I'm going to be brave (video from concert)

When I pulled out my recorder to review the audio of my performance the other day, I realized my friend who was recording for me had chosen to do video as well. It's very clear and gives a good idea of what the performance was like, so I have decided to share the whole thing. Here it is:



This was recorded on a Zoom Q3 and is completely unedited, unretouched (as if you couldn't tell!), and uncut. I'm pleasantly surprised that the video came out as well as it did with the low light in the venue. It is 8+ minutes because entrances, exits, and applause are included.

Mission accomplished

So I'm done with Pezzo Capriccioso! I held it together very well (if I do say so myself) until the very end when I missed a few notes, but even there kept it going. I got lots of nice compliments from people afterward, and I actually enjoyed playing, even though I certainly don't look like it in this picture:

A friend of mine culled this from a smart phone movie she took. I would post the whole movie, but (a) the beginning was cut off and (b) I look like a grumpy old man the entire time. I swear, I wasn't upset at all, just concentrating really hard, though I was pretty relaxed.

I've got some audio, but I need to decompress a bit before I deal with it.

What (not) to wear, for the cello lady

I was mucking through some draft posts that I wrote for this blog and found this one, which is apropos as I once again prepare for a solo turn in front of an orchestra.

*****

Portrait of Guilhermina Suggia by Augustus John

In an ideal world, music would transcend fashion. In actuality, what a performer wears affects how the audience responds.

Women have a harder time than men figuring out what to wear on stage. Men can wear a suit or a tuxedo (including nice comfortable shoes!), and as long as they don't wear white socks, they are okay.

Women have a much wider choice. We can do the modest and comfortable outfit, highlighting face and hands, or leave much less to the imagination. You can guess which end of the scale I've tended to (though there was the sleeveless harem pants jumpsuit I wore a few times in my 20s, but better not to dwell on that).

There are several requirements for female cello-playing garb that are not always easy to find in a store:

• wide skirt (or pants), for obvious reasons
• sleeves that are not too long or too wide (they get in the way)
• plenty of room in the shoulders (for those big shifts and long bows)
• no hard buttons or trim on the front of the garment or sleeve cuffs (they scratch the cello)

And then, most evening wear poses problems, hence my pet peeves, or things to avoid:

• sleeveless or strapless or "strappy" tops (let's just say that I need a certain amount of coverage to avoid embarassment)
• tight and uncomfortable garments
• high heels (anything higher than about 2 inches throws my playing posture off completely, not to mention makes it difficult to walk out on stage carrying a cello)

I need all that, plus I want the garment to be flattering. It's not easy. I went through a phase when I made gowns for myself; looking back on it, they were not that bad, and it was a lot more fun and inexpensive than shopping for what I needed. These days, I end up tearing my hair out trying to find something nice to wear. I often end up fishing the basic black out of the closet.

Speaking of hair, this is another thing that no one ever mentions. The ideal cello posture is to sit with the neck of the cello close to your neck, so that the cello is as vertical as possible. This is because the left-hand fingers should be at close to a right angle to the strings for the best hand position and most secure intonation. It's impossible to sit this way if you're trying to manage a head full of long, flowing hair -- looks great, but whenever I try that, a little piece of hair always gets caught under my fingers just as I'm executing a shift, or my hair gets caught in the pegs when I'm making a tasteful gesture with my head.

This is why when I play a solo I have to brush all of my hair away from my face and stick it in a ponytail or a bun. I'd just cut it short, but years of hairdressers shaking their heads when I ask them if it would look good on me have scared me off of that.

After an experience with a teacher telling me I "looked like heck all the time," I became a little paranoid about my appearance and for a time put quite a bit of effort into it. I wore contact lenses, styled my hair, wore mascara, and teetered to my concerts in high heels. I played at Carnegie Hall once with a chamber group, in the small recital hall, and of course dragged all my primping accessories along (curling iron, make-up, pantyhose, etc.). One of the guys in the group seemed to find my preparations hilarious -- so irritating. Did he think I liked doing all that? Men reading this, here's the scoop: we would prefer being able to fling ourselves out into the world without artificial enhancements, but we are treated less positively without them.

I still like making an effort to look nice, but I've given up most of what my colleague found so amusing. I wear my glasses, just a touch of make-up, and the most comfortable shoes I can get away with. But it's hard to feel good about it all. The standards are so impossibly high, and the acquisition of all the necessary fashion accoutrements takes so much time and energy, and this all really has nothing to do with how the music is going to sound -- other than the dash of self-confidence that such things can add.

Remember that video?

I blogged about it here:

Interesting experience

The video of me playing Bach and a short written interview have gone live on Nancy Williams's blog, Reflections on a Grand Passion:

A Cellist Takes Adult Piano Lessons

It now being a half a year later, and after several months of ground-up piano lessons working on my basic technique, I would play the piece differently, but it's a snapshot in time as all recordings are. I believe the videographer joined audio from one take with video from another at some points so there would be different camera angles, and that's why the sound and picture don't sync up in places, but this was done with no cuts or splicing. I just played it through four times and we chose the best version.

Note that some people have trouble loading the videos from the blog; they seem to work better on YouTube. Link:



(Of course I look at this and have feminine horror at my hair, etc., but what can you do?)

Action shot

My husband took this picture today.

You might notice my (relatively) new toy here. I had wanted a Luis and Clark carbon fiber cello ever since I heard about them more than 10 years ago, but I had no real reason to get one. Yo Yo Ma has been famously featured in their ads:

Earlier this year, a friend of mine was selling his and made me an offer I couldn't refuse (well, I could have refused it, but it was just too good to pass up). So it's mine now, despite my desire to simplify my life and have less stuff.

It's very fun to play. The smooth carbon fiber fingerboard makes shifts really easy, the size and shape make it especially comfortable to hold, and it's lively and responsive as well as being extremely resonant. My only problem with the sound is that it has a slightly buzzy edge to it that is a bit unpleasant under the ear. I seriously considered using it for the concert next week when I play the Tchaikovsky Pezzo Capriccioso, but that sound quality dissuaded me. I simply did not have enough time to experiment, so I am playing it safe by using my wood cello.

Here's a quickie recording I made with this cello of a Bach Allemande a few months ago:

Bach: Allemande in G major from Suite No. 1

I was practicing on it today because I'm going to use it for a coffee house gig I'm playing with my folk group this evening. I figure it will at least save me some playing fatigue, and it will also be a conversation piece if nothing else.

Sausage making redux

Sometimes rehearsals are like sausage: if you knew what went into it, you wouldn't want to eat it. (Not that I eat sausage anyway, but I needed a cheap simile here.)

So you are forewarned.

But here is today's rehearsal with the orchestra of Pezzo Capriccioso.

I cut out the talking and dead time, so it's about 14 minutes. You will hear things repeated. I do think it got better as it went along on the part of the orchestra. I felt actually very good about how I was playing, although it was cold and clammy in the room and by the end of the rehearsal, my hands started to feel like they were coated with rosin.

The only other adjustments I made to the raw file were boosting the sound a bit because my recorder was situated behind me.

Pezzo Capriccioso working rehearsal

From "The Genius of the Cello" to the Portsmouth Sinfonia

I had my first rehearsal of the Tchaikovsky with the orchestra today. Um, I think my post title says most of it.

(Hey -- if anyone from the orchestra is reading this, JUST KIDDING!)

However, I at least did not fall apart -- not at all. So that's encouraging.