Well, it's official. I will be attending the Northwest Horn Society's Symposium this year, which will be at Pacific Lutheran University. So it's really close. I will once again be attending as a vendor, which I'm really excited about because I have a ton of new music to sell, including a ton of a arrangements and a few new compositions, like my horn concerto. I'm also excited that my wife gets to come and tend to the booth with me.
An even bigger highlight of the symposium is that I'm taking the Whidbey Island Horn Club down to perform. This is incredible exciting for me, and for the group. I get to show the northwest what Whidbey Island has going on. And I know my ensemble will step up and work very hard to get prepared for this concert, because we all know it's the biggest performance we've ever had together, and it will determine a lot of judgement from our audience. There will be a ton of horn players from the Pacific Northwest there, including the Seattle Symphony horn section, and the 2nd hornist of the NY Philharmonic, although I'm not sure how many concerts they will attend. I know many local university professors will be there, which will be great news for our high schoolers and prospective college students. It'll be great. I've only just turned in an application to perform, so it's not technically official, but I'm sure we'll get accepted. I'll keep you informed.
I've also been busy preparing music for my brass ensembles, and I finished last week. I handed everyone their music this week. I'm super-excited for their programs. With my Harbor Brass (the middle school ensemble), which is 13-strong, I'm doing an arrangement of the Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchaikovsky and "Christus Factus Est" by Bruckner, both mine. These piece are awesome. I also added an arrangement of the Alleluia from Saint-Saens' "Christmas Oratoria", which isn't my arrangement. It's a nice little chorale that will help the ensemble sound good. My Penn Cove Brass (the high school group) is playing an arrangement of Berlioz's "March to the Scaffold" from Symphonie Fantastique, which is just an orchestra classic and compositional marvel. It's a pretty big undertaking for the group, but they have accepted the challenge. I'm also featuring the senior in the ensemble with Mvt. 1 of the Strauss Horn Concert, for which I've arranged an accompaniment for the ensemble. We've also added Schubert's March Militare, a piano work arranged for brass sextet (not by me).
Do you notice a theme here? All Romantic-era music. That's right. This whole year we are doing a "journey through history", and right now we are in the Romantic era. Oh! And I didn't mention the piece that both brass group are combining together to play: excerpts from the 5th movement of Mahler's 2nd Symphony! It's arrangement I put together of just bits and pieces, and it's awesome! I want to record it to show you guys...hopefully I can get to it sometime.
And I get to take my Harbor Brass again to the Junior Solo & Ensemble Festival next month. I did this last year, and it was a wonderful experience, so the kids are excited. I'll explain more about it later.
So yeah, I have a lot to look forward to. My job is amazing.
Take care and value music.