This weekend, I will be performing at the Durham (NC) Performing Arts Center as part of a pit orchestra for a school district-wide show choir gala called “Evening of Entertainment.” The pit for this show traditionally uses professional musicians from all around NC. This year, a few high school students will be joining the pit, including a violinist from my school (NC School of Science and Math) This is a huge venue and the sound guys were planning to simply mic up the acoustic violins. I suggest that they let us use NS violins for the performance. I put a Wav violin into my student’s hands yesterday and we have a rehearsal today. I’ll be playing my CR for the show. The show is tomorrow night. I am certain that the NS violins will prvide a more consistent tone and volume and be able to compete with the huge brass section, rhythm section, etc.
The student violinist couldn’t believe how comfortable the Wav was to play. She was initially concerned with the learning curve of getting used to the instrument. Once she played a bit, she was sold. I will update this after the rehearsal today and again after the performance. I can’t wait to showcase the instruments!
Post rehearsal update: Rehearsal today was great. The brass section thought the electrics sounded great. Blend was fantastic and everyone agreed that the NS instruments would be a better choice than the acoustics miked up. My student loved the Wav violina and played great today. She really liked the dots on the fingerboard and used them for some precarious sections when she had to start out of nowhere on a high G. The visual reference was a great help. All in all, the NS instruments were a big hit and will definitely be used tomorrow for the show!
Post performance update: The performance went great! We heard reallypositive reviews from so many folks. I think my favorite was from a string player friend of mine that came to the pit during intermission to congratulate us on the violin solo on the tune “Mona Lisa.” We were chatting and she looked over at the NS violin and asked when we were going to play it. I told her that I had been playing it the entire first half of the show. She couldn’t believe that we were playing electrics. She had no idea. What a testimony to the tone quality of the violin! After the show, the arrangeer for most of the music stopped me, to once again, tell me how much he liked the sound of the NS violins. After the show, my student told me that she “just has to have one of those!” Bottom line, this was a huge success.
maypsully says
hmm… informative.