Back in New York

There is a Chamber Festival at Juilliard every year in January, only Juilliard School students perform on this festival. We agreed to do this festival this year and we thought about working on a larger work. At last, we decided to have a string sextet; 2 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos. We played String Sextet by Johannes Brahms in B-flat major. We had one week to rehearse and put the piece together and we also had several coachings. David Finckel was our coach, he is a very famous cellist and also the music director of the Chamber Society of the Lincoln Center. We had a lot of fun because we had a lot of time to work on the piece and there were no classes that week.

School started right after that week and everything began again. This semester, I continue my last year of the music theory and music history. My only new class is in humanities department, I have  Society, Politics and Culture in which we discuss the relationship between the population and politicians, sometimes even the ruler and then the general connection to the nation’s culture.

We are midway through the semester now and we have the spring break now. I also get a chance to play in Carnegie Hall this semester with the school orchestra. We played for the 75th anniversary birthday of very important American composer John Corigliano. We played two of his symphonies. It was a great experience to play in Carnegie Hall, the most famous people all played in that hall.

I am also preparing for several competitions this semester. First, we would like to take part in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition which will take place in California. And then I would like to go to the Violin International Competition in Montreal. Both these competitions are very prestigious and would be a great experience for me and my future musical development.