The Violoncello Piccolo is ready!

I just heard from Ifshin that my piccolo cello is ready! I am going to pick it up mid April!
As soon as I have it, you will hear all about it. I can hardly wait.
If it is as good as the baroque cello that I have from them, I will be in for a treat!

The recording with the Strathcona String Quartet is done. We did a day of recording today. Try playing jazz music at 8 AM on a holiday Monday!
It was really great fun though and I think the CD will be very good.

My focus can now go to playing suites 1 through 4 in London on Friday. Playing them on the carbon fibre cello is interesting, especially since I have not been playing it that much lately (I really do love my Mirecourt after all!)

I changed strings on both cellos.
It started last week when I changed the strings on my Mirecourt again. I kept the Larsen soloist soft a string, but changed the rest to Larsen Soloist medium. I did not like the wire core after all: they were buzzing too much.
It is such an expensive experiment with all these strings!
I kept the a soloist soft: that string sounds great on this cello.
I thought that the d, which also was a soloist soft, could use a little more "oompf" and the soloist medium does just that.
I changed the strings on the carbon too! It now has almost the same set-up: all soloist Larsen, all medium. And to my surprise: I like it!
Let's hope the cello "survives" the flight to London....
I thought I had decided to bring my great Roy Quade bow, but I am getting cold feet. What if something happens to it?! I may take my husband's Coda Bow after all...

I have also decided how to present the six suites in concert next season.
Last week American cellist Zuill Bailey performed in Edmonton and we were talking at intermission and after the concert with a glass of wine. He had the brilliant idea of performing all six suites on one afternoon, but perform a suite every half hour on a few consecutive Saturdays or Sundays.
I would play it as follows:
1:00: Suite 1
1:30: Suite 2
2:00: Suite 3
2:30: BREAK
3:00: Suite 4
3:30: Suite 5
4:00" Suite 6

The audience can decide if they want to listen to all 6 suites, walk out after two suites or just come for one suite.
That would take a lot of pressure off both the performer as well as the audience.
It means I as a performer won't have to worry about whether I still have a captive audience: they could leave after every suite for a break or just to go home.
And the audience doesn't have to worry about having to be polite and sit through all six suites when all they really want to do after hearing one or two suites is to throw a steak on the BBQ at home.