I had two soloists from Coupeville participate, as well as my Harbor Brass Choir. This year, the Harbor Brass played my transcription of Gabrieli's Canzona Per Sonare No. 3, which I set to 2 trumpet parts and 2 trombone parts. There are 11 players in the group, so there were 2-3 players per part. They gave one hell of a performance, and I'm very proud of them. They really handled this piece well, a polyphonic work with very independent parts, all without a conductor. Ensembles aren't allowed to have conductors for this things. No matter, because these kids knew the music so well that they can easily do it. They had it going without me conducting two weeks ago. So I'm feeling really great about the Harbor Brass Program, and once again, am very happy that it exists.
I also added a really cool recording to my "Recordings" page. I am doing an arrangement I made of some music from Mvt. 5 of Mahler's 2nd Symphony with my brass ensembles combined, so I recorded it to help the students learn it better. This was quite an undertaking for me, because not only is the piece about 7 minutes long, but it really pushed my abilities on trumpet and trombone, particularly in terms of high range. I really cannot play very well when notes are above the staff on trumpet, so it took a few tries. On trombone, I can definitely play high, but the notes aren't centered as well. At least the horn playing in the recording is great. Hehe. Anyways, I feel I made quite a serviceable recording of it, so please have a listen to it.
So what does the week have in store for me? Well, I have a lot to prepare for my vendor booth at the NW Horn Workshop: Printing, making new arrangements, etc. I also want to see if I can have shirts made with our logo. I'm also starting to think about programming for my brass ensemble after our March 26th concert, as well as for the brass camp. Most importantly, though, I've got a big Saratoga Orchestra concert coming up with a ton of great American symphonic and jazz music, so I need to get in practice for that. I still haven't gotten a good horn practice routine going yet, mainly because of spending so much time on recording that arrangement last week. So that's the goal.
If only I had time to compose original stuff...sigh.
Take care and value music.