Okay, okay I get it….

….you guys hate it when I blab about sports as they relate to the viola. I simply don’t understand why you guys don’t find the viola fascinating, but fine. I can accept it. What I canNOT accept is that you don’t want to hear about the Olympics. I simply MUST find an angle that you like for the Olympics, because while I’m willing to shut my trap about my practice habits, there is NO CHANCE I’ll zip it about the Olympics. You can just FORGET IT. You WILL read about the Olympics, whether you like it OR NOT.

How about this angle?….

Look at how cute our archery team is:

Don’t even try and tell me you expected the archery team to be attractive.

Obviously, I don’t know the first little thing about archery, but I would’ve thought that you could be fat and old and still be a world class archer. I’m thinking, based on this picture, that archery requires physical fitness. Go figure.

Let’s continue. What other interesting Olympic junk can we find?

Please do not forget about the weirdie Olympic sports. Sometimes the weirdies are the most fun to watch.

Women’s weightlifting: This woman can lift you. She can, and she will.

Trampoline: Butt clenchingly scary.

Rhythmic Gymnastics: Don’t forget about these crazy chicks and their ribbons.

See how much we’re learning? Isn’t this wonderful? Do you love the Olympics yet?

The Olympics are Good For Me, Part 2

Okay, only one more ponderous Olympic/viola post, I promise! Then I SWEAR it’s right back to HONKing and general pommerdoodling. I will be getting very Olympic oriented around these parts over the next few weeks, but I swear to Lindy Ruff my blogging will mostly be about cute archers (could such a thing exist?) and bitch-faced rhythmic gymnasts (they’re a dime a dozen).

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Scales

I am a big picture kind of gal. An “ideas girl”, if you will. I think big. I’m a dreamer. Some might call me flighty, but I prefer whimsical. My approach to the viola has always reflected my big-picture-iness. I have never had any trouble finding inspiration. A pretty sunset, falling in love, falling out of love, growing up, a kind gesture from a stranger, a sad clown. Whatever. These things, and everything else, serve as my motivation to play music. I’m fruity like that.

The trouble is, playing the viola is hard. Playing the viola requires a lot more than just my deeply felt fruity feelings. It requires practice, and lots of it. Playing the viola requires hours and hours of meticulous, clinical practice. It’s very annoying and it has almost nothing to do with the beautiful sunset that inspired me in the first place. It’s like, “Hey, do you want to express the soaring love that sunset made you feel? Okay. First go practice e minor scales for a few days.” Buzzkill, dude.

Now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Professional classical musicians don’t really like practicing anymore than you did when you were a little kid. Okay, maybe we don’t hate it quite that much, but for the most part, we avoid it just as much as anybody else. Practicing is hard, it’s seldom fun, and it’s frequently boring, but it must be done. I never have any trouble finding motivation to play music, but I often have a hard time motivating myself to practice.

While I am prone to practice avoidance, every once in a while I get into a good groove, and practicing starts to feel healthy and good. The only thing I can compare this to is when I get into the rhythm with exercising and I start to look forward to going to the gym. (Yeah, I know. It’s not exactly the normal state of affairs, but it happens.) Of all the things that I have ever encountered in all the world, nothing motivates me to practice like the Olympics. Nothing. Every two years I wind up practicing scales and arpeggios for HOURS with the television on mute while watching little girls whip around the balance beam, or strapping men zip around a swimming pool. Scales and arpeggios are like the musical equivalent of sit-ups. They don’t require a ton of focus, but the benefits of doing them are immediate.

For some reason, seeing high level performers in a field that is similar to mine (but not at all the same), helps me to approach my practicing from a new angle. Just like the viola, all sports involve a carefully cultivated technique, and while I tire of thinking about my own technique, I’m inspired by the sterling technique of others. For a few weeks during the Olympics, I take a more athletic approach to the viola and I relish the chance to do “drills” and “races”. No other sporting events make me feel this way.

Perhaps it’s the temporary aspect of the Olympics that I find so appealing from a musical standpoint. Every two years, for two weeks, I attend viola boot camp and I get myself back into combat shape. Right now I am flabby and tired, but by the end of the month I know I’ll be a hard bodied, viola playing machine. (And by “hard bodied” please know that I really mean, “I’ll be able to play very fast, clean scales.” My smooshy physique stays- Olympics or no.) Sometimes, what my viola playing needs most is a little less “whimsy” and a lot more “precision”. I know I can count on the Olympics to create the precious motivation I need to practice scales.  Soon, thanks to the Olympics, I’ll have all the technique necessary to fully express my fruitiness.  The next time I see a pretty sunset I’ll be ready to swing into action, viola-wise.

The Olympics are Good For Me, Part One

I’m starting to get really excited about the Olympics.

Fair warning: The Olympics always cause me to get ridiculously navel gaze-y.  I promise that my blog coverage of the Olympics will be, for the most part, silly and frivolous, but first I have two posts I need to get off my chest.

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Competition

I’ve written a bit about this before (here’s my favorite post on this topic), but I believe there are a lot a lot of parallels between playing music and playing sports.  We all practice for very long hours, we all prepare, and we all perform.  This is just a guess, but I’d be willing to bet that I’ve spent as much time, if not more, playing the viola as Ryan Miller has spent in an ice rink.  In addition to the similarities with preparation, performing music and sports requires a specific mindset, which is why I have a shelf full of sports psychology books in my house.

At a certain point, the comparison breaks down with team sports.  I suppose you could say an orchestra is like a sports team, but it’s a stretch.  The BPO is not competing against other orchestras.  (Although, the fantasy of a comical head-to-head “Battle of the Orchestras” is one of my favorites for occupying my mind during a slow rehearsal.)  The analogy works much better for individual sports, which is probably one of the reasons I love the Olympics so much.  I am truly inspired by watching individual sport athletes compete.  I’ll even take it a step further and say that I am most inspired by the athletes who do not directly engage with their competition (like divers, or gymnasts), but who get up to compete alone, and who are in truth competing against no one in the end.  It’s not a matter of beating the other guy when a diver walks to the end of the board, it’s just a matter of performing at the highest possible level.  It’s simply do, or not do.  (Look, Yoda was smart, okay?)  I like this aspect of the Olympics very much.

I am not, by nature, a very competitive person, and my skill level while operating under the gun is a bit touch and go.  While I have competed often (someday I’ll do a post about orchestra auditions…today I’ll just tell you that auditions are not for the faint of heart and leave it at that), obviously, in comparison to sports, the opportunities to “win” and “lose” in music are a lot fewer.  A good performance or audition is not “beating” anyone, it’s simply performing freely, and to the best of my ability. It’s always just a competition against myself and my fears.  Maybe it’s all those goofy human interest pieces they do, but I feel that the Olympics somehow highlight this type of competition better than other sporting events.

The Olympics always have a few amazing stories.  It’s almost a certainty that in some sport a favorite will crack under the pressure, and some scrappy unknown will rise up to fill the void.  I find this process both humbling and uplifting.  Humbling to see someones personal nightmare unfold, and uplifting to see a dream realized.  The Olympics are not always just about beating the other guy, they are often about rising to the occasion.  The “occasion” of the Olympics seems to take certain athletes out of the grim task of “being the best”, and into a mindset of joyful participation. I can’t tell you how inspiring it is for me as a musician to see athletes win while appearing to be in this mindset.

Lately, in my own life I’m more drawn to the journey than I am to the destination, but the Olympics are pretty darn compelling as far as destinations go.  As I have gotten older, and I’ve begun to feel less urgency to prove myself, my interest in competition has grown.  As a result, my appreciation for musicians and athletes who operate at their highest level in the most competitive environments has never been higher.  I love having the opportunity to see world class competitors react to the big show.  Being able to watch all this from the safety and comfort of my couch (Robin’s couch this year) is invaluable to me as musician and inspiring to me as a person.

I love the Olympics.

Thank You Miss A!

A few weeks ago I got the BEST little note in my locker at work from a high school student whose orchestra was playing at Kleinhans. This girl noticed my locker and took it upon herself to write an incredibly sweet note (written on back of a “tuning tendencies” worksheet) for me to find the next day. I’m in the process of reorganizing my office stuff, and I found the note on a stack of papers. It was just as lovely to read today as it was a few weeks ago. I should have done this sooner, but I want to send a hearty thank you to “Miss A” (I’m not going to publish your name on my blog because I don’t have your permission and because I know you are in high school. I’ll err on the side of caution here, but I assume you’ll recognize yourself!) Your note made my day. There are a lot of reasons I love writing a Sabres blog, but getting awesome notes in my locker from badass-hockey-loving-musicians is very near the tippy top of the list.

Thank you, kind reader!

Farewell Civilization

Tomorrow I go charging off into the woods of New Hampshire to perform and teach at the fantabulous Apple Hill Center For Chamber Music. I love going to Apple Hill each summer, really I do, but it does have two maaaaajor drawbacks.

1. Internet access is suspect. I’m told that this year, for the first time ever, Apple Hill is awash in wireless internet access. I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve been promised things before. I can make no guarantees about posts from Apple Hill. It’s possible that you’ll see a post everyday, as if I was still sitting in Buffalo, but it’s also possible that I’ll go totally off the grid. Sometimes, things get a little “Into the Wild” at Apple Hill. While there, I’ve been known to grow a huge mountain man beard, and tromp around the forest foraging for nuts and berries for my morning cereal. If I turn into Swirly-eyed-bearded-Crazy-Mountainman-Katebits, I’ll probably be too busy writing my anti-technology manifesto to blog about hockey.

2. Nature everywhere. I make jokes about my mountain man beard, but in reality, I am not a naturey kind of girl. I mean, sure, I like to look at nature. I can appreciate a beautiful sunset. I like to take the occasional stroll through the woods. But Apple Hill is, like, complete nature immersion. It’s not camping, but it’s pretty close. One year, I had a bat in my cabin shack. A bat. I was living with a vampire, people. (Actually, the bat shack produced one really funny story. I was lying on my bed in my shack, talking to my friend Ashley on my cell phone. I was wearing drawstring shorts which I had untied because I was about to go get ready for sleeps. Suddenly, there’s a flying rat swooping around, clearly out for blood. The shacks at Apple Hill are very small, so being trapped in there with a bat is akin to being trapped inside a small walk-in closet with a bat. aka, totally uncool. Being the brave stud that I am, my instinct was to leap to my feet and flee the shack, screaming in terror. So, about half a second after the bat attacked, I was standing in the pitch dark outside of the shack, with my untied drawstring shorts around my ankles, hysterically screaming into the phone at my friend Ashley in Portland who thought I was being ax murdered. She was all, “DO YOU NEED ME TO CALL 911?! KATE?! TALK TO ME! OMG, WHAT’S WRONG?! ARE YOU ON FIRE? STOP, DROP AND ROLL! STOP, DROP AND ROLL!!” Heh.) What I’m telling you is this: Tomorrow night, when you are enjoying your cable television, and your Guitar Hero, in your mosquito-less, bat-less homes, please think of me, shivering and terrified in my weirdo little shack. The first night is always the worst. After I make it through the first night without being murdered by nature, I start to relax, but I can assure you, tomorrow night I will be whimpering and compulsively rocking back and forth. Send me your positive vibes.

I’m not kidding. This is where I will live for the next two weeks.

The System in Our Building

This might not be funny to anyone else but me and the handful of classical musicians who read this blog, but there are a few hockey phrases that I’ve recently been applying to playing in an orchestra.

I’ve always liked how hockey players refer to their arenas as “our building”. Recently, I’ve enjoyed referring to Kleinhans Music Hall as “our building”. This terminology is particularly good for when you have a guest soloist you don’t really like. “I don’t think he should come into our building and play like this.” [Note: this does not apply to our current guest artist, Edgar Meyer, who is quite fabulous. He's welcome in our building anytime.]

If we go play a run-out, when we get home we can say, “It’s good to be back in our building.”

My other, (and most favorite) hockey phrase is “the system”. You’d be surprised at how many times a day I can say, “Oooh. The system really broke down right there. Come on guys! We can do this. Let’s just stick to the system and work together. Just stick to the system, people!”

Good things will happen if we stick to the system.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to apply the phrase, “They’re really spending a lot of time stuck in their own end” to classical music, and I’m all set.

Weary

I’m feeling a little wobbly these days, not just because of my SARS, but also because of the stench of despair emanating from the Buffalo sports scene. I don’t know what is going to happen with the Bills, but I do know it’s depressing to think about from almost every angle. I didn’t see the Bruins game, but after reading about it, I had to revisit the Sabres Meditation. I don’t care what happens with Brian Campbell. At all. Please Darcy, get Soupy to sign on the dotted line or send him away. And do it soon. (And Darcy, from a public relations standpoint, now would be a good time to announce new RFA contracts for Goose and Paille. Just saying.)

I think I’m ready for summer.

*lies down on floor*

*coughs*

*************

UPDATE: Hey, guess what? I wrote this post right before I performed a lively and funny Family Concert down at old Kleinhans Music Hall. I feel so much happier after a nice, wholesome musical afternoon. I would like to offer some advice to my fellow weary Buffalonians. If you are feeling low about the Bills or the Sabres, you should try a concert because it might make you happy. It’s worth a shot. Support your local arts organizations, people!

Introduction to the Viola

Inner Child Katebits is Pleased

Guess who got to play the Ronan Tynan concert tonight? That’s right! Inner Child Katebits!

I played the concert. Actually, I more or less, crashed the concert. My dear friend Janz got permission from our conductor, JoAnn Falletta, for me to simply pull up a chair and play along. It was all done outside of the laws of seating charts, union rules, and normal protocol. I really wanted to play the concert, and in the end, no one could think of a reason why I shouldn’t. So, I played!

Inner Child Katebits had an awesome time tonight. Take a minute, and try to imagine what it would be like to have Staffy and Crunchy wandering around at your place of employment. Yeah. It was a super fun day at the office.

I can’t believe the Ice Bowl is still yet to come (…even though it’s going to be totally LAME. If you can’t go you are SO LUCKY). Due to the incredible reversal of fortune for Inner Child Katebits, I’m starting to think that if I publish all of my little hopes on the internet, they’ll eventually come true. (Just in case the internet is magical, I would like to state for the record that Inner Child Katebits really wants world peace, an end to poverty, and a Wii.)

Life is Cruel

Dear Inner Child Katebits,

How are you doing little buddy? I bet you’ve been enjoying all this hockey we’ve been watching! I know I’ve been making you practice the viola a lot lately, and I’m sorry about that, but I’ve also been letting you eat a lot of candy, so hopefully that has evened things out a bit.

Listen, stop jumping around for a minute. Sit down. We need to talk.

You know that concert at the BPO we’ve been looking forward too? The one with the Sabres and Ronan Tynan? Yeah, the concert which Ryan Miller and Drew Stafford will attend and perform on stage with the Buffalo Philharmonic? I’ve got some bad news for you, little one. You’re not going to like this one bit.

We don’t get to play that concert.

Shhhh. Shhh. There, there. Go ahead, have a good cry.

It seems that Ronan Tynan only needs three violas for his show, and sadly, there are seven violists in the BPO. Today, they drew names out of a hat, and in a cruel twist of fate, “Katebits” was not one of the names that they chose to play the concert. It’s horribly unfair. Of all of the people in the Buffalo Philharmonic, surely we are the ones with the greatest interest in playing this concert. A lot of those other people at work don’t even CARE about the Sabres.

I can’t believe this is happening. Drew Stafford and Ryan Miller are going to be wandering around backstage at work (most likely wearing tuxedos), and we won’t be there. It’s horrible.

And since you’re already upset, Inner Child Katebits, there is something else I need to tell you. I might as well just give you all the bad news at once…..I really don’t know how to tell you this, but…..you know that outdoor game we talked about awhile ago? The one on New Years Day?

We don’t have tickets.

I tried to get them! They just sold out so fast.

I know. Christmas is ruined. So is New Years. Our hopes and dreams are dashed. We’ll probably never have fun again.

Sigh.

Love,

Adult Katebits

Please don’t look at me like that, Inner Child Katebits. You’re breaking my heart.