Last time I wrote, I was preparing for my seating audition. The results turned out well: I will play first horn on Mahler 4 (the most important horn piece in our repertoire this summer), as well as on West Side Story and Chavez’s Sinfonia India, both of which have really important horn solos. I will also be playing 3rd on Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, and 2nd on Shostakovich Symphony No. 9, both of which are important parts as well. Thus, even though I didn’t get the specific parts I wanted, I am more than happy with the part assignments.
The horn section sounds really good this year – even better than last year. Only one of the horn players from last year is back, a Colombian guy who is the same age as me. We also have a guy my age who goes to Cleveland Institute of Music, another Colombian guy who just graduated from a conservatory here in Colombia, and a girl who finished her Master’s a few years ago and now makes a living gigging in San Francisco. It’s really great to play with them, but of course our coach, Javier, always has more tips for us. Actually, the orchestra as a whole sounds much better than it did last year (with the exception of a few sections that merely sound the same as last year). It’s refreshing to play with a strong group, especially since this tour we are performing a lot of difficult repertoire.
We are very busy during this residency with rehearsals for both orchestra and chamber music. Every day we have rehearsal in both the morning (3 hours) and the afternoon (2 ½ hours). Sometimes we also have sectionals at night, but even when we don’t, we use the time at night to rehearse for chamber music. I am involved in two different chamber music projects during this residency. I’m playing in a brass quintet that’s performing some traditional Colombian music, and one of my best friends asked me to play second cello in the Schubert quintet, though I’m not sure if we’re ever going to record it.
Also, we have a few hours free during the day, and most nights free to have fun. We’re staying in a country club / resort type place, so there is a really nice pool. It’s really warm here all the time so swimming is always an option. We’re 30 minutes away from the closest city, which is actually a small town called Villavicencio. Most nights, someone in the orchestra organizes a party, in which the main attraction is usually salsa dancing. I’m definitely not very good but I’ve learned the basics of the dance.
We have our first concert tomorrow, and tonight we have an open dress rehearsal, which I guess is kind of like our first concert. On Sunday morning, we begin the actual traveling portion of our tour, and then after that it’s go go go until the end of the tour. I’ll probably have more time to update while we’re touring, though, because we have a lot of bus rides and flights within Colombia.
Since most of our tour is within Colombia, we’re actually partnered with a Colombian orchestra for the tour, called the Youth Philharmonic of Colombia (Filarmónica Joven de Colombia). They’re good, even though this is their first year in existence. Mainly, they play one half of the concert and we play the other half, and then at the end we play one or two pieces together. Though it’s a great concept, it’s really difficult to play together because doubling all the wind parts is always troublesome in terms of being together perfectly rhythmically, and in terms of intonation. I really like them being here. The people are all so nice and I feel like having a larger group on tour for most of the time might help reduce the amount of drama that seems inevitable on orchestra tours.
We have three conductors for the tour. One is from the United States and works at Interlochen. He is mainly conducting the Colombian orchestra, but he is conducting one of the combined pieces, I believe. Another conductor is from Colombia. He is conducting mostly the Colombian orchestra right now as well, but once we leave Colombia he will be conducting us more and more. Our third and final conductor is Mexican. He conducted us last year and he’s definitely my favorite. I’m sad that he’s not conducting us on the Mahler.
Anyways, that’s a quick update on my life here in Colombia so far. I’ll try to put up some pictures soon of the beginning of the tour.
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