Louis II

Last Monday, I adopted Louis II, successor of Louis I.

More like married him. ;)

He and I are going to have many new and exciting adventures.

Especially now that MCCO has started. It feels so much different now.

Before, I had to TRY to get the sound to come out how I wanted, but now it just pours out. Every violinist needs to find an instrument that sounds good with them and their style. It doesn't matter so much how well your teacher thinks it sounds if it sounds natural when you play it.

I love Louis II.

Audition... Among other things.

Today: Besides missing school (if I miss 4 more days I'll fail all my classes) I auditioned for South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra. Although it's not exactly the prestigious orchestra of Interlochen School of the Arts, it's the closest thing you'll get around here. The audition went well, or so it felt. I won't know until tomorrow how well I did or what placement I received. There are two main options, Symphonic or Philharmonic, then Violin 1 or Violin 2 inside both of those. If I didn't make Symphonic (since I didn't try out using 3 octave scales) then the most I can hope for is Violin 1 for Philharmonic. Which I wouldn't mind - my goal would be principal violin that way.

I arrived feeling slightly nervous, only to enter the practice room with a dude playing some sort of band instrument, a cellist, and a younger violinist who was scratching out Gavotte from Suzuki book 2 or 3. I opened my case to tune wishing that I could be warming-up in a room that wasn't full of college-aged musicians or people just hanging out. I warmed up with a few scales and practiced a few parts of my piece. I noticed while I was practicing quite a few people stopped to watch, including the Gavotte Girl. The cellist kept plowing on through Bach's Cello Suite No 1 which sounded pretty good, and I'm sure if he wasn't nervous he would have gone a little slower. I felt comfortable in the room and practiced a few other pieces to adjust. Then they called my name.

I was lead up to room 100, up the stairs and to the left. In the room it was rather stuffy and crowded with tables stacked up everywhere. In the back of the room there was a stand, and one table set out with two judges smiling and waiting for me. They picked the scales I was dreading - although prepared for. But what I noticed most is that it wasn't as hard for me as before. It's getting easier to play for people. That's my goal. Results tomorrow.

Music is good.