Learning how to play modern music

I apologize for not posting sooner. Various things happened. The most important one was this:

I was just incredibly tired.

And yes it took two weeks to recover from that concert of the Clearfield premiere.[Also we went to Ottawa for the next weekend and my two-year-old son has turned into sticky tape (well he does love oranges....) due to the fact I went away for three days and three nights.]

But it was a great experience and got me to think about the reasons for that.The main one was that it really was a terrific piece. And terrifying in places. The mood (and hopefully not the playing!).The soloists and conductor were wonderful and you could tell that they loved contemporary music. And I think this is one of the main reasons for the success of the premiere. They were just so skilled and had the openness to work with the composer even to the point of changing articulations and rhythms at the last minute. And nary a grumble from the orchestra which was a nice change.

A thought:

Maybe with contemporary music the reason many musicians grumble is that we are simply not used to the new techniques. In a way we are a generation (or two) behind the composer and we have to be coaxed (or dragged) into the experience. With time the next generations of performers are used to it and have learned the techniques. Audiences maybe need time as well.

And also over the last couple of months, I've seen the result of young performers succeeding in learning and performing an entire concert of music of local women composers. And done with such a good attitude as well. We mid-career players could take a clue from these enthusiastic teenagers.

Of course I don't mind being dragged at all. I do like the challenge of trying new techniques. (I was an admittedly bad improviser in the mid '90s) However sometimes I wonder what if I had learned properly at 15 to do Bartok pizzicato (or a whole bunch of them) in a viola piece. Or a bowed glissando-have seen this in many orchestral pieces written in the last 10 years.Just thinking that we violists (and other string players) need some 21th century etudes so it's not as demanding to learn a contemporary piece every time we're faced with it. Maybe with lots of glissandi, tremolo, artificial harmonics. Wondering who are the Rodes and Kreutzers of 2007? Are there any violin/viola teachers who compose for their students? Anybody interested? Or maybe should I try?.......