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Dorie Straus Registered User (9/4/00 6:51:12 pm) Reply	okokokokok...I'll bite This board has been too quite lately. What's everyone up to this fall? I'm going back to teaching after 3 years: Art, in a fine and performing arts elementary school, inner city. Community orchestra starts up again next Sunday; first concert in November is all Beethoven. Some crisp air just pushed out the heavy humidity and rain we've had in the NY area for the past few days. Feels right to me. Edited by Dorie Straus at: 9/4/00 6:51:12 pm
DWThomas Registered User (9/4/00 7:23:47 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite It's been tropical rain forest here (Philly 'burbs) all weekend -- last year everything was dying from drought, this year there's new fuzzy lifeforms everywhere At fairly high priority, there's a few essential winterization projects -- but they're no fun . September 13 begins the Fall Term of cello lessons at the Community Music School. It is conceivable, but currently unconfirmed, that Sept 12 might be the start of some ensemble work at CMS (the teaching is better than the organization!). Should that occur, my wife and her viola will join me and my cello along with whosomever they dragged in -- we'll see. If I don't hear soon, I'll call and ask what's happenin'. After getting disgusted with being ignored at my local Circuit City on Saturday, I dialed up www.minidisco.com and ordered a Sony MZR70 MiniDisc recorder which I hope to use to work on improving my tone and general musicality issues. I saved enough money buying on-line to approximately pay for a teeny tiny stereo mike that plugs into the little sucker. I've been considering such a purchase for 6 or 8 months, frustrated with the near non-existence of such equipment in local electronic emporia -- Best Buy's display has looked the same since February! MiniDisc is apparently hot in Europe and Japan but here in Murrica we only want to load MP3's off the Internet. September 23/24 we fly to Indianapolis to celebrate a birthday with a nephew who's having a bad year medically. An-n-nd, The last 4 or 5 days of September, we're booked in a B&B in Old Saybrook, CT to get a change of scene. My cello teacher will be in Belgium that week, so I can get away with it. (Sorry you asked yet? ) Oh. yeah, Sept starts another round of Perkiomen Valley Art Center newsletters. I've finished (pending review) the typesetting for the prospectus for our open juried show in November, and am currently computerizing the mailing list for said event. And now I'm here blathering at length when I should be laying out some of the September issue! I'm also attempting to downsize 30+ years of packratting here at Pigpen-on-the-Perkiomen so we can buy a loom and do some weaving, he said, dodging and weaving. Uh - oh - I actually work 40+ hours a week too (You sure you're not sorry you asked...) Dave
MaryK Registered User (9/4/00 8:31:29 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite I go back to work Wednesday after a 7.5-week sabbatical. Criminy, what a shock that'll be! Alarm clock, pantihose, eyelash curler, regimentation, ugh. Haven't practiced all summer (played a bit, though), just had my first lesson in several months, and decided to play w/a different orch so now have to cram for an audition. Needless to say my cello and I are getting reacquainted. Oh, and I got wheels put on my cello case! What a difference! Anyway, our first concert is in November, and it includes LvB 5 and the Rococco Variations (played by a local teacher/symphony player, David Tonkonogui (sp?))! Am having knee surgery (ACL reconstruction) in two weeks. Lotsa rehab ahead, so they tell me. Am not sure how I'm going to hold my cello, what with not being able to bend my knee properly for a while. Anybody out there in cello-playing land ever have to deal w/this? How'd you do it? (It's my left knee, BTW.) Pillows? Any advice, suggestions, etc., greatly appreciated! Cheers, MaryK
Bobbie Registered User (9/4/00 9:04:08 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite I started back to a full-plus teaching load (Chemistry) last Monday so I'm enjoying the only Monday holiday we get all semester right now. Then nothing until Thanksgiving. Work always cuts into my practice time! I'm also auditing an arranging course. Orchestra started three weeks ago; we are doing an all Mozart first concert in mid-October. I never stopped lessons myself but I am getting my own students back- one had studied with my teacher all summer, one had surgery, and one went to the beach. He has already forgotten to come for his second lesson of the year, which is his usual pattern. We are enjoying a spell of unseasonably cool weather- only 85 today and it drops into the high 50's at night. But it is going to go up again this week.
Joe S Registered User (9/5/00 12:20:12 am) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite For me the weather will change, but I will continue going from place to place trying to fix electrical problems for people and trying to make them smile as they get the bill for hundreds of dollars. I do get the most letters of satisfactions sent in to my bosses. I continue Charity Clowning, but have as of yet have not added the cello, I have played my tuba for a cake walk and it went over very well. I plan on playing in our local Tuba Christmas, in clown, and continue with my cell lessons. Joe S.
Ellen G Registered User (9/5/00 8:05:57 am) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite My turn. Rehearsals start for the college/community orchestra next Tuesday, and I'm not sure how I feel about it because I adored the former conductor who is not returning. Waaah!! This is supposed to be fun for me, and the personalities AND the music are all part of it. Anyway, first up is Schubert Symphony No. 3, Handel Water Music Suite, and I don't know what else. I'm involved in a string quartet which is really becoming quite enjoyable. I was the new kid a few months ago and had a lot of paranoia. But it's a good fit, I've gotten more aggressive in my playing, and I'm pretty happy there. There's also a mix of strings, woodwinds and piano I play with. As usual, when you have kids, you are asked to volunteer. And while the same people always run away when they see it coming, the same OTHER people always say yes when they already have too much on their plate. So you're looking at the new manager of ESYO's Jr. Strings, which is the entry level group which one of my munchkins was accepted to this year. I met the conductor at the rehearsal weekend for the big kids, and he's pretty neat. That ties up every Sunday afternoon for the rest of my life, and starts out with having to make and post signs so the kids know where the heck the rehearsal room is at the SUNY campus. I'm not sure I can find it... Cellistically, on one front I have improved in that my tone is stronger, my bowing is a tad more controlled (yaaay!!!). On the other front, my left hand dexterity isn't so good, and I play in what I refer to as "little old lady mode." I listened to Mozart's Jupiter and Overture to Figaro and said to myself "I played this last year. I CAN DO IT" or at least could last year. So if I did it once, it should be repeatable, right? I see that a few ICS people are going to be in my neighborhood over the next several months, and I look forward to seeing folks in person. Nice catching up with you all.
Nico67 Registered User (9/5/00 9:33:03 am) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite cool topic. So my main plan for the fall is to get CONSISTENT with my practice time. I skip too many days and it shows. I have started practicing with a mute and I find it acceptable, so that should help me find time to practice even at weird hours of the morning or night. I never really stopped lessons over the summer since I didn't really have any vacation (interestingly enough, this was one of the best summers I have ever had in spite of this). I will keep going in the fall, with the same teacher (I like her so much!) I am thinking "orchestra". I am probably not ready for it, but I am shameless enough to show up and try It can only push me to do better no? Another plan for the fall is to go to more chamber music concerts. I never developped a taste for string quartets, it is either opera or symphony. So maybe going to more chamber music concerts will help. Fall means also the end of triathlon racing season, so more time to play the cello while planning next season at the gym. No trips planned (well maybe a conference in LA at the end of October, but I am not sure), which is a good thing in terms of consistent cello practice. Finally, I would like to start a little NYC ICS get together for ICS people in the metropolitan area. If you are around, let me know. I think that's it ---Rosario p.s. MaryK, good luck with your surgery p.p.s. Dave, I love Old Saybrook. It is such a lovely town. It is also the home of a rare Northeast DAIRY QUEEN hut. When my partner and I drive to MA to see his family we ALWAYS get off I-95 to stop at Dairy Queen. A blizzard beats a donut anytime
Ellen G Registered User (9/5/00 9:54:31 am) Reply	being in NYC The CSO will be in NYC sometime in March and it could be a good opportunity to see the inimitable Stucka & Sanders, b.t. who never did find his Caps Lock key and now seems to have abandoned Cello Chat, along with Balderston. Justin is in NY, Dorie is nearby in NJ, and I'm contemplating the trip from upstate. What do you think? Carnegie Hall, anyone?
Bobbie Registered User (9/5/00 12:01:30 pm) Reply	DQ-but its a peanut buster parfait you want!
ruthann Registered User (9/5/00 12:13:45 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite My kids went back to school last week, so I went back to my fall work schedule of going to the office when the kids are at school. This past summer, I tried working just 3 days a week for 10 hour shifts, but I had trouble concentrating. The short days suit me much better. I figure no one wants a piece of code I've worked on after 3pm! I'm giving community orchestra a miss, at least until after christmas. My trio is having a hard time settling on a program for our next concert. We picked a Beethoven, but can't settle on anything else. I'm voting for Saint-Saen #2 but the other two are not convinced. And I still haven't come up with anything for the "Some Italian Evening" chamber concert our music teachers' group is putting on. My kid's music lessons are set, now I just need to get my students settled, hopefully before soccer season starts and all schedules crash and burn. At least there are no out of town games. I wish everyone luck with their busy schedules. cello_suttonr@hotmail.com
JanJan Registered User (9/5/00 1:16:09 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite Gee, after reading all your posts I feel like I need to go shopping for a life this weekend. My work and my cello studies are year-round, so nothing new on that front. The New England String Ensemble begins their 7th season in 2 weeks, so I'm busy recruiting and organizing volunteers for the concerts, and of course I'm also cranking out the quarterly newsletter for NESE. My cello teacher's getting married in a couple of weeks, so no lessons 'til the end of the month. But we talked a bit on the phone today, and she thinks when we resume we should work on my sight-reading skills this year, with an eye toward getting involved in quartet playing. Yeah! And this is the year that I learn Faure's Elegy. That's a promise I've made to myself . . . now I gotta get to work on it. That's it from this mundane corner of CBN world. Good thing I have my cello, or my life would REALLY be boring! Janet Edited by JanJan at: 9/5/00 1:16:09 pm
DWThomas Registered User (9/5/00 4:00:14 pm) Reply	Oooooh Nooooo! Peanuts berry berry bad for me the only known (at least serious known) food allergy I have. Got a mouthful of some sort of pasta salad with peanut butter dressing (which I had never heard of prior to the event) at a picnic with my wife's co-workers a couple of years ago. Longest and most miserable evening I've had in a decade. Fortunately there was an MD there if I had gone into anaphylactic (sp?) shock. But fear not, DQ has plenty of other things I can stuff in my fat little face
pnorris Registered User (9/5/00 8:13:56 pm) Reply	Re: okokokokok...I'll bite Wow, everyone is so busy!! My two kids are both back in school now(one is on a year-round schedule, the other a traditional schedule). The oldest plays tenor sax in the HS marching band, which he really enjoys. My youngest is now in 5th grade but has shown no lasting interest in any music except Britney Spears. My quartet's gig load is finally lightening up(weddings mostly). I can't decide whether or not to join a local orchestra. I really hate auditioning and to be honest am in no shape to do so(playing Pachelbel all summer doesn't count as practicing?). I work full time too, and don't want to join a group that I can't really contribute to. But I miss the repertoire and the camraderie. I may take some lessons, get up some courage, and audition for the spring semester(season).
Melody Registered User (9/6/00 5:09:14 pm) Reply	To MaryK..... I had an ACL reconstruction (also in my left knee) two years ago. From what I remember, I didn't play my cello until about a week and a half after surgery....i"m sorry to tell you that it is painfull (but not unbearable). After about 2 weeks, bending my knee was no problem, but I found that I had a hard time sitting through my hour long lesson. Be prepared for your knee to stiffen up alot after sitting for long periods of time - I definately recommend taking a break to stetch. It tends to swell when it's stiff, so having an ice pack on hand and some ibuprofen might help. Other than that, I realy don't remember having a hard time holding my cello. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about the surgery or physical therapy. Best of luck! - Melody (Melodyg430@aol.com)