14-year-old violinist Pilar Winter Hill takes us through her weekly routine leading up to her big performance for professional violinist, Lindsey Sterling.
Between 11 hours of practice a day, learning her most difficult piece yet, and getting a good night sleep, watch and see how this teen violinist balances it all.
[violin tuning][violin music]- Hi, I'm Pilar Winter Hill andI'm a 14-year-old violinist.I've been playing violinfor eight and a half years.I practice 11 hours aday, and I'm a studentat Julliard Pre-college.- Hi, Pilar!- Hi![applause]- From practicing my violinto living in New York City,this is one week in my life.I hope I can do this.[xylophone playingPaganini Caprice No.
24]The piece I was practicingthis week was the 24th Capricecomposed by Niccolo Paganini.This is him, right here.This is considered to be oneof the most difficult piecesever written for solo violin,and it's one of my favorites.It's got really difficultthings like parallel octaves,rapid shifting, really fastscales, left hand pizzicato,double stops, triple stops, AKA chords.When I first heard this piece,when I was like really young,I remember hearing theleft hand pizzicato part.[pizzicato violin]This part of the pieceis like, really hardbecause it's unlike mostof the other violin pieceswhere the pizzicato iswith your right hand.So it's like, it's notlike [plucks strings], it's[plays violin]I didn't know you could dothat with the violin at first,so I was just watching itlike, Oh, how do you do that?I want to learn how to do that.And this week, I was workingon it really intentlybecause of this really bigperformance I was preparing for.I practice violin forup to 11 hours a day.Here's what my day usually looks like:It's 7:00 AM right now.I just woke up.Before I start practicing,I like to do yoga.I'm following social distancing,so I'm away from everybody else.Yoga really helps me becauseit really calms my mindand violinists can getcarpal tunnel or tendonitis.Stretch the fingers.I usually break mypractice into three shifts.So I have my morning,afternoon and evening.During my morning practice session,I don't practice any of my pieces.I only practice form ofexercises like scales, arpeggios,and etudes.And these exercises are really helpful,especially just to keep yourfingers nice and relaxedand fluid.My first practice shiftlasts for around four hours.After my first practice session,I'll usually eat lunchor run some errands.Yummy ice cream sandwiches.It's like beginning to rain,so I have to hurry home,but I got some great snacks.For lunch, sometimes I'll eat at home.This looks so good.Or sometimes I'll go out.Oh my God, I haven't beento a restaurant in months.I'm so excited.My afternoon practice isjust the chance for meto take the piece thatI will be performingand really break it down andpractice it really slowly.After my second shift of practicing,I'll usually eat dinner with my familyor have some family time andI'll usually go on social mediajust to keep up to date withmy followers and supporters.So for my third and final practice shift,I usually take the parts thatI worked on really slowlyin my second practice shift,and I work on them at tempo,which means to play at the speedthat they would normallybe played in the concert.One of the thingsthat my teacher and Iwere working on this weekwas just really helping withthe Italian style of playing.So Niccolo Paganini was anItalian virtuoso violinistand amazing musician.And my teacher has beenhelping me with, you know,playing it more of like an opera singer,just playing the violinlike you're singing itso that people can be like,Oh, it sounds like opera, this piece,you really want the bass to come out more.[fast violin music]And then maybe you maybe wantthe soprano to come out more.When I officially startedplaying the violin,I was six years old and I hadsuch a hunger for learningthat like the half houra week with one teacherwasn't really enough.At one point I had like five teachers,including a music theory teacher.Yeah, sure, it wasn't one ofthe most conventional waysof learning the violin, butit was cool because I wasgetting different ideasfrom different teachersand when I would play in one lesson,my teacher would be like,I don't remember teaching you that.I really love playing theviolin, and when I go to bed,I am very exhausted becauseit's like a full workout.You know, all the muscles are working.It's around 11 o'clock.I'm ready to turn in.Good night.So, I've had my violinfor around four years now.It's more of a modern violin.It's Dutch, it's made in the 1930s.It's still relatively young.It's 90 years old in violin years.So there are violins that have been madein like the 17th century, 18th century.And there is a difference in sound.The violin is a very delicateinstrument and overexposureto heat and cold weather,hot and cold weather,can actually be very damaging.It can crack the wood.So I use this littledevice called a Damp-it,and I dip it in water, I moisturize itand it just keeps thehumidity levels stablewhen I practice.I keep it in overnightand I practice with it.When I perform, I don't have it in.I also, whenever I play outside,I have to make sure it's onlymaybe 15 minutes at a time.I can never do a full hour outside.So my bow is made out ofhorse hair, the hairs,and some hairs are different colors,but mine is with the more standard way.And over time I can losea little bit of hair.So do you see it there'slike a little gap over here?And it has accumulated somesweat and oil from my hand,as well.This is my rosin and I haveto focus a little bit moreon the lower half.
And Idon't do this every day.Only when I feel like I really need it.It just gives the violin anice, clean and vibrant sound.I also have to wipe therosin dust off the violinbecause over time it can getkind of gross and sticky.This week, my bow has beengiving me a little bit of troublebecause it needs a rehair.And because I was usingthe rosin a lot more,I had to keep wipingthe dust off the violin,because I didn't want anythingto happen to the violin,Since I had this reallybig performance coming up,I was really stressed thatmy bow wouldn't make it.The night before my performance,I broke my string in half.I was in the middle ofpractice, and then my string,my E string just snappedin half.
[chuckle]My performance is literally tomorrowand I was hoping thatI had another string,and thank God I did.The string is so thin, I actually thoughtthat it wasn't in there,so I was freaking out like,Oh, no!Thank God it didn't happenduring my performance,which is tomorrow.That was scary.I really wanted to practicelater in the evening.But since my string broke,I decided to wrap up early and start againearlier the next morning.The night before my performance,I did a really cool facial.One of the things that I've been exploringduring the COVID-19 globalshutdown are facials.I am super excited about myperformance for tomorrow.It is drying, so I can't really move.Good morning.
It's 4:00 AM.I got up really early so I can practice.The morning of the performance,I was feeling so refreshed.And I went straight to practicing.As you can see, I'm still in my pajamas.I want to have a really good breakfast,so I had some avocado toastand I'm going to hurry upbecause I have to get back to practicingbecause in a couple of hours,I will be performing for Lindsey Stirling.I don't really feel like eating.I just want to practice andlike, why do I have to eat?But it's just really goodto just give your bodyall the energy that you will need.So even though the concert was on Zoom,I still wanted to get dressed up.And the dress that I chose,has a little backstory to it.When I performed at theWomen in the World Summit,the 10th annual Summit lastyear, I remember I was backstageand I was getting ready to perform,and I walked by Anna Wintour.She just looks at me and she says,"Oh, your dress is so pretty."I was blown away and I wasso humbled by the comment.And so I decided that I reallywant to wear this dress.It's showtime.- Hi everyone.
Thankyou so much for coming.- I was actually warming upright before I joined the Zoom call.- Today we are so fortunateto have our special guest,Ms. Lindsey Stirling.- She joins and she's like,- Hi, Pilar, how are you?- And I'm like, great, thankyou so much for coming.I couldn't believe likeI've seen her videosand her medleys.I love the way she combineschoreography and music together.It's just so magical, andjust to see her right thereon the computer talking to me,I was like, Oh my goodness.- I'm so excited.- When she joined the call,I was definitely like,Oh, this is real.
I amperforming for Lindsey Stirling.- What are you going to be playing today?- I will be playing the 24th Capriceby Niccolo Paganini.Once I played the first note,I was just ready to set the stage.[violin plays]When I perform, it's justme, the violin and the bow,and I'm just really going into this spacewhere I'm really incorporatingwhat I've been practicingfor the past week, really justemoting and telling a storythrough my playing.I'm not thinking about like,Oh, I hope I hit thisnote or I do this right.It's like, go for it.If I feel like I make amistake, I keep going.[violin playing]- [Man] Yay!- Wow, oh my gosh.
Chills the whole time.And that is just one of thelike premium violin pieces.- When I finished the last note,I'm just feeling so relieved,and I'm just feeling like,okay, I did it.
It wentreally well, and I can't waitto just listen to whateveryone has to say.- I just can't say enoughabout like your articulation,your use of the bow andusing the appropriate placesof the bow to get all theexpressions that you did,the variety and the depth thatyou brought into that piecewas just phenomenal.And thinking about music as a storychanged everything for me,and it made it reallyfun to then write piecesand tell stories.And you are a storyteller just in the wayyou played your violin today.- And I'm like, yeah, I know,that's what I was practicing.I was really trying to expressthat through my playing.And I was like, wow, she noticedthat!
Like, Oh my goodness.It was just, it was an amazing moment.And I will always remember,- It will be really excitingto see how you take itinto like sharing it, maybe,with-- in different ways.- Thank you.- Good luck to all ofyou guys.
You're amazing.You're beautiful.
You're strong.And I feel so lucky I got tospend this morning with you.- Oh my God, I'm like sweating right now.Like it was really hot andoh my God, I'm so happy.What I love most aboutplaying the violin ishow I can really expressmy feelings and emotionsthrough playing to an audience.It's just such an amazing feelingwhen I get to hear feedbackand how they're like,Oh yeah, it's so beautiful.I could feel you're telling a story.I can feel how you'rereally feeling the music.I get to put my ownfeelings into the instrumentand it's like thisconnection that we both haveand it's beautiful.