Since the last post, we had one very big concert, where I’ve been

participating in two performances. First was with my music HL class

and the other one was the orchestra. We were preparing 3 pieces, two

with the whole orchestra (strings, woodwinds, percussions etc.) and

one only for strings. During the preparation for the concert, my

violin skills and sense of assembling have been developed tremendously.

It is a wonderful chance for me because I get to learn a lot of new

things about myself. Some things I’ve never learned about made me more

knowledgeable in the area of music. I’ve had a hard time first few

month because of the language barrier. I have never learned any type

of musical structure or any other concepts in English. So this is a

very big change for me. As we are all different and many of orchestra

participants have different backgrounds in musical education, it was

hard first to understand each other.

For example, all my life I was using the do re mi structure of musical

notes, but since I joined the orchestra, I met a lot of people who are

using the ABC notation. And so I had a great chance to learn

a new way of writing down the notes. It was a bit hard to get on with,

but no one said it will be easy. I just now realise that I have played

3 pieces on our last orchestra concert. Three pieces for such a short

period of time is a big change and learning pace and pressure for me

as well.

But aside from an extremely intensive and hard work, it was a lot of

fun and it is so much easier to learn pieces with everyone all

together. It is one of the most remarkable moments for me because I

was lucky to feel the music which we are creating together. It

is a miracle by itself! And being a part of this miracle means a lot

to me. Now we are continually learning new pieces for our next

concert. I am very happy that I am able to join this powerful

orchestra, with talented, knowledgeable and well-trained musicians. I

am looking forward to our next concert in February.