Decisions, decisions!

There is a time in everyone's life when they need to choose one thing and stick with it, whether it be what your major is, or what to have for dinner, make up your mind already!!  Well, not me, I'm doing it all!
This semester is going to be SO MUCH FUN!  I am in 5 ensembles and I can't wait to get more into the semester.
I'm taking Chamber Choir, Symphony Orchestra, Pit orchestra, Southwest Symphony and Chamber orchestra.  I am also performing in a benefit concert, a senior recital, salute to youth, Mozart Festival, and all the concerts for all the ensembles I am in, which totals about 18! Plus going to SLC for a day to perform and going on tour over spring break. Woo hoo! I love being busy, and I double love that most of the time it's with my beloved violin :)

It doesn't get any better than this...

I have played many, many pieces in my lifetime.  From Dvorak to Bach to original pieces by fellow students.  But there is always one that is in my head almost constantly.  It is Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italian.  I have played it 3 times, with 3 different orchestras, and I have loved it every time!  It is such a brilliant piece.  The amazing thing about music is that you can interpret it however you want to.  It frees the mind, and exercises the imagination.  Every single time I listen to this piece I hear something different, and it never gets boring.  It is majestic, with the trumpets announcing something great in the beginning.  It is slow and thick, somewhat sad, like stirring a giant pot of molasses, and it is playful and dance-like, with small grace-like notes in the high voices, sounding like a small child skipping down a street, but with a slight eeriness about it.  But enough of me rambling on about it.  Go interpret it for yourself, sit back for a few minutes, and enjoy the beautiful work of a genius.   Here is Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italian."  :)

It's in two parts, you HAVE to listen to both.  I promise, you won't be disappointed. This is the good stuff people.

Also...the weirdest thing happened to me today.  Haydn wrote a symphony commonly known as the Surprise Symphony, and today it came up 4 times!  It was slightly creepy, and what's even stranger, every time I encountered it, it was the second movement!

1.  Walking to humanities class listening to my ipod, it came on

2.  Cleaning out my folders and finding a copy that I made of it last year

3.  Driving home from school, it was on the radio

4.  Finally, I turn on my computer to listen to itunes, click shuffle, and guess which song comes on?

So...maybe it's a sign. Maybe someone out there needs a good Haydn fix or something, I dunno, but hey, it's a great piece, so might as well share it with you!  

This is the second movement, the most "surprising" in my opinion...

Click here to hear the other movements!

So it begins!

It's 11:55 pm, my new year's resolution is to blog about music every day...So in the 5 (shoot....4) minutes I have left in this day I decided to list all of the music classes I am taking.  Although some might call this procrastination I call it brilliant, since I know for a fact that I will be talking a LOT about school this year :)

Music Theory:  Last semester!  Thank heavens...I find it soooo boring...
Ear Training:  Also last semester but it was fun so I'm content
Symphony Orchestra:  Always has, always will be my favorite class
Percussion study:  That is right...my lifelong dream of playing percussion is about to come true :)
Chamber Choir:  Just keep singing...just keep singing...
Violin lessons!
One or two of the following...I just don't know yet...Southwest Symphony and Pit orchestra

Made it!  I typed all of that in 3 minutes.  Hmmm...maybe I should become a receptionist...

A random bit about music

I love music.  Yes, we all know this, I know I say this a lot.  But yesterday as I made the 5 hour drive to St. George by myself I was reminded of this obsession.  Since all I had to entertain were my cd's, I learned a few things.

I learned that songs from horse movies still make me cry

It is actually really fun to drive by yourself, you can sing as loud as you want, and it's fun to watch people's faces as they drive by and see you jamming by yourself

I love Tchaikovsky. ( I knew this before, but what the heck )

I can listen to the Hairspray soundtrack 3 times in a row and not be bored by it

It is fun to listen to classical music, or music in a language you don't understand, and make up lyrics

Mix cd's are the best choice.  I had Disney, country, religious and classical all on ONE DISC!!

There is not a clear radio station from Nephi to Cedar City

Yes, yesterday I listened to 5 hours worth of music.  It was pure bliss.


Wish I could do that every day..


 

It's a new day, it's a new plan!

Wow! 2010 is over, 2011 is here, I don't feel any different, I don't look any different, the sky is still blue and we're still alive, but I've sure accomplished a lot! 2010 flew by~but I'm glad that the year is over. I always love the feeling of knowing that I can start clean again, it's like a new beginning!
Some of my new year's resolutions include

• Reading my scriptures every night
• Practicing 6 days a week no matter what
• stop biting my nails...( a resolution I've had for about 6 years now!)
• Eat breakfast every morning
• Start running again!
• Get a 4.0 (so close...there is always that ONE class...)

Bryan Adams describes how I feel about the new year in one of my favorite songs, "Here I Am."
Click here to listen :)

Inspiration. 

Party's over, let the fun times begin!

The order in which this post takes place doesn't really make sense...but oh well!  Nothing I do lately seems to...anyway Christmas break was awesome!  Here's a small number of the highlights of Christmas break.

• Seeing everyone again!  From seeing Sammie for the first time soaking wet in a towel to my dog following me like a shadow I have thoroughly enjoyed the company of familiar faces.
• Tooele Christmas party.  Despite the fact that I hardly know anyone in this group of family I always love an excuse to hang out with my close family members which include the Hess's, Cottles and Russels.  Moose balls, Charlie's angels and "Santa Claus" made for a night of laughs and dirty jokes.
• Searching for a new violin.  Although rather stressful, it was actually really cool looking for a new instrument, and what is even cooler is that I found one! :) (pictures in a few days)
• Christmas eve party.  There is so much I could say about this but some highlights include:  "Caroling" and getting shot countless times with Brooke.  Christmas Pajamas!  Our "musical number" which included 4 hands on piano, 1 clarinet, 1 violin, 1flute, and random singing voices.  The manger scene; always extremely reverent and peaceful.  Grandpa bustin a move on the Kinect.  And of course who can forget the delicious food!!
• Games with Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas day including the saggy baggy elephant, Ironing board, fork and spoon and train!  Plus Sammie's injured toe is a plus! 

Other highlights included the cabin on New Years Eve, Christmas day opening presents with the family, searching through toilet paper for money, the planetarium, sledding at the cabin, hottubbing, the endless search for The Grinch (finally found it at Top Hat), hanging out with friends who I haven't seen in months, and just relaxing! 
 

 Sammie and me

 Rachel and I,  BFCFE!! (That's Best Friend Cousins For Ever!)

Tooele party, random

Our Charlie's angels reenactment.  We're pretty hot.    

 The annual Christmas-Eve-everyone-in-their-pajama-on-the-stairs-shot!  Someday I want to find the picture from every year and line them up next to each other...

 Doug as Santa in Tooele.  His first words as Santa were, "Ho Ho Ho, indeed!"  Complete with deep British accent.  I don't know, maybe he knows something about Santa that we don't. 















So...vacation is over.  Today is my last day in Centerville, and as always, it's bittersweet.  I am so excited to go back to St. George and start school again, but I love being home with family, friends, and my dog.  But what can you do? Life goes on, and this semester I'm going down with a new violin ready to play my soul out!   This break was completely amazing, and it's a new year, so let's do this!