I hope your viola lesson went well! That sounds super exciting. I'm sorry you've been sick and tired recently :( I hope it gets better soon. As for spending more time on the violin, it is really hard, because on the one hand it's important to balance your life and not ONLY do one thing, but also it's reallllly hard to get ahead in music if you don't dedicate every waking moment to it (which I know you know). 

The viola sonata you mentioned is so pretty :0 and it's cool that it's by a female composer! I have barely played anything by female composers, it's really sad...actually...I don't think I can think of any T_T I need to try to seek them out more, because they're often so hidden from the mainstream. What else are you playing right now? I'm wrapping up Monti's Czardas, which was hard but SO pretty (especially the beginning) and now I'm starting Accolay's violin concerto 1 in A minor (why are so many concertos in A minor?? I'm not complaining, though. it is a very easy key).

I looked up the jellycats you mentioned and they're SO CUTE. My initial reaction to the cat was that it looks kind of like one of those really fluffy dogs (I think they're called chow chows). 

I would love to see your Renisherr stories/art! As for me, I've been getting slightly (slightly) more into fiber arts because some of my friends are really into crocheting/sewing. I made a skirt!! I've never sewn my own clothes before, so I was very proud of myself (it's a bit wonky, but the fabric is dark & skirts are kinda shapeless anyway so you can't really tell). Next I want to crochet a cardigan of some kind, but my crochet stitches are still kind of uneven so I need more practice first. Do you do any fiber arts?

I think you’d be interested in hearing about some amazing Black composers too so if I may recommend Florence Price and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges? I’ve heard some violin concertos by Florence Price and they were amazing and also played something else by her and it was so beautiful, and I played Joseph Bologne’s overture from l’amante anonyme and it was so good and really fun. But yes, Rebecca Clarke is amazing. She’s definitely one of my favorite composers. 

I’ve pretty much talked about everything i’m doing solo, but for orchestra I’m also doing a bunch of great music, much of which I’ve enjoyed for a long time. On violin, notable pieces I’m doing are Slavonic Dance no. 1 by Dvorak (I LOVE THE SLAVONIC DANCES SO MUCH so i was super excited when I learned we were doing another and the first is really fun but has some really brutal spots technically heh) and an arrangement of Vivaldi’s Gloria. On viola, I’m doing Saint-Saens’ Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah and this beautiful piece by Delibes (yes, Delibes!!!) that I can never remember the name of and Rodeo: Hoedown by Copland which is SO fun. It’s combined orchestras with the lower level one where we tend to play harder pieces (violin) and the harder one (viola) and honestly violin is a more fun part but because of logistics I have to play viola. Also because “the violas need a strong leader”. Yeah but I think the lower orchestra’s violins might need me as concertmaster more - they basically missed all of their entrances last time when I was on viola and the executive director was helping me out after and she actually mentioned it heh. That being said the viola part is actually pretty fun and I actually got this new really really nice viola (more later) so. I did notice a lot of things improving in the viola section the more I played with them so that was nice though. i'm not too worried about the violins really because they'll have the other orchestra to watch but it's still funny.

Yes I got a new viola!!! It’s actually a really really nice viola but we didn’t think we’d be able to get it because of the price. But the guy who was selling it actually went through on his promises and kept it below our price range with the bow. I’m so happy because it’s such a nice viola. But I didn’t know you didn’t have to extensively rosin your bow every day for it to hold onto the strings at all??? My old bow was a mess and my viola was a relatively cheap (like 500 dollars, so expensive but cheap for a viola) used rental from a local pretty beginner-y string shop so. I’m so excited to play my concerto with it next orchestra practice!!!! My old viola was super super scratchy and literally all the judges were very concerned with my tone and while I did actually fix a few things with bow hold… i think it says enough to say that when my teacher said the kind of viola I was playing on to one of the judges the judge said “holy *bad word*, that kid needs a new viola like - yesterday” and was very shocked and yeah.

And i actually really like crocheting, and also do some amount of sewing, knitting, and embroidery (in that order, though i really want to do more embroidery). I mostly sew dresses for my dolls but don’t do it super often. I actually sell some of my things (mostly crochet) at the booth my grandma has at her antique mall. I might make some embroidered patches though… that’d be fun. I’ve never sewn myself clothes, but I have secretly tailored some clothes to make them more masculine and that was fun and worked pretty well. 

Um… oh yeah, and I got new glasses and it’s SO STRANGE because i got ones with nose piece things and they don’t slip down on my nose constantly and like WHAT is this madness?! XD I actually like them though. They’re a bit rounder than I’d usually go for, and usually I do plastic frames, but I actually really like them. (They're not really round, but they're not super angular either.)

ummm that's all I can think of so *posts* 

Our community orchesra is rehearsing Florence Price's Symphony No. 3 right now for its May concert! I love it. And Dvorak is one of my all-time favorite composers. Enjoy your new viola, BB.

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A few other things which i hope is okay:

IT'S SO HARD TO GET USED TO A NEW VIOLA. aughhh it's really annoying. but i just went through the whole "i can actually do stuff on this! And it doesn't sound awful!" thing and now i'm improving a bunch of stuff but augh it's hard. and i only have one lesson left before the concert... *shudders* i have a feeling i'm going to be frantically fixing things right until i actually perform the piece XD

also i was reading a book and the author did really cool illustrations and they were probably the closest thing to my style I've ever seen (it seems like i never see anything that looks like my kind of realistic kind of stylized style, which has also probably changed (mostly improvements heh) since i've posted on the CB) and i was studying it and i realized that dots for eyes can actually look really good so i tried that and yeah it's like 20 times better. except for the drawing i did where the dots are too big *shudders* but yeah i've never liked the way i drew eyes but couldn't find something better and now i have! anyway how has your style changed and how does that work? 

The book was Deephaven by Ethan A. Albridge and it was actually really good. i was honestly kind of not analyzing it as i went so i don't have a great analysis but it was super cool and the main character was nonbinary!! anyway the illustrations were possibly the best part but the book was really good too. oh wait i did feel like the character's arc wasn't that integrated and was kind of just thrown in around the middle in one place and was never mentioned before that or after it really, and in general i'd have liked more character development. books have limited space, so sometimes you don't want to spend super much time on that; in particular really fast-paced books where the main thing you have drawing you in is tension. Like in Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw (I actually have a very detailed analysis of that because they had it at a USO (basically a military lounge) when we had over 5 hours waiting at an airport when we were coming back from Hawai'i, if you're interested; it was a cool book but there was a lot I would have improved) adding much more character development would have majorly changed the experience of the book and the way things were done i don't think it would have conflicted with the tense plot. Granted the secondary character had a POV and it was completely a bad decision in every way and should have been removed but still. (like the plot depended on the main character not knowing information that the secondary character didn't know and the secondary character had like 3 things that they thought about and it was just bad in many ways) anyway yeah.

bye