First off, the brass concert here on Whidbey Island last weekend was a huge success! We have a very receptive (and on the 2nd day, numerous) audience for our 2-hour long brass bash. Everyone played pretty darn well and received praise, including yours truly. A particular highlight was this young tubist named Andy Abel, who played the 2nd movement of the Vaughn Williams Concerto, as well as played for every other piece, too. What a talent, that kid.
And I get to perform again this weekend, playing Wagner's "Siegfried" Idyll with the Saratoga Symphony of Whidbey Island. I'm playing principal horn for this one. The first horn part on "Siegfried Idyll" is quite good, full of melody, 2 big solos, and many little ones. I've performed this piece before, back in 2013 with the UW-Milwaukee Orchestra, also on first horn. That time, I was in the presence of great composer Kirke Mecham, since we were playing his "Songs of the Slave" on that concert, an absolutely wonderful work. But anyways...wish me luck on "Siegfried Idyll" this weekend! It's a monster...
I've also acquired my very own Zoom H4n recorder, which is a very high-quality portable digital audio recorder. I've been wanting one of these for a while, since I didn't have a high-quality, reliable and easy way to record myself playing horn (and other instruments) with my iMac. Now, I can record myself doing all sorts of stuff: Etudes for my students, rehearsals and lessons, and most importantly, my compositions & arrangements for horn. I'll even record myself playing each part of a piece and put them together to have a complete recording of the piece with the Garage Band program. I have a bunch of ideas planned with this recorder, and it will allow for many more recordings of my works to be posted here. I'll keep you updated.
I turned in my Resume for the 2nd horn audition with the Seattle Symphony last week, and I'm still waiting to hear from them with the packet of stuff I need to prepare. I plan on keeping a video blog on my preparation for this audition, mainly for educational purposes with my students, but also for anyone who's just interested in seeing the process. I'll post the videos on YouTube, which I'll then post on this page. I'm not going to make the videos "public," just "unlisted".
Take care and value music.