The week at PMI started out slowly, but we ended up working so hard that time felt like it just flew by. I was very impressed with all the students there who exhibited focus, persistence, and determination, and maintained the high level in all the performances. I had the pleasure and honor of coaching the first movement of the Mendelssohn Octet (one of my favorite pieces of all time), and it was a learning experience for me and the students. It was a technically challenging piece for them, and I’m glad they pulled it off in 5 short days of coachings and rehearsals. I’m already think of the piece for next year… maybe Barber’s Adagio for Strings? This PMI was also special in that most of the clinicians performed alongside the students in the concerts. Thanks to them, I was able to recount all of my youth orchestra moments :) BRAVO to all the PMI students and it was great working with HYS and the coaches once again!

Sunday started off with Randy and I playing in two church services where our good friend Greg works as the music director.  Both services were as different as night and day.  The first one featured a country/rock praise ensemble, which was hilarious in itself because the semi-serious congregational was punctuated by rambunctious, lively jamming from these guys.  The alternating contrasts was so absurdly shocking that I had trouble holding in some giggles.   The second service was more conservative; there was more classical music and a feeling of meditation over the congregation.  Both services ended with a national anthem of some sort to get everyone in the holiday spirit.  Chee-hoo!

We arrived in Providence around 1pm.  For lunch we stumbled upon Not Just Snacks, an Indian restaurant that received pretty good ratings on Yelp.   The food was yummy and cheap, though I think it’s a different style of Indian food.  I had my usual Palak Paneer, which was unusually creamy with stringy spinach, but tasty.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur: shopped at Providence Place, took a nap, watched Star Wars III…. Finally, we set foot to India Point Park for the concert and fireworks.  It was really nice out and not too many people on the lawn yet, so it was good soak up the scenery and chat with some friends in the orchestra.  The orchestra did a nice job and the fireworks were better than I expected.  It was a good day indeed!

The weekend that I managed to stay in Boston was also eventful with super nice weather.  My brother who had just moved to Providence, made his visit for the weekend, and that coincided with a visit from my cousin’s family, the Davis’s.

My cousin Cathy is a budding professional photographer, and has her own business: Cathy Clicks Photography. She does a lot of her artistic work in Maine capturing young love and families, but is also interested in traveling and working with musicians and working professionals on the side.  We had a great photo shoot in the North End, which had really nice backdrops for shots. Her beautiful pictures can be found throughout this site.  I hope you like her style as much as I do, and if you do, don’t hesitate to contact her based on my referral.

I’ve also been really happy with the student recitals at Bradford.  The quality has definitely gone up not only in terms of student performances, but also the organization and expectations of teacher, student and families.  Congrats to all my students who performed and I look forward to the next one!

Bring your family and friends and join us for a day of wonderful music by our talented students at the Bradford School of Music. Admission is free; non-perishable food donations are welcome at the door.  There were will food and drinks after each recital.

Best of luck to all my students!!

Things I liked and helped me:

1. flying JetBlue – The seats were so comfortable with personal TV screen and plenty of legroom, clean and simple flight area, respectful and efficient flight crew.  I also love their logo and colors.
2. flying in a day early – I liked doing this at the time because I had a whole day to get in the zone, and I did pretty well.  I had a great isolated room at the end of a hallway in the Holiday Inn hotel (king size bed too!).
3. planning my practice and day as I go – I’m not a spontaneous person, but I can go with the flow.  I plan out what I want to practice by chunks of time with set goals, then take a break by going out for a walk or snacking, then I have a “mock audition” practice and/or “slow and careful” practice.  I alternate these chunks throughout the day.
4. eating right – For me, the act of eating meat gives me energy, so since I was in Buffalo, I made sure to eat a roast beef sandwich for lunch everyday, with granola bars and yogurt for snacks, and a salad for dinner.  Haha, for some reason, I really just wanted to eat well during this audition.  Maybe I should’ve cared more about what I drank too.

Things that can be better/improved/re-thought:

1. drink just water – I made the awful mistake, and realized too late, that I’ve been drinking small amounts of caffeine on my audition day.  It’s an energizing tea that I usually drink everyday, so I never thought twice about it until it was too late and I was well into my Mozart 39 excerpt.  Luckily I didn’t crash and burn, but I was so close.  The scary thing was that it was totally out of my control and that’s not a good feeling.
2. booking a hotel and flight too early – Basically I was out there for one day too long.  Audition was Monday afternoon, so I could’ve flown in that morning, checked into a hotel for 3 hours and practiced, taken the audition and then leave.  But might be too radical.  Next time i’ll just buy a refundable hotel and flight, and stay longer if I have to :)
3. play for more people and get nervous – Definitely need to do more of this!

So it looks like this wasn’t a wasted trip.  I felt lucky that I had smooth trip logistics, audition process, and weather.  Things actually looked like there were working for me.  However, I missed one small piece and it threw me off track.  I felt bad after my audition, but mostly because my body was unfair to me and prevented me from sounding my best.  I’m determined to do everything I can in my control for my next auditions in August.  Wish me luck!

Midori in Costa Rica from Andrew M. Irwin on Vimeo.

On another note, the Luna Duo, I mean, TRIO made its debut at the Bradford School of Music Faculty concert.  I’m never big on performing alone on stage, so I thought it would be nice to have a chamber group perform—so why not perform as the Luna Trio, which is basically Leewen, Randy and myself?  It was a great chance for us to play together and also expand our repertoire with Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz written for violin, viola (or cello), and double bass.  The more I play this piece, the more I enjoy the subtleties of harmonic textures and the meditative lyrical melodies that soar above the blanket of open strings.  Here we are making our grand opening gesture:

I also debuted as an 80′s rock band violinist playing “Peg” by Steely Dan.  My band was made up of other Bradford faculty members.  Man, this song is constantly stuck in my head…… Anyways, looking forward to the next hang with my music buddies next time.  Bon voyage, Alex!

1) The WAITIKI 7 tour in Oahu (HI) was the second “big” tour we’ve had. It happened at the right time because not only was it a celebration of our AIP album, it was a solid preview of our next album, “The New Sounds of Exotica.” We performed two great shows, did two school clinics, and one awesome wedding. All I have to say, thank you to our fans and supporters, and boy, do we love those who love exotica music.

2) Luna Duo is getting ready for the summer, hopefully racking in some gigs for the upcoming year. We will also be doing a photoshoot next month so stay tuned for some stunning images.

3) As always, half of my time is dedicated to teaching and sharing my knowledge with my students.  My schedule at Bradford is almost full, but I’m always excited to hear of interested persons in learning the violin, or just simply music.  If you are around, the faculty recital is on May 7th at 7:00pm at the Osgood Auditorium.  Admission is free, but a donation of non-perishable food items are appreciated.  Student recitals will be held in June.

That’s it for now.  Let’s hope this cold weather doesn’t stay for very long… Ick!

Yesterday’s lesson was exciting for the most part: the kids get to play notes with their fingers!  In preparation for this important milestone, and based on how little Miranda starting learning her left hand, we used a poem about blackbirds to help organize our fingers.  It’s essential in the beginning to draw numbers on the digits (1, 2, and 3) on the knuckle nearest the fingernail to make the connection visually and physically.  Now we introduce the poem and model the movements:

Three little blackbirds flying to a tree   [wiggle fingers in air]
swing that branch and pop down “3″   [pull left elbow in, third finger touches thumb]
touch “2″, pop off “3″   [second finger touches thumb and release third finger]
touch “1″, pop off “2″
pop off “1″
fly away and come back soon.  [wiggle fingers in air]

After many repetitions (and the words get stuck into their brains), transfer the learned tactile movements to a bouncy ball, the shoulder of the violin, and finally to the neck where the tapes are.  It’s important to emphasize the left hand posture for each of the three locations–relaxed, pliable and strong curved fingers.

The left hand position at the neck can also be taught using the same “tree” analogy.  Since the left arm/elbow is the swinging branch, the left hand serves as a “hanging nest” that is open, not cupping the neck of the violin which many young students have fault with.  Where do we put our left hands on the neck?  Use the STRAIGHT left thumb as a guide and place it next to finger tape #1 which corresponds to blackbird #1, tape #2 = 2nd finger, etc.  Make sure the thumb is not sticking up above the fingerboard because a “tunnel” is needed for the nest (spacing underneath the neck).  I’m sure this is much too detailed and analytical for some, but I think the analogy is good for those who have trouble visualizing how to hold the violin at the neck.

When placing fingers on the strings, it reminds me of “tight-rope walking” or seeing actual birds resting on electric wires over the roadways.  But unlike those birds sitting in random spots on the wires (or seemingly so), the fingers on the strings have certain resting spots… the tapes!  In my private lessons, I generally only use tapes for the first and third fingers because in many early levelpieces, the second finger is that one that moves around the most: sometimes “best buddies” with third finger and sometimes with first finger.  Geez, #2 really gets along with everybody!  Anyways, back to group classes, the kids need all three tapes and should know that #2 and 3 are best buddies… for now.