Attendance is getting better as summer/fall sports are wrapping up! The following students helped to make Monday's rehearsal a productive and musical experience:
Gloria Zhao
Katie Gonick
Arianna Barnum
William Wang
Rachel Swyer
Marko Crnkovic
Emma Pearson
Karthik Ramesh
Naila Brown
Cody Ingraham
Sydney Marotta
Katie Yang
We continued work on Winter, and we used a worksheet to practice hearing the chord changes that occur in this piece. I encourage all of you to listen to (and watch) performances of this piece to help you get an idea of the type of bowstroke and intensity you should strive for. Here is a youtube video of Gil Shaham with a creative take on the filming. This video of Nigel Kennedy has an interesting mix of modern staging (and string techniques -- note the ponticello used to create that icy sound) with older instruments. Vivaldi's Four Seasons are traditionally performed without a conductor, as in this video. This is another good video, a little more traditional.
We sight-read a new piece this week as well, and I am really pleased with how well the ensemble did with it! The piece is an arrangement of the Allegretto theme from Beethoven's String Quartet Op 16. Next week, we will read another arrangement, this time by Schubert.
