Another weblog

11 July 2009

This past week Samuel, Jonam and I have been at a music camp for high-school string instrument players at Rowan University in New Jersey. Every day from Monday until Thursday we left the house around eight in the morning and got back around ten at night; Friday was the last day, and we got home around seven. (Most of the other thirteen students stayed at the dormitories on campus.)

The faculty teaching the string camp included George Atanasiu (Samuel’s cello teacher) and his wife Lenuta Ciulei, who teaches me the violin and Jonam the viola. Gabriel Bala, who is the principal violist of an orchestra in Germany, was there to teach viola master classes, and Marco Grisanti, an incredible pianist from Italy, played in the concerts during the week.

In the morning two of the camp counsellors would direct an orchestra warm-up with scales and chords. Then Salvatore Scarpa, who was the director of the string camp, led the orchestra rehearsal for an hour and fifteen minutes. The students were then split up into groups to rehearse chamber music pieces, which we performed with each other Friday morning. (I played the first movement from Franz Jozef Haydn’s quartet ‘The Lark’, as well as a nocturne by Alexander Borodin.)

After an hour and fifteen minutes of chamber music, all the faculty and students gathered for a session of discussion and asking questions. On Thursday David Michie, from whom I got my violin, gave a talk on violin construction and maintenance.

Lunch followed, and then there was a master class (Lenuta was one of the teachers) and another orchestra rehearsal before dinner. After dinner came a concert given by the faculty.

The week was exciting and enjoyable, though tiring as well. (The students who were not commuting in general got to sleep very late, so that one of them actually nodded off to sleep during orchestra rehearsal, according to Mr Scarpa.) Everyone was inspired by Lenuta’s amazing violin playing and teaching. For me it was a motivation not only to practise on a more regular schedule, but also to play more chamber music and perhaps arrange and compose as well—if and when I find the time.

Posted in Music, Personal |