Muti Comes to Chicago



The buildings were decorated with lights that spelled out
Muti and CSO.

 On Sunday, I went to a free concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  It was free because the CSO was introducing their new conductor Riccardo Muti.  Riccardo Muti is a really famous Italian Conductor.  Muti was the principal conductor of La Scala, the famous Italian opera house from 1986-2005.

We got to the concert just before it started, because we came from the performance at the Spertus Museum.  It very very crowded.  There were 30,000 people in Millenium Park to see the concert.  We didn't have a good view, because there were so many people crowded around the Pritzker Pavilian.  Only my sister Rowena got a glimpse of Muti, because I put her on my shoulders so she could see.  She got excited about seeing the cello section too, because she plays cello.

This was our view.  We couldn't even see Muti!

They played a Verdi opera and "Les Preludes" by Liszt for the first half of the concert.  I wanted to see the second half of the concert, but I couldn't, because Sam and Nathan and Ari who were with me were really hungry and needed to get dinner.  So I missed the Overture to Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky and Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" which featured John Bruce Yeh playing some really great clarinet solos.  I was really sorry to miss that!

I was sad to miss the second half of the concert, but it was really fun to be there with so many Chicagoans who must love classical music.

Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Band Performs at the Spertus Center

http://www.chicago3media.com/videoview.html?videoviewid=494
Here is a link to the video of the klezmer performance.

Recently, I joined a youth klezmer group called Maxwell Street Junior Band.  Klezmer music is very interesting.  It is a traditional Jewish style of secular music that originated in Eastern Europe.  It is very different from classical music.  I like klezmer, because it is very free, unlike classical music which has very strict rules.  You can improvise, and the music is really fun.

My group performed at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies downtown.    The Spertus Institute is in Chicago where you can learn about Jewish culture.  The concert was part of an exhibit called "Uncovered & Rediscovered," which is about Chicago Jewish culture and history.

We played many pieces during the concert.  4 of the pieces were vocalist pieces, and the others were instrumental.  The performance lasted 45 minutes.  At the beginning of each pieces, Lori, the director introduced the piece and gave a little of its historical background. 

Lori is really nice.  She is the head of the Maxwell Street Junior Band, and she directs it with the help of other members of the Maxwell Street Professional Band.  My brother and I are new, and she's very enthusiastic about us being there.  She makes us feel very welcome, and she's always excited about everything.  I really like having her as our director.

Playing in the concert was very exciting.  I've never performed klezmer music on stage before, but I really like it.  Normally, I play in a bigger space with more musicians, because usually I play with my youth orchestra.  But with klezmer there are fewer people, and the music is all around you.

Afterwards, Chicago 3 Media interviewed a few people.  It was fun getting interviewed, but very scary too.

Watching My Teacher Perform

Last monday I got to see my teacher Dileep Gangolli perform at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The Chicago Cultural Center is a really cool building.  The building has a big colorful stained glass dome, and the theater inside has great acoustics.

My mom dropped me off in the morning at Dileep's house, and I went downtown with Dileep and his wife Janice who is also very cool.  Dileep soloed with a piano accompaniest, and he played really well.  He played a Brahms sonata, Charles Stanford's Three Intermezzi for Clarinet and Piano, and Niels Gade's Fantasy Pieces with pianist Huang Hao Hung. 

I loved the concert.  I really liked the selection of pieces.  They were all pieces I hadn't heard before except the Brahms sonata.  I like listening to new pieces, because I learn new things.  Dileep played very expressively, which is one of his biggest strenths.  He is passionate about the music, and it really shows when he performs.  His performance was very exciting, and he seems to enjoy every minute that he was on stage.  I hope I get to see more of his concerts in the future.

After the performance, Dileep took me out for sushi for lunch, and sushi is my favorite food.  And then we went back to his house and I had a 2 hour lesson with him.  Because my mom couldn't pick me up until the evening, I stayed at his house and read and had dinner and practiced my piano there. 

Not only is Dileep a great performer, he is also a really amazing and inspiring teacher.  I love his lessons and I look forward to them all week.

Ensembles Starting Up Again

I'm really excited that things are starting up again! All my musical activities are begining. I have already have had one rehersal of Concert Orchestra at Midwest Young Artists, Honors Wind Symphony at Midwest Young Artists, MYA intensive chamber, and Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Band.

I made Concert Orchestra at MYA this year. It is the second highest level orchestra at Midwest Young Artists. We are playing the first and second movements of Dvorak's 'Eighth Symphony' for a concert on Halloween. The first movement is played on A clarinet, which is exciting because I have a chance to use my A clarinet which I don't get to use normally. I hope we do well in the concert.

 Another ensemble I made in MYA this year is Honors Wind Symphony. It is the only Wind Symphony at MYA. We are playing Schuman's 'When Jesus Wept', Barber's 'Intermezzo', Reed's 'La Fiesta Mexicana', and Schuman's 'Chester' (Not to be confused with Schumann). The harder pieces are 'Chester' and 'La Fiesta Mexicana' . They are harder because they are faster, have more difficult fingerings, and go higher than the other two pieces.  The "La Fiesta" goes to a high A.  We have a two performances the week before the Halloween concert and one at the Halloween concert.

 Because I am in Concert Orchestra this year, I have a chamber music group at MYA. I am in the intensive chamber group in which we have more rehearsals and more performances than the other chamber groups. We are playing a wind quintet by Ferene. The second movement of the piece is played on A clarinet. It is cool that I get two pieces on A clarinet at the same time. We are going to get more music next week. I don't know when the first chamber performance will be.
The last ensemble that I am in this year is Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Street Band which is a klezmer group that is run by the Maxwell Street Band. Klezmer is a really distinct style of playing.  In klezmer you must have a looser embouchure. Even though the format is so different from classical music, I still really like it.  It is very unlike all of my Honors Wind Symphony and Concert Orchestra music. I am so happy that my music is much more difficult this year than last year. I can't wait until my klezmer concert and my Halloween concert. I have so much new music to learn that I need to practice a lot more than I already practice to prepare everything.

Interlochen Fine Arts Camp

This is the Intermediate Wind Symphony warming up.

This summer I went to Interlochen Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. Interlochen is a summer fine arts camp for grades 3-12, which takes students from all over the United States and many countries around the world. You have to audition to get in to most of the middle and high school programs. I auditioned on clarinet, and I made 3rd chair, which meant I played in both the Intermediate Wind Symphony and the Intermediate Symphony Orchestra.

I had a great time. It was my first time away from home for three weeks. There were a lot of things I really liked about Interlochen: everyone was so involved in their art, everyone was really nice, the music fun, and I really enjoyed my classes. I wish I got to stay there longer.

I was surprised that everyone was nice and there were no bullies. That's surprising, because in most gatherings of middle school boys, like school, there always seem to be some kids who want to cause pain for other kids. At school, I can't just be myself, because some kids will be mean to me, because I'm different from what they think is normal. I love playing my clarinet more than anything, I love classical music instead of pop and rock music like most people my age, I love history, and I homeschool part time. At school, I feel like I can't be open about who I am. Interlochen was different. There is was okay to be myself, and people didn't make fun of me. I felt accepted for who I am. Sometimes people did things that bothered me, but no one was trying to be mean on purpose. I wish school could be more like that.

This is Kaelen, Nick and me with my baby brother Morgan.

Another thing that was cool about Interlochen was that everyone was very involved in their art which was amazing because I've never been surrounded by so many artists before. It was inspiring and motivating. It is nice to know that there are that many people in the country who love music, and drama, and visual arts. The music was interesting, and there was a lot of it. The toughest piece we played in orchestra was Katchaturian's Saber Ballet, but I had played it before, so it wasn't too much. The band music was easier, but there were five pieces to learn and perfect ever week, as well as orchestra pieces to prepare.

I loved my classes at Interlochen. I had five or six classes a day. The first class was Intermediate Wind Symphony, which was all the intermediate winds. My second class was either Clarinet Sectionals or Woodwind Sectionals depending on the day. My third class was practice hour. For practice hour, you have a practice hut, and a practice supervisor walks around to assist and encourage you to practice.

Once a week instead of practice hour I had a clarinet lesson with Sandra Jackson, who was my teacher at
Interlochen. She is very nice and she is an exceptional clarinetist. She's even performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

This is Nicholas, who came from London,  reading The Fountainhead.

My next class was Instrument Exploration where I learned about many instruments. It was fun to learn how to play new instruments, except the flute. For some reason playing the flute made me really dizzy and kind of nauseous. I must have doing it wrong. My fifth class was either Orchestra or Performance skills. Orchestra went on for two hours and was the best class of the day. We worked on the pieces we were going to play in the concert during Orchestra Class. Performance skills was basically a clarinet octet. We worked on chamber music most of the time and sometimes we talked about clarinet stuff. My sixth class was Orchestra sectionals. This was when the clarinets in orchestra worked on our orchestra parts. There were four of us, but only one girl. Her name is Julia and she was my stand partner. She comes from the Chicago area too, and she plays with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

We had two free days every week. The first two days of camp were free days. I mostly was meeting new people those days, but I had my seating audition on the second day.  During the third free day, I was hurrying around to concerts all day, and at night I went to the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is the top

orchestra of the high school program. It was amazing. I gave them a standing ovation as did everyone else. The second day of that weekend I got two board games in the mail: Small World and Stone Age. My cabin mates and I played both games many times through the rest of the time at Interlochen. The last weekend before the final concert basically all we did was play Small World and talk and play our instruments. Thomas Wolfgang, an oboe player in my cabin, especially liked the game and wanted to play it over and over again. It was a great time and I had a great cabin.

This is me with my practice hour buddies.

Hanging out with my cabin was one of my favorite things. Every night we had a bunk talk. During the bunk talk, we talked about many things. Sometimes the counselors, John and Theo, told very very scary ghost stories that gave us all nightmares. Sometimes they asked us questions about what we liked and disliked about Interlochen, what we were looking forward to doing at Interlochen and during the rest of our lives. We joked that we would all meet up again at Carnegie Hall. The last thing we did during bunk talk was listen to soothing music. I loved bunk talk, it was the most relaxing part of the day.

One of the best things about Interlochen were the performances. They were amazing. A few of the performances really stood out, like the WYSO performances, Aida, and the Parker String Quartet. The Parker Quartet played very beautifully and I loved the way they moved together while they played.  They communicated very well when they played.  Aida was also an amazing performance. The actress who playing as Aida was terrific. Her voice was beautiful, and I really liked how she played the character. The stage set was also very cool. The story was really interesting, it was about a Nubian princess who is captured by an Egyptian Captain. I think my favorite performances were the  WYSO performances. They were just amazing. When they played I was so totally entranced that I didn't pay attention to anything but the music. All the performances were unbelievable and I wish I could see them all again at home.

Time for Interlochen Fine Arts Camp!

Interlochen!

Clarinet Camp at Midwest Young Artists

Last week, I attended a clarinet camp at Midwest Young Artists coached by Dileep Gangolli, my teacher. It was so much fun! Every day, we played our clarinets for five hours. Then, on Friday, we had a final concert.

On the first day, we started by introducing ourselves. There were seven other clarinetists at camp, and two of them were from other states. The oldest kid there was named Robert Orozco, and he came from California. He starts his senior year in high school next year. He was a great clarinetist and a very nice person. He always had something nice and encouraging to say about everyone. Scott Greene from MYA was also there. I think we get to be in the same orchestra next year. There was also another kid from Naperville, IL there. He was named Addison. He is going to be a sixth grader next year, and he was really good! There were other cool kids there too. We all got to know each other well by the end of the week.

On of the things that we talked about was reeds. I learned many things about breaking in reeds. You need to keep a cycle of 8 reeds going. the moment you take a reed out of the package, you want to dip it in water for a few seconds before using it. The first time you play a reed, you want to do it for a short time: like less than 5 minutes. If you feel it becoming soft and mushy, you should stop using it. Keep using it for longer periods in future days, and eventually it will get broken in.

The first actual playing we got to do was in an ensemble, in which all eight of us played together. We prepared three pieces: Joplin, Haydn, and Respighi. After that, we split off into groups of two to practice duets which Dileep had just assigned us. I got paired with a boy named Addison, who is ten years old. Addison was really fun to play with. He was really good, really nice, and he was really easy to work with. We also did master classes in which four of us got to play during the week. I did not get to play in any of the master classes. That didn't disappoint me, because playing in front of people makes me nervous, especially people who know me.

On Friday, we had a concert where we performed our duets, solos, and ensemble music. First, Dileep had a dres rehearsal with Scott (who as playing an Arabesque) with the pianist who was performing with us. Then a camera man came in and filmed our rehearsal. After that, Dileep got interviewed. I think it was for the Chicago Clarinet Ensemble. They were looking at his work as a teacher. Next, we had dress rehearsals with the pianist.

When the concert finally came, I was really nervous that I was going to mess up. We first did our duets. Addison and I did really well. Next were the solos. I did well mostly, except that I messed up in the technically difficult parts. The pianist was playing faster than I could play and I didn't know how to slow her down. Still, I feel like I played really expressively, and I finished with a feeling that I did really good.

It was a really fantastic week, and I hope I can come back next year.

Thanks, Dileep!