Please join us in congratulating faculty member, Jessica Wiersma, violin, who has accepted a position with the national tour of Hamilton. Ms. Jessica has been a valuable member of our ISA faculty since 2016, and we will miss her immensely. Her dedication to excellence and her commitment to her students have been so valuable to the ISA, and we are grateful for all Ms. Jessica has done for the ISA. Congratulations, Ms. Jessica!
We are pleased to announce that Ms. Yuri Uchida, current ISA Violin Faculty, will be able to take over for Ms. Jessica's students and teaching. Ms. Yuri is a violinist with extensive knowledge in performance and teaching. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Northwestern University with Almita Vamos. During her senior year, she won a two-year fellowship with Civic Orchestra of Chicago, training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, serving as Assistant Principal Second Violin in her second year.
She went on to obtain her Master of Music degree after the fellowship with Sibbi Bernhardsson, violinist from the Pacifica Quartet, where she was the recipient of the Jacob School of Music Scholarship Award and the Artistic Excellence Award. During her time at Indiana, she received Beginning/Intermediate Violin training with the renowned Mimi Zweig and taught her String Academy students as well as her professor’s pre-college students.
In the summer seasons, Yuri has traveled all over the world to participated in number of festivals, such as Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, Litomysl Masterclasses in Czech Republic by Milan Vitek from Oberlin Conservatory, the QuartetFest in Victoria, BC, and Astona International in Zurich, Switzerland. She has also played in masterclasses by renowned violinists and professors, such as Rachel Barton Pine, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Paul Kantor, and William van der Sloot.
Yuri completed her ECC Training in Deerfield, IL, her Suzuki Book 1 with Linda Stieg, and Suzuki Book 2 with Esther Fellows. Currently, she resides in Indianapolis and can be seen performing regularly with major ensembles such as Nashville Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra
So my mother-in-law has come to stay and, for once, I don’t know why I was worrying about it. Visits by anyone usually make me tense. I can’t seem to get away from the 'is my house tidy enough?’ panic.
I then get into a state about food and what to cook and 'are any towels clean?’ and 'oh God, why don’t the children ever flush the loo?’ and, though my mother-in-law has not once complained about the stench of boy in the downstairs bathroom, a visit usually sends me spiralling out of control.
But not this time. In fact, a rather wonderful calm has settled on our house. For a start, my husband and I cannot row in front of his mother, which means that the past few weeks of friction seem to calm down somewhat.
Part of it is, I am sure, down to my husband’s mother. Every time I turn around she is baking, cleaning and washing up. She is also, fortunately, one of those blessed women who doesn’t moan about the way her grandchildren are being brought up. Every time they swear – 'I said ship, not sh—,’ Jerry keeps saying to her – she pales slightly but not once does she tell me they shouldn’t have such dreadful language at their age.
If she did, I would be forced to explain that having a teenager in the house has put paid to anything resembling innocence. The other day Raymond, now nearly 14, took Jerry’s birthday presents – a Dr Who figure and a Dalek – and placed them in such a compromising position even I blanched.
'It’s only man sex,’ Raymond said giggling.
'I know,’ I said.
'Do you?’ he said, looking slightly shocked.
The presence of my mother-in-law also means my husband and I go out for dinner and bond over talking about her. We discuss the fact she has been ill, what the doctors have or haven’t done to help, whether or not she should move to live near us.
At the end of her last evening with us my husband leans back in his chair and says, 'What a lovely night.’ We walk home, hand in hand, under the stars and, as we go to sleep that night, I bless the day she came to stay.