Do You Have To Be Smart To Play Violin?

I came a cross this article by chance. A sixteen year-old boy who attends Julliard Precollege studying the violin. I can see he loves what he is doing. Otherwise, one will break down having so many things to do in one day. But, aside from it, I can tell he is very intelligent. He is working on developing device to silence the lawnmower! On top of that he won the bronze medal for his science project and an honorable mention in Dupont essay contests, worked in the Biology and Human Genetics Laboratory at North Shore Hospital in the summer. My Goodness. He is a Super Boy. And when I listen to the children's interviews on From The Top, I am amazed at how well they speak for their ages. They don't even stutter! If my son was to be on that show, I will have a nervous break down worrying about what will come out of his mouth! Everyone who is featured on that show seems like they love practicing, but what will he say if Mr. O'Riley asked him about practicing? I bet he will say "I hate practicing!":) My boy is really an average kid who loves to play sports (although he loves football, that is something we, the parents refuse to let him participate, except flag football. He plays basket ball now.) and video games and TV shows and reading books. He is THE otherwise TYPICAL boy, no?

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Florida

Jacksonville Orchestra has a special place in our family's hearts. They have youth orchestras and that's where my children joined their first orchestras. Every year at Major Minor Concert at Jacoby Symphony Hall in May, kids perform side by side with Jacksonville Symphony Musicians. Our kids really enjoyed talking with the professionals before performances. Now, they are in big trouble. In November, their contract negotiation reached an impasse and the musicians are locked out. They detail on their initial stage of negotiation can be found on Playbill arts. According to its article, "Jim Van Vleck, chairman of the Symphony Association's board of directors, told the Times-Union that the orchestra has accumulated a debt of $3 million and run deficits in eight of the past ten years. In addition, this year the city of Jacksonville reduced its annual support for the orchestra by almost one-quarter, and other government funding is thought to be at risk as well........Management had presented what it said was its final offer to the musicians on Monday (Nov. 12). The five-year contract proposal included no pay raises for the first two years (with annual increases of 2.04%, 2.42% and 3.07% thereafter), a cut in management's pension contributions from the current 7% of salary to 3%, a reduction by half in paid personal leave (eight days to four, increasing to six in the final two years), elimination of extra pay for playing and maintaining a second instrument (e.g., flute and piccolo or bassoon and contrabassoon), and a sharp reduction in guaranteed days for part-time musicians.
The musicians' union — which had proposed a three-year contract to allow the Symphony administration and board time to stabilize the organization's finances — rejected management's offer, objecting in particular to the cuts in pension contributions and guaranteed work for part-timers. Union spokesperson Kevin Casseday told the Times-Union that the management proposal could reduce the annual compensation of some part-time players from $30,000 to less than $9,000.
The Jacksonville Symphony has 52 full-time musicians and roughly 15 part-timers. Base salary for the full-timers is $38,036, with the average being $43,660. Their season is 37 weeks annually, with 20 hours of rehearsals and performances per week."
Now, the musicians are threatened to be out of health insurance at the end of the year if the issue is not resolved. I found this article by Drew Mcmanus on his website which is really sad what the board members are talking, especially the comment (excerpt) made by Vice Chair Beames via his blackberry to Sally Pettegrew, JSO director of administration stating "I think we may start to see some crack in the dyke on this "only $x" issue, and the heartstrings of kids at Christmas with no presents certainly will have an impact."
I certainly hope they could reach an agreement soon for the sake of keeping the orchestra in Jacksonville community. I would hate to see it go extinct.

Body Movement

I always wonder..... Those violinists who are famous for their body movments during performance (aside from their extraordinary talent), when did they start doing that? When I watched clips of young Midori, or Sarah Chang, their movements are minimal. When I saw Joshua Bell on TV for the first time, I thought he was going to fall backward.
When my son participated in a music festival one year, there was a very talented violinist. She was about 10 years old, but boy, she moved a lot. I really don't remember how her playing was in spite all the advanced pieces she played. His teacher mentioned something like this. Little kids don't naturally move around like that. Only thing he could think of was that it was encouraged or taught. But a lot of grown-up violinists move a lot. Do they help in any way? As a concert goer, it is interesting to see them or their facial expression, but some people are annoyed by it.
When my son was about 8 years old, his first teacher told him to feel the music with body and swing his body side to side like Joshua Bell (She was a big fan of Joshua Bell). Usually, my son is very cooperative, but this time, he refused and stood still. After the lesson, I asked him "Why didn't you swing your body?" He told me "I don't like to move like that! I want to play like Heifetz!" This, I was very surprised. This little boy actually had an idea of how he wanted to play. This was OK by me and I'm glad I didn't force him to move around. Maybe when he is older he may get some habitual movement. Only time will tell....