liana

yes, true, there are perhaps better violinists in the young generation, all a matter of opinion... but surely noone can argue that there's any that are sexier. btw, has anyone heard anything about his tour schedule? we were supposed to work with vengerov this summer at the schleswig-holstein festival playing saint saens 3 but he cancelled all his tour dates in july and august apparently due to health reasons. grrr. of course, on the bright side, we worked with frank peter zimmerman instead on brahms (which, in my opinion, saint saens could never hold a candle to). speaking of whom, there's a good one for the "best of the younger generation" award. what an incredibly precise and clean player!! his brahms was just unbelievable... and i know his recording of ysaye is also disgustingly good. i love playing with soloists of such a crazy calibre, because it makes me want to practice like a madwoman... -liana

something you may want to try is putting her in a class such as the Kodaly method. i started learning music this way and i think it had many benefits -- it's a class based around learning rhythm, singing songs, learning pitch discrimination (i sometimes wonder if the fact that i have perfect pitch can be somewhat attributed to the early training of this class) and basically learning the basics while having fun with music and being a three-year-old. i also agree that sometimes learning piano first can be a big help -- if she turns out to want to be a serious player, piano is an immeasurable aid when starting studies in harmony in particular, it lends an interesting verticality to music that is difficult to see sometimes as a violinist. i think above all, though, what my very first violin teacher told me is very true: kids have to have fun with music. if they don't have fun, they won't do it. -liana

thanks for the info, yaumnik! that'll be a big help, hopefully i'll have some time while in germany to go shopping -liana

you can probably play most things without fingered octaves, but i think in the end if you take the time to learn them, they make life a LOT easier for things such as the last few bars of the first movement of sibelius, paganini, etc. of course, it's a technique you can choose not to learn, but in the end you can wind up with a much easier time with a lot of things if you just break down and learn it. to respond to the question of how to practice them, one thing my teacher always has me practice is to play the top notes while "miming" the bottom notes, and then vice versa. i agree that scales will help a lot, but be careful not to hurt yourself -- especially when you start with fingered octaves, then can be *very* tiring to practice for any length of time. make sure to take a break every few minutes and shake your hand out. -liana

hey tc, thanks for the URL, looks like a neat way to plan a vacation anyway... now i'm going to have to get over there again sometime! -liana

hey aria! tc is correct, i'm going to be at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival's Orchesterakademie. from what i've heard from past participants in the festival, it's definitely worth popping by for some concerts -- i don't know where you live but we're basically all over northeastern Germany, with several dates in Salzau, Kiel, Lubeck, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, and a couple other places as well, i believe. if you'd like the details of tour dates, send me a PM... or you can check out the Festival's website: http://www.shmf.de (festival) http://www.shmf.de/oa (orchestra academy) hope this helps! -liana

i thought i'd ask about prague in particular as i'm going to be there, and i'm currently looking at bows... budding die-hard violin addict would be an accurate description here... and already being familiar with my bow resources within canada, i thought since i'm there i may as well have a look around. can't hurt anything. i'm very wary of buying anything that i can't take to people i trust first to have checked out anyway. thanks to everyone for your warnings, though, i was slightly wary of buying anything before and i will particularly be on my toes now. -liana

ahh thanks for the heads-up, jeff! i'm not looking to spend an arm and a leg in any case (my wallet's still hurting from the violin) but i thought i'd look and see what's there while i was in town... i'm sure you recognize the syndrome that i'm describing here. -liana

hmmmm i'm going to be there july 4, 5, and 6 -- my mom and i are doing a whirlwind tour of southern germany and central europe before i have to be at the music festival i'm attending starting july 8 in northern germany. if i hear about any good shops, i'll let you know for sure! -liana

hello! i was wondering if anyone could tell me where to find a dealer of fine instruments and bows in Prague. i'm specifically looking for a professional quality bow -- i'm happy to look at the works of modern bowmakers too! i'm going to be leaving on my trip on June 28 (wheeeeeee!) and thought i'd look around there in my ongoing hunt for a bow since i'm going to be in the neighbourhood anyway. thanks a lot! -liana

hey yeah i know kerry! we played in a piano quintet together this year. she's an awesome player, just won the eckhardt-grammatte this year, plus a spot on faculty at brandon university... crazy! cool that you know her, did you go to UVic then as well? -liana

ahoy! thought i'd finally bring myself in on this thread... my name's liana (for real, whee), i'm currently in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, at my parents' place. i usually post from Toronto, which is where i go to school. i'm going into the third year of my performance bachelor's on violin at the university of toronto... i play mostly violin but alas i do have a viola too. unfortunately, i play the viola like a violin, so although i get by on viola it's definitely not my calling. -liana

haha wow, what a great thread... i have so many that i could list! wow. okay, most overplayed: 1) Mendelssohn (although i do still enjoy it, just not when played badly...) 2) Bruch 1 3) Saint-Saens 3 4) Wieniawski 2 (spelling??) most over-butchered (this could go on FOREVER but i'll try to choose my "favorites" here...) 1) Mozart anything 2) Haydn anything 3) Tchaikovsky (it was played on several recitals at my school this year in rather awful ways) 4) Lalo 5) Mendelssohn (not only played way too often, but usually badly!) 6) Vitali Chaconne (not a concerto but still brutal) 7) Bach anything (particularly solo Bach... *cringe*) i could go on but i think perhaps i should end my near-rant here... hehe. this is what long years spent at summer music festivals, listening to people practice and perform in masterclass (aka massacre) various pieces does to you i guess... -liana

i have a friend who is a student of Agopian's... he's an excellent teacher, and an excellent player (and a former student of my former teacher! huzzah). his book is apparently technically absolutely *brutal*, written such that HE can get through it in 30 mins, but my friend who's been working on it for 3 years now gets through maybe a quarter of it in that time. all this said and done, though, he definitely knows what he's doing when it comes to building violin technique. many of the technical exercises in the book are the same as what my ex-teacher teaches all his students -- and although they're not easy techniques by any stretch of the imagination, they're put together with the goal in mind of producing virtuoso playing. so i guess in short: tough book, but if you're at the level to handle it, excellent. -liana

ahhh okay TD! sorry, i guess i completely mistook the intention of your statement. i was wondering about that a little bit, because your comments generally seem very experienced and educated, or at least are usually in accord with my own thoughts (which i guess doesn't necessarily mean terribly experienced or educated, but at least i like to hear my concept of sense coming from elsewhere than my own brain ) -liana