BLOGGER: kono michi
LOCATION: brooklyn, new york (currently on tour)
MICHI's MUSIC: kono michi
LABEL: shark batter records
WEBSITE: myspace.com/konomichi
Greetings from the window seat of an airplane somewhere over Utah, heading to San Francisco from Washington D.C. I’m with ECCO and all 17 of us just spent a week in Virginia, where Jan Lodal, a former Bill Clinton aide, generously gave us the keys to his vacation property, a beautiful and secluded place surrounded by miles and miles of farmland. He and his wife are big music and art fans and have offered to help out us starving musicians. Lucky for us, they’ve given us an open invitation to the “farm” so about once a year we all get to leave our hectic lives and live like a bunch of rich kids for a few days and run amok.
Actually, we operate very well when left to our own devices… we really just turn into a bunch of hippies. We rehearsed for hours each day, cooked huge feasts, danced, discussed, drank…
Yesterday we drove from the farm to D.C. to play a house concert at Jan Lodals’ home. To an audience full of politicians, ambassadors, scientists and generally wealthy and powerful Democrats, we played Grieg, Biber, a Piazzola Tango, Bartok Divertimento, and my arrangement of La Follia. After the concert somebody referred to us as “rock stars of the classical world” which I of course considered the highest compliment. “Balls to the wall” is a term that was actually used on one of our rehearsals… by a girl!
That was last night, and today we’re flying to San Francisco where we give a concert tomorrow night.
2 days later… Our trip to San Francisco was tons of fun, and the concert went well. I had some friends and family in the audience, so they joined us and we stormed an Ethiopian restaurant on Haight Ashbury afterward where we all got drunk and ate with our hands (not because we were drunk).
It’s Monday and I’ve just arrived in Orange County from San Francisco, to my parents’ house where I will embark on 3 days of intense violin practicing and laying low with my family as I get ready for the concert I’ve been most excited about and terrified of for a few months.
I’ll be playing Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Zigeunerweisen with the Victoria Symphony in Texas on Saturday. Carmen is considered one of the most difficult pieces (technically speaking) in the violin repertoire, and somehow I managed to avoid learning it when I was a student, so I’m doing the nitty gritty work now. Now that I have most of the technical stuff down, it’s getting more and more fun since I get to channel my inner gypsy. I’m really looking forward to doing my laundry today.
Before this ECCO tour I had a couple of concerts with the LAPQ – one in Connecticut and one in Palm Springs (where we drove down streets with names like “Sammy Davis Jr. Blvd” and “Frank Sinatra Way”) Then I played 2 California concerts with a new music group called Antares. The program included Messaien’s Quartet For the End of Time, which is one of my all-time favorite compositions. Messaien wrote it in a concentration camp during WWII for the random instruments the people around him happened to have – violin, clarinet, cello, and piano. The piece is full off misery, struggle, pain, beauty, hope, and an eventual ascent to heaven which will leave your face red and tear-streaked whether you believe in heaven or not. When Thom Yorke announced that Messaien was one of Radiohead’s sources of artistic inspiration, and it made me love them even more.
After I return to New York from Texas, I have a few days to get ready for a week of concerts in Cleveland, and then come mid-May, I’m officially free for TWO MONTHS. I can’t wait! I’m dreaming of vacation. I’ve had tons of song ideas that I’ve been forced to neglect since being on the road, but I’ve been obsessed with the rhythm of bouncing balls and birdcalls. I have to try not to get too excited about that right now, though, and focus on the task at hand, which is to get my fucking fingers to move at the speed of light. Wish me luck!
michi wiancko
LOCATION: brooklyn, new york (currently on tour)
MICHI's MUSIC: kono michi
LABEL: shark batter records
WEBSITE: myspace.com/konomichi
Greetings from the window seat of an airplane somewhere over Utah, heading to San Francisco from Washington D.C. I’m with ECCO and all 17 of us just spent a week in Virginia, where Jan Lodal, a former Bill Clinton aide, generously gave us the keys to his vacation property, a beautiful and secluded place surrounded by miles and miles of farmland. He and his wife are big music and art fans and have offered to help out us starving musicians. Lucky for us, they’ve given us an open invitation to the “farm” so about once a year we all get to leave our hectic lives and live like a bunch of rich kids for a few days and run amok.
Actually, we operate very well when left to our own devices… we really just turn into a bunch of hippies. We rehearsed for hours each day, cooked huge feasts, danced, discussed, drank…
Yesterday we drove from the farm to D.C. to play a house concert at Jan Lodals’ home. To an audience full of politicians, ambassadors, scientists and generally wealthy and powerful Democrats, we played Grieg, Biber, a Piazzola Tango, Bartok Divertimento, and my arrangement of La Follia. After the concert somebody referred to us as “rock stars of the classical world” which I of course considered the highest compliment. “Balls to the wall” is a term that was actually used on one of our rehearsals… by a girl!
That was last night, and today we’re flying to San Francisco where we give a concert tomorrow night.
2 days later… Our trip to San Francisco was tons of fun, and the concert went well. I had some friends and family in the audience, so they joined us and we stormed an Ethiopian restaurant on Haight Ashbury afterward where we all got drunk and ate with our hands (not because we were drunk).
It’s Monday and I’ve just arrived in Orange County from San Francisco, to my parents’ house where I will embark on 3 days of intense violin practicing and laying low with my family as I get ready for the concert I’ve been most excited about and terrified of for a few months.
I’ll be playing Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Zigeunerweisen with the Victoria Symphony in Texas on Saturday. Carmen is considered one of the most difficult pieces (technically speaking) in the violin repertoire, and somehow I managed to avoid learning it when I was a student, so I’m doing the nitty gritty work now. Now that I have most of the technical stuff down, it’s getting more and more fun since I get to channel my inner gypsy. I’m really looking forward to doing my laundry today.
Before this ECCO tour I had a couple of concerts with the LAPQ – one in Connecticut and one in Palm Springs (where we drove down streets with names like “Sammy Davis Jr. Blvd” and “Frank Sinatra Way”) Then I played 2 California concerts with a new music group called Antares. The program included Messaien’s Quartet For the End of Time, which is one of my all-time favorite compositions. Messaien wrote it in a concentration camp during WWII for the random instruments the people around him happened to have – violin, clarinet, cello, and piano. The piece is full off misery, struggle, pain, beauty, hope, and an eventual ascent to heaven which will leave your face red and tear-streaked whether you believe in heaven or not. When Thom Yorke announced that Messaien was one of Radiohead’s sources of artistic inspiration, and it made me love them even more.
After I return to New York from Texas, I have a few days to get ready for a week of concerts in Cleveland, and then come mid-May, I’m officially free for TWO MONTHS. I can’t wait! I’m dreaming of vacation. I’ve had tons of song ideas that I’ve been forced to neglect since being on the road, but I’ve been obsessed with the rhythm of bouncing balls and birdcalls. I have to try not to get too excited about that right now, though, and focus on the task at hand, which is to get my fucking fingers to move at the speed of light. Wish me luck!
michi wiancko
