Mendelssohn Quartet

It's just video after video around here lately, I know. There are probably a few more to come, but it won't go on like this for much longer; it's just that it's mostly during three weeks in August that my kids get the opportunity to perform in ensembles and with accompanists.

This week Erin was involved in the Chamber Music class at the Valhalla Intensive Performers' Program. For a couple of hours a day, teens meet in groups to rehearse assigned chamber music works. They are coached by a couple of different teachers each day for short stints and work independently for about half the time. The program has a nice collaborative, supportive atmosphere.

This is Erin's third year in the program. Last year she played piano instead of violin due to instrumentation challenges within the program -- the usual dearth of violists. This year by request she was back on violin. Her quartet (three teen girls plus Erin's teacher / coach playing viola) was given a simple Mozart movement on Monday to work on. The girls, it seems, were less inspired by the prospect of polishing up the Mozart than they were by the challenge offered by the Mendelssohn quartet movement they given were given on Tuesday as 'a reading exercise for fun.' On Wednesday they decided to focus on the Mendelssohn and discard the Mozart entirely. Thursday and Friday were devoted mostly to pre-performance and performance run-throughs, so they didn't actually get a whole lot of rehearsal time. There are some intonation and ensemble issues in evidence in this recording of Friday's performance, but all in all I think they did a great job of pulling together a big work in very little time.