Dear Reader,
If you have this link, I consider you close family or friend, and most likely, I have written this year-in-review while thinking of you!
I hope that you gain some encouragement or entertainment from hearing about my 2024.
2024 brought me a myriad of exciting opportunities and experiences sprinkled with a difficult trial now and again. While celebrating our second wedding anniversary, Margot, William, and I traveled to Belgium to visit family and in search for a good bow to pair with my violin. It was very cold there. Then back home, I had a few wonderful concerts with the Colorado Symphony including jumping in extremely last-minute as a 1st violin for Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and a few months later, his Symphony No. 3. Other season highlights were performances with Anne Akkiko Meyers, Trevor Hall, Ben Rector and the incredible Cody Fry.
I continued teaching my wonderful students throughout the year, and found that I could focus much better on them and on practicing now that I was not teaching in a school setting.
In 2024 I took a number of auditions that required long hours traveling and staying in unknown cities. It’s difficult to claim any success in orchestra auditions when I have never been named a winner exactly. At the same time, being one of the top “losers” at a competition/audition of high importance is not something to be ignored completely.
To be clear, I did not do very well in a number of auditions this year. people fail a lot in music.
Here are two of my greatest moments in auditions of 2024:
In mid June just before my 27th birthday, I auditioned for a contract to become a 1st Violinist in the Seattle Symphony, and to my surprise, I advanced to the final round. I didn't end up winning the contract but it was down to me and four others in the end. I only spent about 24 hours in Seattle, but I had a great time- the SSO is surely one of the greatest American orchestras. They have recorded for numerous film scores, and won tremendous awards. I could go on.
In the fall, I began to record to be selected to audition for the Oslo Filharmonien (Philharmonic). They were holding auditions for two permanent 1st violinist. I was eventually one of the 28 violinists selected to attend the live audition in Norway so we made a family trip out of it in October, and stopped by Belgium before going back to the US.
After flying there, adjusting to the time, finding my way to the hall, and warming up for the next round at the Oslo Konserthus, I met my accompanist for the Mozart Concerto requirement backstage just a moment before walking out onstage. He spoke so quickly when he asked "which Mozart concerto do you play?" that I thought he was speaking another language so I carefully asked "English?" We had a good laugh and then ran on out to play. I was so happy to advance again to the semifinals. They selected 9 candidates to play in that round. The semifinals were not behind a screen, instead around 30 musicians of the orchestra sat like an audience in chairs arranged on one side of the stage to watch the nine remaining violinists play. Beforehand I quickly changed into concert attire and was able to practice for around 30 minutes before I played again. Sadly, I neglected some of the requested repertoire because I simply didn't believe that I could advance to semifinals. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again! They advanced 3 candidates to the finals for two vacancies and I was not one of them. To some degree, the winner must expect to be the winner every step of the way, or else they won't prepare properly. After the semifinals, Margot and I spoke at length to one of the Concertmasters who was very positive and gave good feedback. The Oslo Philharmonic is one of the worlds top ensembles, and their recordings are really incredible (many on YouTube!) so I was very happy to be there.
This year, I tried two new strategies in auditions.
The first, is to always, and no matter what, memorize every piece of music that I could potentially be requested play. That also means memorizing every marking, articulation, dynamic, rests, and the other parts (the orchestra score).
The second new strategy involves how I practice. Since I left school by my own choice, I have been a bit obsessed in knowing the best practice strategies for a certain piece or passage. With no teacher, I must find the right practice method, or I’m setting myself up for failure.
I thought "if I am not practicing in JUST the right way, I won't be helping myself- and maybe even taking steps backwards!" It's easy to think too long and hard about choosing an approach to a problem when in school you have learned so many different approaches!
For example: one practice strategy for some problems is to use a metronome. ONLY using a metronome, there are hundreds of possible ways to practice one measure of one piece.
This year more than before, I began a new strategy: when you don’t know what to do, just play the music a lot. This method can also backfire: if you are playing badly, you are enforcing bad habits, etc...
I am feeling blessed that my sound, technique, and musicality are flourishing more than ever.
As ridiculous as it sounds, there are something near 200 Million “Content Creators“ or “Influencers“ worldwide, making it one of the most popular job titles of all time. That being said, I normally don't care too much for internet fame. I think it much more important to keep one's head down and work hard- alone in a practice room. Even if your goal is to be great and famous, you have to get good first! After a few years of playing an instrument you'll realize that the hardest person to impress is yourself, so you should strive for that goal the most.
Leading up to Christmas, I finished writing a silly piece for solo violin that I've called "Christmas Caprice No. 1". I then decided to record it, and show the world on the tiny social media platforms that I have. To my surprise, it was well received and has become quite popular on Instagram. I'm now nearly at 100,000 views on Instagram alone, so please share this link with others if you feel like it!
