Last week Suzanne and I agreed that it was time to stop funding Kevin’s viola lessons. Since he has no job, this means they are over for now. They probably will resume in Fall 2013, but, I’m not committing to that yet. They could restart the moment he has any type of self-funding to enable them.
I’ll start there I guess…..Suzanne and I haven’t really pushed a job a lot. He’s busy with tennis and the play and now the musical and I think we are ok with him not working if he is busy. Last summer was a non-starter on the job front with the 3-week adventure in Germany. We’ve been pushing a lot more recently and he needs to have something lined up for this summer…..
Suspending the viola lesson has been a topic for at least nine months; it hasn’t been a pleasant topic. Suzanne and I just don’t think the effort is there to support the lesson. Kevin really likes the lesson; his teacher works on a lot of music theory along with viola and I do appreciate that part of it. But, as we tell Kevin, the amount of dollars if finite……and sadly, the objective results from the last 18 months don’t show a whole lot of good viola showings. Honorable mention for 2012 All-State; only made it to All-State because someone dropped out. A II(two) at solo/ensemble in Spring 2012, so, he didn’t qualify for state solo/ensemble. Completely missed All-State for 2013; not even honorable mention. And the debacle at solo/ensemble last week…..
Click on the link/picture. The video is a boring black screen, but, Kevin, at my request, recorded himself at solo and ensemble on his Iphone.
I think it sounds really good. Kevin’s instructor says it sounds really good. And Kevin said it’s the fastest he ever performed the piece, and it’s really supposed to be performed faster than that. He’s been trying to get his tempo up for weeks.
To qualify for a ranking at solo and ensemble you have to play for a minimum of two minutes. Typically, the problem is the pieces are longer and the judge asks you to stop (I remember this from the one time I came with Kevin to s/e…they stopped him after five minutes).
Kevin will tell you he has never done it under 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Ever. Except for when it really counted, when he came in at 1 minute 50 seconds. So he didn’t receive a rating.
I’m not sure why Kevin, who knew about the two minute minimum, chose a piece that if performed at his best would fall under the minimum. I know now his instructor didn’t even know there was a minimum. Which is disappointing. But Kevin knew……..so why pick a piece where playing it the best you can means you don’t qualify???? Alex, I’d like things-I’ll-never-know-the-answer-to for $200. And he wasn’t even close to 2 minutes….the video is 1:47, chop 5 seconds for the beginning and the end and I begin to have real doubts that he hadn’t done the piece in under 2 minutes and 20 seconds long before the performance.
I’d like to think he restarts in August 2013 and has a good senior year of All-State, solo/ensemble, and senior concertos. But we will see…..if I look at Kevin’s progress on the viola as a growth chart, I think Kevin is 90% of where he could ever hope of being in terms of mastery of the instrument (if he were planning to be a grandmaster at viola or something this number would be a lot different…). The best I could hope for Kevin is that he will continue to play in Pops orchestras or something like that.
