Long overdue update. Let's see what's worthy of mention here...

Today was my first concert with the Mannes orchestra (I wasn't in the first rotation), and the guest conductor was Paul Nadler, who if I remember correctly is assistant conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. We did: Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3 (soloist was last year's Mannes concerto competition winner Ilya Yakushev, who was awesome), Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale (I love this piece!), and Debussy's La Mer. Pretty good performances, even though the conductor miscounted in one place (the orchestra stayed with him, though - Prim would have been proud.)

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with my school experience these days. My lessons are stagnating a bit, because I'm trying to change some technical aspects in my playing and it's turning out rather difficult to do so. My piano quartet group is falling apart, because the three sting players are getting a bit pissed at the pianist, who not only isn't the most gifted musician (both technically and musically) - which in itself I wouldn't mind as long as she's willing to grow - but she also consistently shows up 30+ minutes late to 1 hour rehearsals and doesn't remember the few interpretational things we actually have time to talk about in rehearsals. I feel bad for the violinist who said that due to her tendonitis she's had to limit her practicing severely this semester and she chose to focus mostly on the quartet music so she's feeling a bit let down right now :(. Our rehearsal today ended in a pretty heated discussion...ugly. So sad - it's such an awesome piece of music, but this whole issue is taking the fun out of it all...

On more positive side of things, I might be playing in a piano trio next semester or school year with two other Taiwanese musicians - not for credit or money, but kind of just for fun outside of school, and maybe even to try out for competitions. Exciting - Wohoo!!

I've been drinking rather much Red Bull lately, because I'm always so tired at night and don't get enough practice time. It really does work on me! Unlike coffee, or sodas, which I almost never feel an effect from. Though, I think all that energy boosting is starting to have adverse effects on me too. Like, I've been getting a lot of nosebleeds lately. Man, I feel like an old man now...a little bit of a rush, and my body breaks down :(. By the way, did you know that Red Bull comes from Austria, and (according to my apartment mate at least) that its marketing has caused it to spread pretty much worldwide in record time? Your trivia for the day :).

I have my first rehearsal with the Swarthmore orchestra for the Beethoven triple concerto tomorrow! I'm taking an extra trip down to philly for that (to philly tomorrow afternoon, back late night for chamber music rehearsals on friday here, then back down for teaching on saturday). Which is funny, because a fortune cookie I got yesterday said "Traveling more often is important for your health and happiness" to which my apartment mate Brian commented "See? You need to travel more than to philly once every week." So here, I am traveling to philly twice a week.

Hmm...I can't think of anything else to write about. That's a month and a half we're talking about - my life can't be THAT boring, can it??? Ok, rhetorical question...