By Robert Farley (cl_kaulana) | cl_kaulana@oocities.com | Vienna Strasse/7000
Connie Sunday is a serious lady whose talents and interests take root in her website. An accomplished musician, she is the founder of one of the most successful webrings on the Internet, the Violin WebRing. So effective is it in bringing together practitioners of the violin arts, the page was mentioned in the May '99 issue of _Strad_ magazine, "which is this gorgeous, glossy international mag for string players. ...I was awfully proud of that!" And well she should be. But with Connie's talents and abilities, such honors are really not surprising.
On a trip to one of the planet's large bodies of water |
GeoCities User Name: Connie Sunday, "Connie's Violin Page"
Real Name: Connie Sunday
URL(s): www.oocities.org/~cmsunday/
Email Addy: Accessible from webpage
Neighborhood(s) in which you are leader: Vienna/Strasse/6000-6499
Family: White calico, Annie (picture is on webpage, "Annie" link at top of index page)
Job and/or School Situation: Freelance violinist & composer
Favorite Composer (classical or not): Very difficult to answer; Vivaldi
Favorite Composition (classical or not): anything by Vivaldi, Bach Brandenburg concerti
Instruments You Play: violin, piano
Kaulana: How long have you had a webpage? At GeoCities?
Connie: A little over two years
K: How long have you been a community leader?
CS: Two years
K: What made you decide to join the CLs?
CS: Wanted to learn more about webpages and the internet.
K: What's the most important thing you've learned or done as a CL?
CS: Introduced other people to GC
K: What advice would you give someone trying to decide whether to apply to become a CL?
CS: How patient are they, and how good are they are writing out advice and directions to people.
Violinist Joseph Pizinger was one of Connie's more important musical influences. Some of his music was the subject of a dissertation proposal. |
K: What advice would you give someone deciding to major in music in college?
CS:
Are you insane? Get a job! Seriously, practice every single day no matter what. There were
years and years in my life when I practiced six hours during the day and had one or two or even three, two and a half-hour rehearsals or performances. All the talent (and ego!) in the world won't mean a thing if you don't work. And if you're not going to work, don't bother. My single regret is that I often let my emotions take up time which I should have put into studying, either practicing my instrument, studying theory at the piano, listening to music
with scores in hand. Try to develop yourself as a whole musician, not just as an instrumentalist; that is, listen to music of all kinds, all instruments and styles. Everything you do will contribute to your musicianship. And don't, whatever you do, say dumb things like "I played a song!!" A "song" is a piece that has words, like art song, popular song, aria, etc. A piece is a piece, or a sonata, or a symphony, or whatever, but it's not a "song." Be professional. Be on time, be reliable, be prepared, be a grown up. Otherwise no one will want to bother with you.
K: How has your choice of college and careers worked out? What or who were your influences for both or either?
CS: I've had a lifetime of joy; for me at least, playing the violin in orchestras and chamber groups is very addictive. It's just an incredible experience. It's also enabled me to meet a lot of remarkable people, travel, and really enjoy a lot of things I might never have had the opportunities to experience, had I lived a "normal" life. The musical life is hard though.
Influences: To me and a lot of musicians the great composers of the past are real people.
Bach (the old man, not the sons) was very humble; he said that "anyone could accomplish as
much as he did, if only they worked as hard" -- which is nonsense, of course. But he was very
passionate, I think. He had all those children. And his music is full of tenderness.
Mozart is a real person to me; he suffered a lot, he was so brilliant and funny in his
personal life. He had financial problems because his career flourished at a time when the
middle class in Germany was only just developing; musicians up to this more democratic time
were considered to be like servants (Haydn wore livery, the servant uniform, until the end of
his career when he was released to work in London), and Mozart tried to survive as a freelance musician. He was just slightly ahead of his time in this regard, and thus experienced all sorts of difficulties, despite his extraordinary brilliance, which was more appreciated outside his own country, during his lifetime. Beethoven fared much better, since he was a sharp businessman.
Beethoven would not take any nonsense from anyone! He and Goethe (the great German poet) met
once, two of the greatest creative minds of their age, really, and you would think they'd be
friends. Not so! Goethe and Beethoven were walking somewhere and they encountered some
royalty, some noblepeople. Goethe was bowing and scraping, while Beethoven was saying, they
should be bowing to *me.* And he was right, of course; he was BEETHOVEN, and he knew his own
value. But after that Beethoven always thought that Goethe was silly, and Goethe thought
Beethoven was crude.
Beethoven said, the more poorly he treated royalty, the better they treated him. And he was right; they adored Beethoven and could not do enough for him. Unlike Mozart, the event of his death was a state event with thousands of people in attendance.
Real life influences include several violinists I've known through school, several of my violin teachers, several of my professors, my family, and several friends that I've cared about deeply.
K: What sort of goals do you have for yourself in the next five years?
CS: Eventually I want to continue to work on my composing; I've been studying programming and I may finish my law degree.
K: Your programming studies are really paying off. I've noticed that your site keeps changing lately, and is much more technological than it was when I first visited. But enough for the serious questions. What kind of stuff do you like to do for fun? Where's the most exciting place you've ever vacationed? Or the most enjoyable?
CS: For enjoyment, I really like reading scientific books, philosophical essays (Bertrand Russell especially), and I also collect stamps. I like going to the ocean every year, somewhere on the planet.
K: What would someone never in a million years guess about you?
CS: I'm very troubled by racial violence, by killing animals for food, and just the general human condition.
K: Favorite sports? Hobbies? Activities?
CS: I love mountain bike riding and I'm a pretty good vegetarian cook.
K: I love a good mountain bike ride, too. What's some of your favorite vegetarian foods?
CS: Favorite foods: gazpacho, hummus, carrot/orange juice, pasta salads, three-bean soup with cornbread, tabouli, garlic mashed potatoes, curried sweet potatoes, and I like the MorningStar Farms soy products. If you fly or are in the hospital, always tell them you're a vegetarian: the food is so much better! Vegans not only don't eat meat, but don't eat dairy and eggs, and I've been doing that lately with great results.
K: That sounds great to me. I grew up with beans and cornbread as a staple, though I confess there were some carnivorous selections on my plate from time to time. Thank you, very much, for your time. You're one of the best leaders in GeoCities in my book, and we are very lucky that you are here. Aloha.
Robert (cl_kaulana) is an Ohio native who thinks most "new" music sounds like somebody from the 1970s. Currently residing in Hawaii, he rents movies from Blockbuster much less often now that the new television season has started.
