Freshman Year

Though I’m certainly no youngster, my “freshman” year at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is finished!

It’s been an exciting and challenging year. In the “exciting” category I finally got my CD recorded, I got tenure, I played my first Bravo! Vail season, and of course I played many great concerts. It was a year of fun repertoire. We did Ravel’s Piano Concerto, The Nutcracker, Brahms’ Symphony no. 1, Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, and Carmina Burana. The most exciting (and challenging) piece for me, though, was Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 7. This is a piece I’ve only played once before and it was a really long time ago, so I was very excited to get the chance to perform it again. We did it on a series of concerts in February and then again at the Bravo! Vail festival this past week. The performances in February were good, but I didn’t feel completely comfortable with it. The concert in Vail, however, felt great! Ironic, since we had very little rehearsal and Vail is at 8150 feet!!

In the “challenging” category were the normal things; getting used to a new orchestra, new Music Director, new city, and a new schedule. All of these things were difficult, but I feel like I came through it stronger than before. My colleagues in the orchestra have been amazingly supportive and are a joy to work with everyday. The city was a shocker, it being so big and all. But I’ve grown to really like Dallas and it feels more like home every day.

Now it’s time to savor some down time before heading to Santa Fe for a few concerts at the chamber music festival. I’m really looking forward to getting back there! And, of course, the CD project is still moving along. We should be getting the first round of edits at the end of the summer. I’m very anxious to hear it now that it’s been a couple of months! Then it’s the start of my second season at the DSO with repertoire including The Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven’s 6th and 8th symphonies and Brahms’ 4th Symphony among many others.