Most importantly, I am having another solo horn recital today. This time, I will be playing with a fine professional full-time pianist, Sheila Weidendorf, who resides here on Whidbey Island, and is responsible for arranging the venue for us to perform. And what a venue this is! Have you ever heard of a personal music salon? Basically, it's a large room or addition in a house that is decorated and designed for music performances for a small audience. A very nice gentlemen here in Oak Harbor has recently completed his five-year project on creating a fine music salon modeled after 19th-century Europe, I would guess. Thus, we are the first performers to use this space. It's beautiful!...complete with a Steinway & Sons grand piano! Man, it's been a while since I've played with one of those.
But anyways, our program. I'm going to play most of the music I played on my recital at the beginning of the month, as well as a couple additions. So, Mozart's "Concert Rondo", Dukas' "Villanelle" & Franz Strauss' Horn Concerto will be played again. I'm also adding Saint-Saens' Concert Piece for Horn, as well as an arrangement of an Aria from "Julius Caesar" by Handel. As an encore, I'm going to play one of Lowell Shaw's "Just Desserts". It's a monster program, but a good one!
Aside from the recital, I've been busy with a lot of other stuff. I had the inaugural rehearsal for my new brass ensemble called the Harbor Brass back on Thursday. This group is a tuition-based ensemble, aimed at middle school students for the time being. In time, the group will evolve to be more for high-school players, and I will in turn start the Junior Harbor Brass for the new generation of middle school students. But for now, my 7-member group of trumpets and trombones is the focus, consisting of kids entering either 6th or 7th grade. There's a lot to teach them, but they are doing well already. I'm excited for the future of this group!
I'm also starting up a horn club her on the island (name pending), which won't be tuition-based, but rather a group for any horn players willing to donate their time and some limited resources to get us playing together, and hopefully performing together. We're gonna meet in a couple weeks, so I'll update on that later.
And, of course, I'm playing jazz horn at the local Farmer's Markets for tips. I've done this twice so far, both times I got rained on pretty bad. The turnout at the markets have been slow because of the weather, but I've still made a few bucks. It's great to see the happiness on people's faces when I set up and play. Not every gives money, but a lot of folks give compliments. And for the musicians confidence and purpose, that's good enough.
Take care and value music.