Musicianing.

I had an orchestra concert today. We've been calling it our "spring" concert, but let's face it. It's summer. It was grand though. I took the above photograph while waiting before the show. The lighting was too strong from the window so the brightness was ridiculous, which explains such a strong filter.

The orchestra played the second half, after the intermission, so I got to sit and enjoy the first half. The classical guitar ensemble played, and a string quartet. Then two of the students played one of my favourite Beethoven pieces, the "Eyeglass Duet". The last piece of the first half was a Haydn trio, which was also fantastic. I really enjoy listening to Haydn's music, although I find playing it (on the piano anyway) rather irritating.

When it was our turn, I was far less nervous than I had expected. I have discovered since I began to play with the orchestra that I much prefer playing with other people. I do love the spotlight, if I'm being honest, but I like to have other people in it with me. 

We did three pieces: L'estro Harmonico Op. 3 No. 8 by Haydn, a "Pirates of the Caribbean" medley, and "When I'm Sixty-four" because that's how old our conductor is this year.

Mainly it was a lot of fun just to be there playing, but it was also nice to do well. I did better than any of my practices, except for the one section that I always did perfectly. That's the part I messed up. There's some kind of irony there that I find amusing.

When we stood at the end to take our bow, my bow (not the action, the violin bow) slipped forward and knocked into the head of the person in front of me. Oops. Occupational hazards: we do have them. I was nearly stabbed in the eye with someone's bow once. (And there was the time several years ago when my mother switched my piano bench around without my knowing, so when I went to open it I just flipped it over onto my foot.)

 So yes, musicianing can be dangerous. And I've had people in grocery stores make jokes about my having a machine gun in my violin case. But it's alright, we can take it. We're tough.

And yes, it's true, we're also a bit crazy.

Sherlock's glamour shot.