These past two weeks have been the season for concerts! Last week I had two performances with the Symphony Orchestra and tomorrow I've got my concert for Sinfonietta. The concerts last weekend went really well, although the Sunday performance was much better than the Saturday one. My friend from my course, Linda, and her husband came on Sunday and the first half brought her to tears! We also received a letter this week in rehearsal from someone who has been attending SUSO (and other orchestral) concerts for over 20 years and he said that it was the best performance he'd ever been to! They also donated money to the orchestra, which was really nice. We're completely student run, so sometimes money gets a bit tight.
For the concert, we hired out a harpist, and I was lucky enough to get to sit right next to the harp during the performance. I absolutely love the harp and it was a miracle that I was able to pay attention to my part and not get distracted by the harp playing going on next to me.
Tonight was Sinfonietta's last rehearsal before the concert tomorrow, and my stand partner didn't show up so I had to sit next to one of the other violinists in the section (who came in about 45 minutes late, which I found rude and a little irritating) who has only been to maybe two or three rehearsals this entire term. When we took out one of the pieces to practice (let me also mention it is the hardest one) he looked at me and said, 'This is the first time I've played this.' Unbelievable. I think he shouldn't be allowed to play in the concert tomorrow, but it seems we don't have a strict enough attendance policy and the second violin section is small enough as it is, so we need all the help we can get! To make matters worse, he didn't even know that we had a concert tomorrow! If he hadn't have turned up tonight, he would have never known... And one last little rant, the entire rehearsal, every time we had even two measures of rest (which is maybe three seconds, if that) he would pull out his phone and start sending text messages. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person with manners left on the planet! But alas.
My Symphony Orchestra is selling CDs of our first and second concerts after the Easter Holidays, so I'm planning on buying several and I'll try and figure how to put a clip or two onto the blog. I wish you all could come see the concerts in person, because it's just so much different and better that way, but that's the next best thing.
Speaking of Easter break, I'm going to be going on hiatus from the blog for several weeks starting next week. The 'spring break' for Southampton is literally the entire month of April, so I'll be using that time to travel to Paris, Venice, Pisa, Florence, and Rome! I'm really excited and I'll have my camera handy the entire time, so I'll probably be a blogging maniac when I get back!
Until next time,
Sarah
