My passion is to help others in the community, young, old, and everyone in between, find relevance and joy in learning, performing or listening to classical music.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Pulling a concerto out of my hat

Just when I thought I couldn't be more nuts...

A few weeks ago a tweet flitted by on twitter that announced a most unusual concerto competition being put on by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  Here's a little video about it:



It took me all of about 3 seconds to decide that I wanted to enter.  At that exact same moment I also got in touch with two very distinct sides of myself.  There was the one that was already running to my piano and there was the other that was seriously wanting to take the other to the doctor to get her head examined.  I mean really!  Do I not already have enough to do?  

After an entire week of arguing with myself I'm stating here on my blog that yes, I am going to do this.  But I'm going to do it as more of an experiment - a practice experiment.  I am only going to allow myself 15 minutes a day to prepare for the submission date on March 22.  And since I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about practicing and finding efficient ways to learn music quickly but accurately and musically, I'm going to post my progress here, hopefully on a daily basis.  I may livestream my practice sessions, I may just put them up on YouTube or Vimeo but I'm going to have this be a public experiment.  

I have my concerto - Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto, a piece I've performed recently with orchestra.
I have a Reader's Digest version of the entire concerto that will hopefully fit neatly into a 10 minute package.
I have a goal of having it all ready in 15 days.
Not sure I have my sanity but...

...here goes!

Stay tuned to watch this most exciting (or crazy) endeavor.   It could prove to be highly entertaining!

4 comments:

  1. Why is it that something like this gets our competitive juices flowing? Even though I would have less than a snowball's chance in you know where I found myself considering it. I do think that practicing for something like this if done correctly really ups your playing to its best level.

    (Hmmm. Wonder if the round trip ticket would include one for the cello? :))

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    1. Oh dear, Harriet. You caught the bug too? Well the more the merrier, I say. The world needs daring (or perhaps just crazy) people to keep people amused so I say you should give it a go if you want. What do we have to lose after all?

      Do let me know if you decide to go ahead with it! It would nice to have a partner of sorts.

      All the best,
      Erica

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  2. First I'd have to get a video camera. Second I'd have to figure out what do with my hair. Playing is the least of it! :)

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    1. Ha ha ha! Harriet, you never cease to make me smile. Thank you for that! :-)

      -Erica

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