Well, there sure was a nice two week break in blog updates which just happened to coincide with our tour eh? I can explain. I was having so much fun that I really didn’t feel like pulling out my laptop to write a blog. In fact, at least half of my possessions didn’t get unpacked for two weeks. I thought I would be smart this year and bring two smaller bags that I could load onto my back, instead of a suitcase which would bind me to taking the elevator. I was laughing when we got to Ottawa and I took eight flights of stairs and beat my roommates up there by a good 15 minutes, but who was laughing when I would have to dig through a bag to find something while they just opened a suitcase and voilà, everything is visible?

I could go on and on with how much I loved the repertoire this year, but I will only say a few quick things: Mahler really grew on me and I fell in love with that symphony; finally performing the Rite of Spring was a dream come true, and; playing the Mambo from West Side Story gave me an uncontrollable grin.

Thinking back on the tour, there were so many highlights! I had so much fun playing in Stratford. Isabel Bayrakdarian made playing Rossini arias fun. I typically hate vocalists, but there are maybe 3 in Canada that I love hearing more than any other musicians, and she is one of them. The audience in Stratford was so appreciative that they applauded between Haydn movements and even part-way through the Bernstein! I know it’s not “proper” concert etiquette but there’s nothing wrong with being appreciative. I just felt bad for the audience sitting next to the viola section. Because of the space, the drum kit was put on our side of the orchestra, so right before the Bernstein, people not 6 feet away from us watched in horror while we put in our ear plugs.

The recording process in Montreal was painless. Usually the word “recording” is synonymous with “boring” and “pulling teeth”, but it was over before we knew it. I heard from an inside source that the first edit of The Rite of Spring sounds great, even though that piece wasn’t supposed to be on our CD; you see, we accidentally recorded it. They pulled enough good parts out of our webcast concert that we only needed to do a session that night to finish it. Speaking of the webcast, that was so cool! It’s a nice compromise when the orchestra can’t make it to every town and hamlet that the members are from. The only part that I didn’t like about the webcast was the very end. We finished a great concert, stood up while the conductor was bowing, and there was this weird silence where there should be an audience applauding. AWKWARD MOMENT!

All in all, the worst part of the tour was the end of it. We had quite possibly our best concert in Toronto at the Roy Thompson Hall. The audience wouldn’t stop clapping, even after two encores and a million bows. By the time I finally got back to our green room, there were tears pouring down so many faces. Standing in a room full of people wearing all black and given the amount of crying, you’d think it was a funeral. It is, in a way, as if someone died. Of course the 2009 National Youth Orchestra will live on in memories, the webcast and the CD/DVD, but as a live orchestra, it’s over. Anyway, it’s been a fantastic summer and I will miss this orchestra tremendously, but I don’t feel sad; I feel excited for my future and my future will hopefully include many of you!