How was everybody’s summer? I hope it was great- mine sure was!!! It’s been crazy busy, and very fun filled. School starts tomorrow for us at IU, and although the summer season ends, I’ve decided that my “summer” fun is going to continue until Christmas! Why not keep the fun going as long as possible, eh?

I’m very excited about my upcoming second year teaching at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. I have many great returning students and many great new students too! I can’t wait to get to work with them all.

I titled this blog “Back in Brass” because like ACDC sang, I’m “Back in Brass!” I’ve recently rejoined Canadian Brass! It’s so incredible to be a full time performer and teacher. It is literally a dream come true. My schedule has gotten quite a bit more full, but as I said…it beats working!

You can read more about my return to Canadian Brass on my ‘Events’ page.

Ok, let me tell you a little about the fun that’s been going on……

Nina and I moved to New York City for the summer, for me to play on Broadway in the new show “The Pirate Queen” and for Nina to sing with New Jersey Opera. Here’s a picture of the HUGE billboard in Time’s Square.

I really like the angles and colours of that photo. And, here’s a group picture of the “Pirate Queen” band.

We had an incredible time, musically and socially, in that intimate pit. …ok, and too many incredible times outside that pit! I miss you guys!

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

While living in NYC, we decided to do as much as we could to enjoy living in one of the most amazing cities in the world. We were living next to restaurant row, right at 45th and 9th! It was awesome! We sampled as many of the restaurants as we could, given we could only eat 3 times a day. I think we got to about 1/10th of the ones within a few blocks of us. We also went to the Tony Awards to cheer on my friend Raul Esparza, who was up for Best Actor in a Musical for his starring role in “Company”. He won the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award, but the Tony people gave the nod to David Hyde Pierce. It was an exciting night! The Associate Horn Instructor at Indiana University, Jessica Thoman, joined us for a very memorable night. She isn’t a fan of Broadway at all. (That previous sentence wins the Tony for the Biggest Understatement of the Year!!)

We took a trip out to Phil Myers’ (1st horn, NY Philharmonic) and Eileen Moon’s (cello, NY Phil.) house for a great dinner, and a wonderful evening with Liang Wang (1st oboe, NY Phil.) and his mother. We played a few games of ping pong on Phil’s new table. Phil ordered the table the day after we played some fierce late-night ping-pong in Bloomington after his master class at IU in March.

If you ever run into Phil or Liang near a ping-pong table, stay away…or bring your best game! They’re hungry competitors!

One of our goals for the summer was to train for a mini triathlon, although too many trips arose to plan a definite day for the triathlon. We did work out every day while we were in New York. We were lucky enough to meet trainer EXTRAORDINAIRE Brian Glasby. He kicked us into shape in more ways than just physically. A good trainer ends up being a life coach at the same time. Brian and I talked a lot about fearlessness and training and how training as a musician is very similar to training as an athlete. We agreed that all of what we do begins with the mental aspects, and as a musician and an athlete, you must be able to get over your mental fears in order to progress physically.

In the picture below, Brian has me pushing 5 pounds. Yes, that’s 5 pounds with each arm! Ok, maybe 4 pounds each…but still…hurts just lookin’ at that!

Our thoughts are pretty well identical on so many topics, even though we are coming from seemingly completely different areas of training. Optimal performance is our ultimate goal. In the fantastic book, “Power Performance for Singers”, the importance of performance training is explained very well. They say that it doesn’t matter how many times an athlete does well in the gym in their home town. The athlete can break a world record every day to no acclaim at all. It only matters when they do well in the actual event…in the race! This is why we practice performing as well as just practicing the sport or the instrument or the music.

One of the major similarities in our approaches to optimal performance is the fact that not until we (and our ‘clients’) start taking full responsibility for all our choices can we start influencing the results we get.

The path of excellence is a powerful path upon which to embark. A thought that helps me start my day on that path is, “A thousand mile journey begins with one step.” Then a good thing to remember is, “Either everything matters, or nothing matters.” Brian and I agree that it’s all in the details. Deciding that everything matters gives a wonderful clarity to our daily choices. Do we not throw the burger wrapper on the ground, but it’s ok to throw the gum wrapper on the ground? Can we throw the gum wrapper on the floor of the mall, but not on the floor of your house? Is it ok to drop it on the mall floor, but only in a way that no one sees? When does it begin to matter?

We are the only full-time observer of our thoughts and actions. The better we think and act, the better our results. Let me say that again, a bit more clearly. The better we choose to think and act, the better our results become. If we make every note we play and every push-up we do matter, then we are doing more than getting the training done to get through the repetitions. When we focus on how each motion or sound is done, we can make actions and thoughts into habits. Any action’s instruction that has become a habit is an action that happens without using part of our mind to instruct our bodies. This frees more of our limited amount of brain space to think of other things, like growth or performance thoughts about the goal of the musical line, or how to match to the oboe, or what colour is best suited for this note.

If I had to think thoughts like, “ok Jeff, remember to bring your horn to your mouth, not your ear…” every time I went to play my horn, my mind would be filled with mental clutter. The more things I can make into a habit, the more room I have in my mind for performance thoughts…thoughts that are higher than technical aspects of music making.

An important addendum to this approach is the fact that we are on a long time line here. “Better thinking” is not always more thinking. In having “everything matter”, one of the most important things we’re having matter is how we prioritize our choices of thoughts and actions. We can’t do it all or think it all, so we’re refining which things we do each day, and how we think while doing them. This is as important as how we play one note or do one sit-up. These two things combined is why there are so many fitness trainers and music teachers in the world. This guidance is crucial, and the better the guidance, the better the results. This is also why most professional singers in the world continue to study with coaches and teachers throughout their entire careers.

In summation of this for now, I find great comfort in knowing that the results that occur in the world, in as many unique ways as there are people, occur because of the combination of guidance and response to guidance. This is where each person’s choices come into play, and chart out what is happening in and around our schools, our orchestras and bands, and each of our lives.

“Choose well!” ☺

When I learned that I was going to be staying in a bunch of hotels again, Brian and I spoke and worked only with the exercise bands…pictured above. They’re an awesome workout, let me telllll yoooou! Ouuuuuuch!!! Motherrrrrr!!!

Nina and I enjoyed riding our bikes along the West Side Highway a few times, taking in the sights and smells of New York City.

Our summer in New York was cut short, when “The Pirate Queen” received its closing notice, and had its final performance on Sunday, June 17th. The cast album came out last month, and the singing sounds amazing! You’ll have to take it from me that the band sounds incredible too, for the mixing that was done did not do us or our orchestrator/conductor extraordinaire, Julian Kelly, justice. Oh well, something musicians learn to surrender to. The sounds in the pit every night were fantastic, and again, it was an unforgettable experience.

The day after the close of “The Pirate Queen” I drove up to Boston for one of my most important bookings of the summer!

A magic show for my nephew Jacob’s fifth birthday!

That’s him in the red Hawaiian shirt. His younger sister, Veronica, is three kids to his left, in the white top. I think they had a magical time.

I then flew to Toronto to record a new Christmas CD with Canadian Brass and organ. It’s going to be released in time for our ‘07 Christmas tour, and full of Christmas favorites!

Here is a picture I took after flying in to Toronto. My parents and I are having a meal with Canadian Brass before heading to rehearsal.

My horn is happy to be back with the Canadian Brass repertoire!

After the recording, I returned to Bloomington to teach a bit, and then I played my first concert back with Canadian Brass…in Winona Minnesota.

There are no better audiences than a Canadian Brass audience! I’m incredibly honored to be back in front of them/you! So exciting, to perform for them/you while also figuring out how to make it better each night.

Believe it or not, this just takes us to the middle of July, when I returned to New York City to see Nina perform as “Stephano” (a boy!!) in Romeo and Juliette with the New Jersey Opera.

That’s my wife Nina (a girl!!) on my right. No really! She received wonderful reviews, and her sword fight with Brace Negron was awesome!

Nina’s mom and grandmother were able to come to the east coast from California for her performance. Nina’s mom treated us to an incredible evening at “The Color Purple.” If you haven’t yet seen this show, RUN, don’t walk. Fantasia and the rest of the cast are amazing! Smokin’ band too!

Nina and her mom pictured above…and that’s not Nina’s grandmother next to them, it’s her brother, Mitchell. He’s a freak jazz pianist, accordionist, trombonist, trumpeter, melodica-er, cook, composer, and more…your basic renaissance man. He used to tour with the pop-star Jessie McCartney.

I shaved my goatee for Nina’s grandmother, who had never seen me cleanly shaven….here she is loving it! ….or laughing at me? ☺

After seeing Nina’s performance, I returned to Indiana University. The day before I left New York City, we had one of our best outings of the summer. We were wandering around Soho, and we stumbled across the Mac store. We went in, just to look around of course. Nina insisted! Ok, I lie. We looked at the iPhones. Nina insisted we bu…ok, I lie again.

Weeee!!

Ouiiiiii!!

We began our rehearsals for Mahler 5 with the IU Festival Orchestra a few days later. I played principal with 7 of my students as the horn section. Here we are in a sectional, getting ready for “bells up.” The trick I got from Jamie Sommerville (1st horn, Boston Symphony…and my distant cousin) is to turn your head sideways before you play. You can leave your mouthpiece where it is on your lips when you have to play horns up. You just turn your head straight, and your horn goes up. This way, you’re still playing optimally and you don’t have to mess as much with your mouthpiece setting.

Before

After

The best thing is that the visual effect is very strong when we do it this way.

In the concert, Maestro Robertson had me sit between the second violins (seated at the edge of stage left) and the violas for the third movement obligato part. It created a great “chamber music” feeling.

I was so proud of my students. They did a wonderful job making music, and I think we had a ton of fun while doing it. We all learned a lot from working with Maestro Robertson. Here we are after the concert on the set of IU’s Elixir of Love (Shhhhh…don’t tell anybody.)

(Hornists Extraordinaire, from left to right) Jared Disbro, Julia Filson, me, Darcie Kozlowski (back) Jessica Thoman (front) Deanna Carpenter, Lauren Hughes, Kurtis Henderson

The day of the Mahler 5 concert, my first annual “Fearless Audition Training” Seminar began. Fifteen hornists from around the country began the five-day seminar with the first of 7 auditions, and then attended the Mahler 5 concert. It was an incredible 5 days. Every day had one to two auditions, two lectures, masterclass, warm up class, and “post audition” analysis. We were there often times from 8 am until 10 pm. Here are a few of us on one of our nights off at “the Simpsons” movie.

The plan for next year is to have it available for all instruments. I’ll be creating a portable shorter “Weekender” version of the seminar if there is interest as well. Feel free to contact me if you know of a location interested.

One of the added bonuses of being back in Canadian Brass is having frequent trips to Toronto where my mom and dad live. Nina and I headed up to Toronto for a Canadian Brass concert in Collingwood, ON. We were able to enjoy a few days with family and friends while rehearsing for the concert.

We were lucky to have Adam James as our driver for the four days we were there…he was in Toronto taking a break from mastering his upcoming CD.

This is the one rare moment in which Adam was not wearing his driver’s hat. For shame, Adam! Back in the car!

Chuck and Mary Beth had us all over for a wonderful brunch and visit, before we all headed out to Collingwood for our concert.

After the concert, Nina and I headed out to Santa Barbara, CA for a few days of R and R before IU starts up.

While in California, we were able to see Kurt Witt, Wind Instruments Product Manager of Yamaha USA, Jeff Hawley, Assistant Manager of Winds at Yamaha, and my student Eric Woodhams, who was interning with Yamaha in Orange County for the summer. We took them and three other Yamaha interns to one of my favorite places in the world— “Magic Castle.”

Nina and I enjoyed a few days of beaching, relaxing, and eating incredible food in Southern California. Here I am eating a freshly picked peach off Nina’s mother’s fruit tree!!!

That’s a pretty crazy thing for a pig farmer from Alberta, Canada to do! I was used to picking wheat in the back yard…but not peaches!! Wow! It was a perfect way to end the summer

(summer part 1, that is!!!)

Nina and I had a fantastic summer together!

I’d now like to share with you a wonderful new depiction of evolution. Check it out.

I sent it to a friend, and she pointed out that the next picture should have a female hornist walking. I thought I’d share that… Heh…

Aaaaand here I am, sitting in a hotel room in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In a few hours Canadian Brass will be playing Blossom Music Festival- summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra. Last time, there were almost 10000 people at the concert! It should be a blast! Can’t wait!

Keep checking on CanadianBrass.com for a new monthly online publication I’ve titled “Backstage Brass”. It’ll have more thoughts on performing, as well as some fun stories from the road.

I think this blog is long enough so I’ll leave it here. Our fall semester at IU begins tomorrow! Yay!! Closing thoughts for your fall semester are found above… Keep choosing well, and choosing fearlessly. Note your mistakes, and then respond by taking constructive next steps toward your goals…

Keep dreaming and keep choosing well!

All the best…
Jeff

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