a very special thing

Date: 11/09/13
Orchestra: chamber
Attendance: ok
Repertoire rehearsed: Ravel + Haydn
Little things I noticed: structure is a good thing
Note:
I'm actually not so convinced that you could tell the difference between you, a week ago, and you, this week. But to me, not even the same group at all. For once, you are now ABLE to listen to each other, whereas you were too busy "reading" your notes before. The practicing you did, not only made you more comfortable with playing your notes, but it opened up your ear. For the first time, you are reacting to what you hear, and making adjustments. Finally, we have some kind of "ensemble".

So, of course I am happy with how you sounded today. The only thing is.... I KNOW you could've sounded like that on our SECOND rehearsal. I can tell every single one of you practiced this week, but I am going to go ahead and also guess that it didn't take that much work to sound the way you do now. And that's the part that's eating me up from inside. If you had done the same amount of work only a few weeks earlier, and kept at it till now, imagine how you would've sounded by now.

I've known most of you for more than a couple of years now. I've seen your progress. I know what you are capable of. By now, when I decide on your repertoire, I imagine the quality of the final product that we'd be able to have by the concert for each piece. And to be honest, I was getting increasingly frustrated as the weeks went by, when you were moving (or sometimes not moving at all) at much much slower pace than you are capable of.

And as I said, you sounded great, but to be very honest, that was the quality I was looking for on our second rehearsal, which would've been possible if you had done then, what you did this past week.

Well, no one can change the past, so there really is no use talking about what we could've done. And I have no intension of dwelling on it at all. We can only move on forward from now. But please please keep your work up, especially now that you know how big of a difference it makes. I hope you realized how fun music is when it is played well, and we are still at the BEGINNING stage of learning the pieces. Imagine how fun this would be to play REALLY well as a group. And that's really all I wish from you - for you to experience this particular fun, that NO ONE ON EARTH can enjoy unless you practice your instrument. It is a unique experience, and a unique opportunity. let's make the best out of it. The best part about this fun is that it also teaches you things, which makes it even more fun.

And I have ZERO doubt in my mind that each of you are capable of achieving this and experience this very rare and valuable feeling.

I've gotten honor rolls, I've won athletic tournaments and awards, I've gotten into schools and festivals I wanted to attend to... but to me, no joy even came close to that of playing in an ensemble where a group of people, large or small, act as one. Using the same amounts of bow, breathing together, moving together, studying the music together, discussing what they might mean, agreeing on musical and poetic ideas and images, phrasing each and every phrase in unison, going up and down the dynamic range at the exact same pace, and painting ONE picture together with sounds at each moment of the music. Producing the same exact sounds, and being able to hear that from the inside. There really is nothing like it, and I really really want you to experience it.

Needless to say, to do this, each of us need to be quite comfortable with our instruments and the notes.

Keep up the work. We'll make it happen.