So I've been learning violin for about five years. Practicing all I can, taking lessons. I don't get to play much with others--only duets with my mother-in-law and a friend. My mother-in-law is a very good cellist and so it is always a real joy to play with her. My friend is also a violinist. We get to play very rarely.
Finally, I found an ensemble to play with last fall!! It's called New Horizons Orchestra. It is meant for adults who are learning to play musical instruments. It was first begun in Rochester some time ago, and now there are many New Horizons programs across the country. Mine is run out of Baldwin Wallace College, and it is an incredible bonus that it is. BW has a fine music program and a great musical education program and the conductor is a fantastic musician and teacher and students from the college do internships with the program so we get to play next to them and learn from them in our sectionals. It is such a blessing of a program. I just love it. I almost cry at some rehearsals when I look around and see all the adults who just want to play music and come week after week to do it--social workers, scientists, teachers, professors, roofers, hairdressers, retirees, hospital technicians, housewives, pilots. It's just beautiful.
We were instructed to wear black bottoms and white tops for our first concert. Well, I just could not resist the idea of wearing a long black skirt to my first-ever concert performance. I knew I might be the only one to go all out like that and it might look pretentious, but I couldn't help it. I've been working hard (uh, not that you'd know it to hear me), and I just wanted to have fun in my long black concert skirt in my first-ever concert with my beloved violin and my new-found compadres in the New Horizons Orchestra.
So I weighed my options--I have about six possible skirt patterns; I've been on a search for a nice gathered skirt pattern--and I settled on McCall's 6438. I made it longer by extending the side seams along the same angle they were headed. I used a very strange fabric that I got from Joann's. Learning fabric is almost as complicated as learning the violin! SO many freakin' variables! This looks wet. Sometimes it kinda looks like leather. (Victoria of 10000 hours used it for a pair of cool leggings; she called it "imitation leather.") I thought it might look sumptuous as a long skirt.
Finally, I found an ensemble to play with last fall!! It's called New Horizons Orchestra. It is meant for adults who are learning to play musical instruments. It was first begun in Rochester some time ago, and now there are many New Horizons programs across the country. Mine is run out of Baldwin Wallace College, and it is an incredible bonus that it is. BW has a fine music program and a great musical education program and the conductor is a fantastic musician and teacher and students from the college do internships with the program so we get to play next to them and learn from them in our sectionals. It is such a blessing of a program. I just love it. I almost cry at some rehearsals when I look around and see all the adults who just want to play music and come week after week to do it--social workers, scientists, teachers, professors, roofers, hairdressers, retirees, hospital technicians, housewives, pilots. It's just beautiful.
We were instructed to wear black bottoms and white tops for our first concert. Well, I just could not resist the idea of wearing a long black skirt to my first-ever concert performance. I knew I might be the only one to go all out like that and it might look pretentious, but I couldn't help it. I've been working hard (uh, not that you'd know it to hear me), and I just wanted to have fun in my long black concert skirt in my first-ever concert with my beloved violin and my new-found compadres in the New Horizons Orchestra.
So I weighed my options--I have about six possible skirt patterns; I've been on a search for a nice gathered skirt pattern--and I settled on McCall's 6438. I made it longer by extending the side seams along the same angle they were headed. I used a very strange fabric that I got from Joann's. Learning fabric is almost as complicated as learning the violin! SO many freakin' variables! This looks wet. Sometimes it kinda looks like leather. (Victoria of 10000 hours used it for a pair of cool leggings; she called it "imitation leather.") I thought it might look sumptuous as a long skirt.
This is how I wore it--with the icky shirt untucked. Sigh. The reason is because there is no zip in this skirt. But there is an opening--one juuuuust barely big enough to get my hips through. I put a heavy-duty closure at the band. It fits nicely there. I just didn't have time to mess with a zipper before the concert. Ha ha ha. So typical to be clueless about how much time a project will take. At any rate, the opening doesn't look bad, but when you have white top under it, the opening is accentuated. Oh, but look how nicely it gathers at the waist. It's very heavy (in a good way) and very swishy. Fun to wear except for momentary suspicions that people think I'm a freak.
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