Aussie Girls

Maya and Elle are my honorary little sisters from Australia. Maya just turned 5, and Elle will be 3 in October.  I mailed Elle's present to her from London last October since I wasn't going to be home until December, but I brought back Maya's present (a 100% cotton pink dress with roses) with me to NYC since her birthday and my summer holiday were very close.

Maya is so outgoing, spunky, cheeky, loving, creative and a bit naughty at times haha.  She looks exactly like her father, same hair and eye color and facial features. Elle is very sweet, more mellow, shy, and looks just like her mother.  All of the Aussie girls are gorgeous and loving :)

Maya and Elle love anything that is pink.  They also love to make me drawings and cards, leave them under my door at home, or mail them to London.  I have a few of their paintings hanging up in my flat in London.  When I'm in the USA, they like to come upstairs to my part of the house, knock on the door and ask if they can have a play date with me, so cute~!! Today, they made "I love you" cards for me. They wrote me each their own card and made a painting for me on the other side from watercolors. I had a play date with them today since I hadn't seen them since I left for London after the wedding in May.

I love them both so much, and they are two very special little girls.

 

   *You might not be able to tell from this photo... but I bought this dress for Maya for her birthday :)  *

                                          * upside down monkey time with Elle Belle :P *

Lithuania's Got Talent

Martynas Levickis is the most recent winner of Lithuania's Got Talent. He is a 3rd year accordion  student at RAM and asked me a few weeks ago if I was available to take some photos of him for a magazine in Lithuania.  The idea of the photo shoot was to show the world that he is now living in a big city, as opposed to his small town in Lithuania.

In order to capture the "busy" atmosphere for the photos, I had to stand in the street with cars zooming both ways, on top of rooftops, climbing up ladders, etc.  The sentence I probably said the most was "Martynas, you NEED to tell me and warn me when cars are coming my way, okay?"  The shoot was in two sessions on two different days.  After the first day, Martynas and I sat outside of a Starbucks with our coffees and talked for awhile.  We talked about how our lives have changed since we moved to London, how we ourselves have changed, and how music influences us.  It was really nice to talk to him outside of RAM atmosphere.

Since my quartet (ARIES) recently won the Wolfe Wolfinsohn Quartet Prize, Martynas asked if we would premier his string quartet.  He ended up dedicating it to us which was very sweet of him.

 

Marciana Buta

Marciana Buta is a kick ass violinist with a heart of pure gold.  She studies violin with Mateja Morenkavic at RAM.  Seriously, she is a warrior when it comes to playing the violin.  She has that extra "oomph" to her playing that makes it extra special. She is one of my favorite people in the entire world to hang out and talk to.  She is so open and friendly, we get along so well together.  Even though I just met her this year, it feels like I've known her for many years.  I had a blast shooting her photos because she is so great to work with.  She is the least diva violinist you will ever meet and we all know the stereotype for violinists :P  She even came to one of my rehearsals when I was preparing for my end of year exam and gave me the most helpful comments.

How often do you meet someone who is gorgeous, amazing at violin, and has the biggest heart? It's RARE!!  It is a privilege to know her :)

Toki Quartet

I was thrilled when the Toki Quartet asked if I would do the photos for their publicity and website.  I'm good friends with the violinists Aki and Midori, and violist Joe, and was so happy to meet the 4th member of their group, their cellist, Amy.  They formed their quartet in February-ish 2011.  Aki and Midori are postgrad violinists, and are in the same year as me at RAM. Amy is also a postgrad student, and Joe recently graduated from his undergrad at RAM.

This is a pretty fun loving group.  They all get along so well. 

Joe is the jokester... we've been in orchestra projects together, he has come into my practice on multiple occasions to show me his "piano skills", and has also been the cause for many cramps in my side due to laughing so hard.  The other day, he stole my violin as I went for a bathroom break, and I came back to find him playing violin concertos on my violin, smiling and sticking his tongue out at me as I walked down the York Gate hallway. I've also seen him scare his best mate and his girlfriend outside of Wigmore Hall by jumping out in front of them from behind the entrance gate as a way to greet them and give them their tickets for the concert, haha.

Midori and I were desk partners for the Sir Colin Davis, Bruckner Symphony No. 6 orchestra project.  We were instantly friends as we mocked ourselves playing wrong notes, giggling from the second desk of the second violins.  There was not a dull or negative moment between us.  She was the best desk partner.  She is so sweet, and fun to be around.  She also lets me practice my Japanese with her.

I met Aki in the Fall 2010 when we were looking to form a chamber music group together for fun.  She is incredibly talented at playing the violin, and such a good hearted person.  She even bought me a gift from Japan. She is so thoughtful.

I don't know Amy as well but I do know that she is a very good cellist.  She recently received runner up for the cello competition at RAM.  It was nice to get to know her since I already knew the other members of Toki pretty well. 

We did the photo shoot in Regents Park.  Lucky for us, the weather was GORGEOUS... and very bright.  Thank goodness for the sunlight because I am best at shooting photos with natural light so score for me :)  At the end of the photo shoot, everyone had squinty eyes because of the sunlight. Apart from me almost falling off the edge into a fountain in order to get a great shot, it was a lot of fun!

                                                                 * Joe the Jokester *

 Aki, violin I

                                                                  Midori, violin II

 Joe, viola

                                                                            Amy, cello

Hello Cello!

I took photos last Fall of a quartet, and I decided to stage and snap this shot... I think it's cute so I thought that I'd just post it :)

The Canadians

Mark and Sanaz are a piano-violin duo who are from Canada.  They have been playing music together since Fall 2010/Winter 2011. Mark is a first year PG violinist and Sanaz just graduated from PG, both Royal Academy of Music musicians.

I have had the pleasure to hear them rehearse and perform together (Beethoven "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata, Brahms Sonata No. 2, Ravel's "Tzigane", etc. ), and have even been the occasional page turner for Sanaz :P

They needed photos pretty quickly for publicity purposes.  They applied for a competition in Canada that would allow them to tour around Canada, giving performances, if they won.  Lucky for them, I am the flat mate, quartet mate and RAM best friend of Mark Lee, so getting photos was not a problem :P

WALDEN

This is a self formed group named WALDEN from Rochester, NY.  They are also all very good friends of mine.  For this photoshoot, we trekked through an abandoned and forbidden old subway station.  We climbed over metal fences, walked through complete darkness with our cell phones out to provide some sort of light... and tried to avoid any homeless people that were living down there.  It was extremely creepy, but the photoshoot pictures were totally worth it.  I love these guys, and they gave me a few free tracks of their music that I couldn't stop listening to.


Adrian- guitar
Andrew- bass
Adam- drums

 

* On our way to the shoot *

 

* happy ending to an awesome photo shoot of WALDEN *