The Concert

I tried and tried to think up a less clichéd and boring sounding name for this post, but other than “In Which Ann Debuts Her Boobs”, this was all I came up with. It was a big moment for me – I’ve been working for this since August-ish, and it was the first time I was a soloist with and orchestra AND I performed in front of a large audience in a concert setting. And you know what? I. Loved. It. Every single minute of performing was wonderful. Ever since September when I started rehearsing with the orchestra, I knew I could toss something off and it would sound fine, and the previous Saturday I had played it at the school’s Open Day from memory, and that was when I knew I could get through it without even thinking. I was so excited for the performance from that moment, and it did not disappoint. Nor did the dress. Here’s how the day went. (Note: my “About” page has details on all the people I mention by name in this post)

6:45 am: my radio turned on and I woke up; my first thought was “Svendsen” – the composer of the piece I was playing, and what everyone’s used to referring to the music as, since it rolls off the tongue a little easier than “Romance in G Major”. I wasn’t nervous, I didn’t feel sick as I normally do on exam days, the day felt completely normal. Well, except for hearing my mother tuning up my violin downstairs.

7:30 am: I left for school. I had about 1001 bags with me for all my make up, school stuff, regular concert clothes as I’d be playing in Orchestra, my violin and my concert dress. Luckily I got to drive straight into school since I had so much stuff, so I didn’t have so far to walk. I unpacked my dress and hung it up in the common room, before meeting all my friends. They were all more excited for the concert at this point than I was and proceeded to jump on me, smother me with hugs and dance around excitedly chanting “it’s your concert day! AHHHH!” most of the time. Ah, the joys of a girls’ school.

9:15 am: Maths. I was starting to get a little worried at this point, and I thought the nerves which had so far escaped me were making their return. However, I have an intense teacher, so I was kept very busy for the next hour and ten minutes.

10:45 – 1:05 pm: Wednesdays are a fairly easy day for me as I have a lot of free time. I had some work which I forced myself to do for the first hour or so, but by the end of it I merely rushed through because I was so freaked out by this point. I needed to go and practise, I was so terrified. I had to reassure myself that I could do this. So a few friends and I went down to the hall where everything was set up, and I played to the empty seats. And it was brilliant! I didn’t feel nervous at all after I’d finished it, so I spent the rest of the time practising small bits and messing around with the microphones.

Over lunch was mainly dress-show-off time. All but one of my friends were eager to see it as I’d kept it a secret from most people up until the day. The number of times I had to go and unwrap it to show people was incredible, and very exciting. I got a lot of  “oh it’s GORGEOUS, it’s going to be AMAZING!”. Yeah. This was the real reason I agreed to do it.

2:15 pm: I had a Physics test. By this point I hadn’t played the piece through for a couple of hours, and towards the end of the hour-long test I couldn’t concentrate and my hands were shaking again. I think my teacher forgave me for my poor mark, though I’m not sure if I’ve forgiven her for making me take the test.

3:25 pm: I was free to practise to my heart’s content in the hall again, and I felt so much better once I’d played it through again.

4:10 pm: the final rehearsal, and the orchestra and my friends joined me in the hall to run the programme through. We rehearsed the Schubert first, so Becca and Cathy who’d come to watch and video my rehearsal (I didn’t want the actual concert recorded for the pressure) had to wait a while, but eventually we came to it, and I got up and played it through. I was a bit nervous at first, but for the second half I really settled into it and enjoyed myself. Here’s the recording.

5 pm: I sat in the common room listening to the recording on my camera. This was the first time I had listened to myself playing the piece, and it was so different to what I heard when I played it. I realised I actually sounded a lot better than I thought I did, and that really gave my confidence a final boost, and I wasn’t nervous for the rest of the evening. Once I’d done that, since I had nothing else to do before the concert, Vicky and I planned when I’d get ready. It was going to go 6:30 hair and makeup, 7pm dress, 7:30 concert started (even though I was playing in the second half I wanted to get ready beforehand). Once we’d decided on this, Vicky proceeded to do my hair anyway. She’d got loads of nice smelling stuff, but let’s be honest here, dear, you didn’t do a very good job. I re-did it soon after.

6pm: in an attempt to distract ourselves, Vicky and I ran errands to get the last details of the concert organisation in order. Then we all ate pizza we’d ordered in front of The History Boys, pointing out the mention of our school at the beginning and laughing at one of the actors being the exact copy of someone we knew at the boys’ school.

6:30 pm: I started doing my make up. I didn’t do much, but it still took me half an hour, and I loved it. Again, this was why I was doing it – to have everyone in the toilets with me getting excited over getting ready. Like I said, we’re such girls.

7 pm: Lizzy came and found me and was pestering to help me get ready in my dress, but thankfully Becca distracted  her to help with “something” which I already knew to be my flowers. I wanted some peace at this point, so escaped to a set of staff toilets to change into my dress. It took absolutely ages to get into, but it was worth it. I’m such a show off, and I proceeded to dance around showing everybody how gorgeous I looked in it. I loved every single minute of attention I got… well, maybe not the creepy double glances I kept getting from the cleaners.

7:30 pm: The concert started. To the amazement of my friends, I still hadn’t lost my cool, and wasn’t the slightest bit nervous any more. Wait – that’s not altogether true. Every time someone asked if I was nervous I told them it was like different levels of nervousness and excitement in me. Sometimes the nerves would creep up, but by now excitement was well and truly on top every time. I kept peeking through the doors at the audience and grinning – I just wanted to get out there and perform.

8:10 pm: It was the interval. I considered going and downing several glasses of wine, but felt that it probably wasn’t a good idea. Instead I distracted myself by pacing up and down the corridor, to keep calm, and concentrated. That was my biggest fear – that I’d lose concentration. A couple of times I looked in the audience, and I saw my family return, and waved to them.

8:30 pm: One more item to go before me. All my friends were crowding around at the door, ready to listen or go on stage – and they commented once more on my serenity. Finally the moment came, and I was ready. “Bring it on!” I laughed. I didn’t actually hear my teacher announce my name, but when everybody started clapping I walked out in my dress. I couldn’t stop grinning. I think a single thought went through my head, something like why don’t I perform every day? This is AWESOME!

And it really was. I adored every minute of it – and I didn’t lose my concentration at all. It went by so fast I couldn’t believe it when it finished. And I know I wasn’t the best violinist in the world. It was the best I’d played it, but I know the school’s had better soloists before. I don’t care though, because the audience were with me while I played it – it wasn’t so much how well I played, but how I performed it. And I certainly felt it was amazing. Judging by their reaction too, they loved it! I went off, handed my violin to Campi, and came back on again, while they were still applauding! And, of course, Vicky came on with my gorgeous flowers, and we just hugged each other and giggled in front of everyone. It was one of the best moments of my life.

Of course, then I had to come off and get changed super quickly, since I was in the next item. My friends were all there though and helped me out of my dress – which I felt really sad about after, I loved wearing it and won’t get a chance to until Leaver’s Ball next summer. I ran back on just as the orchestra was being re-tuned and continued as if nothing had happened.

Later I got a lot of hugs and “well dones” from friends, teachers and audience members. I took a rose out of my bouquet and gave it to Vicky, after many dropping of hints about it being tradition, and that we were “music buddies” etc. All in all, it was pretty awesome. Even if I did nearly fall asleep in Physics the next day (is that a bad thing?)

Tags: concert, friends, Music, school, story, violin