Marathon Rehearsal

Today was our pre-tour rehearsal extravaganza. It was characterized most memorably by remarkable patience from Fountain and horrible faxed parts for the Chinese pieces. It was fabulous to look across the orchestra to see John, Henry, and Christian (and to hear some damn fine alumni violinists bringing up the rear of the sections). It was not fabulous to have my cell phone go off in the middle of the whole thing. Since my phone makes a horrible and unsophisticated sound, Fountain asked with very British indignation: "What IS that noise?"

Benny D was feeling a bit tired, having just flown into Nashville with his parents (who are chaperoning us!) this morning:



But the 2nd stand of second violins (Eva and Kayleigh) and the 1st stand of cellos (Micah and Sarah) were feeling frisky.





On my walk home from rehearsal, I got pretty nostalgic. This whole lead-up to tour makes me so incredibly grateful for a place like Blair. All these people who know me as a person and as a musician, all these incredible teachers. When I have days that make me think I have to be a musician forever, I sometimes wonder if I just want to be a Blair student forever. Which is pretty impossible. Although Connie Heard has nearly done it.

A late night game of Capture the Flag is being secretly planned to take place in Blair today. I hope I can get some pictures of THAT, by God ... but in the meantime, here is a cute picture of TZ with the Blair Nutcracker, whose whirring motor makes us all think someone is vacuuming, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.



Bless you Mr. Nutcracker!