Our Mozart in Provence!

This is one of a series of videos we have shot of Mozart playing violin in key places around the world that we are doing to commemorate our special world tour. We are in the process of editing a compilation of all that we have taken thus far, but thought we would show one since some have been asking for them. Now that the first one is up, some wanted to hear her actually playing & we will record more soon for our records.

This is in Provence, France just days after Mozart's sixth birthday at the world heritage site of Pont du Gard, the highest Roman aqueduct ever built. She is playing "Perpetual Motion" on her third violin which is a 1/16 size.

It is a sophisticated piece for someone to learn at early 5 like she did, but she is not a prodigy nor are our videos meant to promote her talents. It is part of recording and sharing our adventure with family, friends and readers.

We are doing these on the move so the sound and conditions are not the best, nor is it her best playing. This is not a performance, but just a young kid doing a quick practice while touring, in the midst of gathering crowds taking pictures behind us. She an exuberantly joyful child, but she needs to concentrate when playing, especially under these circumstances, so tends to look serious in these videos.

Getting these videos in famous places turned out to be trickier than we imagined, but we are still very glad that we have done them & get better as we go. This is one of the earlier ones.

To those who know little about violin or music, she is playing Perpetual Motion here which is an advanced piece for her age. When she was barely 5 she played it at Stanford with all the Suzuki kids in the SF Bay area.She was the only 5 year old playing it and most of the kids were in the 9 to 12 range. She did not have any lessons our first 14 months of our trip, but practiced every day for a few minutes. She is on a very small violin and they do not have great sound quality and her parents are not musical so we just do the best we can to support her.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Soultravelers3
• travel
• Mozart
• Pont
• du
• gard
• violin
• family
• around-the-world
• France

[steflondon88]

howcome she doesnt smile very much, is she just very focused on what shes doing??

[soultravelers3]

@steflondon88 Yes, she is young & these are basically quick practices, not performances., done in seconds while we tour. Little kids don't smile when they are focusing on a fairly hard piece of music when they are practicing. She is a VERY smiley and joyful child...exceptionally so, which you can see by our many videos. Her nature is extremely joyous, but even a child like that is not constantly smiling. ;)

[brubldi]

for children its never good to change the place to often...

children need stability (from wich the family is a big part, but also to have a "fix" home is important for children, especially in their first years)!!!

but well...

[soultravelers3]

@brubldi HOGWASH! I, like MANY people grew up with LOTS of moving & it helped me greatly in becoming very successful in life. Stability is given by a warm, supportive, loving family. Our child is luckier than most as she had more time with BOTH parents AND gets to see the world with them instead of just reading about it. She also lived in the same house for her first 5 years & has returned to same village in Spain for the last 4 years. Webcams & internet keeps relations connected 4 ever!

[OliviaSBee]

Your daughter is so talented! I've been to Pont du Gard too :)

[steflondon88]

@soultravelers3 I stand corrected. what a grouch i must have been to say that.. im sorry

[phlegmilyb]

I <3 FRANCE

[soultravelers3]

Thanks ulanis, You're right! We go slow, green and put thought into doing this in a way that enhances all of our lives. Our primary reason is to educate our child in a "hands on" way and have time together. The world is such a wonderful place to learn. ;)

The internet is also another part of the world that helps us so much as we go. I found an amazing violin teacher on Twitter who is from Russia and lives in the US, she takes lessons via skype webcam!

[ulanis]

I don't think travelling a lot as a lifestyle is a way of spoiling a child. On the contrary, she gets way more enriching hands-on experiences. They don't seem to go to places for the luxe, but rather staying for a certain time long enough to know the place. That is interesting.

[soultravelers3]

@ChaseAfterYourDreams Thx! Don't worry, we only spoil her with love & one can never have too much of that in life!

We travel the world non-stop since 2006 just as a way of life that allows us to enjoy more time together.

I don't think she wants to be a musician, nor a linguist with her 3 fluent languages, but they should serve her well in life & learning them enriches her in many ways + something she can pass on to her kids!