"Played a piece from the beginning until the end without stopping for the first time"

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)

Last Saturday our organ studio "Unda Maris" at Vilnius University played a joint concert at St John's church.

One of the pieces on the program was J. Pachelbel's Chaccone in F Minor which was played by Mindaugas Dulkys, a chemistry student at the university.

​Mindaugas hopes to discover some new medicine which would cure some incurable illnesses in the future using his chemistry skills.

For a long time he struggled to play this piece without stopping in public although when he practiced on his own it was fine.

Last night he wrote a few words about his feelings during this concert which you may find inspiring:

"This year for the first time in my life I've been playing a large-scale work which was written in the key with 4 accidentals.  When I first started learning it, I felt scared because some variations are more difficult than others I  was afraid I will not be able to master them. But during our concert I played the whole piece from the beginning until the end and I'm very happy about it and actually quite proud, although some mistakes were still audible.

I'm very grateful to the leaders of our studio for showing me the right way in learning the piece, for their patience and encouragement which was so necessary during these critical moments. Thanks!"

Vidas and I can only say we're extremely proud of Mindaugas' progress and hope he will not stop here.

​When was the first time when you played a difficult piece in public without stopping?