FInishing up the tidbits, moving on…
Monday May 25 2009
I’m finishing up my school year, and am down to playing on one recital, and one “pops concert” left. This past week we did Mahler “Symphony 1”, and Maslanka’s “A Child’s Garden of Dreams”, both of which had quite a good amount of oboe stuff. I was relatively pleased with my playing on both of them, although I know when I listen to the playback there will be some things that I’ll cringe at.
I really have no more classes or finals, so other than attending a few token things, I’m pretty much done. Commencement is June 13th, and upon the wishes of my parents, I will indeed walk. Meanwhile I’m just catching up with all of my reed orders, and have about 8 left before I’m pretty much caught up.
Looking over my records, I noticed I have lost some clients over the past year and half. I recently ordered some of my competition’s reeds to see what else is still on the market and am convinced that my reeds are the finest on the market. I’m determined to win back some clientele, so if you have moved on to greener fields recently, I encourage you to try my reeds again. Besides, my reeds are always unconditionally refundable within a week of receiving them. I’ll even refund the shipping!
I’ve figured out how to upload audio clips to my website, although there are some odd flaws in my website. I was able to upload movements 1 and 2 of the Saint Saens sonata, but when I went to upload the 3rd, it said I have a MIME… error. So, I need to contact my website designer and see what’s up.
Ich Habe Genug! (Literally!)
Saturday February 28 2009
I’ve had enough! Finished my DMA… audition at Arizona State University about 40 minutes ago, and while I didn’t do great, I didn’t do terribly. It’s so dry down here compared to Oregon, that if I didn’t constantly suck on my reed, it’d dry out and close up very quickly. I played 2nd and 3rd movement of the Poulenc, 1st and 2nd movement of the Mozart Quartet, and Nigeria from Tomasi.
The whole experience was quite frantic. I couldn’t find a pianist until Thursday morning, which was stressful enough. I called about 10 pianists before I finally found one available. After the Allan Vogel Masterclass, I drove up to Portland and got there at 4:45 to catch a 5:25 flight, which got me into Phoenix at 9pm. I had a rental car by 10:00pm and went directly to the music school where I rehearsed with my pianist until midnight. Woke up at 7am, ate breakfast, went to the school and checked reeds, started each movement with my pianist, and played the audition at 10:00am. Whoo!
Today I’ll drop on by with Mr. Weber, and maybe dinner with him or Hannah Selznick or both. Tomorrow at 8:30am I fly out and should arrive at Portland around 10:30, where I’ll drive down to Eugene and play my 4pm concert!
Hm— Spring break is looking really good right about now—
Busy Week
Monday February 23 2009
I’m not sure if anyone is reading on this new site, but if you are, leave me a message and let me know!
This past week has been crazy, and this next week is even crazier. Today (Monday) I went in early and got 1 hour of practicing done at 9am. Then I went to Bible study until 10:00 am. Then I finished up my 12 page paper at noon and turned it in and gave a 1 hour presentation on Schwantner’s usage of Music, Text, and Gesture in “New Morning for the World” for my 3 hour seminar course on Music and Gesture. Then I had 1 hour to respond to emails before I went to rehearsal until 5:30! My mind is barely functioning, but it has to. Because—
I have a million reed orders. Not a million, only about 40 reeds I need to make.
I am playing on a masterclass with Alan Vogel on Friday, in which I am playing the entire Mozart Quartet for him. The masterclass goes from 11-1pm
And then at 1pm I’m driving up to Portland and dropping off my car where a friend will drive me to the airport so that I can jump on a flight at 5:00pm to Arizona.
And then I get in at 8:30, where I’ll pick up my luggage, pick up the rental car and drive to my hotel in Chandler.
And then I go to bed and hopefully wake up at 8:00am to check in with Arizona State to find out my audition time for the Doctoral of Musical Arts program which I am applying to.
Then I actually get to rest a bit and spend some time with Mr. Weber.
But then I get to wake up early the next morning to catch an 8:30am flight.
Which gets me into Portland around 10:30am. At which time hopefully my friend will pick me up and take me to my car.
So that I can drive back down to Eugene (2 hrs) so that I can play the 4pm President’s Concert at the Hult Center.
Yeah. Talk about insane.
Life, School, and a whole lot more…
Thursday November 20 2008
Life has been extremely busy for me, particularly since the end of the school trimester is coming to a close which means concerts! My quintet played on a recital last week, a program which we performed the Sweelinck Variations on a Folk Song (this youtube is not us) and the Muczynski Quintet. Last weekend, the Wind Ensemble also performed Holst Suite no. 1, and the West Side Story Synphonic Dances, an arrangement which just came out a month ago and was created to be as close to the original parts as possible. Let me just say that piece was perhaps the hardest piece in Wind Ensemble I’ve ever played. After playing for 27 minutes, you get to play a ppp solo which starts on high Bb, and just goes high, hanging out on high Db, Eb, and finally ending with a decrescendo up to high F! Yeah— Right— Glory me.
This Sunday we’re doing Death and Transfiguration and Corgliano’s Gazebo Dances. I’m just playing English Horn on the Strauss, but that piece goes onand on and on and on— What a chop killer!
For my “Oral Traditions in Music” class, I’ve been researching for my final project which will be on the topic of Korean Pansori. It’s a musical storytelling artform originally taught orally, but nowadays with technology, it’s been written down, notated, taught with textbooks, CDs, and video. I’m not only writing about what it is, but the current state of transmission of pansori, and how using technology has helped or hindered the artform. Tuesday, I presented the topic for about 45 minutes, and when I get back, I need to complete my 30 page paper, due December 12th.
The project comes at a good time since Monday, I’ll be leaving for Korea for a week and a half for my brother-in-law’s wedding. The wedding itself is a bit tough, since I’ll get back December 3rd, just in time to take my finals and play my jury, but such is life.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to get all of my ducks in line, and reed orders on the way before I leave. My wife left Wednesday morning to spend some extra time with her family, and I’m looking forward to seeing them soon enough.
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