Hi Amy! Admin was right, nice thread! Anyway, you can't talk about musicians without tlkaing about me!! I played violin in third grade (everyone did.) I also played recorder, and I still play it for fun sometimes. Now I play the flute, and I am in love with it! I play for my school band, and take private lessons from my music teacher. I got chosen to play in Band Fest, which is huge, because only like 2-4 people get chosen from each school! In my school band there is an annoying fourth grader who my music teacher somehow thinks is good, but she can't play a solid B flat scale!!! The only other flute player besides me (and the fourth grader) is a boy who is soo shy it's kinda funny. (really no offense to him, but he can't get any fingerings right, and he won't even ask for help) So that's my "lovely" flute section. The best part about band is actually this really funny sax player, he always says to our music teacher how easy the pieces are, but then when were playing it he always makes a mistake. It happens every time we have band. Infact I wouldn't want to go to band if he wasn't there. (only because I have to hold the whole flute section up, while the fourth grader keeps poking me asking for fingerings, otherwise I LOVE flute!) Oh about musical families, I deffinetly don't come from one, everyone always expects so much from me. It gets so hard too, especially when Tif is in town, he loves to listen to me play. Really the only person who plays an instrument besides me is my brother, who plays the drums, but we never get to even hear him 'cause he uses the school's drums.

Hehe I'm rambling again!

I play violin too! But I have only played for half a year. I personally think I am really good, but that is just my opinion. I take lessons at school and with a guy from the Erie Philharmonics! ( Ken J. ) I have a concert on the 4th. 2 days away, not counting today! 

Admin!!!! I love the Bruch Violin Concerto!

Okay, on topic. I've played the flute for about seven years or so and really like it. I've also played viola on and off for about three years. I take private lessons and am principal flute in my youth symphony. Right now I'm learning the Chaminade Concertino, which I really like. For our symphony's spring concert we're playing Buckaroo Holiday, Saturday Night Waltz, and Hoedown from Aaron Copland's Rodeo, plus music from the movie "Cowboys". We generally do more traditional classical music, but this time our conductor decided that we were going to play American music. I play viola in an intermediate orchestra and we're playing music from Phantom of the Opera (really fun!!!), music from an old Robin Hood movie, and music from Carmen. I like the flute a lot better, though. I would like to do some type of music in college, although what or where I'm not sure yet. Good thead topic, Amy! We had a music thread a loooooooong time ago, but I think that it's definitely time for another one!

I play percussion and sing in the shower;) I have played piano for 4 years.

Hey all!  I think you guys know a lot of what I'm about to post, but it fits in this area, so I'll post anyway.  Like Amy, Choco, and the Admin (at least the one that posted here), I play the violin.  I started when I was 3.5, almost 4, which means I've been playing for about 9 1/2 years.  I'm really looking forward to my 10th anniversary!!  I'm in a youth orchestra, in the highest level, aka the Philharmonic, with a bunch of high schoolers.  It's fun, though there aren't many people my age.  For our concert on Sunday, we're playing the Prelude from Lohengrin by Wagner and the third mov't of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.  These two pieces are polar opposites; one's beautiful and slow, and the other is really fast, brutal, and basically making fun of Stalin and Communist Russia under his nose.  I do have this funny story from our seat auditions (where we audition for our place in our section, in this case, I'm in first violin and we have to play really, really high, about 5 ledger lines up!!!).  I was waiting outside the room with some other people freaking out and generally getting really nervous.  This random guy walks up to us (don't worry, it's on a college campus, so that guy was probably authorized or whatever).  He looked down at my music, which was spread out on the floor as I had been hurriedly fingering the tough spots.  He got this surprised look on his face, turned to me, and said, "Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony?"

I nodded.

He looked pretty impressed, and as he was walking away, he said, "Poor kids."

Which proves my point about this music being hard.  Just for solo work, I'm playing Schindler's List (which, let me tell you, wrenches my gut and almost makes me cry when I hear Itzhak Perlman, one of my idols, play it) and Mozart's Violin Concerto #3.  Again, polar opposites. 

 My violin idols are: Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Anne Sophie Mutter, and a bunch of other people who are escaping me at the moment.  They are amazing!!!  I even got to see Itzhak Perlman in concert a few weeks ago, and it was fantastic!!!  He has the fanciest wheelchair (he got polio as a child) and has a great sense of humor.  The one annoying thing about that concert was that a bunch of people clapped in between the movements, which really got on my nerves and apparently got on the nerves of Perlman, though he was pretty good about lightheartedly suggesting that we not clap in between movements.  

I also play piano, though I've only been playing almost 5 years.  I take theory as well, and though it's frustrating sometimes, it proves helpful a lot.  Who knows, maybe I'll need it for my career.  The world is full of possibilities.  

I have a pretty musical family.  My mom plays violin, and actually started a year after me.  We learned together and it was fun.  My dad plays double bass, though when I tell this to people, he always corrects me and says that he is attempting to play double bass.  A lie.  He's good, for just starting and not taking lessons.

I also sing, and I'm in a choir at school.  A list of instruments I somewhat play are viola, harp, and recorder.  I actually learned how to play these at violin camps I've been to.  They have these sessions where you get to learn how to play another instrument.  So I learned these instruments in a week's time.  And don't go saying it's amazing that I play the harp, because I don't.  I'd just have a vague idea how to play one if it was plopped down right in front of me.  Viola I'm a little better at, just because it's so similar to the violin.  And it's so sad that very few people play that wonderful, rich instrument.  I actually played viola in my orchestra years ago, but I can't sight read the alto clef to save my life.  My recorder skills go about as far as my harp skills.

Thanks for the music thread, Amy!  Great idea!

~Leaf

Spamboy says, "evrr."  Music for evrr!! 

You're playing some great music, Leaf! I enjoyed hearing about it. Another amazing violinist is Rachel Barton Pine. She just performed Bruch Concerto No. 1 with our orchestra on Friday night, and it was just beautiful. 

Admin violinist