Spring 2009 has sprung!  I hope you all had a wonderful winter.  It has been as busy as ever for me, but loving it all…and I’m looking forward to a great summer. I just returned from the awesome spring AVA gala with Nina. YAY!

I’m currently in Bloomington, wrapping up the spring semester at IU with the wonderful Studio Nelsen and everyone else in the IU playground.  We enjoy 7am warm up classes together 4 days a week where we all play our morning routine together.  Then comes our 8am performance classes.  In performance class,  we each get up and perform.  This is where we practice our Magic Line Theory work and our motivational sheet work.  A student will either ask for applause (as if they’re performing a recital) or no applause (as if they’re taking an audition) when they walk in the room.  They will then go outside, read their motivational sheet, walk in the room to the music stand, read their motivational sheet again, and then start to play.  They only will play the first 30-45 seconds of whatever they are choosing to play- This experience is good training for the technical horn playing aspects.  This experience is GREAT for learning and training the performance aspects of playing.  This is where we practice walking into a room believing we’re ready to perform, standing there taking in the applause or staying comfortable in the silence, taking a free optimal breath, and making muuuuusic.  I think it’s as important to practice these things as it is to practice scales and notes in a practice room with your instrument.

We all learn a ton of technical in the routine class.  We all learn a ton of performing abilities in the performance class.  All the while, we play EVERY note with deafeningly clear musical intent.  If we play every note with musical intent, then we never have to turn our musical mind on.  If we ever have room for a performance to “matter more this time” we just haven’t made all the other times matter enough.  Doing a technical routine (musically!) an a performance every morning facilitates optimal training of our abilities to make it ultimately matter every time.  We can wield our well habited technique, and stay calm and “in the zone” while doing it.  And we learn to know when we’re not in the zone, and how to get back in there quickly too!

We get to bring what we CAN do closer to what we ACTUALLY do!

Here’s a picture taken in warm up class with two of our fuzzy friends joining us!

So if you’re wondering where I’ve been, I thought I’d tell you about a few highlights from the past months. First, and most importantly, we’ve had a new addition to Studio Nelsen.  Let me introduce you to our newest member:

That’s right! An espresso maker!!!  I was never a coffee drinker until I tried coffee from this machine- and now I can’t stop.  Thank you Dan Perantoni!  I tried my first cup from his machine.  It’s been a fun addition to our studio.  We’re constantly trying out new recipes and over caffinating ourselves!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

September was filled with daily teaching at IU.  I also did a great recital shared with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Horns 1 and 2 Robert Danforth and Julie Beckel.  We also performed horn and percussion students from IU and DePauw University. It was a beautiful recital.  We even did a world premiere live performance of a new piece for 12 horns and percussion by Jim Beckel.  It was commissioned for the “Texas Horns” CD.  Awesome piece!!

In October, I went with Canadian Brass for a “run-out” concert in Austria.  We flew out on a Friday, and were home by Sunday.  Well, ok…we were performing in NYC on Sunday.  We also went on a mini-tour to Mexico, Utah, Texas, and Arizona…not on the Sunday…but might as well have been.  Whew!

I also spent 3 days in Atlanta, playing a concert and having Master Classes with the Atlanta Youth Symphony.

Studio Nelsen was very lucky to have a dear friend and colleague Sylvia McNair come do a masterclass with us on one of our weekly Monday night classes in October! It was such a learning experience for all of us, including myself! She ROCKS!!!

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays- Especially around IU.  We take it very seriously, and enjoy dressing up!  Here I am with Everett Burns, a 2nd year member of Studio Nelsen.  He used the force…no fair.

My costume made it difficult to play the horn all day!

In November, I flew out to hear Nina sing in the opera Anna Bolena at Academy of Vocal Arts. It’s always interesting to see my wife dressed up as a boy on stage! (And a beat up boy…I searched for the guy who did this to her, and never found her!  Him?  Hmmm…opera is so confusing…)

I also played on a verrrry exciting Cincinnati Symphony recording – Holst’s “The Planets”!  That should be out within the year.  As you can see, Liz Freimuth is a real task master…so serious!  Scary lady…well, ok…the opposite…unless you find giggling scary…then I say again, she’s a scary lady!!

During the down time we even managed to find time for a poker game, or two!  These are some of the guys that play poker at the breaks…too fun.  No giggling…but scary in other ways.  But still…too fun.

Over Thanksgiving break, Studio Nelsen participated in an afternoon of community service, set up by Jessica Richers, one of our studio members, where we raked leaves for a woman in the community.  Here’s a photo from that great afternoon.

In December, we started our annual Canadian Brass Christmas tour on December 1, playing at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.  From there we hit Omaha and Lincoln NE, Cleveland and Portsmouth OH, Huntsville AL, Nashville TN (with symphony), Westhampton Beach NY, and Newark NJ (with symphony).

Some more highlights of the tour included the playing the tree lighting ceremony at Bryant Park in NYC. Bare Naked Ladies performed just before us.  Here we are with Canadian Mounties just before the tree lighting ceremony.  Our performance was on most late night TV shows because just as our dramatic musical climax came, and the tree lights were supposed to come on…live TV and everything…the lights did not come on.  Jay Leno and friends used the footage that night.  Very funny!

We played our annual double quintet show with the New York Philharmonic Principal Brass guys. Here I am with the Phil Myers, the Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic.  We’re doing a salut we both get very often in Asia.

We also played a show with the San Francisco Symphony. We ended our tour at “home” in Toronto on December 23.

I was able to spend a couple of days with my mom and dad  (in the snow!) before heading out to Santa Barbara to spend Christmas with Nina, her mom and brother.  What a wonderful climate to spend Christmas in! We even took some time to relax and wine taste in the bay area! It was a great week!

In January, I headed out to Texas to be a featured performer at the Blue Bonnet Horn Festival, hosted by The Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse.  It was a great weekend with lots of superb horn playing.

February proved to be a busy month for me. I performed in 2 recitals at IU, as well as recorded a CD with Adam Frey and the University of Utah Wind Ensemble.    We’re splitting the recording.  Adam did many solos, and I did Jim Beckel’s “The Glass Bead Game”, and a Tony Rickard arrangement of Elgar’s “Chanson de Matin”.  I asked Tony to also arrange a Horn and Euphonium version of “Czardas”.  That was a blast!

Adam, maestro Scott Hagen, and I commissioned Tony DiLorenzo to write an original piece for Horn, Euphonium, and Wind Ensemble.  The piece is titled “Gemini” and that is what it is!!  A GEM!!  WOW amazing piece!  You have to check it out at this link when the CD is released!  Here we are in the recording session.

I played horn with the Arizona MusicFest Festival Orchestra.  The concert pictured below has a magician doing tricks to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings music.  It was verrrry difficult for me to look at my music…the magician was very good!!

In March, my friend and colleague Mike Herriott and I premiered our show “Men in Brass” with the Victoria Symphony in Canada.  It was a huge success!

I also was a featured artist (along with my dear friend Roger Kaza) at the South East Horn Symposium, held in Cullowhee, NC. Here are Roger Kaza and Jacob Medlin trying out the new and amazing Medlin Horn at the symposium.

Canadian Brass did another short tour during IU’s spring break. Half way through the tour, I stopped in Utah to see Nina perform Cherubino in Utah Opera’s production of Marriage of Figaro.  Once again, she was playing a boy on stage!

During the last weekend of March, Nina and I went up to Ottawa.

While there we performed a recital together and I did a masterclass at the University of Ottawa.

We were able to spend some quality time with two of my greatest mentors, Dan Gress and Pace Sturdevant.

We then took a train to Montreal, and drove to Sherbrooke for a concert with Canadian Brass.

Driving back through Montreal, Nina and I were able to stop in and have brunch with (and maybe play a game of pool, or 3 with) my teacher, Jean Gaudreault.

As always, it was great to see him- and as always, he is a much better pool player than I!

Canadian Brass did a masterclass at the Conservatoire in Montreal before heading to the airport.

So….this brings us into April.  As I said at the beginning of this blog- I’m spending the whole month in Indiana with Studio Nelsen.  We’re looking forward to our end of year studio recital, as well as our end of year talent show!

I hope this finds you all well, wherever you are!!!!

Hope to see you all at my “Fearless Audition Training” seminar this summer!  It’s open to all musicians!!  It’s just in time for you to get read for your school placement auditions, and beyond!  The seminar is August 16-21 this year.

As always, remember to choose music over fear!  It can help make what you can do into what you actually do.

All the best,

Jeff

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