Hello, fellow Music Fans and Friends,
I have some exciting news to share from recent months. It has been a year of many “Firsts”.
In my Composition Kitchen, I have cooked up a few new pieces and had the good fortune of receiving a few premieres. In fact, one of them is my first HEAVY METAL Piece. You read that right. More specifically, this was my first venture in writing for the Brass band.
The piece is called Chorale on a Palestinnalied and I will be writing a co-authored post about it, and the experience working with the Ashtabula Brass Band soon, (pending that my cohort is available in the next few days). It is getting premiered tomorrow evening and if you are in the Northeast Ohio area tomorrow, April 7th, you should come hear all of the hard work they’ve put in. Here is a link to the concert information.
Also, I have had the invaluable opportunity to conduct some pieces (Thank you Bo and Jim!) Besides the Minneapolis Trombone Choir premiering the Freewill Fanfare, they were encouraging and kind enough to let me make my conducting debut with this piece.It was also my first year in the Ensemble of 35-40 plus trombones. Bo Violette has asked me to conduct a piece tomorrow as well. However, I am letting Bo conduct the Chorale for the concert, as I like to hear the music that is made with my pieces and the conductor is part of the ensemble in my opinion. If you want to find out which piece I get to wave the fancy stick at, please come to the concert tomorrow.
In other news, I am still part of the Westwind Swing Band and played my first gig…..on lead trombone…with (Ghasp!) lots of solos…for Four Hours! It was an adventure for the band and a fun concert, though my face hurt for a couple of days afterword. I don’t think I’ll be repeating that first any time soon, but the experience was worth it.
Glen, my old-new jazz horn (a Conn from the 1930’s) also made his debut after being restored by the Skillful Hand of Laurel Chapman at her Trombone Day spa.
Speaking of other firsts, besides this being my first year officially giving private lessons, my students are doing very well, which is encouraging on both ends. I just may venture out and try to teach more since I’ve found that I enjoy it… so far.
Recently, I joined the Golden Valley Orchestra and am looking forward to my first orchestral experience. All of that practice working on excerpts in college will finally come in handy. However, any commitment to ensembles will have to be limited to occasional sub opportunities, since I am trying not to stretch myself too thin between Musicing, Toastmasters, and work. Good thing that I am a natural night owl.
Hopefully, this year continues to be an exciting year of firsts and new experiences full of music (since the more of this I do, the happier I seem to feel overall). For now, I shall return to prepping for this Dress rehearsal tonight and contemplating my next piece and blog post.