Valentin Martchev on Facebook

Hey Yo!

So I created a Fan Page on Facebook for Valentin- here it is. If you have Facebook you should become a fan. If you don't have Facebook you should join the 21st century already!!!

Peace!

So I just gained a much better appreciation for what my dad does all day. A friend of mine asked me a detailed religious question- actually he forwarded a link and said in essence "deal with this link, it says stuff that confuses me"so I responded to some of the ideas in the post-which turned out to be a 7 hour project. blahhhhh

My dad is amazing for doing this stuff, esp. since he's a pro and isn't being paid for it.

moving on;

So I ordered some bocals from midwest musical imports they arrived today I had a lesson and now I have a new bocal! It went so fast, i love it!

rewind and slow down;

sooo, I go to order bocals on thursday of last week and get expedited shipping ($30) so that they will arrive in time for my tuesday lesson. Well the shipping gets screwed up. Thanks UPS.

So it arrives today mid afternoon. I then run down to San Diego to see what Valentin thinks of them (i was rooting for the vcd #1 silver heckel)

Valentin eventually decided that he also liked my bocal- so much so that he wants to order them now! It must be the magical Z alloy that makes the bocals harder.

And that's it. I have a new bocal. AND IT'S FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ohhh. I look at my other bocal and I wonder how I did it.

This is probably way too soon to start talking about spending money again, but the next thing I have my hopes and dreams set on is a tuner that will clip onto my instrument. That would be cool, but even more importantly would be a tip profiler. That would be it.

I doubt it will happen anytime soon, but one can dream. :D

This summer has been amazing- I have made such leaps and jumps with the bassoon. They're not even going to recognize me at Eastman!

I'm looking forward to this next semester. My plan is to focus on bassoon and not so much academics, and with theory out of the way for a semester, I'll be able to do as much.

I'm so happy because now I have the tools that I need, I'm able to know what I need, get what i need, use what i need... it sounds so simple but it can be so much more complicated.

:D

I'm experimenting with different kinds of cane and different kinds of reeds also. It's awesome. My comprehension of music is much more mature and I am ridiculously happy with the direction I am now headed in.

So these past two weeks were full of International Youth Symphony stuff.

We played Beethoven 7, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Gabriel Faure's Pavane, and Mozart's Overture Cossi fan Tutti. It was a good concert.

During intermission I went to the edge of the stage and met some old friends and made some new ones. A little kid asked me to play something for him- so I busted out the theme from Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"

It seems like just yesterday that I was that kid going up to the edge of the stage and asking the performers to play something for me.

But it was 4 stinking hour rehearsals at 8:45 every morning for two weeks. We had a lot of repertoire, but not enough for the gross amount of time we had to rehearse. goodness gracious.

I made several friends there, and one of the things I love about these international events is all the language stuff you can pick up. Being in America isolates most of us from experiencing any other cultures or languages and so being surrounded by these things is one of the most amazing experiences ever. And you pick things up. WooT!!! I learned some some spanish from principal clarinet (Ester) , second bassoon (Marcella), and second clarinet (Solenesky) who were all fluent. Some dutch that I can't remember from dear Kimberley (flute), turkish from Beyhan (violin), and made an ass of myself trying to speak German with one of our viola players, Paula. :D She was really nice about it though, and it got better!

well, it was fun. I'll put fun pictures up when my peeps post them on facebook.

Until then, ciao!

this is me and Ester, from Venezuela. She's an awesome person and clarinetist. <3