A Quick Update and a video TREAT!

Hey everyone,

As the preparations for my week at the University of Tennessee intensify, I'm not taking too much time out to blog. It's only a week until I fly out! But here's a quick update on what I've been working on:

- I really want to memorize the two concertos I'm doing. I've been working pretty hard on that the past couple of days, but it's been more difficult than I expected. I've historically been pretty good at memorizing things, even intricate or complex things, which makes me wonder why it's not going faster. I guess it's the sheer amount of stuff I have going on besides the Grøndahl and the Ewazen that makes it all run together in my mind

- A big part of my practice routine is strengthening my chops so I can make it through full days of heavy playing, including rehearsal during the day and performances at night. I've been toying with the order of my recital repertoire to see what works the best. Right now it seems to be working well to open up with something moderately strenuous (Bozza Ballade followed by Ropartz), then cool it a bit, then bring the level back up after intermission.

- I'm also excited about getting back into some jazz playing and some quartet playing. On Tuesday evening, the 8th, I'll be performing some quartet stuff with the Tennessee Trombone Project, who are great players (and all UT students & alumni) and also great guys! The TTP will also join me on my recital on the 11th.

- I'm scheduled to give 4 masterclasses/lectures, and I've been feverishly trying to organize my ideas for those. I've got a Word document on my USB drive that I carry around with me at all times, so when I think of another idea I can open it up and jot it down. I'm interested to see which ideas land and which ones bomb... but that's how you learn, right?

As a treat this week, I'll share with you all the following video which was shot from my new iPhone. It's a 'behind-the-scenes' view of the Richard Strauss Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare that we play every year to open the Wiener Philharmoniker Ball. You can read about my first experience at the ball here, and I'm sure Kristi will post about this year's experience soon over at The Vienna Wilsons.

Anyway, enjoy the video, and watch all the way through to see some photos! It was a great time, and I always get chill bumps when we play this thing:



PS: I'll be posting this and all subsequent videos on my new VIDEOS page. Check it out!

Back in VOL Country!

During our recent trip to the US, I took a day to travel back to my old 'college town'. Knoxville is just a couple hours from Warren County, so I drove up one morning late in December to do something I hadn't done in several years... play some PEP TUNES! That's right, I had the opportunity to join the UT Pride of Southland Alumni Band, which performs at many UT basketball games during the winter break.

The Alumni Band especially needed people to come for the Lady Vols game versus Rutgers because the 'regular' Pride of the Southland was in Nashville with the football team for the Music City Bowl.

Megan Christian leads the band in some pregame tunes

The opening tip-off

It was amazing how quickly my playing and musical mentality changed during the game. I hadn't played any of that stuff for years, but within 5 minutes of the first rendition of 'Rocky Top' I felt like a sophomore in college again, wailing and glissing my way through all the old favorites. It was really alot of fun, even if only for nostalgic reasons. The biggest challenge I faced was that I had forgotten almost all of the hand signals used to call up the various fight songs and cheers.

Megan shows us which tune is up next

Probably my favorite part was getting the chance to hang out and catch up with several college friends. Plus, it was fun to see the Lady Vols shellac Rutgers! I hadn't been to a UT sporting event in a really long time, so it was nice to be amongst so much orange again.

And we got to wear awesome pullovers!

UT Trombone Symposium Schedule

After several requests for this info, I've decided to post it here. Below is a schedule of my upcoming events at the University of Tennessee. This whole thing (nicknamed UTTS) has been more than a year in planning, and it looks like it's going to be an absolute blast! I'm having so much fun preparing for the many different events that are happening. There's concerti, a solo recital, masterclasses, high school events, and even some quartet playing! Check this website for venue information and other assistance. Hope to see you there!!

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE OF CHARGE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

AMB = Alumni Memorial Building

Tuesday Feb. 8

12:40-1:55PM Session 1: Differences between American and European Orchestral Style (Lecture/Demonstration), Choir Room, Melrose D58

6:00-7:00PM Registration, Pre-Concert (TN Trombone Project), AMB 32

7:15-10:00PM Session 2: Life as a Philharmoniker (Lecture followed by Masterclass), AMB 32

Thursday February 10th

12:40-1:55PM Masterclass with UT Trombone Studio (all others welcome), location TBA

8:00PM Concert with UT Wind Ensemble (Eric Ewazen's Concerto for Trombone & Wind Band and Michael Daugherty's Rosa Parks Boulevard), AMB Cox Auditorium

Friday February 11th

8:00PM Solo Recital with Judith Bible, piano. AMB 32 (works TBA... it's a surprise!)

Saturday February 12th

10:15-12:30PM Session 3: My Story (Lecture followed by Masterclass), AMB 32

8:00PM Concert with UT Symphony Orchestra (Launy Grøndahl's Concerto for Trombone), AMB Cox Auditorium

And.. we're back!

Today I'm in Hamburg on a short little Philharmonic tour, and it's the first time I've had in weeks to actually sit down and blog. When I started the blog, I was afraid that there would be times where I would get ultra-busy and go a couple weeks without blogging, but I never imagined more than a month! But lo and behold, my last post was on December 15th. But... I've dealt with my blogger guilt, and I guess blog goes on, as they say.

The main reason for my dry spell was the three wonderful weeks we spent in America during Christmas and New Year's. I must admit the last thing on my mind during all that fun, food, and fellowship was blogging. We had a truly memorable trip, which Kristi has done a great job of chronicling over at The Vienna Wilsons. There were a couple fun music-related things that happened during our visit, which I'll share in later posts. But I will note that I was very proud of myself for one very important reason: this was the first extended trip home since we've been in Vienna where I regularly practiced my trombone!

Normally my practice time just goes by the wayside, which ends up putting me in survival mode when we get back to Austria and I have to start being a professional again. Naturally, I don't like doing it that way, so I was determined to keep some sort of practice regimen going. I didn't get the amount of time each day I normally get, and I didn't play absolutely every day, but I nevertheless kept my chops in working order, and didn't have a ton of catching up to do when we returned. It feels nice, both literally and figuratively, to have accomplished that feat, especially given the limited amount of time we always have with our family and friends (and favorite foods).

Now we've been back in Austria for almost two weeks, and it's been quite busy at work. My colleague Mark played all during December and into January while I was away, so he now gets some much-deserved free time while I play every night in the opera. I've also been playing a Philharmonic block with Mariss Jansons (chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) since last week. We're performing Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

It's been a great experience, especially getting to know such a landmark work as the Berlioz. I've had some quite surreal moments when I remember studying the piece in my music history classes just a few years ago. It really is a 'fantastic' work, even though it's another of those pieces where the trombones sit with nothing to play for the majority of the work. I prefer to think Berlioz was reserving the trombones for just the right moment, which happens to be the "March to the Scaffold". My only reservation about the piece is the third movement, which depicts a "Scene in the Country". It's very slow, very long, and very pretty. Let me introduce you to a tried and true orchestral equation, where A = (slow, long, and pretty), B = (haven't played any notes since the intermission), and C= (warm concert hall).

A + B + C = Z³

Yes, I had trouble staying awake, even at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It's the equation... there's no helping it!

Jansons puzzles me. He's one of the most famous and in-demand conductors in the world, and yet I can't put my finger on exactly what sets him apart from the rest. He has impeccable conducting technique, but so do several others. Musically, he has (in my opinion) some great ideas and some not so great ideas, but that's every conductor. And yet, he received an ovation this past weekend from our subscription audience the likes of which I've never seen (this was echoed by Ian, who has been a principal trombonist for 25 years).

I think it has to do with his understanding of the music and understanding how an audience hears the music. Or maybe it's more correct to say he understands how an audience ought to hear the music. I watched him closely over the weekend (I had lots of rests, remember) and I noticed that he may be the best I've ever seen at showing an audience what to listen to. With his gestures he shows the listener not only what to hear, but HOW to hear it. It's astonishing to watch! To see what I'm talking about, you almost just have to look for a video of him somewhere. If you do, see if you agree with me that he shows you with his body how you should interpret the music he's conducting.

In short, he is a great salesman! Someone in the orchestra commented that the Shostakovich 6th Symphony has all but been banned in most major orchestras because it's perceived as unbelievably miserable and boring. Yet Jansons made it a great success, both for the orchestra members and the public. I think it's because you just have to watch him conduct, and you immediately begin to understand the complicated turmoil of Shostakovich.

Well, that's enough for today. We've got one final Mahler/Berlioz concert tonight in Hamburg (which is a BEAUTIFUL city, by the way) and we head back to Vienna in the morning. Since this is my first post of 2011, hope you all have a wonderful year. Prosit Neujahr!! It's good to be back on BRP!

Some Upcoming Events I'm Excited About

We're fully in packing mode now, with suitcases, clothes, and North American outlet adapters strewn all over the house. And it's all because we're heading home for the holidays! We haven't been home at Christmas since 2007, so I am really looking forward to being around our family and friends, relaxing instead of playing a million performances of The Nutcracker and Die Fledermaus, and eating Nanny's chocolate gravy and biscuits. Mmmmmm.

I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging while we're there, but I'll try to do a couple posts, probably recapping stuff that happened months ago. In the meantime, I thought I would let everyone know about some upcoming events I'm involved in.

First, as I alluded to in a previous post, I have been invited back to my alma mater, the University of Tennessee, to do a week-long residency at the School of Music. It will take place February 7th-12th, and I'll be teaching and performing in a variety of ways. On Monday & Tuesday of that week, I'll be giving several masterclasses on various topics. On Thursday I'll be performing a concerto with the UT Wind Ensemble, on Friday I'll give a solo recital, and on Saturday I'll do another concerto with the UT Symphony Orchestra. There are also some events involving local high-school students interspersed throughout the week.

I also just found out this last week that I've been officially invited to be a featured faculty artist at the 2011 International Trombone Festival, which this year just happens to be in Nashville, TN. It will be in late June, and I'm planning on giving a solo recital and a masterclass. The ITF was held for many years in Nashville, and now they're bringing it back there for the 40th anniversary of the festival. It will be held at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.

I'm really, really excited about these two events. Before I moved to Vienna and immersed myself in opera and orchestra, my musical life consisted of solo playing, small ensembles, teaching, and jazz. I'm thrilled that now after 3 seasons in Vienna, I'm slowly but surely getting some opportunities to "re-branch" out and involve myself in some other areas of music besides orchestra. Although I love my job beyond words, it makes me feel sometimes a bit one-dimensional. But now with these upcoming opportunities, I am feeling like my old musical self again. It is so nice to have a thick stack of solo works on my stand in the office, and to spend my practice time digging into pieces which I haven't played in years, or in some cases have never played.

I've also got an opportunity coming up to play some jazz in Vienna, if you can believe it. One of our principal trombonists, Dietmar Küblböck (don't try to pronounce it), is an avid jazz performer, and he had an idea several months ago to put together a jazz trombone group based around me and him. We've now got a concert planned in March in one of the recital halls of the Musikverein for a 5-bone ensemble with rhythm section. Though if I'm truthful, it's not really 5 trombones... it's 4 bones and a cimbasso! There's a local tuba player who is an unbelievable cimbasso player (cimbassist?), and he's apparently got lots of jazz experience. Should be fun! I've really missed playing and hearing jazz in Vienna, and I am SO looking forward to pulling out my King 2B and wailing on these Wieners!

I'll post more exact schedules of all these things as they get closer.

Rome

Back in October, just before the long tour to Tokyo, the Philharmonic did a miniature tour, or 'tour-let', to Rome. I think almost every year the orchestra travels to this same giant church near the Vatican City to play a concert for the upper-ups of the Roman Catholic church. I've been once before, in 2008, and the pope himself was in attendance.

This year, it was a much smaller deal (no pope, and only one short piece with trombones), but I made sure to take my camera because the place where we played is one of the most awe-inspiring church buildings I've ever seen.

It's called the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, and you can follow this link to read more about its history. The orchestra always enters through a secluded rear door, and from that perspective the building looks somewhat like a run-down old warehouse. You would never think that waiting inside was this absolutely breathtaking and gigantic space.

The gold-inlayed stucco on the ceiling is my favorite part.

They set up a stage for us in front of the altar, with thousands of chairs that dissolved into the horizon at the back of the nave. The above photo was in the middle of rehearsal, Andris Nelsons conducting. If you look close, you can see the part for the one piece I played, the prelude to Wagner's Parsifal.

They have friezes of all the popes in a row above the hundreds of tall columns. Below you can see they have a spotlight on the portrait of the current pope, Benedict XVI.

The orchestra dressed and warmed up in an area just outside the main hall. It had a beautiful and peaceful courtyard with these really beautiful columns all around.

Behind the orchestra's stage is the literal and also spiritual centerpiece of the basilica, the tomb of Saint Paul. Yes, THE Saint Paul. According to church tradition, Paul was interred here after his martyrdom and a memorial was erected at the site, which eventually became the basilica. Below you can see the altar, and just in front of it is a pit which leads to Paul's alleged sarcophagus. Kinda creepy and cool at the same time.

Musically, the concert felt like a bit of a joke, mostly because the place is just too large. The quiet stuff probably can't be heard by the back half of the audience, and the loud stuff just bounces around the ginormous nave for 18 minutes. Everything sounds either anemic or completely muddled. But it was still a neat place to visit, and I hope to take Kristi there sometime to show her around.

Back to school

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a cold throughout the weekend (as did Kristi & Eli), but had a good holiday anyway. Luckily, I've not been working that much, so I was able to get well pretty quickly.

Not much is going on in the opera. We've had a run of pieces that don't have interesting trombone parts, but a real surprise for me has been Puccini's Manon Lescaut. I've played it a couple times before, but for some reason I didn't remember how good it was. Two nights ago was my second performance for this run, and I enjoyed it immensely. Many times it's hard to pay attention to the content of an opera the first few times you play it, especially if you're performing it without rehearsal. It takes so much concentration to play (or NOT play) at the right time, and sometimes I don't actually 'hear' the music until I have some performances under my belt.

Well, in the absence of exciting things going on now, I thought I would share with you something coming up in the future.

As many of you know, when I auditioned for my spot here in Vienna, I was pursuing my master's degree in trombone performance from the University of North Texas. And ever since I interrupted my studies to come to Austria, people have been asking me if I would ever be interested in complete my degree. I think most people in my situation would just forget about it. After all, the end goal of a master's performance curriculum (theoretically) is a job just like the one I already have. I don't 'need' a degree to do what I'm doing.

But I feel differently about it. To me, a graduate degree is not about putting letters beside your name or earning a diploma, but rather continued learning and becoming more of an expert in your field of study. I've written and talked a lot about the fact that in my first couple of years here I had to put my head down, work hard, and learn how to survive in a major professional orchestra. When you come in the way I did, with no prior experience and from a different continent, it's almost all you can manage to simply make it through the season without massively embarrassing yourself. The mantra becomes: "Don't lose this job! Don't lose this job!"

Well, I'm ready to start challenging myself again. The timing and circumstances are now such that I can poke my head out of the foxhole and begin to cultivate a broader musical existence outside the orchestra. I believe that finishing my master's degree would be a great way to kickstart that.

Some other major reasons I want to do this:

- I'm already SO close! As I look back at my transcript, I only have four more courses remaining.

- There's a huge 'finish what you started' component. This is a life value that was instilled in me, and that I would like to pass on to Eli.

- A little bit of pride. It would feel nice to hang a master's diploma up in my office. (My brother Jacob is currently working on his MBA, so I just need to finish before he does!) :)

- A little bit of school pride. I think it would also be great for me and for UNT for me to be an alumnus rather than just an attendee.

So, how do I accomplish this goal? Well, first off, with a lot of help and cooperation from the UNT College of Music. I began discussing this idea with Vern Kagarice (my trombone teacher at UNT) several months ago, and he put me in touch with Dr. Warren Henry, who is a high-ranking administrator in the College of Music. As luck would have it, Dr. Henry, who is also a Professor of Music Education, had planned a visit to Austria in late October. He brought 20 UNT music education majors to visit the Orff Institute in Salzburg, and then they came over to Vienna to sightsee.

The whole group had tickets to an opera I was playing, so I met with Dr. Henry beforehand and discussed how exactly I might be able to finish my degree while living abroad. We worked it out so that I will complete special projects on my own time, working under the supervision of several UNT professors, and each special project will then count as one of my remaining courses. I could not do this without the help of Dr. Henry, as he is able to cut through most of the red tape so that I don't have to try and deal with it from another country. I am planning on doing two classes this Spring semester and two more next Summer.

I really enjoyed spending some time with Dr. Henry and the UNT students. I got to meet them all after the performance of Salome, and I invited them to watch one of our Philharmonic rehearsals on the third day they were here. I think they really enjoyed it. I remember in particular a couple horn students that I watched melt in their seats every time our horn section played something awesome.

Me and Dr. Henry at the Musikverein

With the students at the opera.

No, we don't have malformed hands. That's the UNT Eagle Claw!

I actually registered for my first two classes today, so I guess it's official. I'm a college student again! I'll keep you all posted on my progress, and by this time next year I'll be a North Texas grad!