Pittsburgh Youth Philharmonic Orchestra Summer Camp – Favorite Songs

The Old Bell Cow: The Old Bell Cow is an old Appalachian fiddle tune that has been passed on for generations thru ear.  We also learned it with no music just aurally. (Fiddle Music Directed by Dennis Morton)

Can-Can:  Composed by J. Offenbach and arranged by Richard Meyer. I love this upbeat song!

Egmont Overture: Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and arranged by Richard Meyer.

The Best of Green Day:  Arranged by Douglas E. Wagner.  It was such a fun week playing all types of music.  This piece was one of my favorites.

Radetzky March:  Composed by Johann Strauss, Sr. and arranged by Richard Meyer. I love playing this piece!

Worcester Chamber Music Society – Summer Camp Week 1

Samakoro – Traditional Rhythm from Mali:  The Drumming ensemble was coached by Zachariah Combs (Director of Crocodile River Music & Media, LLC) and Issa Coulibaly (Musical Director for Crocodile River’s Troupe, Didakan)

Playing with these two amazing drummers was such a great experience.  Rhythm is so important in any type of music and being able to strengthen my rhythm while at one of my favorite camps doing it with my favorite friends…it doesn’t get much better!  It was so much fun playing on all types of drums!

Zahab: “…And Stars Will Appear”:   Liam, Angelina, Zev, Dylan and coach David perform “….And Stars Will Appear” composed by Roger Zahab (www.rogerzahab.net) and coached by David Russell.

Wow, what an honor to perform this piece. (It was composed by Roger Zahab who is the Director of the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – crazy I was just at the PYPO camp last week – so close!) This was composed after 9/11. At first I was nervous because it was slow and I am so used to playing faster music, but it all fell into place after a lot of hard work. David Russell was amazing to work with, dedicating extra time to our practice sessions to make sure we got all the hard parts perfect. I hope the composer is happy with the final performance. I just love the Worcester Chamber Music Society Camp…you learn so much and it is so much fun to perform with my friends!

Corelli:Concerto Op.6 No.8: This piece was composed by Corelli and the participants were coached by Peter Sulski (my private teacher – http://www.petersulski.com). Participants were: Isaac, Jo-Lee, Morgan, Angelina, Olivia, Rasika, Jacob H, Zev, Peter K, Jacob B, Thomas, Stella, Zaidimary, and Alexander.

At first I thought this was a big group for a chamber group and it was but it was super fun playing with all my old friends at camp and working with so many different new participants also. Peter Sulski was a great coach and kept us all on the right paths with our different parts and the timing of everything. In the end big group or small group – the piece turned out great.

Worcester Chamber Music Society – Summer Camp Week 2

KuKu: An African Drumming Rhythm.  The campers were coached by Zachariah Combs and Issa Coulibaly both with Crocodile River Music.

This week I was able to play a djembe, which is an African drum made out of a hollowed out tree trunk and covered in sheep skin. The djembe can make three notes with your hands – tone, slap and base.  It was my favorite drum.  I was amazed at how much music you could make with just three notes.  I had a blast learning African Drumming these two weeks at camp and I hope to learn more.  It was so much fun.

Mozart String Quartet No 1, KV80 Rondeau : Participants performing were Angelina, Kaitlyn, Anthony and Morgan coached by Peter Sulksi.  This was a fun piece to play. My part by myself was not that challenging, however playing with the group and getting the timing right was more difficult. After a week of hard work we pulled it off and had a blast doing it. When you play in a small group you have to be so much more focused on multitasking (you have to focus on listening to others, counting your rhythm and getting your notes perfect.) If one person is off the whole song can be thrown off. I think it is more challenging than playing in larger groups where you actually have a conductor but I LOVE playing in the small groups and hope to do lots more of these smaller group pieces in the upcoming year.

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Allegro: The participants were Rachel, Brittani, Angelina, Waverly, Rasika, Gabriella, Jacob, Kaitlyn, Zev, Jack, Andrea, and Rohan.  This piece was coached by Rohan Gregory.

I loved playing this piece.  Originally I had a different part and was prepared to play that but on Monday I took the opportunity to change to the Oboe solo part. (Normally, we get our camp music one month in advance to prepare our parts – then you put them together with the other participants during the 5 day camp.) I knew I would only have 5 days to learn my part and put it together with the other participants.  I had to put extra time in practicing on my own not only at camp.  I woke up everyday early and practiced and when I got home from camp I practiced more.  I was determined to make my part a success.  There were some 16th notes and shifting in this piece that made it a bit more challenging.  But by the end of the week I had improved greatly – little by little.  It proves you don’t need to be a child prodigy, or be born with natural musical talent to play the more difficult pieces – you just have to have the drive and want to succeed.  You need to put the time in and you can do anything you put your mind to.

I was so grateful I got the opportunity to change my part to a solo part and experience this song during this week of camp.  I was able to work with Mariesther Alvarez, who also helped coach in camp this week, during some of my practice time. I was also able to spend some extra time with the truly talented Rohan Gregory.   They both really helped me with some of the difficult parts so I would be ready to perform.

There is something so satisfying to work so hard and then play the song and feel like I did all I could to make my part a success and feel so good about it afterward.  I think we rocked this song!!!

I plan on keeping my hard work going so I have more opportunities like these to prove to the more experienced musicians that anyone with musical drive, musical skills and ambition can do it when they put the effort in.  The most important thing is ambition!

Intensive Practice Camp – Worcester Academy of Music

Last week of summer camp!  I was able to work with Yulia Zhuravleva, Jonathan Brennand and Lucina Reyes. They were all great coaches.  I also was accompanied by Sima Kustanovich.  This was my third year attending this camp and the third year that they have held it.  It is always so fun to participate in it and work with all the great coaches.  I look forward to seeing Yulia and Sima every year.  (The other two coaches were new this year! – of course I know Jonathan Brennand – he is the Conductor in the WYSO. So I have worked with him before but never one on one, so that was a treat.)

Anyway I was able to perform two pieces. Both were great to play, one more upbeat and the other a little more slow and romantic.  Both sounded great with a piano.  It always takes playing a piece to a new level to play with a piano.

Gigue composed by Abaco
I always love playing a fast piece.  My goal throughout this week of camp was to make this song 3X faster than I was originally playing it.  It is fun to play fast but you need to make sure your sound is still pure.  I was a little nervous the day of the performance because we only practiced with the pianist a few times.  But all worked out great.  I had a lot of fun working with Sima.

Bolero Op 11, composed by Willem Ten Have

This piece was a more challenging piece for me.  Taking my techniques to a new level. I was able to practice some higher notes as well as harmonics and shifting.   It was great.  I had to spend more time at home practicing this piece because I received it on Tuesday, but as you know I do love a challenge.  It all worked out and I was able to perform it on Friday by myself.  I think it is a very beautiful piece.  I am glad I was able to play it.