It's been a lot of fun, though. The Harbor Brass and Penn Cove Brass are thriving, and had a really great Halloween Concert. We'll do our Winter Concert tomorrow, chock full of music from my Christmas Quartets book, music from the Polar Express and Home Alone, and an except from the Nutcracker called "In the Christmas Tree", which is a beautiful piece. And both groups have a good number fo kids in them, and are playing really quite well. The Harbor Brass has 13 members, and the Penn Cove Brass 14. It's very exciting!
I still have a sizable student load for lessons, just not as many as last year. And my studio is overall younger than last year, but there is a lot of good talent. And my advanced players are still really making a name for themselves. All but one of my high school students that auditioned for the All-State honor groups...even a couple of my middle school students made it to Junior All-State! I have one player in the Chamber Orchestra and one in the Wind Ensemble, which are the top groups there. I'm really looking forward to seeing that music they get to play and to help them get really good at it. My friend Chris Dyel, the band director in Anacortes, has over 30 students going. That's an insane amount from a small school!
Now we prepare for Solo & Ensemble, and I'm very excited for this year. I've got a trio of really great players playing this piece called "English Madrigal Suite" that I just love. I've got a good number of soloists, although a couple less than last year. And of course, the Penn Cove Brass will play. This year I'm trying not to think so competitively, just because our experience last year at Solo & Ensemble was so confusing. It's really hard to judge this competition, and to know how you fare against others, because the decision just comes down to the opinions and preferences of 1 or 3 people. So this year I am preparing the students to do the best they can do, not only getting them technically prepared, but also musically. We aren't going to worry so much about how we stack up against others, and instead will just do the best we know we can do, and let the judge make his or her decision.
At the start of the school year I was asked to start a chapter of the Fidalgo Youth Symphony, which is an extracurricular orchestra program in Mt. Vernon, WA, that I participated in when I was in high school. It is run by Sharyn and Malcolm Peterson, two dear friends of mine. I was happy to take it on, and so we know have a Whidbey Island Youth Orchestra! Well, we don't have a full orchestra yet, but we have about 15 total members. So what we do for now is we rehearse the music that the Fidalgo Youth Orchestra is rehearsing, and then join them for their concert. We had one of those concerts yesterday at the beautiful McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon. It was an absolute blast, and I feel like my students really made a big impact. The Penn Cove Brass played their own tune at this concert, too, and we sounded amazing. Even the Anacortes Wind Orchestra played a piece. It was quite a show! Long, but very fun. The hope is that this Whidbey Island Youth Orchestra will grow into a bigger group where we can have our own concerts, as well as join forces with the Fidalgo Youth Symphony sometimes. It's very exciting!
I'm also playing when I can, though practice at home has been limited. I went and played a very fun Holiday program with the Yakima Symphony last weekend, which included one of my favorite Christmas arrangements for orchestra, "The Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 1". If you haven't all 4 suites of this piece, you've got to check them out...they are so good! And then, next weekend the Saratoga Orchestra plays their holiday concert, which includes Peter and the Wolf and a bunch of holiday tunes. I'm really looking forward to this one.
So now I feel like my busy times are winding down a bit, and I can sit down and start working on some projects again. I'm trying to figure out which arrangement I want to make next...I will keep you up to date, I promise!
Take care and value music.