How El is doing

I have been getting many emails from concerned family members and friends to the effect of “how is Elizabeth really doing?” So I’ve decided to elaborate on her general state of physical, mental, and musical well-being. I separate these three states because we have been having different problems and having to find different solutions for each one.

Physically, El has a predisposition to dramatically become smaller when under stress (to the dismay of her slightly plump duet partner who then feels …well…really plump). She has known about this since her college days, and has dutifully taken measures to gain five good pounds before coming to Israel. Luckily so, because I’ve had to chide her several times for not even touching things she’s put on her plate. Years of training under my Polish mother have not gone to naught, however, and I have been able to keep her eating good nutritious things more or less three times a day. The worst was the 24-hour period before first stage when her stomach crunched up so much that nothing beyond half a container of yoghurt at a time would make it down there. Happily, now 24 hours later, El is lying on her bed gently patting her very, very full digesting belly after a gloriously huge meal that even I couldn’t have eaten. On a side note, the food here is extremely good and really copious!

picking at the delicious complementary cookies we found in the room upon arrival

Dealing with getting sufficient nutrition is merely a mechanical matter: insert food, chew, swallow, repeat. Coping with the varied silly and not so silly thoughts that enter ones head at a competition is a bit more complicated. Obviously, the general rule is to treat all thoughts with optimism. Luckily, El is naturally optimistic and very well balanced, so we don’t have monsters like “I’ll never get through this stage” or “I should quit because I can’t be the best”. Little bugs like “is the jury going to like my interpretation?” or “will my memory hold up?” are more common, and can generally be battled with a healthy dose of rational thinking, ie “I believe fully in my interpretation, therefore it will come across clearly, and that is all I have control over” or “I have been practicing this for two years, there is no way I could have a memory crash.”

Musically, now is the time to polish up the last bits of super detailed memory and to make sure that the musical intentions are coming through. We have done a lot of El playing, explaining her musical choices, and me listening to see if they are obvious enough or need to come out more. Music is strange like that – often exaggeration is in really bad taste, but not doing enough just buries the effect that you are trying to make. It is a hard balance to strike. Also, we are testing a new theory for second stage: fine-tuning muscle memory. Working on mental memory is what we usually concentrate on in the last moments before a performance, but equally important is to do the same work with the memory in the fingers for difficult passages.

the elosaurus-rex has returned (practicing character in the Yedid, first stage)

On a final note, El’s tendinitis has not returned!

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This afternoon, we had a lovely trip to the beach. The sun was hidden behind a light haze, so it was not too hot. The sand here is truly amazing; it is very fine and light, perfect for building sand castles! I appreciated the warm water and sandy bottom (with no nasty seaweeds to maliciously pull me in when no one is looking), though I am still dubious as to the presence of sharks (sharks live in the salty pacific, the Mediterranean is salty, therefore sharks live in the Mediterranean…) and those awful jellyfish things. I am really spoiled having grown up on the shores of lake Michigan with equally big beautiful waves, but without the awful salty taste and nasty lurking sea-creatures.

El makes a point, Remy agrees

Ruth and Gwen

I survived the beach!