Eeeeeek. I haven't posted in about nine and a half weeks????? You may be wondering if I made it out of camp alive.

Nothing to see here!

It's been pretty quiet around here, hasn't it? I've been working and teaching but nothing remarkable has happened. Next week is camp already, so along with work this week I will be packing. I will definitely write about camp this year again --- so there will be activity on here in a few weeks! :) 

What have you been up to this summer? 

SMSF Part 3!

(Anna, me, and Anni)

    Here we are already, wrapping up the camp posts?!?!?! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures. I certainly enjoyed writing about them. :)
  Friday was off to a poor start for me, for my fever had returned. I toughed it out, though, as I didn't want to go back to the dorms a second time, and I was needed for the concert at the library in the afternoon. My teacher said he would play my part for me if I could not go, which terrified my chamber colleagues. :) I rather wished I could have had both, to go and to hear him play my part. The concert went well, there were many spectators, a few mistakes, and overall fun. The video and recording can be found on the SMSF facebook page, in case you missed the concert. Friday evening was our game night, and it was pretty awesome. The counselors had arranged a surprise relay for us, with two teams and a complicated course. The best part was that my team won! :) After that we went inside to the "kitchen" and had pizza and pop. I had a little, and then I went to bed.

   Saturday was the final day, and we were all pretty gloomy about it. We challenged ourselves and counted off in 17 seconds!!! All 27 of us! We packed up before the concert, had the concert, which went well, then had a brief reception, said goodbyes, checked out, and left. Leaving is the worst part. We all became such good friends that it was hard to just up and leave.

Overall the Festival was amazing! I definitely recommend going.

SMSF Part 2!

All of us again! 

Hopefully you find these posts interesting! It's fun writing about it all.
Picking up in Wednesday . . . We had an evening concert which went quite well, despite the heat. This year there were too many of us to fit in the band shell, so we were on the grass in front of it this time. Our concert started with two patriotic pieces, and then settled down to business with Haydn, movie music from Pirates of the Caribbean, and the St Paul Suite. The Meadowlark Quartet also performed. Wednesday was a fun day, but was also very long, because we had a concert tacked onto the end of our day.
Thursday morning we were all pretty tired, but we drank coffee and tried to stay awake for the masterclass with Korey Konkol. It was really good (the coffee and the masterclass). After the masterclass I was not feeling well, and I had a fever. Adrianna (one of the counselors) took me back to the dorms where I just hung out, drew the Smiley Face Family Picture, and drank tons of water. I couldn't even listen to music! In the evening I was feeling well enough to go to the Meadowlark concert, put on for the students. The quartet just blows me away every time I hear them. So my Thursday was a little thrown off, and I lost practice time and such.

On another note (HA), the SMSF now has their own Facebook page, and have been posting pictures and things! Southwest Minnesota String Festival Facebook page

Till Friday!!!! Have you been enjoying these posts?

Southwest Minnesota String Festival Part 1

(All 27 students! Spot me?)

I'm back!!!! I decided to split my tales and adventures into three posts.

Part 1: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Sunday after our noon meal my mother took me down to the Festival, and I was one of the very first students to arrive. I was told as I checked in that I had the most popular name this year --- there were three students named Olivia and one named Liv! I started preparing for chaos then! :) I also found out who my roommate was, which was quite exciting, as we both were hoping to room together. After everyone got there and settled, we played two get-to-know-you games before supper. The first was this: We stood in a big circle, and said our name and the names of the people who went before us. The last person had to say all 29 (including counselors) names! The next game was a lot of fun: again we stood in a circle, then took off our shoes, and one person took their shoes away so one person had no shoes. That person stood in the middle and said something that he or she had done, owned, or something along those lines. Then if we had done (or owned... etc) that thing we ran to a different pair of shoes. Naturally, since one person had removed their shoes from the group, someone ended up in the middle again. Eventually we had to ban questions related to farms and music, the music being the hardest to avoid! We were there for music, obviously we all had it in common! :)

Monday was the day when we really all got to know each other, what our particular music instruments and skills were, find out who all was in our chamber music group, rehearse for the first time, have lessons.... all that wonderful stuff! Monday was fairly uneventful, overall, but extremely fun as well. We had orchestra rehearsal and everyone was a little overwhelmed by how many of us there were! Our practice area was pretty full!

Tuesday we were all pretty comfortable around each other, practicing harder, trying to make sense of the chamber music, not spending as much time together because of it, and crashing at night. It was officially busy!


To be continued on Wednesday!!!! :) Do you have any questions so far?

Upcoming Concerts and a Glimpse into Camp Life

This is the schedule for special events for camp this year: 
-Southwest Minnesota Orchestra Summer Concert: 
Wednesday July 26th at 7:00pm at the Liberty Park Band Shell, Marshall MN (Rain location: First Lutheran Church, Marshall)
-StringWorks Masterclass with a guest clinician:
Dr. Korey Konkol, Viola & Chamber Music (you can read more about him here.)
Thursday July 27th 11:00-noon, 1-2:00pm SMSU Fine Arts
-Meadowlark Quartet Concert 
Thursday July 27th 7:00-7:45pm SMSU Campus Religious Center
-Southwest Minnesota String Festival Community Concert: 
Friday July 28th at the Marshall-Lyon County Library 1:00pm, Free and Open to the Public
-Southwest Minnesota String Festival Final Concert: 
Saturday July 29th 1:00-2:00pm Campus Religious Center, SMSU.  Please join us for a brief reception to follow.
All SMSF concerts and events are free, thanks to our donors and sponsors. Also note that the concerts on Friday and Saturday are the same, just on Saturday it's the end of camp and there's a reception afterward. The Saturday concert will be less rushed as well.

   I will be in all of these, except the masterclass and meadowlark quartet. I did participate in the masterclass last year, one solo and one with my quartet. Although it was a good experience, it was a lot to cram in, with practicing being limited, and since I didn't know I was going to be in the masterclass until I got to camp. 
   This is a taste of what camp is like for me each day: 
7:30: Wake up. Sometimes hard to do, but that's not till the end of camp :)
8:15-9:00am Breakfast (the dorms we stay in are on the opposite side of campus as the cafeteria, which gives a nice cool morning walk before breakfast)
9:00-12:00pm  Practice, Coachings, Lessons (Usually one per hour, so you're always in and out of practice rooms. Hopefully the practice time comes first before a lesson or coaching.) 
12:00-1:00pm Lunch (another shorter walk, this time through the underground tunnels)
1:00-2:00pm Convocation (Think of this as a class where one of the groups plays and everyone picks on you :))

2:00-4:30pm Practice, Coachings, Chamber Rehearsals, Lessons (The same as 9-12 usually, with maybe a break around 3 or 3:30, if you feel you have the time to spare OR we have the concert at the library or masterclass, and that means we lose practice time.... grrrrr)
4:30-5:30pm Musicianship (This is more of a class-like setting, and we do have a teacher.)
5:30-6:30pm Dinner (another shorter walk.... through the tunnels again)
6:30-9:30pm Evening Activities (FREEDOM! :) We finally get to be outside, and this is usually the time where we relax, play games, and enjoy not being in a practice room)
10:00pm Quiet Time (I'm usually ready for bed by this time, but it depends on what my roommate is doing)
10:30pm Lights Out  (and... usually already with the lights out by now.)

So yes, it is busy, tiring (in a good way... but still), and hard, but it is so fun and I always learn so much. And no, my violin hardly ever leaves me. We do leave our instruments in a locked choir room for the nights, but we usually all bring our music and things back to the dorms with us. It took me a few days to get used to leaving my violin like that! 

I just realized this is another music post, though it does have variety :) 

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