I got to the last song on the Shinozaki Violin Method Vol.1. It's called "Wakai Tsubasa" (lit. "Young Wing"), by a Japanese composer named Taijiro Go (1907-1971). It's a duet (for two violins) and, basically, it's quite cheerful, fast-paced, and has sequences of successive repeated notes that quickly get confusing and is easy to mess up :P .
I learned the first violin part and performed a duet with my teacher Fabiane Suzuki (before anyone asks, no, despite her surname and the fact that she's a violinist, she has nothing to do with the Suzuki from the violin method :P ). Here goes the recording.
Download/listen: wakai-tsubasa-duet-f01.ogg (OpenDrive) | wakai-tsubasa-duet-f01.mp3 (4shared)
Soon after that, I also had the opportunity to perform along with Juan Rossi, also a violinist and a teacher - he even studied in Austria and performs at OSESP (São Paulo State Symphony), a great reference). It was an honor to perform with him!
Download/listen: wakai-tsubasa-duet-j01.ogg (OpenDrive) | wakai-tsubasa-duet-j01.mp3 (4shared)
It was a lot of pressure. Performing along with the superb teachers, while knowing it was being recorded! (well, I had been the one to suggest recording, actually...) While I performed, I did my best not to think about anything else, and focused completely on my violin part so that I wouldn't get lost in the mess of notes. The music is fast, and I hurried to follow the accompaniment (rather than it accompanying me :P ) to not get left behind. At least I didn't get paralyzed and managed to be in sync with the second violin until the end. Despite going out of tune some times and a few little mistakes, the results came out rather nice (pressure and stuff considered), and I felt very accomplished. Doing the duets was quite the experience! Now, on to learning the second violin part...