Saturday, November 24, 2007
First Public Performance
Today I had the privilege to accompany a few graduating kids at the Suzuki Music Academy in Davie. I fumbled through a Bach minuet and the Chorus from "Judas Maccabaeus", but I really fell apart during "Deck the Halls" when I was told to move center stage. The limelight was just too bright. Ah well, could have been worse. I'm going back to rehearse again next Saturday as the real xmas concert is December 15th and I'd like to be able to hit more notes, plus it would be nice to memorize my parts so I can play without the score like the rest of the kids.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thanksgiving and Other Thoughts
Hope everyone had a nice day. Its good to give thanks for all the giving, support and inspiration that one experiences every day.
I had Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon with a young cellist who really likes this song by Apocalyptica.
Nice to see that kids like something other than punk, rap, and heavy metal.
I had Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon with a young cellist who really likes this song by Apocalyptica.
Nice to see that kids like something other than punk, rap, and heavy metal.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Seven Things
I just noticed I was tagged for 7 things by Maricello while I was away in Turkey.
Okay - here goes...
1. My first awards in grade school were for art and music. The art teacher displayed my work for a month on the school's bulletin board. I wrote my first short story in grade school and sold 2 copies of it before I gave up the idea as it required me to write out each copy by hand.
2. When I was 15, I was the guitar player for "Sing Out Miami" a local band based on "Up with People"
3. I sang my first "speech" when I had to take "Public Speaking" in college because I had stage fright about speaking in public. I didn't have any qualms about singing in public because I had been doing that since I was a kid. The speech was to the tune of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" but instead I sang "How do you remember a name like Marisa?"
4. I didn't start learning the violin until age 24. So 24 years later, I'm learning the cello.
5. My first trip abroad was at age 28. I took my mother to Holland to see the tulips in the springtime. I lost my wallet, passport, rental car keys, credit cards etc. to a pickpocket. However, I was lucky and everything was returned to me except for the cash. The pickpocket had been nice enough to leave my stuff at a shopping mall where the police found it.
6. My mother adopted me at age 45, so I have always related better with older people. My husband is 12 years older than me.
7. Tests show I'm right brained, a Meyer Briggs INTJ and a CTMM 138.
Okay - here goes...
1. My first awards in grade school were for art and music. The art teacher displayed my work for a month on the school's bulletin board. I wrote my first short story in grade school and sold 2 copies of it before I gave up the idea as it required me to write out each copy by hand.
2. When I was 15, I was the guitar player for "Sing Out Miami" a local band based on "Up with People"
3. I sang my first "speech" when I had to take "Public Speaking" in college because I had stage fright about speaking in public. I didn't have any qualms about singing in public because I had been doing that since I was a kid. The speech was to the tune of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" but instead I sang "How do you remember a name like Marisa?"
4. I didn't start learning the violin until age 24. So 24 years later, I'm learning the cello.
5. My first trip abroad was at age 28. I took my mother to Holland to see the tulips in the springtime. I lost my wallet, passport, rental car keys, credit cards etc. to a pickpocket. However, I was lucky and everything was returned to me except for the cash. The pickpocket had been nice enough to leave my stuff at a shopping mall where the police found it.
6. My mother adopted me at age 45, so I have always related better with older people. My husband is 12 years older than me.
7. Tests show I'm right brained, a Meyer Briggs INTJ and a CTMM 138.
Only Four Days to Rehearse
Gulp! November 24th is just around the corner. I'll be out of town from 11/14 to 11/20 so that only gives me four days to prepare for my first public appearance accompanying some Bach violin minuets for a Suzuki graduation concert. Not hard except for the fact that I haven't touched the cello for over a month...
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Essays, Essays and Essays
Back to classes this week. Friday was my midterm in Musical History. I hadn't had an essay test since grade school. I jammed on the definition for "musica ficta". Isn't it something that you make up when you can't remember how to play a piece?
Today was "write an essay" day: The 1st one was for the concert I attended Thursday night which was the Russian Patriarchate Choir of Moscow singing mostly 16-18th Century polyphonic pieces. Nice and easy, finished that in an hour and submitted it to my online course.
Decided to the write a 400 word essay for a contest on why I deserve to win a round the world trip. Also fairly easy -- I blog, I travel, ergo I exist.
Then plunged into my big essay about the Aulos, double pipes of ancient Greece, which required conforming to MLA. Another memory blast from 30 years ago -- high school English class theme papers. This took up most of my afternoon.
Fought with my word processor because I was trying to manually do superscripts and references and it kept adding extra things I didn't want in the pages. Finally figured out what the word processor was trying to do. If I had been able to do it manually I could have been finished in a minute. Fighting with the program took much longer and forced me to expand my vocabulary for exasperation.
One should be able to turn off those automatic features. Anyway, the feature's great if one has twenty references and doesn't want to renumber them every time there's a change. It makes sense now that I understand it. I had attacked the problem the old fashioned way and there's all that new fangled stuff now in word processors.
Just received an email about playing in the Suzuki class Xmas concerts next month. Rehearsals to follow...
Today was "write an essay" day: The 1st one was for the concert I attended Thursday night which was the Russian Patriarchate Choir of Moscow singing mostly 16-18th Century polyphonic pieces. Nice and easy, finished that in an hour and submitted it to my online course.
Decided to the write a 400 word essay for a contest on why I deserve to win a round the world trip. Also fairly easy -- I blog, I travel, ergo I exist.
Then plunged into my big essay about the Aulos, double pipes of ancient Greece, which required conforming to MLA. Another memory blast from 30 years ago -- high school English class theme papers. This took up most of my afternoon.
Fought with my word processor because I was trying to manually do superscripts and references and it kept adding extra things I didn't want in the pages. Finally figured out what the word processor was trying to do. If I had been able to do it manually I could have been finished in a minute. Fighting with the program took much longer and forced me to expand my vocabulary for exasperation.
One should be able to turn off those automatic features. Anyway, the feature's great if one has twenty references and doesn't want to renumber them every time there's a change. It makes sense now that I understand it. I had attacked the problem the old fashioned way and there's all that new fangled stuff now in word processors.
Just received an email about playing in the Suzuki class Xmas concerts next month. Rehearsals to follow...
Friday, November 9, 2007
I'm Back and Trip Photos Are Online
http://www.galitz.com/2007-Turkey
Hope you enjoy the pictures from our latest travelogue.
I'm off to Chicago next week.
Hope you enjoy the pictures from our latest travelogue.
I'm off to Chicago next week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)