My Piano Quartet

Many people mistake a piano quartet for four pianos.   Nope!  It is actually a piano, a violin, a viola, and a cello all in a group.  I am part of an awesome quartet.  We are all crazy musicians and love to rehearse and perform together.  We have been together for about three years.  All the time we spend rehearsing and playing, we have gotten to know each other really well.  We are all such great friends that is it so much fun to work together.

We were first made a group through the Gifted Music School.  We are all a part of GMS and signed up for chamber.  We all take from different teachers, but when we rehearse, we usually have just one or two coaches to help us.    

My Quartet right after a winners recital performance.

Our group rehearses almost every Monday, Friday, and Saturday.  It is a whole lot of rehearsing, but most of the time we are working towards a specific performance or competition.  My quartet has competed in a few competitions including Youth Guild and The University of Utah Ensemble Competition.  So far, we have gotten first place and honorable mention at the Youth Guild, and first in the University Of Utah Ensemble Competition.  

We plan to compete in many more competitions coming up.  Our next big one is the Fishoff Ensemble Competition.  It is a national competition that people from all over come to compete.  You have to send in a DVD of your group playing two different pieces.  If you make it to the finals, you fly to Indiana and compete for first place.  It is the biggest competition we are going for.  The finals are in May, but we are still a long ways off from being done with our pieces.  We have to have a total of three pieces to play for the finals.  (If we make it that far.)

McCall

Being in a chamber group is such a cool thing for me.  I have so much fun with my quartet and they are some of my best friends.  We always hang out together and I do so many fun activities outside of music with them.  We go out to lunch a lot, go to Lagoon, and many other fun things.    

 Our quartet's violinist is McCall (15).  She is a funny girl who always makes us laugh.  She has won many solo competitions and is an amazing violinist.  She is the same age as me.  We previously did a couple of piano and violin duet pieces that were really cool.  

Kayden

Kayden (17)is the only Guy and he plays the Cello.  He is also a very funny guy in our Quartet.  He is awesome for putting up with three girls and still be willing to do everything with us.  He is good with balancing music, school, and baseball.      

Kayden and McCall together is crazy.  They get distracted so easily and off topic.  They both have really funny personalities, but sometimes it shows at the wrong time.  Which is during rehearsal.  They both work really hard though.      

Mackie (Mackenzie) (14)and I are usually the serious ones.  Always trying to get work done and keep McCall and Kayden in line.  Mackie plays the viola and is amazing.  She is a really hard worker.  

I love being part of my quartet.  They are such cool people to be around.  We have the most fun together.  It will be sad when we all go off to college.  Mackie and Kayden will be the first to go college.  We won't be able to be a quartet when they leave.  Hopefully in the future we will be able to work together after we are all out of college.  

Cardboard Boats? Do They Float?

 In Pre-engineering Technology, we designed and built cardboard boats.  My partner was Victoria Olsen.  We first researched different types of boats.  It was to help us come up with a design for our own boat.  I was in charge of researching the catamaran.  I really enjoy sailing on catamarans and I love the way that they glide through the water.  I think that is why we decided to use the catamaran as our design.

Our design was based on a catamaran at first, then it became more of a trimaran design.  It had a big hull in the middle and two smaller ones on the sides.  We would sit the middle one and the sides ones were to help it float.  We decided that that catamaran would be too hard to build since the main part is elevated above the water.  That part we put in the water so it became a trimaran.  

Me and Victoria with our boat at Ecker Aquatic Center

When we went to actually build the boat, we realized we didn't actually have that much time until we took them to the pool.  There was also a fight for cardboard.  Some groups got more, and some didn't get any.   We ended up getting two big boxes and some smaller pieces of cardboard.  We were given only two rolls of duct tape, a bottle of glue, and as much cardboard as we could get.

We used the big pieces of the cardboard for the bottom and the sides of the boat.  We glued them together, but we taped all of the seams.

We struggled to measure out all of the parts, and make each side of the boat even.  Sometimes the tape wouldn't even stay down and hold the boat together.


When the time came to paint it, we started with white.  The white ran out very quickly because so many people were using it.  We then had to switch to black.  I think that the black sides looked cooler, but we had one of the sides white.  There were no other colors we could decorate the rest of the boat with though.

Our team name was the Hawaiian Leis.  We tried to dress like were in Hawaii, so we wore our swim suits and I did my hair in an updo with a flower.  I also wore a sarong like I always do when we are in Hawaii.  We didn't have the most spirit, but we did have more than most of the boys.

Victoria, Claire, Meghan, and Me.  We are the only
 four girls in our class

Because of our time constraint, we couldn't build the side hulls and the finished product was a monohull.  Truthfully, it looked more like a cardboard box without a top.  The back and the front ended up more flat than pointed.

We went to the Ecker Aquatic Center to test the boats.  Since there were a total of nine boats, there were two heats.  Our boat went in the second heat.

Our boat actually did float, against all predictions.  We previously thought that we would get into the boat and it would sink like a rock all the way down to the bottom.  We had absolutely no confidence in our boat.

The flat front of the boat made it really hard to paddle across.  Our boat floated really well, but we had a hard time getting it across the pool.  The kick boards we used as paddles weren't working very well.  Our final time was 1 minute and 13 seconds.

There were a couple of boats that did end up sinking.  The boats came out of the pool as a blob of wet soggy cardboard.  Overall, everybody had a good time hanging out at the pool.

Halloween at GMS

This Halloween was on a Saturday this year.  Every Saturday, we have Gifted Music School (GMS).  In GMS, I am part of a piano quartet.  My quartet consists of a Violinist (McCall), Violist (Mackie), Cellist (Kayden), and me playing the piano.

This year, we decided we wanted to dress up for halloween, but sharing a theme.  The original idea was to go as characters from the Wizard of Oz.  I was going to be Dorothy.  Then McCall would be the Tin Man, Mackie the Cowardly Lion, and Kayden as the Scarecrow.

When I went to get my costume, though, I decided I didn't want to be Dorothy.  Instead, I found a costume for Little Red Riding Hood that I really liked.  I decided that I was going to be Little Red Riding hood and my quartet might not dress up as one theme.

When I told my friends that I was going as Little Red Riding Hood, Mackie immediately assigned new costumes.  She would go as the Wolf, McCall as the Woodsman, and Kayden as the Grandma.  It was a really funny thought of Kayden as the grandma.  I really didn't think he would wear the costume for us.

Little Red Riding Hood Characters:Left to Right: Mackie, Me, Kayden, and McCall.

On Saturday, October 31, I came to GMS and saw my group.  They all dressed as characters from Little Red Riding Hood.  It was so cool to have us all dressed like that.  We looked like we came just out of a fairytale.

Kayden liked his costume for about the first hour, then he said that the wig started to get itchy.  He didn't really like wearing the dress either.  I was so glad he agreed to be the grandma because our group looked so cool together.

There were many other people that dressed up at GMS as well.  Some people dressed as one of our music teachers.  We thought it was hilarious, but only people in GMS would understand the joke.  Other people were Zombies or doctors.  

In the evening, Mackie was the only one who could come trick-or-treating with me.  I was sad that our whole group couldn't go, but I was glad at least one other character could come with me.  I also went trick-or-treating with one of my other friends, Ava.  She came dressed as the Grimm Reaper.  Our story to tie us all together was that the Grimm Reaper was waiting for the Wolf to kill Little Red Riding Hood.  The Grimm Reaper could then take Little Red Riding Hood's soul.  The Grimm Reaper gets the Wolf's soul instead though.

We got so much candy even though we moved pretty slow.  We weren't in the mood for running and falling, so we took out time.  Many houses gave out full sized candy bars so we really got lots of good candy.