As I was typing in the title for this post, I was trying to figure out what day it was. I looked up in the corner of the computer and saw that it was the 17th today, so I figured it must have been the 16th yesterday. I then realized that I had already posted about my day on the 16th, so I was very confused... I must have made a BIG mistake! Oh yeah... Canada is a day behind... it IS the 17th. Heh.
I've been forgetting some cool stuff that happened in the past few days. Two days ago, as we were playing the Mendelssohn (which is conducted by somebody else), MTT came and sat RIGHT BEHIND ME when I was playing. I hadn't noticed, but Mauricio nudged me and said "Look behind you!", which I did, and in my brain I was going WHAT OH NO DON'T MAKE ANY MISTAKES SARAH
Whew. Crazy. :D
So, this morning was three hours of orchestra rehearsal, but today we were in the concert hall! It's a pretty different space to rehearse in, it's much less dry than the Studio because a) there's lots of wood, and b) it's huge. It's beautiful in there! About halfway through, some media people came in and we played them some Stravinsky and Britten.
After full orchestra, a couple of friends (Omar from the US, viola, and Tristan, violin, from Paris) and I went for a walk to see what we could find for lunch. Everything on the harbour is really expensive, though, so we ended up just going back to the Green Room in the opera house. Someone from a radio station found me up there and asked if I'd be available to do a radio interview. I agreed to do it at 3:00 since there was a string ensemble rehearsal at 2:00, so I went and played some Tchaikovsky and Jacobsen. I went back up to the Green Room to talk to Mike, the radio guy, and play some Bach for him as well. We talked about the viola, about how I got into YTSO, and my experience so far.
I had planned on going back to the hotel to the pool, but it was kind of cloudy, so I decided to go to the tower with Anne-Rose. On our way down to the lobby, we met another group of people who were going to Wildlife World. We figured we'd go with them, so we walked to Darling Harbour with Marta (viola, Poland), Marzena (violin, Poland), Leyan (violin, USA), and David (cello, Spain/Austria). Once we got there, we found that it was 15 minutes until closing! We were disappointed, but at least we got to hang out with each other for a while and see the city a bit, too.
And, it just so happens that Leyan holds the 2007 world record for solving a Rubik's Cube in the shortest time. I asked him about it, and he agreed to show us. Have a look!
Anne-Rose and I headed back to the hotel so we could go to the Woodwind Ensemble Concert at 6:00. It was excellent, all the performers were wonderful! Some of the mentors performed as well, which was fantastic. Everybody was amazing!
The concert ended around 7:45, so we walked back to the hotel for supper. Nicolaj, a violist from Denmark, gave a presentation after supper about health for musicians. A physiotherapist joined him to talk about injuries and keeping your body healthy. Nicolaj had a serious shoulder injury that meant he could hardly move his arm, but he's just fine now. He shared what happened to him and the physiotherapist gave some suggestions to us about posture and lifestyle. It was very interesting and informative. Thanks, Nicolaj!
Since it was St. Patrick's Day, I had planned to go out and celebrate a bit, but I was SOOO tired that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Apparently it was crazy out there, though, even before it was dark there were tons of excited people in green shirts and big hats.
Happy St. Patty's Day, everybody!
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