Why viola?

Though many of you have heard the story I'm sure, I feel compelled to fully explain why I chose the viola. I cannot confirm the validity of this story since I don't remember this particular day, but my Granddad loves to depict the scene in this way.

Scene: Marie, Dad and Granddad in a gymnasium full of 4th graders trying to pick out what instrument they will play next year in orchestra.

Marie: Granddad, I want to play the viola.

Granddad: Why's that, Marie?

Marie: Because I like the way it sounds.

Granddad: (a little impressed that his granddaughter even knows what the viola is) Oh really?! When have you heard a viola?

Marie: No, I mean, I like the way it sounds- veeohlaaaa

(*insert cheesy sound here*)

So yes, maybe it's true, and that is why I chose viola. But now, looking back on it, I realize what a wonderful decision it was. Though these are not necessarily viola-specific, here are a few more reasons why I love playing viola....

(in no particular order)

1. No plane ticket.

Ever sat next to a tuba or cello on a plane? Well let me tell you, I'm glad I don't have to pay double airfare every time I have to go somewhere.

2. No E string.

Ever heard an E string squeak? Not the nicest sound ever.

3. Less competition.

It's true, I admit.

4. More eighth notes, fewer sixteenths.

Some people might find repeated eighth notes boring in orchestra parts. I relish in them as I watch the violinists' eyes bulge when they try to read all the notes on the page.

5. More gigs.

Chamber groups are always in need of a lovely violist!

6. Alto clef.

Yeah, we have our own clef. And it rocks.

7. Viola jokes.

Why was the violist wandering outside? Because he couldn't find the key and didn't know where to come in!

8. A permanent excuse.

I'm a violist. What's your excuse?

9. Great way to start a conversation.

"What instrument is that?"- "It's a viola"- "What's a viola?"

10. A great sound.

Besides the way the word sounds, the viola played actually can sound quite nice :)

Love,

Violamad

To miss

WEll, despite the fact that I'm living in the most amazing city in the United States, the time where I start to miss things was bound to come. But while I started thinking about the things that I miss most, my curious crazy little mind lead me to look up the actual definition of the verb "to miss". Thus said, I here will now define ALL the dictionary.com meanings of the verb "to miss" with examples from my own life. Dang, quite an intro- let's begin!

Miss

-verb (used with object)

1. To fail to hit or strike;

-When trying to learn how to hit the ping pong ball with a back-spin, I often miss the ball entirely.

2. to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc...;

-Too often I'm not paying attention when I get on the elevator and forget to push the button and miss my floor!

3. to fail to take advantage of;

-Because I am so busy, I missed the chance to be an extra in a small movie being filmed. Oh well...more opportunities to come?

4. to fail to be present at or for;

-I have yet to miss any classes! (because of Juilliard's strict attendance policy and small classes where my absence would be easily noted)

5. to notice the absence or loss of;

-Every time I go into the laundry room I see some socks that are missing their partner!

6. to regret the absence or loss of;

-I miss many things about home:

• Family and friends: Mommy, Daddy, aunts, uncles, cousins, Joan, Annie and Faith!
• Food: Mom's cooking, Tex-Mex(!!!), Freebirds, Panera, Brooklyn Cafe bagels, Blue Bell
• Stores: HEB, Target, Aaron Brothers, Walmart!
• Random: private restrooms, Ecclesia, driving a car, pine trees, carpeted stairs, the couch in the gameroom, fresh air, solitude.

7. to escape or avoid;

-Fortunately, I have managed to miss meeting all the "cold" people at Juilliard. Everyone I know is absolutely wonderful :)

8. to fail to perceive or understand;

-When I open my New Harvard dictionary of music to read up on "polyphony" before our theory test, I feel like I am missing 90% of what I'm reading when I start to see things like "isorhythmic motet" and "ouvert-clos rhyme schemes" (which I should maybe know about...?)

Well, I guess now you have a pretty good idea about the verb "to miss".

Did I miss anything?

;)

Love,

Violamad

Sunsets

Well I guess the title says it all. I'm writing about sunsets, and if you have seen any of my recent picture uploads on Facebook, you probably already know that they have become my new obsession.

I just can't get over what a beautiful view I have from my tiny little room. It's perfect. To the left I can see the Lincoln Center with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and Avery Fisher Hall (New York Philharmonic) buildings. To the right I see the Hudson River and there is a perfect open spot between buildings where the sun sets. I've now made a point of trying to be in my room around 6 pm just so I can enjoy this beautiful scene as much as possible.

I was finally inspired to write about this last night when the sunset was so extraordinary I made a point of asking everybody that evening if they had seen it. I happened to be in my room needing to do a little reading before I went to dinner and a peek through the window told me it was the right time. So I pulled back the shutters, put on my sunglasses, hopped up on the windowsill and just sat and read, only to pull away my eyes from the page every minute to take in the scene (and of course take a few pictures) It was definitely one of the most wonderful moments I have ever experienced. How great is our God!

My point?

Where are you when the sun sets each day? Have you taken the time recently to just step outside and watch the color of the sky change? Or simply looked out the window to relish in nature's beauty?

Try it. I think you'll find yourself feeling quite refreshed.

:)

The Reason for God

This Sunday I continued with my church-hopping and went to a more contemporary evening service of a multi-campus church (Redeemer) that I had visited two weeks ago. I'm not sure if it is the right church for me yet, but wonderfully enough it happened to be a Sunday that they were giving out free copies of the pastor, Tim Keller's book "The Reason for God."

I knew that New York was going to be pretty different from a relatively conservative part of Texas. It's tough being in a class with 15 people in which only two raise their hands to acknowledge that they have read the Bible.

INTERJECTION: Sure, I have previously had and still have plenty of wonderful friends that would also not answer yes to that question. Yet, I still feel like where I come from, the majority grew up familiar with Christianity, go to church, etc.

So- what about it? Of course it makes me feel a little uncomfortable and foreign. However, I shouldn't be. I am in the city of "anything goes"! Maybe people can take that a little too far sometimes...but the point is, people are very open. Thus, I shouldn't feel like they are going to look down upon me. I will not look down upon them. AND I'm very excited to use this opportunity to explore doubt and search for truth in Christianity.

I'm only in the first chapter of Keller's book, but I can already tell it is going to be great, and I hope I can pass it on to someone else (by the church's orders ;) when I am done. And to wrap up my thoughts here I'd like to post a few excerpts from the introduction.

"We have come to a cultural moment in which both skeptics and believers feel their existence is threatened because both secular skepticism and religious faith are on the rise in significant, powerful ways. We have neither the Western Christendom of the past nor the secular, religionless society that was predicted for the future. We have something else entirely....

Each side should accept that both religious belief and skepticism are on the rise...I recommend that each side look at doubt in a radically new way.

I commend two processes to my readers. I urge skeptics to wrestle with the unexamined "blind faith" on which skepticism is based, and to see how hard it is to justify those beliefs to those who do not share them. I also urge believers to wrestle with their personal and culture's objections to the faith. At the end of each process, even if you remain the skeptic or believer you have been, you will hold your own position with both greater clarity and greater humility. Then there will be an understanding, sympathy, and respect for the other side that did not exist before. Believers and nonbelievers will rise to the level of disagreement rather than simply denouncing one another. This happens when each side has learned to represent the other's argument in its strongest and most positive form. Only then is it safe and fair to disagree with it. That achieves civility in a pluralistic society, which is no small thing."

I have to admit I've already begun the process. Just the other night I had an hour long discussion with my good friend Konstantine (Look Konstantine, I wrote about the Greek guy in my blog! ;)) on the doubts of religion, Christianity, creation, etc. And I'm quite excited to do it some more!

Well, I guess I should stop blabbing here and get to making my cookies! It's Marie's cookie night in the lounge!

But here's my challenge for tonight- What's your reason for God? Or what's your reason for no God?

Think about. And email me your own story of your faith if you'd like :)

violamad@gmail.com

Love,

Violamad

Run, School, Practice, Sleep. Repeat.

Well I guess the title is pretty self-explanatory. This has been my life now that school has gotten into full swing.

Don't get me wrong- I am still having some time for social things and fun, but I've definitely had to adapt the way I get to it. So here are my tips for time management:

1. Combos: the best way to get two things done in one. For example:

-Homework done with friends. Homework gets done (maybe takes a little bit longer) and quality time is spent with friends.

-Sightseeing becomes exercise. Go for a run. See the city.

-Practice in the park. Make some money, get some practice performing.

2. Don't bring your computer with you everywhere.

I used to be on the computer a lot because it was there at home, so accessible. Now, it's in my room turned off most of the day and it saves me so much wasted time!

3. Planner: gotta have it. There is no other way.

4. Coffee: makes you 10 times for productive during the day. Multi-tasking is much easier when caffeine is aiding you :)

And for those of you that don't like coffee...

5. Sleep: also makes you more productive during the day.

Though I might add, that sleep+coffee may result in a little too much energy ;)

So, you probably already know or do all of this. It's probably more that I'm writing these things down to remind myself what I should be doing. And right now, what I should be doing is number 5. I'm out. Goodnight!

A collection of observations in New York

So here I am, my first day on the job as the Office of Resident Life assistant, totally bored, yet totally excited about my job. Essentially, working from 7-9 on Tuesday and Friday nights I am getting paid to:

a) study

b) blog

c) upload pictures to Facebook

d) reply to emails

e) watch TV

f) practice (if necessary)

and finally

g) perform my job roles (if necessary), such as check out game equipment, help with lockouts, or give out cleaning supplies to students (who usually don't come on a Friday night between the hours of 7 and 9)

Perfect.

So while I'm here, I thought I could give you my list of a few quirky observations that I've come across in the two weeks that I've lived in New York and the Juilliard School.

**Please note that these are my personal opinions and by no means are thought to be 100% factual.

New York City

- Most people are quite friendly if you get to talking to them. If they don't say "Good morning" as you pass them on the running path, it does not mean that they do not wish you a good morning. The deal is...there's SO many darn people! If you tried to say good morning to them all, your mouth might fall off. Really.

-Continuing that idea, there's a lot of runners in New York. Ok, again, granted there's just a lot of people here. But there is an unusually large amount of people that you see, in the park or on the path jogging/biking, who are extremely fit and well toned. It's encouraging :)

-If you walk slow, you might as well just wear a HUGE hat on your head that says "TOURIST!"

-If you are seen in Times Square, you are probably a tourist. All locals hate the place.

-Any day of the week, you will find busy streets even into the wee hours of the morning.

- Particularly on the weekends, there are MORE people out after midnight than before.

-Dogs are EVERYWHERE. If your dog poos on the sidewalk, you will get death stares if you don't pick it up. Most likely, if you are a New Yorker, you have doggie doo bags in your purse.

-Dogs are welcome in lots of places, and for the most part are very highly trained. I've seen so many dogs wait patiently outside the store for their owner, or walk around the park unleashed and calm.

-Wearing your iPod while walking down the street, in the elevator, in the grocery store is very common.

-New York City has way more beauty than you might expect. I've seen so many beautiful things walking around and running through the city. It has been fantastic and I can't wait to see more. So don't ever tell me it's a dirty ugly city. ;)

Juilliard

-So, the elevator in the Residence Hall starts on the 11th floor and then goes 13,14,15,16...etc. Anyone else think it's strange that we don't have a 12th floor but do have a 13th floor?

-In the new part of the building where there are new signs on the bathroom doors, the little men and women "figures" on the sign don't have arms! Like for the men one it's like circle, rectangle body and two rectangle legs...but no arms...

-Each story in the school building is more like 1.5 levels and has three segments of steps inbetween each floor.

-Though I am taking into consideration the large number of steps between levels, do you REALLY need to take the elevator for one level DOWN?

-Pianists have a tendency to place their ID card in the practice room window backwards...are their pictures really that bad?

-Dancers don't walk down the hallway...they dance.

-Juilliard dancers can be quickly discerned from the School of American Ballet dancers (whom also share the Rose building dorm and cafeteria). Juilliard dancers eat. SAB dancers don't.

-If you are not a musician, don't go to the 4th floor. It's intimidating. It's just practice rooms!

-The security people are surprisingly nice :)

So, I of course I could go on. These are just a few off the top of my head. But now my shift is done, and it's time to go to Crumbs, my favorite cupcake cafe! :)

Have a great day!

Love,

Violamad

Week 1 of Juilliard/NYC

WOW...

Soooo, ever since the plane ride up to New York, I have been without my lovely pink personal computer, and thus I have not been able to upload pictures OR update my blog. Now, a week past, I have so much to say about it all I don't think I can even remember all of it! Anyways, I'll try and give you the basics of what this week was like:

We arrived in the late afternoon of August 29th, checked in to the Empire hotel just two blocks from Juilliard (way to go Priceline!) and had a room overlooking the school and the Lincoln center. My parents were just going crazy with excitement and I found them absolutely hilarious and embarrassing. Perfect. For dinner we started walking around the streets looking for a Chinese food place that I loved, but could not remember where it was and just about that time I got news from my Russian, Dima Volkov, that he had won 1st place in the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition!!! So here we are on the street, all three of us, screaming in excitement, all pulling out our cell phones to tell whoever else we can and loving all the strange stares and smiles we were getting from people passing by. It was a beautiful moment :)

Next morning was move in. We walked over to the school with 4 suitcases and two violas, a computer AND two venti Starbucks coffees (that's really important) and were feeling like we had a lot of stuff until we saw other people loading boxes upon boxes out of their cars! We had a few minutes to mingle before all the Orientation leaders (students) came out with big bins and started directing us where to go. All of them were SO incredibly energetic. It was hilarious, especially all the dancers who just could stop moving and cheering! What a great welcome! Once upstairs, we got to unpacking in my TINY room right away, but magic did happen and everything fit perfectly! The best part- my closet! I've seen other rooms and they have nothing like this, but there were two closets in the room. One was shallow with a bar hung around head level. The other closet, on my side of the room was deep with room to walk in it, and two bars and two shelves! I figured I would have to share it with my roommate, but it turns out, she doesn't like to hang things, so it's all mine! WOW, who knew you could go to college and have a walk-in closet....The rest of the day was filled with shopping for various little storage things and student and parents meetings in the dorm, all welcoming us to the school. My roommate is a dancer, from Dallas, TX! And though we don't see each other that much, I think we will be great roommates :)

Starting Monday we had various sessions and placement exams to take. Mom and Dad also had a few "parent orientation" things to go to and they left that afternoon feeling (I think) very satisfied where they were leaving me, in a school that would take great care of me. I agree :)

As for my Japanese Aesthetics test..well it went well enough because I made it in the highest class I could. I do have to admit though that the teachers are probably laughing at me since my "art form" that I used as an example was "latte art" (It's cool, just believe me ok?) Needless to say, afterwards, when my friends asked me what I wrote about, I got a few laughs. But at least I have friends yeah?

The few people that I refer to as my "friends" are actually quite a ool and diverse group. Unfortunately this means that once school starts I probably won't be seeing them much. My floor in the dorm has quite a few drama students, so I've been hanging out with a few of them. I've also hung out with a jazz pianist, a horn player, a trombone player (from Houston!), a vocalist, some dancers and two string players that I met at camp this summer. That's basically what this week has been- a combination of lectures on rules and schedules, practicing, and exploring the city at night. I will have to write a new post soon summarizing a few of my observations about New Yorkers ;)

This weekend we have had several opportunities to go out. Actually, Friday night we had "casino night" and I won a $15 Barnes and Noble gift card (did you know you can buy coffee there too? :D) and the grand prize of two tickets to the Mets vs. Cubs game yesterday. (That was kinda fun, but the Mets suck..sooo. I'm going to a Yankee's game tomorrow with a good group and friends and I'm more excited for that). This morning a group of us went to volunteer at a soup kitchen except there was some major miscommunication and a jerk of a boss once there, soooo no soup kitchen. But I did just have a wonderful lesson with one of my two teachers. We had a long lesson because there was no one after me today and then we spent about 15 minutes taking notes together on what we talked about in the lesson and what we will be working on next time. Organization: I love it. Tuesday night we have a semi-formal Juilliard school party/dance on a Circle Line cruise boat that will be taking a trip around the island at sunset. I'm quite excited :)

I don't want to drag on about my week since you probably need to stop reading and get back to your life and I to my viola (which is my life) But I just wanted to let you know that all is going well. I think I am going to be extremely busy this year, but also very happy. I can tell already the opportunities are abundant and amazing. I really like the access to more than just other classical musicians. For example, Thursday night I spent two hours in a dorm suite listening to drama kids act out various scenes from Shakespeare. ahhh, it is so cool.

Thank you for your support!

Love,

Violamad