SAMIKA !!!

I thought I’d update on some of the activities I’ve been doing lately.

After the busy concert tour in Japan in December 2007, and a week of rest I spent with my family until the 31^st December in

Japan (which I must admit I hadn’t spent the winter in Japan for 3 years… and the New Year’s events, I could not experience this time either… sorry mum and dad!) my year 2008 started quite busily also! Luckily I had had some rest, going to Hakone for the hot spring baths, and wonderful body massages I had by the professionals for 2 days, had recharged me well to stand up to my events in 2008.

I flew back to Paris on 1^st January, arriving chez moi in the evening as usual. I unpacked partly my huge suitcase of 30kg, and started packing a smaller suitcase to prepare for my 5days in England… The eurostar was the next morning at 6am… Rendez-vous at Gare du Nord with my colleagues of Quintette Monsolo, with sleepy heads we said “Bonne Année!”. As Guillaume, our new 2^nd violinist was not available, it was the first event with Aude… Despite the fatigue, it was fun setting off all together, kind of panicking as we arrived at St Pancras station as before it was Waterloo… And with the delay and unclear signals, we were running about to catch the trains… In the end, we managed to get to Wellington College… how freezing cold we were! We spent 3 days working with the Maggini Quartet, with Martin and Michal we worked on the Strauss Metamorphosen and performed it at the end, as well as getting advices on the Milhaud Quintet. It was fun. After that we spent a day in Megan’s house in Hampton Court.

As we got back to Paris, rehearsals with the real members (Guillaume and the others) everyday… we started working with the Ysaye Quartet at CNR as well. Then I had chamber music exam with a pianist on the Kreutzer sonata, and the week after an exam of the superior chamber music class with Sylvain for the duo or Martinu Madrigal no1 and Haendel Pasacaille… which went really well and we got Tres Bien à l’unanimité!! Haha! Then intensive rehearsals for the recording of the 3 Bach two pianos concerti… Which was recorded on 25^th January at the Salle Cortot until midnight, celebrating with a champagne! It was an intensive concentration and I was in a terrible state of lack of sleep and fatigue, but at the end, it was a great fun also. I’m really looking forward to listening to the final discs.

Then without stopping came the rehearsals with Daria Hovora for the Onslow piano Quintet Op76 in B minor…an unknown quintet. It was to prepare for the concert on 14^th February, but as we were in England a week before the concert, it had to be well prepared before our departure. It was new to everyone, and discovering this piece was really interesting… I quite like it, though I admit there are some parts which are difficult to really feel what to do…

As Guillaume got a tendonitis a week before the departure to England, it was a real panic again to find someone at the last minute who would be capable and willing to prepare a large programme… Luckily Eleonore saved us!! We had a programme of Dvorak Quintet Op77, Onslow Quintet ‘The Bullet’ 1^st mvt, Britten Simple Symphony, Agut Cinq Chants Nocturnes (contemporary pieces written for us), and a bunch of repertoires with Julian Petit, the saxophonist for the arrangements of Bartok Roumanian Danses, Glazunov Reverie Orientale, Shostakovich Valse, Ituralde Czardas, etc…  We had a recording to do few days before the departure for Pierre Agut for his compositions, and Eleonore and we managed to prepare very speedily for the concerts in England. Quintette Monsolo had 3 concerts, one sharing with the Trio Klezele. In the end, we enjoyed our stay there, and did a good job on the concerts, though little disappointing for the lack of audience for the second concert.

Coming back to Paris on 11^th at midnight, I had a rest on 12^th… I really needed it. Then on 13^th, we spent the whole day recording for a French film called “L’Empreinte de l’ange” which will be coming out somewhere in summer or fall 2008. It was my first experience to record for a film, it was really cool. The formation was string quartet (which we did with the members of the Quintette Monsolo, so Sylvain and Nicolas, and ex-Monsolo member Misa) , piano and clarinet. It was in a studio, where we could see the film making team next door, with the film director who commented on the scenes and what kind of moods we had to create. We were also directed by the composer, and we had a small screen in the studio with the film running as we played… I learned a lot of things I did not know before, how the accuracy is measured with the metronome we hear in our headphones, and how so many things are worked on in such extent to create just the sound of the film… In the break, we went in the bigger room next door, where the team was working on the sound, and there was the big screen with our music and other sounds put together, it was so cool! I’ll be proud when I go and see the film at the cinema and know that it is I who is playing!! Haha!

And the next day, 14^th February, was the concert with Daria Hovora for the Onslow piano quintet. A small hall, which was freezing cold, and not a great acoustique, but it was nice to do a first event with Daria, and I look forward to the second concert which will be in Troyes, in the usual hall which sounds so well.

At last I’m having some time to relax a little, and practise my solo works. This weekend , we will be quite busy again, with students’ concert and selection of an international competition, but we are in vacation period, so things are a lot calmer all over, and I feel I really needed a bit of a break. The weather also is getting warmer and there were several days which were really sunny and blue sky, so I think spring is not so far now! Can’t wait!