totally

wasted my day today. yesterday night i literally spent 4+
hours on skype talking to people. i think i officially have a addiction haha.
anyway, im glad i got see some friends/family again.

TODAY: need to complete and start a book report
thats due tomorrow. need also to do a learning journal for
ear training on top of studying for bio quiz on friday. also
need to either arrange or find a piece to play for this sabbath.

anyway i said a while back that you'd get to meet some people:

introducing one of them: KEN (short for kenchi)
*im gonna name all my macs that i get japanese names

he is a custom made 500GB hardrive, 4 GB DDR3 mem,
2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 13 inch Macbook Pro
(basically everything about a normal 15 in. macbook pro
with a bigger hard drive and smaller screen

next up is: Aurora

interesting story behind her. she is a copy of the 1739 Montagnana cello, also known famously as the Sleeping Beauty cello, once owned by Gregor Piatigorsky. This guy is famous if you don't know him and is considered one of the best cellists of all time. He played and worked with Arthur Rubinstein, William Primrose, and Jascha Heifeitz. He was head of the cello department at the Curtis Institute of Music (this school has the lowest acceptance rate in the entire United States, even lower than all the Ivy League schools, Julliard and the IU Jacobs school of music). He also taught at Tanglewood, Boston University, and USC, where a chair is named after him in his honor. Famous 20th century composers also wrote pieces for him, such as Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Gallamian. This man was the one of my teachers' most influential teachers back in the early 1900s. Piatigorsky received this cello from a friend that found it just sitting inside his castle as a gift. After almost a century without being played Piatigorsky took this cello as his own and in a sense "awakened" the sleeping beauty. The main idea behind this cello is that its a very honest cello, meaning that it gives back what you put in. if you put in crap, you get crap. otherwise if u put in everything, you get an AMAZING SOUND. My teacher commissioned one of his good friends whom is a fine violinmaker to create this specially designed Montagnana copy for him. In his own right, my teacher was an amazing cellist, which in turn inspires me to go further in my cello studies. So this year, I bought and received this amazing cello, hoping its legacy will somehow show itself to me and instill in me the greatness behind it.

*if you havent guessed, its named Aurora because thats the name of the sleeping beauty.







I think what makes stringed instruments so special is that
alot of the time, these instruments have stories and legacies
behind them. Especially the famous ones, such as the original
sleeping beauty, they also sound incredible despite being
hundreds of years old and are considered the best instruments
even to this day. Most other musicians from other realms of
music either don't understand as much or wouldn't hold the
same amount of value on their instruments because:

for pianists, the best instruments to them would be
fairly new steinways (not BRAND new, cause those sound
weird, but ones that are like about 3-4+ years old).
for wind players, since air and saliva is used in order
to create sound, it eventually degrades as the instrument
ages. and for singers, the instrument is yourself.

but as stringed instruments (im mostly talking about the
orchestral stringed ones), the older they get, they
"potentially" have the ability to be worth even more and
sound even better because of things such as history,
and the age of the wood.

also, im partly finished with haydn for now and ive
started and completely finished the 1st movt. of the
elgar concerto.

also, if you have time, listen to these recordings.
this is what im playing.

this is the most famous recording ever made of this piece
and also considered the best by many people. This is
Jacqueline Du Pre, a kickass RARE female famous cellist
who literally MADE this concerto so famous.




this is a more modern recording also considered
one of the best out there. (this is kinda freaky tho
because this recording is by the same orchestra,
played with the exact same cello, and the exact
same conductor as the last video ^) This is
Yo-Yo Ma, a extremely gifted cellist, considered
the best cellist alive today.



this is also a new recording. this is not a super well-known
cellist as the top two, but is also quite exceptional.
This is Jian Wang, whom I consider probably my
favorite cellist of this concerto. It seems to me that the
passion rivals that of Du Pre and it just seems more of the
style i would create throughout the entire concerto, all
4 movements.



so you tell me which one you like better. haha


^ okay ill stop being a music nerd. in the meantime, i NEED to start my hw! =D


i cant choose! candy or fruit!!?



spring break in a little more than 2 weeks. WOo