Dans Profundo will be performed by John Manning at the University of Iowa on May 1, 2010, and also at the International Tuba and Euphonium Association's 2010 conference in Tuscon, Arizona on May 29!!

It's gonna get played twice!! May 1 is a Saturday... road trip??? I can't believe this is actually going to happen... so much more that I want and need to know... more details to come! Soon, I hope!

One last reminder for Tuesday night's Pittsburgh Symphony concert at Wilkinsburg High School, starting at 7pm. Tickets are $7 for adults, $3 for students, and groups of 10 or more get tickets for $5 each.

As I will be helping in preparing for the event, I need to be at the HS at 5pm. I get out of tutoring at 4:30. Ergo, I'm not coming home and will miss most/all of Tuesday Night Dinner. Y'all have fun without me, maybe I'll see a couple of you at the concert, and next week will be back to normal.

The recital was *lovely*. Dave did really well, picked some neat music, and it all went well. The accompanist was fantastic, and didn't kill Dave for scheduling his recital on her birthday. :-) Oh, my piece? Yeah, I should get to that.

I am quite satisfied. Many parts were as I heard it, but it is so different hearing my music played by MIDI and hearing a live performance. As I explained to fiannaharpar, the MIDI model that I've had in my head for so long is like a 2-dimensional model, while the performance I heard was in 3-dimensions. The MIDI was a reproduction of the notes I wrote, and what Dave and Donna played was an interpretation, adding their own creativity, their own artistry, to what I laid out on paper. Some things were not as I expected- the zippy grace notes I'd imagined were gentle and rolling. But others were more than I expected. The final section, where I wrote the 'oom-pah' line on steroids, was meant to be prominent, but the piano still has the melody. The way Dave played it, he didn't give a rat's ass about the piano, he belted it out, and it was the most exciting part of the piece.

The whole piece was wonderfully received, Dave did a fantastic job of it, and I want to thank those that made it to see it-- cyano, jcipa, and alfiechat's husband were most gracious to listen to it in person. And, of course, my wonderful wife and daughter who supported me in this from the start. Thank you all for being there with me.

Not bad, eh? Here's the really cool part-

Craig Knox, principal tubist for the Pittsburgh Symphony, who is Dave's teacher, very much enjoyed it. He said many nice things about it, mainly that it was a good all-around piece for the tuba. That meant a lot, especially because 1) I've never written specifically for the instrument before and 2) it's coming from a professional frickin' tubist. As I mentioned before, he wants a copy. So he can perform it. In concert.

O_o

*exhales* Oh yeah. That'd suck. Ooh, how horrible, a prominent professional musician programming my music. *exhales again* Ok, he did mention it's not going to be any time soon, but he will email me later, and we can get this second ball rolling, which I hope to keep in motion for quite some time.

Wow.

After the recital, I got to talk to Dave some, thank him profusely, and remind him that he and his family are still invited to dinner. I think that will be a good time to -calmly- reflect on everything that happened and bask in our own accomplishments, if but for a while. My two favorite girls and I walked to South Craig and ate dinner at LuLu's Noodles, which was teh yum. Unfortunately, Pookie wasn't able to keep it together much, even with a full nap at school, but that did not deter from the timbre of the evening.

This is what it's like to be an artist. This is the kind of experience I want to repeat for quite some time. And maybe, just maybe, that which I am starting will begin to collect some momentum. Thank you all for your well wishes, and I will chirp up when I get the recording of the recital, with an mp3 soon to follow.

If you are still interested in hearing "Dans Profundo" at Dave Yeager's graduate tuba recital at CMU, here are the details one last time:

Thursday, May 8th, beginning at 5pm, in the Alumni Concert Hall, which is in the Fine Arts building.

Here are the only two updates-
1. My piece will begin the second half of the recital, not the very beginning. This is good because I'm gonna be booking it from downtown to get back to CMU on time, so that's less pressure on all of us. So, if you get there before us, save three seats??
2. Dave will provide an audio recording. I know of no video options, though if someone takes video of it, I may ask reeeeeeeal nice for a copy. :-) After I get an audio recording, I'll upload it and share with everyone.

EDIT: The total estimated time will be between an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes; it should be done between 6:00 and 6:15 at the latest.

A friendly reminder for those who want to hear brand new tuba music! The recital for David Yeager, Masters student of tuba performance at CMU (yes, there is such an animal) will be on:

Thursday, May 8th, beginning at 5pm, in the Alumni Concert Hall, which is in the Fine Arts building.

My piece is the very first on the list, so come early and save your seats! What makes this recital more meaningful is that it connects my earliest experiences in education. You see, Dave was a senior at Allderdice High School (along with cortneyofeden. *waves*) when I did my student teaching there in the spring of '96. Between then and about a year ago, I'd seen him maybe three times. I knew he attended CMU for undergrad performance, but that was it. Then, I'd seen him and his wife (also an Allderdice grad, who I taught in '96) in Squirrel Hill, and at the Greek Food Festival. That was cool, but it was seeing him perform with other brass players for a sing-fest at our church last May that I cooly offered, "Hey, if you ever need any music written, I'm your guy." He said, "You know, I may take you up on that," and by gum he did. So, it was a treat to be doing a friend a favor, and getting to write cool music on top of that.

I will repeat this reminder the week of the recital. If you really wanna come see it but don't know where, comment and I'll try to help decipher the mystery that is parking at CMU.

The winter concert is tomorrow. I *just* finished the accompaniment CD this morning, and had to juggle auditorium time again because we can't go a year without two performance classes being scheduled against each other. This year it's HS choir vs. African drumming. I did get some time with the choir today in the auditorium, and tomorrow I'll get the whole class. Did I mention the concert is tomorrow night?

I feel better about it, in general. Today helped. The MS choir has a lot of enthusiasm, now if I can keep them from spazzing out, that'll be perfect. More absences in the HS choir both hurt and helped things. It's all about who was absent. I wish I'd've been more prepared, and had more time to prepare, but it all should go fine.

So, this picture that made my eyes water from teh funny kinda reflects how I feel about the whole thing: ( LOLcat time! )

Everyone who showed had robes. I had four no-shows, which included one of the soloists. The girl who took her place got nervous and couldn't get through much, but the choir backed her up. There are lots of choir members who are really disappointed in their performance. They have high expecatations, and we'll talk about those today in choir. Overall I thought they did ok, but I know that there's lots of room for improvement. The breakfast itself was very tasty and nice, and I forgot the appetite of high schoolers!!

Oh, and for those who asked in my last entry, the concert was merely hosted by the School for the Deaf, for the Chamber of Commerce. I thought the same thing, to be honest, but we were not singing for deaf people.

Back to school...

I took my first field-trip as a teacher today that I organized and everything. I took select 2nd graders to Heinz Hall to see the Pittsburgh Symphony's Schooltime Concert. We had 19 kids go, along with myself, a 2nd grade teacher, a special-ed teacher, and a parent. It actually worked out really well. The kids were well behaved, the bus was on time, and we got to sit in the right balcony! That was cool! It was a good program and the kids liked it. We even got to leave first and not have to wait forever! I'm impressed. Hopefully this won't be a fluke experience.

Tonight is the concert for all of the Wilkinsburg bands, starting with the very first Wilkinsburg Elementary Band concert in about 10 years or so. Two of the three songs we're playing are my arrangement. One is "Hot Claire de la Buns," a fusion of 'Hot Cross Buns' and 'Au Claire de la Lune' which are in every single beginning band method book on the planet. So instead of just ripping through each of them, I've put them together to make it more interesting and just plain different. The other piece I arranged is "Hit the Road, Jack" in recognition of Ray Charles. I hope it comes off ok. I feel that with three more weeks we'd be better off, but plainly put it's on tonight. We'll do the best with what we have. The middle number is called "Swing Street" and is a basic beginner swing tune. Nothing to write home about.

I'll be nervous, but more concerned with getting the kids to play the best they can. I'm hoping and expecting that their performance will be well recieved, as the middle and high school kids and parents will already be there.

I apologize to the Tuesday night crowd as I won't be home until later, not sure exactly when. I will be glad to arrive once I do, though.

While not 100% just yet, I'm over the fever that plagued me for four days. Now my throat needs to calm the hell down and return to it's unsctratched, unswollen state. But I'll take that over the fever. I'm glad I didn't have to worry about if it were strep or not.

Let's see, Pennsic. It was a strange one this year, but a deliberate strange as opposed to last year's stranger-than-planned. I didn't get to see or do as much as I wanted, but then again, as my sweetie put it, we weren't gonna be there anyway. So it was all bonus. We all did weekends, and I showed up Monday for the choir concert. I noticed that many of the fighters were out on the field when I went for a parking space. Then, when I got out of the car, I heard the drums. I asked myself, "Why does this smell like the field battle?" Then I reached the field. It was the field battle!! WTF?!? This'll teach me to check the Pennsic battle schedule every single year from here on out and never trust tradition. So, I got to drum with Yama Kaminari, but no conch shell since the battle was well underway and the shell was still at camp. So, no Also Sprach Sama-thustra, or Jeapordy-dess. Alas, next year.

The rest of the day went very well. It was fun seeing everything and hanging out with friends that I haven't seen in a long time. The concert that evening went well. I see areas for improvement, both on the choir's part and on mine as the director. I need in increase my scope on our performances and any new music for them. Changes in personell will just have to be dealt with as they happen.

Fortunately, our tent survived the flood. The carpet remnants didn't, but those were the only things we had to chuck. Everything's dry, and we can't wait to use the yurt again and not have to deal with the nylon again.

I'm really hoping that next year we can do the full second week. It'll be so nice to be able to stay up for longer than 24 hrs at a time. A trip home or two will be needed, but that won't be bad at all. It was just so great to be there and see everyone.

Hm, preparation. School starts next week. We're in the midst of in-service days, and I'm still without a room. It's not that bad since 75% of what I ordered in my budget hasn't shown up yet, either, so there you go. I do feel that the beginning of this year will be far less stressful than last year, for obvious reasons, but I hope that I can gain ground on these kids. I don't just want it to be easier, I want it to be better. I have many new ideas that I want to try, so here's hoping.

Ok, got that out, feel better now. ;-)