IYSO 2014 Adventures, Episode #1

EPISODE ONE OF THE EUROPEAN ADVENTURES!!!

This tale of tales begins, not in Europe, but at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp during a time most appropriately named (cue dramatic music) Intensive Week.

o.o

What is Intensive Week? Intensive week is the week (well, in IYSO and the choir's case, 10 days) before going to Europe where all the international groups intensively work on their programs: perfect basically everything, sectionals, language lessons, living on the boys' side of camp, you name it- TEN STRAIGHT DAYS. Everyday, we rehearsed for a total of 8 hours, taking breaks in between to either eat or sleep or for a one hour recreation period in the late afternoon.

One of the best part of each day was, oddly enough, nap time. o.o Everyday after lunch from 1 to 2:30 pm, campers and counselors alike unashamedly slept, and it was AWESOME!! During days 1 -3, this wasn't taken seriously, but by mid-Intensive Week it became a godsend!! Exhaustion became an extremely common problem, especially after one evening our last rehearsal was let out almost an hour early because the majority of the orchestra (myself included) were so dangerously exhausted it frightened our conductor and counselors. o.o GAH!! It was bad....

It was also during this time we were able to truly get to know our pieces... my personal favorite was and still is "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber, GAAH THE EMOTIONS!!! Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" was fantastic, Mozart's "Coronation Mass" was absurdly wonderful, Brahm's "Symphony No. 1" was intense, and Copland's "An Outdoor Overture" was cool!! I enjoyed each of the pieces for their individual quirky weirdness, but all and all, Barber is just wonderful. It wasn't the most complex piece we'd play, not even close, but under its simple facade is so much sorrow and beauty, I just, AAAAH, loved it!!!!

All in all, Intensive Week was phenomenal!! It was difficult, it was extremely intense, but neither in a bad way- it felt good, and the rewarding feeling day in and out was unreal.

To be continued....

Over and out. Rinse. Repeat.