YTSO – Friday, March 18th, 2011, Day 6 in Sydney, Australia

After what’s becoming my customary huge breakfast in the morning, we headed over to rehearsal for 10:00 instead of the usual 9:30.  Rehearsal being later did not, however, mean I slept in any more. :P The weather has been somewhat disappointing, unfortunately, it’s been sunny in the mornings but then clouds over and generally is pouring by the time the afternoon is done.  I think the cruise on Sunday with the gorgeous blue sky and bright sun gave me unrealistic expectations for the weather.  Not that I’d have had much time to enjoy it, but it would have been nice to hit the pool in the sunshine.  Ah well, next time! :P

We rehearsed with the full orchestra until 1:00.  MTT gave us a new piece, an entr’acte from Rosamunde by Schubert, as an encore.  It will be dedicated to the victims of natural disasters in Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.  Everything sounds pretty fantastic… I love all of these pieces.  Every single time we play the Britten (because usually it’s last before we take a break), I sing the fugue theme the whole break.  It’s either that or the Danse Infernale from Firebird that I sing, but generally it’s the fugue.  I love it.  The piccolo is so freaking CUTE when it states it for the first time, and as the fugue unfolds it gets more dramatic.  What a masterpiece… it’s an incredible piece of music.  I don’t think the ending could be any more epic. :D

In the afternoon, we had dress rehearsal for the string ensemble concert.  I only played in two of the pieces, the Tchaikovsky (4^th movement of Serenade for Strings) and the Jacobsen (an arrangement of a Persian piece, which is AMAZING and I love playing it), so I had a longer break.  Most music for string orchestra is written for less instruments than we have (there are something like 33 violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, and 8 basses, but for most pieces I think we used 12.12.8.6.4), so most people only played in one or two pieces (except Matt, a bass player from the US, who was somehow wrangled into playing every single piece in the program!).  I ate in the Green Room in the opera house after full orchestra, then I went outside to enjoy the warm (if cloudy) weather before I walked back to the hotel.  I gave Mom a phone call, which she hadn’t expected because she thought I was rehearsing, and gave her an update on what I’d been doing.  I had brought my concert blacks with me because I expected to just stay at the SOH from 9:30 am until the end of the concert, but I took them back and hung them up before changing and heading back.  It was nice to have a little break for a while, I had had afternoon rehearsals every single day except Sunday.  I took a shower and even had a little nap before going back to play.  Ahhh… lovely.

Dress rehearsal ended at 5:00, at which point I went outside again to take some pictures of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney skyline.  I hung out in the dressing rooms backstage before the concert in the Playhouse, which I think seats about 300 people.  The concert was sold out, and the audience was really enthusiastic.  It went very well, particularly considering we’d only been rehearsing about half a week with people we’d never met before!  

After the concert, we headed back to the hotel to get changed and eat some dinner.  The hotel’s buffet is unbelievable.  Everything is delicious and there’s always so much food… boy, do they ever take good care of us.  I could get used to this. ;) After supper, the viola section met to go out together with Roger, our mentor, in celebration of being awesome.  We went to a German pub not too far from the hotel and talked about everything from university to summer programs to how Roger got the job in the Sydney Symphony.  He’s originally from the UK and played in the London Symphony.  He said it’s VERY demanding playing with them.  Often they’ll have two rehearsals, then a concert, then a recording session, and it just goes on.  If you’re going to play in an orchestra like that, then it’s basically your life.  There isn’t much time for anything else.  It was really interesting to hear about what it’s like playing in one of the most famous orchestras in the world! 

The string ensemble concert (as well as the other ensemble concerts, percussion, brass, and woodwinds) will be up on YouTube in the near future, so you should definitely check it out.  One of the pieces, Ascending Bird (the Persian piece), will be played in the final concert.  Keep watching youtube.com/symphony for more information!