Christmas Cheer

Broadway Spectacular

I've mentioned it before, but I joined the community orchestra when I moved to Hood River last month. It's been such a fun outlet for me. Our first concert was this weekend (Friday night and Sunday afternoon).

The theme for this one was Broadway show tunes and we all dressed up like Broadway show characters. The first violin section decided to all represent Sound of Music.

In case you can't tell, I was the baroness...

We had a short rehearsal before the concert and as I was walking off stage for a break, my bow slipped out of my finger and fell....Not quite as tragic as when my violin broke, but still pretty tragic. Thankfully I had an extra with me and could play the concert.

My family came to watch on Sunday and took this short video...enjoy!

I'm linking up with Good, Random, Fun and Seasons

Violin

In the midst of all the house excitement, I got my violin back from the repair shop. I've had it a couple weeks now, but still haven't had much time to play it. 

The luthier who worked on it and repaired it, was gracious and kind and walked me through the entire process via the photos he took. 

In case you missed it or have forgotten, here's what it looked like after the accident.....

After removing the top, he was able to see that the neck had been repaired before, and that it hadn't been place well which is why it broke again. This first photo is what the violin looked like after removing the top. You can see quite a bit of glue around the seams from repairs over the years. Also...do you see the small wooden rod? That's a sound post that must have fallen down and then gotten stuck to the side of the instrument during a gluing repair! You can barely see the label in the first photo.

This next photo is after the inside was cleaned up and the new box was installed for the neck. The label is still old and dirty, but much more visible.

Here is what the top looked like when it was taken off....

And after it was cleaned up a bit...and more repairs done to the cracks. Some of the cracks were old from past years, and at least 3 were new from this particular accident.

I'm not sure what this photo is of...I guess it's a different angle of the new box inserted for the neck.

And here she is....beautiful, shiny, strong and ready for many more years of playing.

I am amazed at how beautiful she is. I could see cracks before and now it's barely noticeable. I'm in awe of the work that was done to restore her, and as heartbreaking as the accident was, I'm grateful. I was able to have some much needed work done for a fraction of the cost. I got a new sound post and bridge, and so far am very pleased with how it sounds.

Broken

It's been two weeks since the unthinkable happened. Two weeks ago I dropped my violin and it broke. It was only a few inches from the carpeted floor when I fell out of my hand, but it broke in one of the worst ways possible. The neck broke and detached from the main body of the violin.




It IS fixable, and thank God I have it insured. (seriously....I thank God again and again for this). I've had this violin for 23 years and we've been through so much together.

We graduated from college with a degree in music performance

We played in the Peoria Symphony for a year

We've taught hundreds of students in Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina, Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan and Oregon.

We graduated from East Carolina University with a masters degree in violin and Suzuki

We went on a European orchestra tour

We played in the Rochester Orchestra for a concert

We played in the Marquette Symphony Orchestra for a year

We've played weddings and funerals

She's also (easily) one of my favorite subjects to photograph...

I'm missing her greatly, but am so thankful that she's getting fixed and in a few more weeks will be as good as new. I also love the the luthier fixing her calls me every week with an update. There is a chance she will sound better than before, and I know for sure she'll look better. There were quite a few cracks that were fixed with more of a "band aid" fix, but now that the top had to be removed, they can be fixed in a more secure and lasting manner. 

Snowflake

I wrote my first fiddle tune and gifted it to Kevin for Christmas....

I titled it Snowflake. 

A Little Concert

This past Sunday the girls and I played at church. We play every year around Christmas, but in the past we've mostly played by ourselves. This was the first time we played with the band, and now that we are in the new building it seemed even more impressive to play for such a large audience.

The video is pretty long (12+ minutes), so don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing! In fact, the girls only play on the first two songs.

A Christmas Concert for You....

Violin...

Even though we've taken a break from formal schooling, we do violin practice every single day. It took a lot of diligence to make it part of our daily routine, but now the girls will reach for it at the end of the day if they haven't yet practiced. It's nice to see them taking more responsibility.

I've asked them to help me teach my littlest violin student. She absolutely adores Sydney and Kayleigh and actually has had better lessons since they took over a couple weeks ago. She'll do anything they say.

The girls' playing level is way above their reading level so when they are learning a new piece I usually write it out with a string name and finger number. Last week I had the bright idea to write it out on art paper and tape it to the wall. They loved it and actually fought over who could learn it first! The novelty has worn off a bit, but they have learned it much faster than past pieces.

We are still playing monthly at the local nursing home. Here Sydney is leading two of my younger students in a trio. She likes to lead and teach and is actually quite good at it!

Also...Sydney got an expander and some braces last week. The expander is to open up her upper pallette since it's smaller than her lower pallette. This will help make room for her teeth as they continue to come in. She had a small gap between her two front teeth and because we were doing the other orthodontic work, we opted to put braces on her four, top teeth to close the gap. She was very uncomfortable with everything the first few days, but she seems to be adjusting pretty well. I have to turn a key in the expander every day and that's not very fun for either of us. Hopefully in 6-9 months it will all be done!

Oregon Suzuki Institute ~ 2014

This past week the girls and I were in Newberg, OR at Suzuki Institute. This was our second year to attend and we all had a great week. The camp is held on the campus of George Fox University - it's a small, Christian college very similar in size to EMU. 

Last year the girls had the same classes and same schedule...this year, every single class was different (except orchestra). Here was our daily schedule...

8:15 am ~ Kayleigh's group class  (Sydney and I would go practice during this time)

9:15 am ~ Sydney's arts and crafts class (Kayleigh and I would go practice during this time)

10:15 am ~ Kayleigh's master class   /    Sydney's group class  (I would watch some of both lessons)

11:15 am ~ Sydney's master class   /    Kayleigh's dalcroze class

noon ~ lunch

1:15 pm ~ student recitals / practice time

2:00 pm ~ orchestra

A master class is a mini, semi-private lesson you share with 2 or 3 other students. You get a 10-15 minute lesson every day while the others watch.  A group class has about 10 students at about the same level as you. Dalcroze is a music and movement class. This was the girls' first orchestra experience...it was a bit advanced for them, but they did a great job and learned quite a bit (I think). 

Here are some photos from our week.

Kayleigh's Week....

Kayleigh had Lucy Shaw for group class...she was FANTASTIC! I think she was my favorite teacher from the week. She worked the kids hard, but had a great personality and way with the kids.

Kayleigh had Gail Acosta for her master class. I know Gail from way, way back - more than 10 years ago! I met her in NC at the institute there. She still goes to teach at the NC institute and is headed there next week.

Kayleigh playing with a teeny, tiny bow...these are called "Twinkle bows".

Sydney's Week....

Sydney's group teacher was Tracy Helming. She's fun and full of energy and Sydney loved her class. I didn't get to see much of Sydney's group class, but I did manage to catch their "review parade". The took turns leading the class as they paraded around campus. 

Sydney's master class teacher was Yoko Acheson from California (originally from Japan). She had the opportunity to study directly with Dr. Suzuki when he was still alive and teaching. She was a great teacher and had a fun sense of humor and teaching style. 

The girls made some new friends and on Friday they got to go out to ice cream together. Adam, the guy in the picture, is the camp accompanist (piano) and went to ice cream with them. (it was an auction / fund raiser for the scholarship fund). The girl in yellow lives in Portland and the other girl lives up near Seattle but was born in Burlington, VT just like my girls!!

We also got to spend quite a bit of time with our good friend, Josiah. He and his mom stayed in the same hotel as us.

I'll post some videos tomorrow...