and I was afraid we’d missed it, but Rachel was still there, and Alex told me they were still auditioning people. So here were the results for the woodwind category:
1) Rachel Trenbeath
2) Paul Gardner
3) Jen Kabbas
4) Adele Zhou
(I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for posting names, considering that PSG will be doing the same. And that list translates to me and the Youth Orchestra flute section, for all of you who don’t know.)
Needless to say, I was incredibly shocked. And I thought I was in deep shit because I had listed the Stravinsky Three Pieces as my contrasting piece, but I had given up on it months ago due to Steve’s advice. I was up really late trying to get a hold of people to let them know what was going on and trying to get a hold of Steve to ask him what I should do about the Stravinsky.
Sunday I was up between 8 and 8:30 cuz I couldn’t sleep anymore, and I spent the entire morning on the phone. Steve called back, and fortunately he was able to help me get them to change my contrasting piece from Stravinsky to Weber. I was like, “Steve, I love you….” So then I had to call a lot of people to get that straightened out.
I called Rachel M. when I was trying to decide what to wear that evening, and it’s a good thing too. She saved my butt! (*bows down at Rachel’s feet* THANK YOU!!!). So basically I found out that I needed to wear the most formal evening gown I had. Problem: one of them is now too tight around the chest for me to breathe effectively, and the other has a huge stain on the front. I’m like, shit. So we had to run to Dillard’s, and fortunately I found a dress that fit me really well and let me breathe very well, so I was happy. Then we ran home, I grabbed everything I could possibly need, and we hauled major ass down to the school. I checked in as fast as I could, changed did everything I needed to get ready (since I didn’t want to mess up my dress or go on stage to the finals with smeared makeup), then watched one piano player. She was pretty good, I thought. Then I went back up to the 3rd floor practice rooms (since they’re more live than the other ones and imitate the hall better) and stretched and warmed up. I was supposed to meet Miriam at 5:40, but apparently there was a miscommunication. I thought we were going to meet outside of the entrance to Katzin, and she thought we were supposed to meet in a practice room. Fortunately, we found each other in time to still start a few things in both pieces so I was ready.
I thought the performance was not too bad with the exception of my fingers being cold and slipping (despite the fact that Miriam even helped me warm them up), but I still think Friday was the best performance. Afterwards, Tony found me and walked me back to the hall, where I talked to H for a bit (he says hi to all the people who still remember him). He had to leave before the awards ceremony, but that’s understandable since he was there so early and whatnot. It was good to see him again, especially since he came all the way down there just to hear that.
I’ll list the results of the awards ceremony at the very bottom if you wanna scroll down to see that. But first, I’m gonna talk about dinner and bitch about judge C.
So after the ceremony, I changed in the parking lot (not as bad as it sounds) and my family and I decided to go eat with my aunt (cuz everyone was hungry, and I was REALLY hungry, considering the amount of stress I was under and the fact that I had only eaten a rather early brunch that morning). We followed her to about three places before we finally ended up at Monti’s, and let me tell you, I ate good…
So for the most part I had been keeping a conversation going with my aunt through dinner, but when I was done, I was pretty much falling asleep at the table. There was one convo, though, that was pretty damn funny.
My uncle is selling videophones (like, you see the person you’re talking to) for the hell of it, and he was, once again, trying to pitch to my parents. He was talking to my dad, and then brought my mom into it, saying things like, “And mom can see her whenever she wants, can watch her sleep or whatever.” (cuz he still gives all of us shit because my ma had me call home every night when I was at BUTI). I was like, “Sorry ma, but that’s not gonna work. No…”. Then my aunt leans over and tells me, “You know, if your hair is a mess or something, there’s a little privacy button you can hit so they won’t see that…” And my response? “Oh, that’s not what I’d be using the privacy button for…” Lmao, oh man, I’m really stupid… Saying stuff like that in front of my aunt… *slaps forehead* lmao!
Ok, and now for my PISSED OFF-NESS at judge C. He did give me the lowest score, but not by much (they were all around 90). That’s not my problem. The other two judges liked and even complimented me on my tone. He said that my “tone quality [was] a bit ‘harsh’”. I’m like, no. Also, he marked me down TWO POINTS on my “General Effects” score saying, “Don’t turn [your] back to [the] audience when tuning!” Ok, every single professional clarinetist I have seen soloing has turned their back to the audience when swabbing or warming up, and I’m pretty sure that all of them face their pianist when tuning, cuz you have to communicate with the pianist. I mean, I had to ask Miriam for another Bb, and trust me, it’s a lot easier to do when you’re facing the person. What the fuck is this judge on, anyway? I mean, ok, I could’ve turned sideways, but so what? Gah, that pisses me off! And if you’re going to give me a low score, TELL ME WHAT I DID WRONG! I mean, he had some comments, but the other judges gave me higher scores and had more comments. I’m sorry, you can’t give lower scores and less comments. That’s a Mrs. Perry system, which means person = DUMBASS!!! *beats head against wall in frustration* I don’t even care that he scored me lower, I’m just ticked that he didn’t give me any feedback for it and that he marked me down so much because my tone quality was supposedly “harsh” and because I turned my back when tuning…
Ok, so here were the overall results!
1) Emily Nebel - Violin (I’m very happy for this girl! She went right before me and came off stage feeling really bad and near-tears. Since she’s first, she gets to play with the Phoenix Symphony)
2) Levi Vutipadadorn - Piano
3) Joanna Yang - Piano
4) Rachel Trenbeath - Flute (she gets to play with the Phoenix Symphony for being the top-scoring PSG member)
5) Paul Gardner - Flute
6) Jordan Wong - Violin
7) Amy Wang - Violin
8) Joy Gunderson - Harp
9) Jennifer Kabbas - Clarinet
10) Hanah Vutipadadorn - Piano
11) Kathryn Bivona - Violin
12) Bret Wagner - Euphonium
13) June Yoon - Violin
14) Adele Zhou - Flute
15) Caleb Chou - Cello
Congrats to everyone who played yesterday! Everyone was amazing!
So here's the goings-on of this weekend! It might explain to some people why I'm not at school right now... hehehe!
Friday night I had my rehearsal/concert at the PLACe (which none of you showed up to!). It went pretty well, I thought. I played the Weber, the Debussy, and the Mozart. The first two sounded pretty good in my opinion, and even the Mozart didn’t sound bad considering I was reading it.
Afterwards, I had to grab Miriam before too many people started talking to me cuz my daddy wanted pictures. One of them he wanted us together, and the other he wanted like we were playing. So Miriam actually started playing the Debussy! Problem? I still had my A clarinet from the Mozart, so that was really funny! It’s like: pretty intro…. ½ STEP FLAT?!?!?!
Then I talked to a whole bunch of people. Lee and Dawn (family friends) actually came, and Dawn was talking like she’d never heard anything like that before… I’m like, ok… but it was very nice for them to come and spend their Friday listening to me. I also got to talk to Danny and Rachel when I was setting up and again when I was packing up. I was really surprised to see both of them, cuz I thought Rachel was back at USC and I didn’t think Danny would come anyway, but it was nice to see them again.
So then afterwards I was up late because we went out with my aunt to grab some chow, and then I had to come home and get cleaned up for Saturday.
I had to get up early again Saturday morning to go see Steve. AND TERESA WAS THERE!!!! I was totally shocked, cuz Steve opened the gate, and there was Teresa shouting at me! So I probably reacted strangely, but that was a mix of tiredness and shock. By the way, Teresa, it sounds like you worked your ass off up at NAU! Fearless Leader is so proud of her Lenin!!! *hugs uber muchly*!
So Steve and I mostly talked about college auditions in the lesson, then we worked a little bit on the Mozart (I didn’t wanna play the Debussy and stress my wrist out before the competition, and I’ve been on as much Ibuprofen as possible this whole weekend). I wasn’t too happy with how I played the exposition for him, but he had a bunch of good things to say, even if we did only get through the first 8 bars.
So my ma and I had a couple hours to kill after my lesson, so we went and ate at the best Middle Eastern Bakery ever…. mmmmmm…… And afterwards we hit the Buffalo Exchange (one of the most frustrating places ever) and then the Natural Health Food Store (mmmm…. tea and trailmix are good….).
Finally, I went and signed in for the PSG competition, went and changed, and then stretched out/warmed up on the 3rd floor (like Miriam advised, cuz the PSG warm up rooms had a 10 minute limit). I went down to my audition room with 5-10 minutes to spare only to find out that, surprise surprise, they were 20 minutes behind. AND that the principal clarinet of Youth Orchestra was going right before me. So I mentally prepared around the corner till she went in and started playing, then I took a walk and another potty break. My ma was freaking out when I came back cuz she thought I didn’t have enough time left to prepare again and swab out/soak my reed, but since the judges took forever, I had more than enough time.
I thought the actual audition went pretty well. It wasn’t as good as Friday’s performance, but part of that was because my fingers were freezing. Miriam thought I did pretty good though, so that was cool. It took them forever to give me my music back, but when they did, I talked to Rachel Trenbeath for a while before my ma and I hit Chili’s for dinner. And the waiter gave me shit for drinking like 7 glasses of whatever I was drinking that night. I’m like, hey, you try doing what I just did. It makes you thirsty, bud, and I drink a lot no matter what.
The building was empty when we came back to find out the results, and I was afraid we’d missed it, but Rachel was still there, and Alex told me they were still auditioning people. So here were the results for the woodwind category:
1) Rachel Trenbeath
2) Paul Gardner
3) Jen Kabbas
4) Adele Zhou
(I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for posting names, considering that PSG will be doing the same. And that list translates to me and the Youth Orchestra flute section, for all of you who don’t know.)
Needless to say, I was incredibly shocked. And I thought I was in deep shit because I had listed the Stravinsky Three Pieces as my contrasting piece, but I had given up on it months ago due to Steve’s advice. I was up really late trying to get a hold of people to let them know what was going on and trying to get a hold of Steve to ask him what I should do about the Stravinsky.
Sunday I was up between 8 and 8:30 cuz I couldn’t sleep anymore, and I spent the entire morning on the phone. Steve called back, and fortunately he was able to help me get them to change my contrasting piece from Stravinsky to Weber. I was like, “Steve, I love you….” So then I had to call a lot of people to get that straightened out.
I called Rachel M. when I was trying to decide what to wear that evening, and it’s a good thing too. She saved my butt! (*bows down at Rachel’s feet* THANK YOU!!!). So basically I found out that I needed to wear the most formal evening gown I had. Problem: one of them is now too tight around the chest for me to breathe effectively, and the other has a huge stain on the front. I’m like, shit. So we had to run to Dillard’s, and fortunately I found a dress that fit me really well and let me breathe very well, so I was happy. Then we ran home, I grabbed everything I could possibly need, and we hauled major ass down to the school. I checked in as fast as I could, changed did everything I needed to get ready (since I didn’t want to mess up my dress or go on stage to the finals with smeared makeup), then watched one piano player. She was pretty good, I thought. Then I went back up to the 3rd floor practice rooms (since they’re more live than the other ones and imitate the hall better) and stretched and warmed up. I was supposed to meet Miriam at 5:40, but apparently there was a miscommunication. I thought we were going to meet outside of the entrance to Katzin, and she thought we were supposed to meet in a practice room. Fortunately, we found each other in time to still start a few things in both pieces so I was ready.
I thought the performance was not too bad with the exception of my fingers being cold and slipping (despite the fact that Miriam even helped me warm them up), but I still think Friday was the best performance. Afterwards, Tony found me and walked me back to the hall, where I talked to H for a bit (he says hi to all the people who still remember him). He had to leave before the awards ceremony, but that’s understandable since he was there so early and whatnot. It was good to see him again, especially since he came all the way down there just to hear that.
I’ll list the results of the awards ceremony at the very bottom if you wanna scroll down to see that. But first, I’m gonna talk about dinner and bitch about judge C.
So after the ceremony, I changed in the parking lot (not as bad as it sounds) and my family and I decided to go eat with my aunt (cuz everyone was hungry, and I was REALLY hungry, considering the amount of stress I was under and the fact that I had only eaten a rather early brunch that morning). We followed her to about three places before we finally ended up at Monti’s, and let me tell you, I ate good…
So for the most part I had been keeping a conversation going with my aunt through dinner, but when I was done, I was pretty much falling asleep at the table. There was one convo, though, that was pretty damn funny.
My uncle is selling videophones (like, you see the person you’re talking to) for the hell of it, and he was, once again, trying to pitch to my parents. He was talking to my dad, and then brought my mom into it, saying things like, “And mom can see her whenever she wants, can watch her sleep or whatever.” (cuz he still gives all of us shit because my ma had me call home every night when I was at BUTI). I was like, “Sorry ma, but that’s not gonna work. No…”. Then my aunt leans over and tells me, “You know, if your hair is a mess or something, there’s a little privacy button you can hit so they won’t see that…” And my response? “Oh, that’s not what I’d be using the privacy button for…” Lmao, oh man, I’m really stupid… Saying stuff like that in front of my aunt… *slaps forehead* lmao!
Ok, and now for my PISSED OFF-NESS at judge C. He did give me the lowest score, but not by much (they were all around 90). That’s not my problem. The other two judges liked and even complimented me on my tone. He said that my “tone quality [was] a bit ‘harsh’”. I’m like, no. Also, he marked me down TWO POINTS on my “General Effects” score saying, “Don’t turn [your] back to [the] audience when tuning!” Ok, every single professional clarinetist I have seen soloing has turned their back to the audience when swabbing or warming up, and I’m pretty sure that all of them face their pianist when tuning, cuz you have to communicate with the pianist. I mean, I had to ask Miriam for another Bb, and trust me, it’s a lot easier to do when you’re facing the person. What the fuck is this judge on, anyway? I mean, ok, I could’ve turned sideways, but so what? Gah, that pisses me off! And if you’re going to give me a low score, TELL ME WHAT I DID WRONG! I mean, he had some comments, but the other judges gave me higher scores and had more comments. I’m sorry, you can’t give lower scores and less comments. That’s a Mrs. Perry system, which means person = DUMBASS!!! *beats head against wall in frustration* I don’t even care that he scored me lower, I’m just ticked that he didn’t give me any feedback for it and that he marked me down so much because my tone quality was supposedly “harsh” and because I turned my back when tuning…
Ok, so here were the overall results!
1) Emily Nebel - Violin (I’m very happy for this girl! She went right before me and came off stage feeling really bad and near-tears. Since she’s first, she gets to play with the Phoenix Symphony)
2) Levi Vutipadadorn - Piano
3) Joanna Yang - Piano
4) Rachel Trenbeath - Flute (she gets to play with the Phoenix Symphony for being the top-scoring PSG member)
5) Paul Gardner - Flute
6) Jordan Wong - Violin
7) Amy Wang - Violin
8) Joy Gunderson - Harp
9) Jennifer Kabbas - Clarinet
10) Hanah Vutipadadorn - Piano
11) Kathryn Bivona - Violin
12) Bret Wagner - Euphonium
13) June Yoon - Violin
14) Adele Zhou - Flute
15) Caleb Chou - Cello
Congrats to everyone who played yesterday! Everyone was amazing!