West’s school orchestra seating auditions were this week. She scored highest but rather than being concertmaster again she asked if she could be a second violin, to make that section stronger. So she’s principal second violin now. I thought it was really neat she wanted to do that.
Steve and I went to an “open rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this morning. The orchestra sometimes sends open rehearsal tickets to donors as a thank you; our piano teacher was given one by parents of students who couldn’t go and she offered it to us.
It was a final rehearsal so it was almost like going to a concert (except the orchestra was casually dressed) They played straight through each work and then spent a few minutes going over small places here and there. The conductor was a guest – Charles Dutoit and they played Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel, Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto and Scheherezade by Rimksy Korsakov. The soloist was Yuja Wang. She looked small and young – college student age (I see from her site that she is – she’s 20). It was amazing how powerfully she played. She was awesome.
You can sit wherever you like; it turned out that we sat behind and across from other people from Oak Park. There was a good turnout – I was surprised how many people went. We really enjoyed it – I’ve been to two others but this is the first time Steve has made it to one; I’m glad he could come.