Recital, and other plans

Erin is planning a violin recital in November. A full program. She'll be performing as part of the Valhalla Fine Arts Community Concert Series. Usually these concerts feature guest artists, but this time it's a home-grown one. She's also going to play the same program in Kelowna the week before. Her accompanist lives there and she will take that opportunity to do a "warm-up recital."

On the program will be Bach Partita No. 1, Wieniawski's Polonaise Brilliante, Saint-Seäns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and the entire Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in e minor. Well over an hour of repertoire, none of it easy stuff in the slightest, all at the ARCT level.

A week ago she spent her elective week at the high school planning her recital and practicing her fingers off. We managed to get to Kelowna for a first rehearsal with her accompanist. Today she went off for a publicity photo shoot. Glossy full-colour posters will be forthcoming. Tomorrow she's heading off to Calgary again for more lessons. She's trying to practice 5 hours a day. It's tough. She's at school for up to 6 hours a day, and then there are all the extras like group class, and Summit Strings, and shifts at work, and assignments for school, and photo shoots and choir rehearsals. But she's doing remarkably well.

Next month she'll be flying to Montréal to check out the campus at McGill and to get some lessons with some of the members of the Strings Department at the Faculty of Music. That's where she wants to go to university for violin performance. That's what GH recommended to her, and it certainly doesn't hurt that she loved Montréal when she travelled there in 2008 on the quartet exchange program.

After that she'll be working on auditions for summer programs. Though it pains her greatly to have to look beyond SVI for next summer, the time has definitely come. National Youth Orchestra is in her sights, and she might also do auditions for the Britt Institute, Domain Forget and possibly some others. NYO would be her first choice, I think. All that heavy-duty symphonic experience, plus choral singing! What could be better?

She's working hard to pack away credits at school this year so that she can spend her Grade 12 year more focused than ever on violin. She's got a lot of work ahead of her due to a very light course-load last year. She has a few Grade 10 credits to mop up, those pesky required ones like "Planning" and social studies and PE, the ones that are mostly just hoop-jumping for the diploma she's decided she'll graduate with after all. And then she'll have some Grade 12 math and science and possibly a couple more Grade 11 credits to fill in. She's being driven to distraction by the busywork involved in the on-line version of Social Studies 10, but she's barreling through, having completed three assignments in the past 24 hours. (Only twenty or more to go?!)

So she's very driven and very motivated to achieve these days. Most impressive of all: she's talking about cleaning up her bedroom soon!