Utah Symphony Orchestra & a Discovery!

This evening I took the three oldest girls to see the Utah Symphony Orchestra with David Cho, conducting and Ralph Matson soloist.  The program was All Beethoven, so the girls were very familiar with the music. 

When we arrived we ran into our friends, the Sun family and once again (because of their presence) got to meet several community members, including the President of our local University. 

During the intermission, the soloist, Ralph Matson came and sat down next to Xuxu.  She was absolutely thrilled because of his incredible performance and they chatted during the remainder of the intermission.  She came home with a much prized program with his autograph on it. 

We ran into him again after the performance and our violin teacher (Ling) asked him if he knew any string musicians who played with a prosthetic.  He said he did know of one, a young man who plays the violin and who attended The Curtis Institute of Music.  He gave us both his email address and said that he would get more information for us about this young man.  He was very encouraging as he spoke about the things that Mouse could do to compensate for the lack of mobility in her wrist.   I am become more and more enthusiastic about Mouse’s opportunities to continue playing the viola!

Update:  I did more research and found this article about the young violinist!  His name is Adrian Anantawan. I can not tell you how excited I am to see this! Just the video (below) gave me huge insight into how they make a prosthetic that allows a lighter touch! I can’t wait to forward this to our teacher, violin maker and prosthetic doctor!