So I must be honest. With one week to go, this has not been the summer I had hoped for. Last year I came here, had a hell of a good time, and it felt like a vacation. This summer, I haven't liked many of the people here, and it's been a lot of work, certainly not a "vacation" at all. Still, I have improved, in fact I think I've improved quite a bit, or at least put myself on a path to further improvements. My left hand feels a lot more sure of itself, and my sound has gotten bigger, and my bowarm more flexible. So despite any downsides, I can say it has been a summer well spent.
Last night was the Heifetz talent show. I did another one of my heavy metal quartets, just like last year, but on top of it 9 of us did a short sketch roating various faculty members. It was a huge hit; literally every line we did got big laughs from everyone, including the faculty in question (although only about half of those in the skit were still present). Honestly we were quite surprised, we thought teh sketch would be really lame, but I guess we got it right.
One exciting thing is that my trio was asked to perform on the closing gala concert. We'll be doing the 3rd and 4th movements of the Shostakovich E minor trio, along with Sunny's trio, which is doing the first movement (I think) of the Schubert trio. After that is a chamber orchestra rendition of the 4th movement of Souvenir de Florence, which will be exciting. I'm definitely looking forward to this concert (partially because I'll be going home two days after).
I've started to realize that I'm feeling very restless. I have no regrets about not going to get my masters degree this year, but I'm still impatient to get the hell out of places I'm so familiar with and move on to something new. I'm really starting to think it'd be nice to go to Royal Northern, if only to go somewhere COMPLETELY new, although I suppose New York would fit that bill too. Problem is, Royal Northern is hard to get into. Better start practicing a concerto. And excerpts. I just discovered that Chicago has a section cello audition this fall, and since I'm within driving distance, I'd be rather stupid not to take it. Finally, a reason to practice 6 hours a day.

Bragging Rights

So this evening my trio performed the first two movements of the second Shostakovich trio. I'm working with Jiyang, who just finished his freshman year at Eastman (he's the one who played on Anton's recital) and an incredible Israeli violinist named Itamar. But anyways, I nailed the opening. Well, it wasn't perfect; I missed two passing harmonics, but hell, I think that's pretty damn good for a first time out. The rest of the two movements was fine, of course. It's only the opening I worry about.
And now mr. Vardi is here too. He makes everything all better after last week in hell.

So, at the end of week two, I FINALLY have internet. So here I am. Too much has happened to post about, but what the hell, I'll give it a shot.
The most notable thing is that I just took two lessons and a masterclass with the Israeli cellist Amit Peled, on the faculty at Peabody. This SOB is HARDcore, like ridiculous. He gave me some twenty intonation excersizes to work on, told me that I just can't play in tune and that I can't be a professional unless I learn how. So I have my work cut out for me this summer, but first to get out of this slump of feeling the impossibility of the entire intonation situation. I don't think my intonation is as bad as he says it is, but I guess it's pretty bad. Ah well. That's why I went to the bar tonight and drank much more than usual . . . he said similarly harsh things to Sunny, I guess, in a different way, but wow,, what a hardass. I think I want to study with him in graduate school, if anyone could motivate me to practice it would be him, and I think he has the answers I need with to fix some intonation problems.
Tomorrow I'm playing music for an improvised dance for four dancers and horses. Don't ask.