Autum is Here! 10/1/2008

Just did a joint recital with EMU trombone Professor Don Babcock last weekend, followed by the BBBC fundraiser. We have a tuba-euphonium ensemble concert coming up as well on November 18.

Fun Times at ITEC

6/28/08

Great week at ITEC. Congrats and Bravo to Tim Northcut, CCM and everyone who made it possible. I understand there were over 600 registrants, and it's great to see this level of interest and participation in presenting the tuba and euphonium to the public. My sense from both ITEC veterans as well as newcomers is that this was a great conference.

I managed to participate in five world premiere performances at this ITEC wich was both fun and quite demanding. As a member of a quartet Mark Nelson organized, I performed along with Mark, Kelly Thomas and Don Harry on James Grant's Tba4tet as well as Endgame. This group also premiered three new Fanfares for tuba/euphnonium quartet by Walter Ross, James Barnes and James Curnow. Mr. Curnow was on hand for the performance of his fanfare and it was great to see him as always. Mark, Kelly and Don are all monsters and it was great playing with them. Hopefully we will get together for more of the same in the future.

I also performed the first movement of the Linkola euphonium concerto on one of the quartet concerts. Pianist In-Ja Eshelman played fabulously and it was nice to have a chance to do at least part of this concerto in public since it isn't heard often due to its length. I don't generally like performing single movements of concerti, but with the Linkola I thought it was worth the sacrifice to get the piece heard by some who may not know it yet.

Gerhard Meinl also organized a sort of sequel to the Tuba 6 he put togehter some years back. This time around, I got to play euphonium with the following frightening group: Alan Baer, Jens Bjorn Larsen, Roland Szentpali, Alessandro Fossi and Velvet Brown. Talk about some amazing tuba plyers! Roland hatched several great arrangements for this group, and it was truly a pleasure to get to hear the sounds these five tuibsts make both individually and collectively. Playing with this kind of unusual and spectacularly talented chamber group was a rare treat.

The only bummer at ITEC was that I didn't get to hear nearly as many people play as I would have liked. It seemed I was always trying to rehearse, perform, or sleep. I hope all of my friends will forgive my absence at many of their performances. I made it to as many as I could and still missed way too much! I'm sure many of us find this to be true at ITEC: the abundance of riches is what we might call a "good problem".

I understnad that ITEC 2010 will be hosted by Dr. Kely Thomas at the University of Arizona. Having been there last year, I can say what a great facility it is. Kelly is a stand-up dude and he organized a great Southwestern Regional concference last year, so I know his ITEC will be great as well.

Pics and the like coming as folks send me stuff ... I didn't manage to snag any photos myself. Phooey!

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Pics: My current "stable" of horns at the right. Below left: with Ken Kroesche, Wes Jacobs and Fritz Kaenzig. Perhaps the first time ever for two euphs and two tubas on stage (at the same time, anyway) at Orchestra Hall in Detroit; my girlfriend Molly preparing to intimidate the competition on a 150 mile endurance race. Sweet! At the bottom: another pic of the Agri-Fab leaf shredder-vac.