Orchestra Camp!
Jun. 22nd, 2004 07:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltgmarsIt's not band camp, and I'm not a flautist... sorry...
Yesterday was the first day of orchestra camp, and as it turns out, my group this year (the l33t group (with the two best violinists, the best violist, and the best cellist)!!!!11) is the same one as from last year, except that since my violinist friend Elizabeth is in Louisiana doing evil stuff, Alan took her place. ^^;; I really enjoyed the first day, especially since the coordinator/head of operations, Marty, is the same guy who had to escort me around one day when I had to perform at an auction... he's so much fun (and he lets me call him Martini - that's the nickname his co-workers at the auction had called him)!
Hehhh...
After the introductions (by the camp faculty) were over, we had some free time, so the four of us ("the four of us" being my quartet: me, Alan, Diki, and a kid named Andrew from Riley (he's a lot of fun (I've known him for years) but he looks like a member of a boy band) headed off to our room. Unfortunately, we never got our quartet music, so we fiddled around with the stuff in our room before we hunkered down and taught Andrew how to play Euker. During that time, a vast assortment of faculty members including Carol (the principal cellist), Nick (the principal second violinist), Maestro Tsung Yeh, and Marty popped in (not necessarily in that order). Marty stood there and watched our game for a little while before telling us that he's a master at Euker and walking back out. Each of the others mentioned something about wanting us to play music, not cards, but we curtly explained our situation and they brought in some random reading music for us before they could get us our parts to the Grieg. ~_~
The Grieg is insane. This may just be the first year here I'll have to actually practice my music... ~_~
Anyway, masterclass was masterclass (there's a record number of violins this year - 24 - and we each have to squeeze in our solo for critiquing by the end of the week (I'm going on Thursday, though I have absolutely no idea what I'll play)... I make it a point to make each of my comments at least slightly amusing).
Lunch was lunch - I sat at a table with Ruth (yes, our darling just-graduated Ruth!) and a bunch of other stray violinists who didn't have any big groups of friends and whom I was friendly enough with to start up some conversations. Diki, Alan, Brian (Alan's little brother), and Eric (another violinist, not the Eric I've mentioned before), were off at another table, playing Euker (yes, that's the truth of it all - whether it's going to Saint Joe or going to some type of orchestra function, you're going to have to know how to play Euker). I'd check in on them every once in a while (it was sort of easy, too - they were in the general direction of the ice cream machine), but Eric stole a bite out of my second ice cream cone, and then both Eric and Alan stole a bite out of my third. Jerks. -_- Heh, then Eric was making comments about how he had Herpes all over his face and stuff, just to make me even more uncomfortable about finishing my ice cream than I already was... ~_~;;
After lunch we had a "special seminar" (we have them every day), and this time, we had to get together with our ensembles and build a tower (with just piddly materials - tape, straw, string, pipe cleaners, paper, index cards, etc.) that would be judged on height, sturdiness, and creativity. Of course, our group, consisting of the ever-genius Diki, the ever-creative Andrew, the ever-resourceful Alan, and the ever-fabulous ME, made the best tower. :D The two tallest towers were 65" and 66"... well, besides our 89" "behemoth" (as Marty put it) that took two people to carry, horizontally, just to get it to the right place (each group had a separate room all around the building, for secrecy's sake). Of course, everyone hated our tower (jealous, I tell ya, jealous), so we were the last to go (the presentation was pretty funny, too - we had to introduce ourselves and then what school we went to, so after the Andrew-Andika-Inez-Alan thing, it went (in the other direction), SJHS-SJHS-SJHS-Riley). We won in height, by far, and sturdiness was a test of which setting on a fan the tower could withstand. Since everyone hated our tower and wanted to see it fall, Marty had fun with it and tilted the fan upward (toward the big cylindrical thing that made it so tall), and set it to high (which it withstood). When he nudged the tower with the fan, it still stood. XD Yeah, we so won, though there was another judge who said ours wasn't "creative enough", so we tied with another group.
The prize? Autographed photocopied pictures of Tsung Yeh.
Yeah baby.
We had some time to kill before orchestra rehearsal started up, so Diki, Alan, Eric, and I decided to play some more Euker on the stage (we set it up the same way we did in the quartet rehearsal room - we'd gather around four stands, which we tilted sideways and put together as a makeshift table). Alan and Eric beat us the first set, 10-0 (~_~), but the second set started off with Diki going alone on Spades and picking up a nice 4 points as "retribution". :D We didn't actually get time to finish that set, since we had to hurry off to rehearsal, but Marty had challenged Alan and Eric, and when Alan told him to find a partner to play with, Marty said, "I don't need one. I can take you on my own."
Yeah, Marty's one of those cool adults you can just hang out and have fun with. That's partially why I think this year'll be better than the past few.
Orchestra rehearsal was orchestra rehearsal... the only notable thing was that we all had gotten our music around Thursday-Sunday this past weekend, so no one practiced their music. ~_~;; Oh well... I get to sit next to the faculty first violinist, and she understood. Oh, and she is t3h 5h!t when it comes to sight-reading, so yay, since she could cover up for everyone else's mistakes. :D
Thus ended the first day. It was a little tiring, since it'd been a while (read: a year) since I'd done something like this, but it was really just a sampling of the awesome week to come.
By the way, if you haven't already caught on, it's a day camp, so we don't spend the entire week there. 9:00-5:00 of basically music for four days straight, a formal concert on the fourth night, then a "tour" around our humble city on the fifth day (Friday), stopping at "choice locations" and playing for the people the there (our tour ends at Borders around 11:00ish - I'd love to see you there!).
Anyway, I have to go now. Camp starts in just 45 minutes, and I still have to brush my teeth and eat breakky and stuff. I'm very excited (not only for camp and brushing my teeth and stuff, but also because by the time I come back, Escaflowne (the entire series - I had to clear out 5.87 gb for it) and Koi Kaze 11 (well, 12, I guess) will have finished downloading). Anime fans (like Adam) would understand my downloading stuff, I guess, even though I still feel a bit unsettled about downloading something like Escaflowne, which I could easily (well, not "easily", maybe... "eventually" would probably fit here) buy on DVD if I wanted to.
Yesterday was the first day of orchestra camp, and as it turns out, my group this year (the l33t group (with the two best violinists, the best violist, and the best cellist)!!!!11) is the same one as from last year, except that since my violinist friend Elizabeth is in Louisiana doing evil stuff, Alan took her place. ^^;; I really enjoyed the first day, especially since the coordinator/head of operations, Marty, is the same guy who had to escort me around one day when I had to perform at an auction... he's so much fun (and he lets me call him Martini - that's the nickname his co-workers at the auction had called him)!
Hehhh...
After the introductions (by the camp faculty) were over, we had some free time, so the four of us ("the four of us" being my quartet: me, Alan, Diki, and a kid named Andrew from Riley (he's a lot of fun (I've known him for years) but he looks like a member of a boy band) headed off to our room. Unfortunately, we never got our quartet music, so we fiddled around with the stuff in our room before we hunkered down and taught Andrew how to play Euker. During that time, a vast assortment of faculty members including Carol (the principal cellist), Nick (the principal second violinist), Maestro Tsung Yeh, and Marty popped in (not necessarily in that order). Marty stood there and watched our game for a little while before telling us that he's a master at Euker and walking back out. Each of the others mentioned something about wanting us to play music, not cards, but we curtly explained our situation and they brought in some random reading music for us before they could get us our parts to the Grieg. ~_~
The Grieg is insane. This may just be the first year here I'll have to actually practice my music... ~_~
Anyway, masterclass was masterclass (there's a record number of violins this year - 24 - and we each have to squeeze in our solo for critiquing by the end of the week (I'm going on Thursday, though I have absolutely no idea what I'll play)... I make it a point to make each of my comments at least slightly amusing).
Lunch was lunch - I sat at a table with Ruth (yes, our darling just-graduated Ruth!) and a bunch of other stray violinists who didn't have any big groups of friends and whom I was friendly enough with to start up some conversations. Diki, Alan, Brian (Alan's little brother), and Eric (another violinist, not the Eric I've mentioned before), were off at another table, playing Euker (yes, that's the truth of it all - whether it's going to Saint Joe or going to some type of orchestra function, you're going to have to know how to play Euker). I'd check in on them every once in a while (it was sort of easy, too - they were in the general direction of the ice cream machine), but Eric stole a bite out of my second ice cream cone, and then both Eric and Alan stole a bite out of my third. Jerks. -_- Heh, then Eric was making comments about how he had Herpes all over his face and stuff, just to make me even more uncomfortable about finishing my ice cream than I already was... ~_~;;
After lunch we had a "special seminar" (we have them every day), and this time, we had to get together with our ensembles and build a tower (with just piddly materials - tape, straw, string, pipe cleaners, paper, index cards, etc.) that would be judged on height, sturdiness, and creativity. Of course, our group, consisting of the ever-genius Diki, the ever-creative Andrew, the ever-resourceful Alan, and the ever-fabulous ME, made the best tower. :D The two tallest towers were 65" and 66"... well, besides our 89" "behemoth" (as Marty put it) that took two people to carry, horizontally, just to get it to the right place (each group had a separate room all around the building, for secrecy's sake). Of course, everyone hated our tower (jealous, I tell ya, jealous), so we were the last to go (the presentation was pretty funny, too - we had to introduce ourselves and then what school we went to, so after the Andrew-Andika-Inez-Alan thing, it went (in the other direction), SJHS-SJHS-SJHS-Riley). We won in height, by far, and sturdiness was a test of which setting on a fan the tower could withstand. Since everyone hated our tower and wanted to see it fall, Marty had fun with it and tilted the fan upward (toward the big cylindrical thing that made it so tall), and set it to high (which it withstood). When he nudged the tower with the fan, it still stood. XD Yeah, we so won, though there was another judge who said ours wasn't "creative enough", so we tied with another group.
The prize? Autographed photocopied pictures of Tsung Yeh.
Yeah baby.
We had some time to kill before orchestra rehearsal started up, so Diki, Alan, Eric, and I decided to play some more Euker on the stage (we set it up the same way we did in the quartet rehearsal room - we'd gather around four stands, which we tilted sideways and put together as a makeshift table). Alan and Eric beat us the first set, 10-0 (~_~), but the second set started off with Diki going alone on Spades and picking up a nice 4 points as "retribution". :D We didn't actually get time to finish that set, since we had to hurry off to rehearsal, but Marty had challenged Alan and Eric, and when Alan told him to find a partner to play with, Marty said, "I don't need one. I can take you on my own."
Yeah, Marty's one of those cool adults you can just hang out and have fun with. That's partially why I think this year'll be better than the past few.
Orchestra rehearsal was orchestra rehearsal... the only notable thing was that we all had gotten our music around Thursday-Sunday this past weekend, so no one practiced their music. ~_~;; Oh well... I get to sit next to the faculty first violinist, and she understood. Oh, and she is t3h 5h!t when it comes to sight-reading, so yay, since she could cover up for everyone else's mistakes. :D
Thus ended the first day. It was a little tiring, since it'd been a while (read: a year) since I'd done something like this, but it was really just a sampling of the awesome week to come.
By the way, if you haven't already caught on, it's a day camp, so we don't spend the entire week there. 9:00-5:00 of basically music for four days straight, a formal concert on the fourth night, then a "tour" around our humble city on the fifth day (Friday), stopping at "choice locations" and playing for the people the there (our tour ends at Borders around 11:00ish - I'd love to see you there!).
Anyway, I have to go now. Camp starts in just 45 minutes, and I still have to brush my teeth and eat breakky and stuff. I'm very excited (not only for camp and brushing my teeth and stuff, but also because by the time I come back, Escaflowne (the entire series - I had to clear out 5.87 gb for it) and Koi Kaze 11 (well, 12, I guess) will have finished downloading). Anime fans (like Adam) would understand my downloading stuff, I guess, even though I still feel a bit unsettled about downloading something like Escaflowne, which I could easily (well, not "easily", maybe... "eventually" would probably fit here) buy on DVD if I wanted to.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 14:05 (UTC)And get Ruth's dorm adress and e-mail! I haven't seen her all summer. ;_;
I'd stalk you at Borders, but I'll be in KC. Call me.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 20:42 (UTC)You may be right about the "euchre" thing. I've never seen the word written down. ^^;; When are you leaving for KC?
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 23:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-24 03:52 (UTC)Yes, it's address. There was no doubt in my mind that it was address. And I checked, it's euchre. ^^
I don't cater this week because of orchestra camp, but camp takes up the entire day and I'm usually bushed by the end of it... am I allowed to call you in KC? ;_;
no subject
Date: 2004-06-25 20:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 18:51 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-24 03:51 (UTC)More likely than not, though, your presence won't be needed. >.<