BYU Chamber Orchestra China Tour Day 1 - The Trip Begins

Wednesday, April 27th - Thursday, April 28th

After much anticipation I'm sure for all who read my blog, I am not posting my China Tour, which will be multiple posts.  So . . . feel free to read it over a period of time.

My trip begins in front of the BYU Museum of Art on a beautiful Wednesday morning.  Our bus didn't leave until 11 A.M., which was refreshing.  Usually, when I leave for trips, it seems that I have to wake up at 3 in the morning or something.  As you can see in the picture below, we all had to wear specified tour clothing.  I thought the clothing would be very uncomfortable, but I got used to it.

 After we left at 11 A.M., we headed up to the Salt Lake Airport and after rushing through security as fast as we could we made our first flight that flew to Seattle, Washington.

Here is a picture of some of the orchestra members I ate dinner with at the airport:

From Right to Left: Allie Bartley (violist), Noelle Rader (violist), Zach Hansen (violist) and Charlie Carr (trumpet player)

While we sat around for 4 hours at the Seattle Airport,

 I went ahead and called my brother Amman to let him know that I was only an hour away from him at that moment.  He was surprised to hear that.

After our lay-over, we set out for our long, 12 hour flight to Beijing China.

On the flight over, I tried really hard to not stay awake, because I had heard from a friend that traveled a lot that it is easier to adjust to the time change if you don't sleep on the flight out there.

Well . . . when I first got on the plane, the flight magazine said that the movies showing would include the following:

AND

I was glad there would be some good movies to watch so that the flight would be more enjoyable.

But . . . four hours into the flight, I noticed that the movies hadn't started playing yet.  So, I asked a flight attendant about it and he apologized and said they had simply forgot to start the movies.  They promptly started the movies at that point and um .. . they didn't play the movies they had advertised in the magazine.  Instead they showed some movies I did not enjoy such as:

AND

 Oh well . . . I wasn't going on this trip for the movies.

After the long and grueling 12 hour flight, we arrived on Thursday in China 14 hours later then we would be in the United States of America.

Here we are in the lobby of our first hotel in Beijing at 11 at night.

Our hotel was called the Beijing Bamboo and Rattan International Hotel.  It was a large hotel as you can see in the picture below.

 . . . and it featured incredibly hard beds.  It was like sleeping on box springs.

But . . . I survived.  Here's a picture of me after the 12 hour flight:

You have to admit. . . I look pretty darn good in blue.

That night I slept very well.

Alta Apartment Pranks

Ever since I returned from my mission a little under three years ago, I've lived at:

ALTA APARTMENTS

Every time I think I'm going to move I end up staying.

One of the things I've been a witness of often at Alta Apartments are pranks between apartments.  I've seen thinks such as:

Smashed Pumpkins In Front of Apartment Doors

or 

Crazy Water Fights

or

Fake Wedding Announcements

and many more things . . . . . 

Well, when you have roommates like mine . . . .it is likely that our apartment would get involved in these pranks.

So  . . . it all started one night when my roommate Caleb saw that we had a bunch of old phone books we needed to get rid of.  Therefore, he showed all my roommates how to rip phone books in half.  When they were done they shoved all the torn pieces of the phone books in a garbage bag, took them over to our good friend Holly and Becca's apartment that we are good friends with and just walked in and through them all over the living room and walked out . . . .

WELL . . . . from then on. ...

THE GAME WAS ON

In the next few days my roommates started finding random messages all over the place.

Caleb found the next morning on his truck a piece of ripped phone book with the message . ..  .

"Caleb .. . . . We know what you did last night."

Tom walked into his LDS Marriage and Family class and found an envelope hanging on the chalkboard with his name on it.  In the envelope was another piece of ripped phone book with the message . . .

"You don't want to be our enemy."

Collin went to work where he found another similar envelope with his name on it with a similar message.

A FEW DAYS LATER . .. . ..

My roommates and I come home to see the front of our door blocked with a huge pile of pieces of ripped phone book.

 BUT . . . they didn't stop there.
On the door was a huge poster filled with a collage of marriage photos with the words, "Congratulations Collin on your marriage."  On the back it said . . . "You don't want to mess . . . "

We had a good laugh about the prank and didn't do anything back to the girls for a while, but on Sunday night, April 17th, at 2:00 in the morning, my roommates pranked them back.
 They printed out multiple copies of this flier:

and posted it all over the complex including everybody's door, the laundry room, and on every windshield of every car.

Um . . .. so Apartment 313 is Holly and Becca's apartment and if you don't know the movie From Justin to Kelly, hopefully this picture will give you an idea:

Yeah . .... it's a special movie.

Well . . . . Holly and Becca weren't going to let us have the higher ground.  So, they went through with the party.  They even specifically invited us.  Because we were so touched by their invitation, we told them to come over to our apartment.

When they came over we were shocked to see that they had really prepared for a party.  They had made:

PEANUT BUTTER BARS

SPECIAL BROWNIES

AMAZING HOMEMADE SALSA WITH CHIPS

AND THEY EVEN HAD BALLOON ANIMALS

Here are the devious girls, Holly and Becca.  Holly on the left tried to cover her face to protect herself from further pranksters.

and apparently they had decorated their apartment with streamers.  On top of that they had bought the movie, "From Justin to Kelly."  Apparently the man that worked at the movie store that they bought it at just couldn't stop talking about how wonderful the movie was and how he couldn't understand how it got such bad reviews.

SO . . .. . WE PUT THE MOVIE ON OUR HOMEMADE MOVIE PROJECTOR .. .

and watched . .....


the first 5 minutes of the movie and the last five minutes . .. .  just to make sure Justin and Kelly get together in the end and just to let you know,Justin and Kelly get together in the end of the movie, just in case you were worried.

But . . . you should have seen the look on some of the ward member's faces when they heard we were watching it. . .. . . . They thought we had some special needs . . . .

Here are two of my roommates bummed that the prank didn't work out how they planned

but it really was a good night anyways.

Oh . . . the crazy things that happen in my apartment.

Awe . . . My Roommates . . . .They Make Life More Entertaining

So . ..  . after about 10:00 each night, the fun in my apartment begins.  If you are within the vicinity of our apartment at this time it is common to hear loud obnoxious noises such as a loud yell from my roommate, Collin.

Here are a few examples of some things we do:

Play the Wii such as the following games:

 OR . . .

I'm awful at both these games . . . . and I tend to get a little big angry when playing Super Smash Brothers at 2 in the morning when I keep losing . . . . . and losing . . . . .and losing ....... and losing ....... and (ANGER BUILDING) . . . losing. . . . .(SLAMMING OF BEDROOM) ..... not being able to sleep - VOW TO NEVER PLAY THE GAME AGAIN.

So . . . I avoid Super Smash Brothers.

Another favorite past time . . .  .watching random You Tube Videos.  Here's a recent one we watched that we found hilarious:

This is not a real movie trailer.  It's fake, but very funny.

We also like watching BYU Divine Comedy Spoofs.  Here are a few:

FIREBOLT

If you like Harry Potter, you should watch it.

PROVO, UT GIRLS

Addressing extremes of BYU Dating

We also like watching spoofs off of one of the worst You Tube videos ever: Friday.

HERE'S THE ORIGINAL YOU TUBE VIDEO OF FRIDAY

HERE'S A STAR WARS SPOOF OF IT

There are many more videos we watch, but I thought I would just give a sample.

Another thing we like to do is watch movies on our movie projector.  Yes. ... we have a movie projector, but it's not your typical movie projector.  My roommate, Caleb, managed to great one out of an overhead projector and LCD screen that we can connect to any computer and project movies onto our apartment wall.  He also bought a used stereo system.  This whole set-up only cost him out $80 as opposed to like $500.  We watched a few movies in the last week on it such as:

GANDHI

TANGLED

and

 

THE A TEAM

I really enjoyed all these movies.  If you haven't seen them.  I think they're worth seeing.

Besides these things, my roommates can be found doing some pretty out there things.  Here are links to a few videos of these things:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150155755249077&comments

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150155752429077

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150155751424077

Yeah . . . so . . . we're a crazy apartment.  But . . . all my roommates are great.  Here's the line-up:

Boomer Hawks

Tom Wall

Collin Nicholas and Jared Berensen

Caleb Squires

AND . . . . well . .. . 

ME

College goes so much better when you have good roommates. . . . .even if they're a little weird.

Supporting my Good Friend Amy!

On Friday, April 8th, my friend, Amy Norton, was in a performance of an oratorio called 

THE LAMB OF GOD - By Rob Gardner

 

The performance took place in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.  I admit that I wasn't expecting the music to be that great, but it was actually quite good.  I really felt the spirit and could tell that the composer really tried hard to make the music appropriate for the subject matter.  Amy was in the choir and I thought the choir did really well.  The orchestra was not the London Symphony Orchestra, but an orchestra from the area.

Here' s a preview of the oratorio:

Thanks Amy for inviting me and getting me free tickets.  It was a great experience.

The Best BYU Philharmonic Concert Ever!

On Saturday, April 9th I had my end of the year BYU Philharmonic concert.  This concert was extra special for me, because I sat 4th chair 1st violin and got to really enjoy the music and not worry about the difficulties of sitting in the back.

To start out the evening,

my wonderful sister, Alena and her son, Neal,

took me out to dinner at:

THE SAIGON CAFE

It was great to go to this restaurant again, because I used to go to it quite often.  Why do I love it?  It's cheap, it's good, and you get lots of food.  Neal had a blast with going back and forth between Mommy's lap and Uncle Jared's lap.  It was great being able to talk to Alena and about different experiences.  Alena told me of a very awkward experience involving Neal and a very disgusting diaper change that left her nauseous.  I would tell the story, but maybe you should ask her.

Well . . . even though the poop story was not so appetizing, the food was very good.  It was a great way to start an evening!  Thanks Alena!

Following dinner, I got the opportunity to play my concert.  We played a very exciting program of the following three pieces:

Overture to Benvenuto Cellini -  by Hector Berlioz

Here's a YouTube recording of it.

A graduate student named Natascha Li conducted the piece and I thought she did a wonderful job.

Symphonic Metamorphesis - by Paul Hindemith

   1st movement

2nd movement

3rd movement

4th movement

Above are recordings of all 4 movements.  

This is a unique piece that can be a bit overwhelming when you first hear it, because of all the crazy counterpoint going on between the instruments of the orchestra, but man . . . it is so exciting to play.  The first violin part is crazily difficult, but once you learn the music, it's awesome.  Of all the pieces on the program, I think we played this piece the best.  It went really well.

The New World Symphony - by Anton Dvorak

In case you aren't familiar with this symphony, listen to the recording of the second movement above and you'll recognize it quickly.  This is a classic symphony, that was a really crowd pleaser.  We got a huge standing ovation at the end, even though we had a few moments where we almost fell apart throughout the piece.

I thought it was overall a wonderful concert and I feel privileged to have played in it.

After the concert, I went to meet my fans!

Alena, Jonathan, and Erica had come down to see the concert.  It meant so much to me to have family there!!

To make the evening even better, 

my wonderful brother, Jonathan and my amazing sister-in-law, Erica

took me out to:

COLDSTONE for Ice Cream

I got Peanut Butter Perfection in a Waffle Bowl.

It was amazing!  Thanks Jonathan and Erica!

I am truly blessed to have great family that is so generous.  Thanks for making my evening so special!!!!

Oh, the joy of playing in a string quartet

On Wednesday night, April 6th I had the awesome opportunity to play in BYU's String Chamber Night.  I got to play with a very talented group of musicians in one of my favorite combinations:

A STRING QUARTET

Here was the line-up of people in my group

JARED STARR (ME)

1st Violin

CAITLIN ROBBINS

2nd Violin


KRISTINA WILLEY

Viola

And . . . . 

ROBERT WILLES

Cello

These people were excellent to work with this semester and I'm thankful for the friendships we developed.


For the night, we played the last movement of Grieg's String Quartet in G Minor.  Here is a you tube video of the movement:

It was an exciting performance.  We were really into it.  I made quite a few of weird mistakes, but it was overall really good.  We even got a standing ovation at the end.  Multiple people told me it was their favorite piece on the program.  I don't blame them.  It was pretty darn awesome!

The Best Chair Audition I've Ever Had

After my recital was over, I made a goal to really be on top of learning orchestra music.  Well, in the BYU Philharmonic we had re-seating auditions kind of late in the semester.  Since I've been sitting sixth stand, which is the very back of the first row of the first violin section, I was ready to move up.  It's hard to sit in the back in orchestra, because you can't hear anything and you have to pretty much stare at the conductor the whole time to make sure your not behind.

Well . . . . . 

On Saturday morning, March 26th I went to warm-up for my audition and I felt relaxed and decided that it didn't matter where I sat in the orchestra.  It was enough of a joy to just play in a great orchestra.

With this attitude I approached Kory's office.  When I walked in to play behind a screen, I didn't think much of the fact that there were people on the other people of that screen judging my playing.  I just played my best.  

And . . . it went really well. . . . in fact I think it's the best I've ever played for a chair audition.

The following Monday, I went to check the results hoping I moved up one or two chairs.  It turned out I did better than that.

I saw that I was sitting 4th Chair 1st violin!  That means I moved up 7 seats from 11th chair to 4th chair.  I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the progress I had made this year.  After my recital going so well, this was truly an icing on the cake!