Recital Photos

Hey everybody!

The recital was fantastic! All of the pieces went really well, and the whole performance was a lot of fun. Here are some photos from it (sorry about the graininess of them; I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to use flash during the performance):

I'd describe the program as 'spartan,' but I think I'd be drawn and quartered for saying that around these parts :P

Sarah performing.

Me performing. (Is that proper grammar?)

The Low Brass Trio performing. Notice our footwear - in Brazil, we all bought flip-flops (a brand that are all the rage there) as souveniers. We had agreed to wear them for the last piece (Triangles), but Sarah forgot hers... hence her bare feet.
The Low Brass Trio: me, Sarah Hranac, and Carone Lowrey. (Aren't we cute? We match the carpet...)


A big thank you to Dr. Bicigo for taking photos! Recordings of this recital are available upon request (Mom & Papa, yours is in the mail already). Have a great week!

Some updates on performances

Good morning!

Well, as the title of this post said, I have a few updates on performances (past and future). First off, I found the the program to 'The Bartered Bride' online. It's a pdf file, so clicking the link will either download the program and open in Adobe Acrobat, or it will just open up in your web browser. That should give you a better idea of the storyline and character of the opera without having to do the legwork of digging around online for it (since I know everybody is jumping at the opportunity!). And, in a somewhat related fact, Janet told me that "Smetana" (the composer of the opera) in Russian actually translates to "sour cream." Yet another composer's name to make fun of ;)

As far as the other update, I made recital posters for the joint recital I'm taking part in on Saturday afternoon. I've very proud of them - they've been a hit around the music school. There is a website where you can go recreate cartoons of yourself in the style of 'South Park,' and I added in the instruments after the fact. Enjoy!

Busy busy busy...

Well, in case you haven't noticed, I've been pretty busy. Last you heard, I had just gotten back from spring break. As it turned out, I had to hit the ground running! First off... the opera!

The opera producting put on by the school this year was Smetana's "The Bartered Bride." The music isn't that exciting for trombonists (my biggest moment was a descending B minor scale), but it's always fun to play in a pit orchestra. I'm sure the singers sounded great, and the sets and costumes were pretty, but from where I was sitting, I could only see a little bit of the audience. Here's what it looked like:

(I took the photo during a rehearsal (I was resting, don't worry)... we actually had an audience for the performances. The conductor, Andrew George, is mouthing words to the singers on stage - he doesn't usually make that face while conducting.)
The whole run went pretty well - there were no major train wrecks, and it sounded like people enjoyed it. We had run-throughs on Saturday through Tuesday, Wednesday night off, and performances Thursday through Sunday. It was quite the busy week, let me tell you.

The Saturday before that, however, was the Trombone Symposium! The studio put together a full day of masterclasses, rehearsals, and performances with guest artists Ron Barron (from the Boston Symphony) and Phil Wilson (jazz trombonist from the Boston area). It was a lot of fun, and we had quite a few people attend from the local area and surrounding colleges. Here are some photos from the event:

Me and Phil Wilson. We played an impromptu, improvised duet with the jazz trombone choir - AWESOME!

The trombone studio at the end of the day.


In the meantime, everybody here is gearing up for the CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association) Conference, which Michigan is hosting next week. The Symphony Band (which I'm a part of this semester - yay!) is putting on a whiz-bang concert next Friday evening. We'll be playing both "Night Signal" and "Day Signal" by Toru Takemitsu, "La Creation du Monde" by Darius Milhaud, "Raise the Roof" by Michael Daugherty, "Hour of the Soul" by Sofia Gubaidulina, and "Dionysiaques" by Florent Schmitt. It's going to be a great concert - I'm really looking forward to it.

Along with everything else that's going on, I'm sharing a recital with Sarah Hranac (the horn player in the Graduate Brass Quintet) next Saturday afternoon. I'm playing the Vaughan Williams "Concerto for Bass Tuba" and the Lassen "Zwei Fantastie Stücke" and she is playing the Strauss First Horn Concerto and Bozza's "Sur le Chimes." At the end of the recital, Carone Lowrey (the tenor trombonist in the Graduate Brass Quintet) will be playing John Stevens' "Triangles." For those of you who went to Brandon Newbould's recital last year, I played it with him, along with Jane Aspnes.

Beyond those concerts (see! it IS really busy around here!), I'm playing in Jason Bergman's chamber music recital tomorrow afternoon (Bozza's "Sonatine" for brass quintet), as well as playing on the brass chamber music recital next Thursday evening ("Triangles," as well as the first movement of Shostakovich's "String Quartet No. 12" arranged for brass quintet by Verne Renolds). *phew!* I'll update once I'm done with all of that, hopefully with pictures from the events. At any rate, I'll see you on the other side!

Back to School

Good morning!

Well, spring break was a lot of fun. I was able to go to Battle Creek on Wednesday, and had a great time there. Lin and I cooked quite a few things, including sweet potato pie, granola (with Brazillian bananas!), and chicken parmesan. On Friday and Saturday night, we drove over to Kalamazoo to see UAF (now simply known as 'Alaska') play Western Michigan in the first-round playoffs of the CCHA Finals. We weren't really expecting all that much, after hearing about the Nooks' lackluster season. On Friday night, though, they came back in the last two minutes to tie up the game, and then won in overtime! It was very exciting. Saturday night was a different story; we lost 6-2. We didn't go to Sunday night's game (the deciding match) because I had to drive back to Ann Arbor and Malcolm had work the next morning. The good news is Alaska won it! So next weekend they're playing Notre Dame. Here's a few photos from the week:

Mmmmm... sweet potato pie :)

We're such good alumni

After Friday night's game

Roy really liked the flag I got for Lin and Malcolm

No matter what, Pearl is always extremely paranoid around me. "Ahhhh! You're going to eat me!!!"

"Roy, put your tongue in - it's going to dry out!"

More hockey (Saturday night)


So the next big thing right now is opera! The University Philharmonia Orchestra (the one I manage and play in) is providing the music for the university's production of 'The Bartered Bride" by Smetana. We have full rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday, and dress rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday night. Wednesday night is off, thankfully, because we have performances Thursday through Sunday. It should be a fun show, but in theatre terms, next week is "hell week." I'll try to take some photos next week, so you can see the inner workings of an opera production. But as for today, it's off to quintet! Have a good day!

Spring Break

Hello all!

Well, I'm on spring break now, thanks to the University's trimester system. Last week there were two major concerts at school: the University Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Band. USO, in conjunction with every university chorus, performed Verdi's Requiem, which turned out really well. Here's a photo of them at Hill Auditorium:

The Symphony Band concert went extremely well. It was entirely conducted by Masters and Doctoral conducting students. We played "Suite Francais" by Poulanc, "Dixtour, Opus 14, Mvt. I" by Enesco, "Scherzo: Over the Pavements" by Ives, "The Entertainer" by Joplin, "Outdoor Overture" by Copland, " 'the logic of my dreams' from Alchemy in Silent Space" by Bryant, and Holst's "Second Suite in F." Unfortunately, as I was performing, I wasn't able to get any photos to post. I'll try for the next concert though! That one will be really exciting, as it is the featured performance at the Collegiate Band Directors National Association conference, being held at Michigan this year. More info on that later!

Last weekend I got the opportunity to play with the Adrian Symphony, which was a lot of fun. It was a lot of driving (an hour there and back), but it was a paying gig :) Here's the cover of the program:

The entire concert consisted of music by Rogers and Hammerstein. While I'm not normally a big fan of medleys, most of these were arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, whose work I really like. It was a fun series of concerts to play; one for general admission on Sunday afternoon, and two children's concerts on Monday morning.
[Update: A review of Sunday's concert can be found here.]

I'm hoping to drive to Battle Creek soon, although I'm stuck in town waiting for the University to deliver my new furniture. University Housing is updating all of the (rather worn) furniture in the single efficiencies, but they haven't told me what day I need to be around (only "The last week of February"). I'll be sure to put up a few pictures of the new stuff; I got to preview it in November, and it's really very nice.

OK - off to go practice. Wee!

Let it Snow!

We got snow today! It was very exciting (to me, at least). It's supposed to snow the rest of the week, but then next week it will be in the mid to upper thirties, so it won't last long. But it feels like winter!

In other news, spring break is in two weeks! It's bizarre that it is so early, but I'm not going to complain. After playing a concert weekend with the Adrian Symphony, I'm going to be driving over to Battle Creek to spend time with Lin and Malcolm. But until then, on with school! Have a good week, everyone :)

[On a side note, I didn't realize I used exclamation marks so often in the titles of my posts. It's kind of funny - I never thought my life was so interesting as to warrant exclamation marks all the time! Oops, there I go again...]

Severe Weather Alert!

It's finally starting to feel like winter around here!

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THE WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST MONDAY.

THE WIND CHILL ADVISORY HAS BEEN EXTENDED AS DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILL READINGS BETWEEN 15 AND 20 BELOW ZERO WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE DAY. THESE CONDITIONS WILL IMPROVE VERY LITTLE THIS AFTERNOON AS TEMPERATURES SLOWLY CLIMB INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS WITH WEST WINDS INCREASING TO 15 TO 20 MPH...WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL WELL BELOW ZERO AGAIN TONIGHT...AND WIND CHILL READINGS WILL ONCE AGAIN DROP TO AROUND 25 BELOW ZERO.
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Of course, we barely have any snow...