#i'm sorry i am so boring and pretentious 😂

[sturionic]

Screw spotify wrapped, here's my musical retrospective for the year:

LISTENING

A lot of Jocelyn Morlock - because I miss her very much and her death was really hard, and also because everything she wrote demands repeated listening with the new perspectives each year brings.

Big in my Caroline Shaw era, also got really into some artists that had only been floating in my mental periphery before, like Unsuk Chin and Fazıl Say. Many longtime favourites in the rotation - Pärt, Saariaho, Xenakis, Borodin, Vivaldi, Lyapunov, etc. Bach (quelle surprise.) Gorillaz, Cosmo Sheldrake, The Oh Hellos, Yoko Kanno. I listened to Bone Alphabet about eight million times on repeat, idk man, my brain go BOOM BOOM RATTLE CLICK

As per usual, lots of folk music and bluegrass. Every year my tastes get a little crunchier skewing away from production value and note-perfect-ness. Except Béla Fleck, who can be as note-perfect as he likes without sacrificing an iota of crunch, bless him. SHOWS

Started off this year with HILARY HAHN in January!!! Friends surprised me with tickets ❤️ Held it together through the Sibelius and like IMMEDIATELY cried during the encore lol - she played the Bach E Major Partita, specifically the loure, which I think I've listened to probably at least once a week for the past decade. Honestly I think one of my top favourite concerts of all time.

Other highlights included Danish String Quartet in the spring (tickets were also a Christmas present from different friends, I am a very lucky person 🥺) and then Andrew Bird in the summer.

PLAYING

Took a huge step up for violin this year. My vibrato had seemingly hit a brick wall in terms of expressiveness, and violinist friends encouraged me to keep continually braining myself on that brick wall even if it didn't seem to be producing results, so I did. Then randomly over the summer it just got better!!! Literally felt like it happened overnight. It's not perfect but it feels so good to have vibrato be less of an anxiety/pain point that practice motivation is WAY up.

Ditto viola, although orchestra is out of session and I miss my section grandpas :( Alto clef is less scary than it was last year. Marginally.

Decided to take a break from Chopin this year for piano lol. This was a Bach year. Fugues just felt really good with where my brain was at (aka constant chaos that needed to be settled into some nice form of 3-voiced order.) Also got back in touch with some old friends, soundtracks and the like. My goal for 2024 is to DIG THE FUCK INTO some Lyapunov and finish the Zelda arrangements I'm working on.

Nothing really to say about guitar, alas. I got too lost in the violin sauce and I guess that was enough stringed instruments for my brain in 2023.

I bought a flute this year! Finally have the hang of embouchure - sort of - and now lung capacity will be 2024's challenge.

Probably my big playing goal for 2024 though is to get back into baroque chamber ensembles. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO COULD PROBABLY REMEMBER HOW TO PLAY HARPSICHORD WITH JUST A BIT OF NOODLING, HIT ME UP.

#classical music #mostly lol #i'm sorry i am so boring and pretentious 😂 #this was a good musical year but a hard one #I hope 2024 is both challenging and kind