Journal+9

I must be honest, I have not always appreciated the works of Mozart, Beetoven, Bach, Rachmninoff, and Korsakav. In fact in my early youth, elementary school days, I rarely listened to classical music, rather spending my time bobbng my head to rock music. I think it was arond the time I entered middle school in which my musical perceptions began to change. Slowly, I began to realize the intricate melodies and countermelodies weaved beautifully together within classical music as I coincidenly dedicated more and more time to discovering the hidden mysteries that lay within my violin.

"Paganini was a brilliant virtuoso who was so talented that some believed he had traded his soul to the devil in exchange for the talent. His caprices are some of the most beautiful works even among classical musi," my violin teacher would always lecture me about. In fact, my most favorite violin solo piece would probably be his Caprice no. 24.

Violin hasn't always come easy to me though. I probably spent an entire year in the school orchestra with no sense of rythmn and no idea of where the fingerings were for the music I was playing. My school orchestra teacher at that time was Mrs. Elias, and because of the number of students she had to account for, no one really got much personal attention. That's why it really wasn't until I met my current violin techer, Mr. Cooper, that my level of playing began to improve dramatically. When I first met Mr. Cooper, I saw a skilled, passionate violin player. He was very patient with me throughout the years, understanding even when I made mistakes on the simplest of rhythms. I have no doubt in mind that I am where I am today because of his guidance. A milestone in my violin journey came in the year of 2007 when I auditioned and made it into the York Junior Symphony, getting 4th chair in the second violins. The following year I then advanced to 11th chair first violin. This current year, I was able to make the York Youth Symphony, at 8th chair second violin. Although I wasn't able to make the district orchestra this year, I definitely look forward to taking the musical endeavor again next year and audition again.

The current song I'm practicing now is entitled Allegro Brilliante, and is a violin solo piece composed by the great Austrian violinist and composer Ten Haves, for whom he dedicated the song to his son.