So on Saturday, my roommate and I decided we felt like going to a concert, so I looked up all the concerts in the area and there were a lot sold out, but we found one that was in a place called Alte Schmiede and it was free. So we went and it was in this out of the way place and in the basement of a building and in a smaller room that only would fit about 20 people and I felt like they were about to tell poetry and we would all snap our fingers. But what really happened was this experimental music that was really modern and had a lot of random notes and no tonal center. It was odd, but definitely an experiment and I think it's good to be exposed to all types of music...if that's what you would call what we listened to.
On Monday I had my first cello lesson here and it was with a member of the Vienna Philharmonic. It was a bit tricky to find it, like everything here, the only street signs they have are on buildings and they don't really show you what street is what. Anyways, so I made sure to be like an hour early and I was and so I just sat and played solitaire on my ipod and thawed down til my lesson. When it was finally time, I walked up to his door and I wasn't sure if I should knock or something, but I figured I should let him know I was there and not late so I knocked a couple times. Finally, I decided he probably couldn't hear me and slowly opened the door to find out that there was another door behind it. So I was kind of awkwardly standing there when he opened the other door and he was finishing up another lesson. So long story short it was the best lesson ever...he made my right hand a lot looser and it sounds a lot better and he was really good at showing how the Bach was supposed to sound like. It was nice, because I was the last lesson, so he went over a bit, because he could. I was told that if you get a lesson with a person in the Vienna Philharmonic they could take you to a rehearsal and he didn't mention it during the lesson, but I of course really wanted to go, so I asked him and he just looked at me and said what!? then I realized I was so nervous I said it like a million miles a minute and I said it slower and he was way cool and showed me their rehearsal schedule and told me he would email me with the exact schedule when he gets it. So that was pretty cool and now I'm way excited to see them.
Tonight, I went to a group that meets every week and it's called the Folk orchestra and this girl said it was the funnest thing and I need to go to at least 2 hours of rehearsal a week, so I thought I would try this out. So when we got there it was just like a restaurant with the tables to one side and a tiny orchestra of really old people. There was one other cellist, besides me and the other girl from BYU and he apparently is 100 years old. They were all really excited to get more cellists and were all babbling in German and were really cute. The only had one dynamic and it was loud, so I really couldn't hear myself, which was good, since my endpin is totally dull and it was sliding like crazy and I just had to wrap my legs around my cello to keep it in place. The conductor was talking in German and I didn't have anyone to interpret the measure numbers, so we just guesstimated where they were and when he had to talk directly to us he could barely remember the English word for things and later when we were talking with him he spoke English fluently, so I don't know why he was having so much trouble. He was pretty cool though, I think his name was Victor and he is a conducting student at the university here and I think he was from macedonia, or something that sounds like that.
Anyways so that was cool and I have been daydreaming about this chocolate cake that everyone is talking about...or really I just bring it up with everyone, but apparently it's like famous and called the Sacher Torte, named after the Sacher Hotel which has a cafe thing that made it first, but apparently it's really dry and expensive there, so it's better to get it somewhere else and if I don't get it soon, I fear that I might go crazy. I also got tickets for My Fair Lady on Friday and I'm pretty excited for that. and that's all I have to report.
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