Stellae Boreales – An Ottawa Suzuki Strings Violin Ensemble

Evan's Blog of yea...
A new day! So many days passed so fast! Breakfast...a bad start. No salmon, salami, or croissants. I only had oranges and tomatoes. The only "breakfast combo" I had was fish and cheerios (just like the first day of Iceland.) I mixed my orange juice with one of the Koolaid sugar packs Jezlyn gave me (thanks Jezlyn!) but after I finished drinking it, I still had sugar on the bottom of my cup. The apple juice had honey in it. Weird lol? Oh well, I was waiting 5 minutes to get my key for my coat. I can't believe so many people didn't come! (Ahemmm, almost no little girls.) I felt bad that Ethan had allergies. I haven't experienced any yet, but I've been having fun with videos like the coffee drinking (Devon can show you.)
(Devon and Jezlyn playing angry birds. Was I supposed to write that?)
Oops, oops, the museum didn't open until 10:oo. Learning about the history of Iceland, seeing human viking skeletons, the Viking still has his bones connected to the body. Devon and Olivier moving 0.1km/hr, Jezlyn tasering me. Good museum though!
Lunch was fine! I came a bit late to get bread, but I really enjoyed the soup. Walking to the master class, me and Devon were laughing louder than the busy streets of Snorrabraut (named that because drunk drivers are snorring.)
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Dinner was awesome! There was chicken burgers and drumsticks! I took 12 drumsticks and 6 strips. "Sorry chickens, I was too hungry!"
The concert was just fine. No need to talk about it, unless you want to hear about my dehydration.
The convenience store visit was roger that. I got 2 Cokes and 1 water bottle. Coming back to the hotel, I just made a new video with Devon.
I guess I'm done, because the last statement here is that I am writing my blog on Jezlyn's mom's computer. Good luck next bloggers and next day!
ER

What an amazing concert!  This is Stellae Boreales' 5th out of 6 concerts in Iceland and they just keep getting better and better.  Today's concert was held at Bustadarkirkja Church and although the concert was not advertised until this morning and the weather was the nicest it has been all summer, there were still many attendees.
As they played through their repertoire, the applause got louder and more intense with each piece, including a standing ovation for soloist Jae-won.
When the concert was over, the audience gave the group a standing ovation which turned into clapping for an encore.  The group played Poeme for the cheering and teary-eyed crowd.
All the violinists were so excited with the feedback that they had received that the chaperones decided to reward them with ice cream on the way back to the hotel.
It was quite an evening to remember...
NL (parent)

I have an Icelandic hero!   He is Oliver, our bus driver, who saved me from the humiliation of forgetting the concert programs.  We were all off the bus at Bustadarkirkja  and I was walking through the wide wooden doors into the lobby when I realized – no music bag that carried the box of programs that Sherry and I were to distribute to the audience!  What to do?  Olli was driving away but I ran out and told him my predicament.  Dare I ask?  Was he allowed?  Could he possibly?  Take me back to get the programs?  “I can do that” Olli smiled and replied.

So I got a solo trip in a 48 seater coach to the FossHotel Baron and after a sprint to my room for the programs back to the church in lots of time to greet our audience.

Thanks to my hero – Oliver!

JH (Grandma)

What a nice day!  We started off the day by visiting the National Museum of Iceland.  I found it surprisingly more exciting than I thought it would be!  Charlotte, Jerry , Bennett, Ethan and me took funny pictures of us in costumes, listened to videos about Icelandic history and played on Nintendos and whiteboards after the museum’s visit .  Later, we ate a delicious lunch of fruits, soup, bread and carrot cake and headed off to the masterclass with Gudny.  She gave many helpful  tips at every single part of the pieces that my colleagues played.  I was happy to be there.  I found it hilarious how both Bennett and Jerry hurried to reach their cameras to film Jae-Won play Devil’s Trill!
M-SP

For the past couple of days,  I have been a bit stressed I must admit.  But after performing solos at various venues across Iceland, I feel great.  I’ve learned many useful  tips by attending the masterclass es and I look forward to applying my new found knowledge to my future performance.  This has been an awesome trip!
J-WS

Tonight was a brilliant night! We entered Bustadarkirkja to gorgeous organ music reverberating through the church: it was thrilling. We played our music beautifully. The music sounded great not only because of our expert playing but also because there were good acoustics. Simi was our first soloists, and she came up onto the stage looking confident even though she was nervous! She played the melody beautifully, the notes soaring into the church. The superb duet was played by Mathew and Laura, the two parts merging into one gorgeous piece.   Jae-won played his solo amazingly. The contrast was superb with the lyrical first part going into the quick exciting second part. The greatly appreciative audience even gave him a standing ovation! We finished with the combined repertoire. Ave Maria and Poeme were stirringly played and I’m certain they touched the hearts of everyone there. The Bach Double was a great contrast to the two slower pieces.  The audience began applauding and gave us a standing ovation! They kept applauding and we ended up giving three bows before we walked off. The claps began to get into a steady rhythm and before long they were asking for an encore! We played Poeme again even though many of us thought we should have done Hungarian Dance instead.  We stopped on the way back to the hotel for ice cream as a treat for such a stupendous concert.  Even though I was the first that got ice cream, I wasn’t the first to finish it! We had a successful concert and we had a lot of fun afterwards. Iceland is a great place to be!
U.M