My 2nd Holiday Recital

My second recital! :)

I did a lot worse during this performance - I missed some notes and for some reason everything kind of just went crazy:

1) My Christmas lights on my stand stopped working.
2) I broke three bow hairs over a period of 2-3 pieces, which has never happened during a performance. I've had broken bow hairs 2-3 times during practice over the long period of time since I've owned my bow and one hair at a time! I think it may be time to get my bow re-haired since it isn't gripping the strings as well any more either, and rosin doesn't seem to help or last as long.
3) My hair was up in a loose bun and kept getting caught in my G peg! It was surprising that when I kept yanking my hair out of the peg that my cello didn't go out of tune!
4) I turned to the wrong piece of music and started playing the wrong piece during O Christmas Tree. Luckily, not too loudly!
5) I couldn't hear myself in the room so I wasn't quite sure if I was playing correctly and I wasn't hitting my notes like I typically do.
6) My camera decided to turn off 15 minutes into the performance - I think I didn't enter the settings correctly. Luckily, my teacher Adam had his video recording as well.
7) This performance wasn't as well attended like the previous one (the other performance was packed!), so that was kind of odd playing to a half empty room too. Although we had residents come in slowly over the performance so at the end of the performance the room was more full. I think next year I'll have to schedule it Sunday afternoon or on Saturday in the early evening to get more attendees.

It was just a weird performance! Maybe I should do a blooper reel!! :)

Although I have to admit that I was proud of the fact that I didn't freak out like I normally do!
I had one of our ensemble member's wife come up to me to say that they watched me the entire performance and that I looked really relaxed, and looked like I was enjoying myself. That was a nice compliment, and in the videos it didn't look as obvious when I was messing up either.

The room's acoustics made a huge difference in sound too. I could not hear myself playing, but the sound definitely developed and was more beautiful towards the back of the room.

My two teachers are facing each other: Clayton is playing part I and Adam is playing part IV since our other part IV cellist was unavailable to play during this performance. Thank you Adam! Hope you play with us more often! :).

Clayton had also been sick past couple of days, and had his dissertation the following day so he was stressed and feeling crappy, so thank you Clayton too! :)

Below are some photos and videos of some of the pieces. I tried to select some different videos to post.

Carol of the Bells

Dreydl

We had to slow down the tempo quite a bit for this piece so we could stay together.
I have to admit that I love the two Jewish holiday music we played, they're so upbeat and beautiful, and fun to play! Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of cello ensemble music out there. I'll have to research some songs and get those arranged for next year.

Jingle Bells (Sing-along)

Hee, hee...messed up a few times here, but's its not as obvious in the video. Very difficult to sing and play at the same time, but it's coming along! :). I didn't know the verses to Jingle Bells either; even though I've heard this song a billion times!

Waltz of the Flowers

I LOVE this piece!! We also played March from the Nutcracker, but that didn't turn out as well. 

Maybe next year when a lot of us have been playing for awhile March will sound better so I can post it. :)

O Chanukah

Theme from Judas Maccabeus

This was a really beautiful piece, so we decided to repeat the entire piece since it was fairly short. 

O Christmas Tree
Oops, turned to the wrong page! I was able to get back in at 0:11, but the sour notes in the beginning coming from section IV was ME! Lol! I decided to play really quietly after that... ;)

We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Sing-along)

I didn't know any of the lyrics for the verses (just the chorus) for this song either. My favorite verse "Bring us a figgy pudding!" Had to look up what a figgy pudding was!

..hmmm... I'm the only person not doing vibrato... Goal for next year's holiday recital: play with vibrato!!

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PHOTOS



Yaay - I can finally focus on my individual pieces! Yes!! ;)
I'll get my last three lesson notes from Adam's lessons posted tomorrow as well and will finally get caught up on my blog posts.