I believe

I believe in music.

2008 Midwest Band & Orchestra Conference

It really doesn’t get any bigger than Midwest.    Don’t bring MENC’s All-East into the conversation because truth be known – the clinics, concerts, and vendors are not that much better (if at all) than many state conferences.  Midwest is a glorious week in December that for many might be “The Most Wonderful Time of theYear” (With humble apologies to Capital One Bowl Week – Go Pitt!).

Who’s next?

The end of October to now has been a bit of a blur – football playoffs, honors band auditions, KSU work, finishing up two new pieces and digging in on a third one, and the big news the birth of my son.  He joins me awash in a sea of estrogen – but if you have met my daughters and my wife there really is no greater ocean to be around.  My apologies for being gone so long.  A big thank you again to all who participated in the Blog Carnival last month.

One of the more interesting conversations I had over the past month was in regards to who is in fact next? ESPN’s The Magazine asks this same question each year as they look for the next greatest thing to come along in sports.  Dr. Pisano and I had this conversation a little over two weeks ago.  There is always a passing of the torch that occurs in any profession.  Sometimes it is graceful, and sometimes it is not.  Sometimes leaders make awesome exits at the top of their game (take James Keane last year at the Midwest Clinic with the Illinois Wind Ensemble), and sometimes they hold on too long (not to mention any names like Al Davis and the glorious debacle that is the Raiders).  Is there another Alfred Reed or Clifton Williams? What about a Kenneth Bloomquist or John Bourgeois?  And I say that with realization that there will never be another, but will there be someone that will accept the mantle and has earned the respect of our profession to follow in their legacy?

Where there’s smoke there’s fire…and hey, is that my middle school band room?

The morning was calm.  Too calm.  After taking one last drink of coffee, I picked up my scores, baton, and tuner and began walking towards the podium.  In just seconds part of my middle school band would descend upon our rehearsal room eager to learn and play music (or maybe it was just the sugar from the snack line at lunch).  But I never made it to the podium.  Suddenly a completely refurbished alto clarinet burst into flame (it had been rebuilt and sent to me from another district but smelled of smoke…).  It quickly consumed two chairs, my Wenger catalog (that was sad…), and the rain stick.  I realized the horror of it all – MY MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND ROOM WAS ON FIRE.

Building a better box

As I hinted at earlier this summer, the May 6th concert at Mercer was great. The students delivered some wonderful performances of music by Julie Giroux, Quincy Hilliard, Andrew Boysen, Willie Owens, Brian Balmages, Scott Watson, and Patrick Burns. The other part of the equation was the willingness of a great friend and colleague make an idea a reality with a big impact. Dr. Joe Pisano (over at Mustech.net – It’s Visionary!) helped me to use Skype and bring three of those aforementioned composers (Boysen, Balmages, and Watson) right into the concert hall to introduce their piece. Dr. Pisano has started a four part series over at Mustech.net that I highly encourage all of you to check out. In case you have not been keeping up, Dr. Pisano is really becoming the leading figure for helping all of us do smart, simple things with technology that can pay big dividends in our professional career. This amazing evening was to our knowledge the first of its kind, and can hopefully be a vision of the future as we all make better use of technology to allow our students to have a greater connection with the music that they perform. You can read more about this amazing evening by clicking here.