Love is the most excellent way

The Windy City String Ensemble’s year end concert was on Friday. The first video clip below is the ending of Serenade for Strings by Tschaikovsky. Ben is concertmaster, on the left, and Esther is principal second (with the hairband, next but one along from Ben). The WCSE comprises about 30 string players, almost all in grade school or high school.

In the concert, Ben played the movement from the Brahms violin concerto he’s working on for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions (to play a concerto with them, not to join the orchestra) coming up in February. He’s also playing it in a competition December 30. Steve’s audio recording of the complete movement is below and the second video clip is some excerpts (stuck together).

The year end piano recital was last night. Esther played two pieces and Ben played three. The third and fourth video clips are Esther playing Humoreske by Dvorak (whole piece) and Ben playing Impromptu by MacDowell (whole piece).