It's Great to be Back!

Greetings,

I know I haven't wrote a post in a very long time.  I have been REALLY busy.  During the second semester school year I was working with the Freshman Orchestra mainly on music.  Now I am working on part two:  children.  That's right, I am working at a day camp.  I am working with nine and ten year old girls.  The days consists of arts & crafts, archery, basketball, blongoball, dance, kickball, soccer league games, and swimming twice a day.  That's not all, there's a bonus.   Every Thursday we go on field trips, such as Active Kids, Medieval Times, and Splish Splash.  The upcoming trip I am looking forward to is the Spirit Cruise.  We get a tour of New York City and get to see the Brooklyn Bridge.  I'm excited.
It feels like deja vu when I see all the kids and I say to myself "It can't be nine years ago I was nine years old or it can't be possible that thirteen years ago I was five"  I remember being five years old.  Believe it or not?  Now why would I be mentioning about five year olds?  Well, I get to camp by bus with all the campers who live around my area.  There are so many five year old girls and six year old boys plus an hour and ten minute bus route.  This means they need to be occupied.  But, I have created games and brought drawing materials for them.  I also have a plush pencil case elephant named Phantom and some of the children love to play with him.  The best part is when the children are having fun and make me laugh.  It's a great experience.

No School!

The fact that I don't have to worry about anymore tests or assignments is an incredible feeling.  But, I still am getting ready to be a musician in the real world.  I am practicing Bartok Romanian Folk Dances arranged for viola and I am practicing Bach's Cello Suites arranged for viola.  Bartok shows virtuosity and I am working on becoming a professional musician.  Bach is essential in the music world, because the suites are the standard literature for auditions and recitals.  My goal is to learn all six suites, by the time I graduate college.  Some movements are harder than others and take more time to learn, but I am determined.  I am also determined to learn Walton's Viola Concerto.  Unfortunately, the viola literature is smaller than the cello and violin's.  There aren't many options to choose from in the viola world.  But, I have played around with some violin literature and laugh at myself everytime I play the reknown works.  But, more works for viola are being composed as I write this.  I can't wait to see the new compositions for viola in the future. 

My last day of High School

Yesterday, was my last day of high school.  It went by very quickly.  Each year goes by faster and faster.  It's scary.  It was surely an interesting day with firecrackers and frogs.  I will never forget my last day of high school.  Despite the chaos, lots of my great friends signed my yearbook and they wrote a lot of compliments.   It will feel weird not to eat lunch in the music hallway with them.  They are the greatest friends anybody can ever ask for.   I also learned how to use to new Brita filter in my school yesterday, ironically on the last day.  It was great after being outside in the heat for an hour how refreshing the water tasted.  It was clean and cold just as the description said on it.  I also took my last test ever in my district.  It was the greatest feeling!  Then I had the senior countdown.  It was great to hear all my fellow seniors outside, while I was in the library.  It meant it was my turn to count down the last ten seconds of high school.   My fellow seniors and I were all excited to spend the last seconds together, the way we started.  But, I feel I'm missing something everytime I think about high school such as: an assignment, homework, textbook, or a test.   Luckily, I remind myself I am completely done being a high school student.  But, the best is yet to come.  I have graduation and prom.  I am looking forward for both.   

Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  Hope everybody has been enjoying the 4 day weekend.  All the students in the Freshman Orchestra have presented their stories, including myself.  I thought it would be fair to write my own story and present it to the class with my own matching sound effects.  Everybody seemed to enjoy it.  Right now I am continuing to work with them by playing bass.  Playing bass is pretty fun with 7 bassists.  It never gets boring. 

The first thing I did during break was actually on thursday night.  The youth orchestra I play with played at Alice Tully Hall.  I thought it was a great concert.  We played with assurance and a lot of musicality.  I myself had a lot of laughs with all of my friends.  There should be a review in the times in a couple of days about the concert.  I am confident there was a good review.  Well that's all I got for today.
Happy Memorial Day

Story Time Continued

The Freshman Orchestra made some pretty great stories.  As a surprise I thought it was fair to share the story I made up on my own with matching sound effects.  Surprisingly, they all liked the story.  They all made stories within less than a week.  The biggest challenge is teaching students who are only three years younger than me, but it's a lot of fun too.  Everyday is a new adventure with them.  All of the chaos makes me laugh after the class is over I just can't stop laughing as I'm writing about it. 

Story Time

The Freshman Orchestra is ready for some stories. They are going to be making up some stories in groups using their instruments. They are going to learn certain embellishments to use in their stories. I've made a list of a bunch of embellishments for the students to use. I've been looking forward to this project for a semester now. I can't wait believe this will start tomorrow

Telephone Livin On a Prayer!

The Freshman Orchestra sightread the arrangements of Telephone and Livin On a Prayer for String Orchestra.  I have to admitt I could not stop laughing.  Everybody got so excited when they played these classic pop tunes, especially the bassists.  They went a little overboard by rushing and playing so forte.  Three bassists and I laughed so hard, that I thought our laughs were louder than the rest of the orchestra playing.  We had a great time!   It was a great way to end my stressful week of 5 tests.  Good ole bassists.