Week 11- Concerts!

 Week 11 and checking out the statistics, you guys can already tell I'm late in this. You guys are checking out the blog even though I haven't posted anything yet. But this time I actually have an excuse. The week isn't finished if I only report on one concert out of the two I had over the weekend, so I have to do it today after I do it. I'm going to be honest, I was really wiped out after playing in both of these concerts and I didn't really have the motivation to do this. But I have really good friends that encouraged me to at least do something today. So I guess I'll start on this. 

On Saturday, I had the ILMEA festival (Illinois Music Educator's Association) and you can get more info about it here. That's a podcast that explains what ILMEA is made by a fellow student where even I had some input in it. The school was an hour away by bus so there was a lot of time to kill (by napping) while on the way to the school. When we got there and unloaded all the instruments, we headed to our homeroom. It was really far away compared to the other schools in our region and had interesting decoration. Neuqua had the closest room to the gym while we had to walk more than 4x their distance to get to our room. When I got into the gym, I recognized a lot of people from EYSO (Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra) and it was pretty cool seeing them there. When it was finally time to rehearse, we started off with the star spangled banner. It doesn't really have the effect that band might have, but I still feel like it was pretty good (maybe because we had band members in the orchestra). Next, there were the three pieces we had to heavily prepare: Dusk, Danzón No. 2, and Russlan and Ludmilla. Dusk is a slower piece that is extremely strong and brings heavy emotions since every part seems so exposed. There are beautiful melodies that really tug at your heartstrings. In Danzón, it's a very smooth piece and every part sounds like something you could dance to. It contrasts the beautiful slow parts and the lively and chaotic fast parts really well. The piano has a giant impact on it as well, leading it on. In Russlan, it's a really fast piece and a lot of the time it kind of sounds like droning since the notes are going by so fast. This is the piece that mainly exhausted me since it was so fast, it requires concentration at all times so you don't miss an opening, and we played it so many times since it's hard. But there comes a certain part in the concert when you've gotten past all of the really hard parts and all that's left is the part you're confident on. You get this crazy smile on your face and play out with everything and you know everything will be fine. It's like a high when you're playing an instrument. 

The next day on Sunday, I had the EYSO concert. I was still feeling pretty burnt out from the concert before and it took me a while to get warmed up again for this concert. We played Shostakovich's 5th symphony, Overture to Il segreto di Susanna, and Silouan's Song. Shostakovich is a really hard piece to get down. There's a lot of history behind it, but the mood constantly changes and there's a lot of contrast going around at all times. Every instrument has it's use in the symphony and it's own unique part. It's full of solos for various parts. In Il segreto di Susanna, it's a very sarcastic piece about a humorous opera. It was really fun playing this piece and the melodies were really cool! Silouan's Song is another piece that tugs at your heartstrings. There are many grand and dramatic pauses that add extra depth to the piece that others don't. The pause at the end when we ended the concert on this piece was deafening. 

Well that's it, I don't think I can do any more work today, I've hit my limit. I can't really go on anymore. I really feel bad for the Model UN kids who have been out for way longer than I have, and debating about topics for two days. I also respect them for putting in the grind and having the grit to go through with it and even winning awards. I could honestly never be able to do it and today showed that perfectly. I feel like everyone in my grades a bit burnt out though. There have been a lot of things to do and looking back everything's been flying by. Next week is Thanksgiving Break and there's a lot of time to destress and get into a more normal state of mind. I think with school, and especially the toxic competition needed for colleges, it's hard to know when to take a break because you're always afraid you'll fall behind because of it. Well that's it for this week, I hope everyone makes it through!

-Charlie