Campagnoli navel gazing

I have started my new (and extremely) imperfect blog...

41 Weeks of Campagnoli

Food!

This was quite a strange week. Major snowstorm on Monday, school closed on Tuesday, stomach flu on Wednesday.

But a good week in spite of this. Is it changed attitude? Is it the season? Not sure.

Here's another in the shameless plugs for December.

My sister-in-law is the best cook I know. She has the rare talent of taking leftovers and turning them in the most sumptuous gourmet meals.

She also has a blog. There was an hiatus of about two months because of her busy workload. And now she's back!

(She also guest blogs for the Food Network Canada. She loves Indian food too...)

Enjoy!

Intermission

Nursing a bad cold today and just thinking about things and how life is really too short not to reach out to people or delay doing an important project because the timing is wrong.

Therefore made some subtle but important changes in the last couple of days...how enigmatic is that?

The next project will be here soon on a related blog link. (I've decided to give up the idea of the negative autism blog for now and forever-not good to focus on that.)

In the meantime, here is the first of some really shameless plugs that will be posted over the next few days.

Anna (my favorite stand partner of all time) is in a fabulous quartet.

Here's an interview with them. Love their thoughts on music education.

Enjoy!

More about the concert

Here's a Times Argus article about the concerts this weekend. Been rehearsing a lot!

My Concerts

Been trying to post this all day...figured out how finally by using Picassa.

Too tired to write words today-maybe let the picture speak for itself.

(Just click on the image to read the words.)

Fun Time!

In case you have already done the quiz, head over here and check out these fabulous vids starring the wonderful Darkwood Consort!

(Disclaimer: It's a little string-centric....;) )

Getting it together....ha! Part 1 in a series

Funny....now that I finally have the energy to post again, I had to run away and join the opera (orchestra). We're playing Madama Butterfly this weekend and it should be great. How's that there is all these fantastic singers around this area lately? And I get to sit in first stand....yay me.
Meanwhile my youngest son is still like glue and now that he's two, he exercising his right to throw a temper tantrum every day. (Actually make that six.)

But onto other things.....

My plan for the summer of 2007 is thus: to become a better player though observing my playing objectively. And how to do that? Ha ha... through tape recording *every* single week for the months of July and August. Yes I like to suffer. But I would like to improve a certain facet of my playing. Namely rhythm. Namely dotted rhythms of all types.

Note to reader: If more than three people say the same criticism of your playing (whether it's intonation or rhythm or something else) , then maybe it's really time to focus on that aspect and just fix it without getting emotional about it. As I say "honour your strengths but work on your weaknesses."

So I have a mini disc recorder from 2000. However it really annoys me since it's almost impossible to get the discs for a good price. And I would like to record a lot. So I was planning to buy this.

Quite expensive. But I was planning to get it in a few weeks.

Then last week via the Music Teacher's Helper blog I was able to get a freeware version of Audacity. And it's fun. Just stick the mike into to the computer and record away. The best part is if you don't like what you record (for me about 75%) you don't have to save the file. No more deleting files on mini discs which I hate to do even if they're terrible. This technology thing is fun. (Probably everyone in the inter web world uses this program already. However I'm a little slow....just figured out how to subscribe to RSS feeds only two weeks ago and don't know how to IM though I would like to try.....hint hint.)

Time to practice. Many new things to practice (but more on that later).

Have a great day!

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?.......

What's distracting me right now is....

three excellent blog posts:

hellafrisch discussing in great detail his audition for Calgary.

Jason Heath's whole series of posts detailing the perils of being a freelance musician.

Jen's post about the last chair violinist having a solo in his final high school concert. (This really moved me. Totally relate....I started violin in a public school program too.)

Enjoy the day. Will blog more now that my energy has returned. (It took a unexpected vacation last week ;) )

Customized Radio

I was wondering if this was ever going to happen.....because life needs a soundtrack.

Pandora

You just put in a song and artist you like and they create a personalized station based on those preferences and give you other songs you may like. Though I haven't tried for classical yet because I'm indulging my silly passion for 80s/90s electronica :).

Thanks to Cellomania.

Will write more tonight....(sun's out!)

Networking for Musicians

For a long time I was wondering if/when there would be a Myspace clone for classical musicians.

Well, just found it.....

Classical Lounge

Check this out......

I know this isn't about the viola....but this has to be one of the coolest posters I've seen in a while.

[Michael is a colleague of mine at the Monteverdi School in Montpelier. Only been playing the cello for a few years but plays *very* well. Also composes (well) and plays the bagpipes....so talented!]