Wayward Instrumentalists -Trio in D.C.

I can’t recall whether or not I mentioned the fact that I am a member of a trio here at my school. It’s been a while, so I’ll just put a reminder here – I am a university student attending a music conservatory, getting a degree in violin performance. Part of the curriculum as a music student includes being in a small ensemble of some sort for a certain number of semesters. Last semester, I was forced against my will into a trio by one of my best friends, who happens to be a clarinet player. The two of us were assigned a pianist, and we were incredibly lucky to have been graced with this guy – he’s freaking brilliant. He’s a goofball, and he’s talented as hell, and we love him to bits.

 

Anyway, we played this trio for violin, clarinet, and piano, written by Aram Khachaturian, which was the piece that my clarinet friend had picked out prior to the formation of our trio. It was a bitch to learn, because I’m a stubborn prick who hates practicing and this shit required a bit of practice, but eventually we got it pulled together and we were sort of the best ensemble to emerge out of all of the wind ensembles at the school when it came time for the end of the semester wind ensemble showcase. No big deal or anything.

 

So, given our relative success up to that point, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt us to enter some national chamber competitions, because why not? We didn’t have anything to lose, since the conservatory was going to pay for the audition fees and everything. So we did. We recorded our stuff, and we sent it out to three different competitions — and we heard back from one a couple weeks ago.

 

Bottom line, the three of us are headed to Washington D.C. for the final round of a chamber contest. We are quite excited.

 

We heard back from another of the competitions saying we didn’t make it past prelims, and we have yet to hear back from the third one, but that’s okay. We don’t really care. We get to travel to our nation’s capital, and the school is paying for everything. So it’s fine.

 

I’ll definitely be posting pictures once we’re there. Just a heads up. Regardless of whether or not we win, or even place, we’ll have plenty of fun.

 

Besides the Khachaturian Trio, we’ve played Milhaud Suite trio, Largo by Ives, Sunny Days by an American composer whose name currently escapes me, a movement called Milonga of this piece which is supposed to be an homage to Astor Piazzolla, and I don’t know who it’s by.

 

Our latest project, which we are planning to do for the final showcase this term, is Contrasts by Béla Bartók. Dear fucking Lord, this piece. It’s a fucking pain in the ass, but Christ is it awesome. Seriously. It’s astounding. It’s genius. It’s just really, really fucking hard.

 

Any violinists out there who have even heard the piece will be nodding along right now. Contrasts is a bitch. But a really sexy bitch.

That was weird. I don’t care. Made sense in my head.

 

Anyway.

 

I’ll keep you updated on the trip, probably post some photos – fair warning – and I’ll come up with a really clever title for our adventures gallivanting about our nation’s capital.

 

Until next time, my dear readers.

 

Sam, signing off.

Back

Hello. Been a while.

 

I cannot count how many times I have contemplated coming here to write, but I honestly haven’t been up to it lately. You’ll be happy to hear, however, that I am getting better.

 

University is rather shite these days, but it’s not because of the workload or the challenging curriculum – I’ll be straightforward here and tell you all that I’ve been put on lots of medications for different reasons, and said medications have been changed six times since the beginning of the academic year. Not really good for business, you know? As soon as my body gets used to a change, there’s something not quite right (or really, really, horribly not right), and it gets changed again. Not fun.

 

But I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve survived, and summer is just around the corner.

 

As for developments this week – one of my best and closest friends from my hometown just got diagnosed with cancer. You don’t have to, but if you could send warm thoughts or prayers or anything, that’d be much appreciated. He’ll probably be fine, but, you know. Getting a call from a high school friend that they have cancer is a little jarring, to say the least.

 

Other than that, things are looking up. Just gotta keep reminding myself that I’ve only got a few more weeks to go of all this crap, and then I’m back home with my friends and my family and home-cooked food and my own bed… I can’t wait.

 

I have some good news that I’ll post shortly – this was just a sort of “welcome back” for myself. Sorry for the hiatus. Can’t be helped, sometimes.

 

I’ll post again shortly.

 

Sam, signing off.