Long time no see!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been busy with colleges (And Christmas!), so I don’t have much time to post, but here it is, a little note just to say I’m still here. :P

MMEA All-State Festival

All-state was a lot of fun! I did sit around a lot, though. Most of the brass brought books to read while they weren’t playing, and I didn’t, so I got to sit and listen. The orchestra played Pines of Rome, a cool piece, but not very tuba-intensive. Since I didn’t play a lot, I got to play with the brass choir! We performed at the opening of the concert, and got to play with the chorus. Both went very well, and performing with a chorus was something I hadn’t done before, It sounded very cool, especially in symphony hall, where the voices and the brass had all these awesome overtones going on.

But I’d have to say that the band’s performance was the best. They performed Don Quixote under the direction of Robert W. Smith, and it had the most fun tuba part I ever saw. This was the best movement:

 (That’s not All-State, by the way) The percussionists had a stack of tin cans that they knocked to the floor that represented Don Quixote smashing to the ground after he tried to fight a windmill, very cool.

College visits

Let’s see… I saw Evelyn Glennie in concert, it was great! When she played her snare solo ‘Prim’ all the little kids who were allowed to watch on stage ran away with their hands over their ears.

I visited Berklee and UMASS! I met Scott Mendoker and Greg Fritze who are both great people. We ran around the chem building in UMASS and looked at all the equipment they had. I wish I could have taken home one of those canisters of liquid nitrogen. :) In Berklee we took a tour of the building and got to see all the state of the art equipment they had, which included a $60,000 sound board. I’ve never actually seen one of those.

’tis all.

Lots of little and big things have happened…

1) Well, to start, I MADE ALL-STATE! First chair in orchestra in fact! And I won only by 2 points. Talk about a close call!

2) I going to be playing a solo with band (hopefully) if Steven Shoop ever gets back to me…

3) We played Mahler last week in BYSO,  and I had to play all by myself, all the rest of the low brass were playing in a REP concert. It was not very fun.

’tis all.

Guesting with the Northshore Youth Symphony Orchestra

Many thanks to Mrs. Larson, Mr. Dolan, and Mr. Pavasaris for inviting me to play in NYSO! It was a lot of fun! We played:

• Old Churches by Michael Colgrass
• Galloping Ghosts by William Ryden
• Canticle of the Creatures by Jim Curnow

They were all great pieces, very fun to play, and everything went smoothly, except that I had the wrong piece on my stand when we started, giving me 8 measures of cut time to find it, which I did, but it unnerved me a bit. (Is that a run-on sentence? Oops) THAT won’t happen again!

Sr. District 2008

It was easy, and went well! We went early, I had just enough time to warm up, I didn’t get nervous in the audition room, and I played everything to the best of my ability. I got a 95! Woo!

Floral Globe #5

Made another floral globe!



Hopefully more soon when I have the time.

UMass Band Day 2008

It was great! We got up early to get there on time, the bus ride was quiet (thank god, I needed rest) and we made it there on time. We practiced for 2 hours with George Parks, who did a great job of getting us in formation and getting us pumped up. He conducted on a lift that was about 50 feet in the air, and then he stood on the railing and conducted us. I thought he was going to fall. Luckily, he didn’t fall, and after 2 hours of practice we went to go eat soggy roast beef subs and put on our uniforms, which was a very tedious business, as there was no space. I ended up opening the emergency exit and changing outside.

We got into line, and slowly made our way to the stadium. Whenever we stalled Phil and I played Play That Funky ‘Tuba Right,’ Boy to the tap of the drums. We got other band to join in at one point. We marched the half mile to the stadium and sat down. The game was great, we owned the other team, probably because of the overwhelming support for UMass. We did the wave, when the cheerleaders shouted “go Bulldogs” we shouted “UMASS!” to drown out “Bulldog” and when they cheered after their chant we cheered with them. Mean, but fun. We also got a chant going all the way across the stadium. Our side shouted ‘YOU!’ and the other side shouted ‘MASS!’. It was awesome!

Then, at halftime, we performed, it was truly AMAZING! The power and intensity. This video doesn’t cut it, you really have to be there.

Afterwards we continued to own the Bulldogs, won, got on the bus, and went home.

As a side note most people on the bus had to go very bad. So the bus stopped at a rest stop, we all got out, ran to the building, pounded on the door, and the janitor inside wouldn’t let us in. Argh! We cried, and ran around the building looking for a port-a-potty or something. When we circled the building we looked up and saw this. “Please do not pee on this wall, security cameras in use” we LMAO’d.

The Rite of Spring

We performed The Rite of Spring today. It was a lot of fun! It was not the best we have done but still very good. I arrived at 9:30, warmed up, and we went on stage to practice around 11:00. Symphony Hall was a lot smaller than I remembered it. I don’t know if it was because of the point of view (on stage instead of in audience), or that I’m several years older than when I first saw it. Probably both. The only part in the piece that was still bothering me after all the practices we have had was the soli. It was at the limit of my high range and wore me out quickly. I could make it almost to the end without having to take it down the octave. Practice went well, and afterwards I went out to Symphony Sushi with some friends. I goth the Seafood Ramen Noodle Soup and promptly discovered that it is extremely hard to eat Ramen noodles with chopsticks. You know how when a bullfighter whips a whip and the end goes extremely fast? Well that what happened every time I slurped up my ramen. Once it even hit me in the eye! Ouch. Later I got dressed and fought with an extremely irritating button that refused to go through its respective hole. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. After a couple of hours we were on! The orchestra entered the stage amid a flurry of applause from the audience, we tuned, the conductor came out, and we began. Everything went very well. I got through the soli safely, and only missed one note. We almost fell apart at the end. It felt like we were riding in a car that was just about to fall apart but was staying together due to a continuous application of Elmer’s School Glue™, but we made it through! Woo!

For those of you who have not heard of The Rite of Spring, here it it. (this is not BYSO)

Two more tracks – Double Dissonance & Darkscape

Double Dissonance came from an idea I had while making Deep Under the Vacuum. It has four tracks, the top two have the same note, with one being a few cents flatter than the other, creating that wah-wah sound you hear when two instruments are slightly out of tune. The bottom two also have the same note, but not the same as the top two. Again, one track is a few cents flatter that the other, creating that wah-wah effect. The top two tracks are panned all the way to the left, and the bottom two are panned all the way to the right. So you have one wah-wah in one ear, and another in the other ear. Then the tracks pan back and forth, letting you listen to the changes in the wah-wah effect. The tune finally ends in a final, non-dissonant chord. It’s much simpler than what I just described. Here’s the link: DoubleDissonance.mp3 Be sure that you don’t have any “sound enhancers” turned on. It will ruin the effect.

Darkscape is just me looped over myself. It’s just for fun. (what isn’t?) Link: Darkscape.mp3 Again, make sure you don’t have any “sound enhancers” turned on. It will ruin the effect.