First LSO Concert and Meaningful Gifts

My first concert with the Lansing Symphony was a great success! I had so much fun performing with my colleagues and (in spite of the horrific ice storm that hit the area) we had an almost sold out hall to play for. I can't wait to get back there again in a couple of weeks. Next up we have Tchaikovsky's ballet suites from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, the suite from Stravinsky's the Fairy's Kiss and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto in E-Flat Major. Hopefully I will also have another exciting concert with a different group to tell you all about soon...but more on that if it happens!

While in East Lansing I also participated with the Lansing Symphony's Mentorship Program. The holiday concert this season (as usual) was used as a side by side concert and talented high school students from all around Michigan auditioned in the hopes of being offered a spot performing with the symphony on three pieces during our concert. These students were also given their own rehearsal with the music director and select members of the symphony which included a sectional led by us. It was so much fun and I hope that next year I am able to help out as well!

Side by Side rehearsal

My family celebrates Christmas and the past couple days have been jam packed with all sorts of craziness and eating. Many of my friends celebrate this particular holiday as well so there have been gifts exchanged and still a few more to get out before January hits. I just wanted to take a minute to mention one gift in particular that I very much appreciated and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside receiving. My friend Chelsea hand wrote me a letter detailing how important our friendship is and how my professional presence through things such as this blog, facebook, my website, etc. have been inspiring to her not only because of how I'm trying to use them to my advantage in terms of my own promotion, but also because I am trying to use them as a forum to get the word out about other colleagues' or groups' projects in order to promote the larger musical community. We are all in this together and highlighting or helping the achievement of or success of other musicians is vital to and for all of us. I hope that I never loose sight of the importance of my musical compadres and the effect their work has on mine and also the way in which the world sees my art. Having said this I am going to link below to a couple of groups I think you should all take a look at!

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Classical Revolution Detroit - Bringing Classical Music to bars in the Detroit Area.
Il Segreto String Quartet - Exciting things to come in the Detroit Area!
One Found Sound - an unconducted chamber orchestra in the SF Bay Area.
Waffle Opera - Promoting young opera artists in the SF Bay Area.

Let it Snow...and Then Melt!

Yesterday it snowed like I personally haven't seen it snow in years (although living in a place where it doesn't snow might be a contributing factor to that). It made me realize that for those of us who celebrate Christmas time is short and I have no presents! Hopefully this week will afford me enough time (and money) to get a few small things for some of the people I care about.

This week I decided to apply for a position at the University of Connecticut. It's the perfect kind of job for me! The posting is for Associate Artist Professor of Woodwinds (in either flute, oboe, clarinet or bassoon) and if selected I would be teaching flute, coaching woodwind chamber, teaching a course on wind chamber music and also possibly teaching some kind of history course. I'm really hoping I can get my materials finalized this week and apply but they want recordings and I'm not certain that I have three contrasting recordings that are of the correct caliber for this type of job position. I have three that I'm planning to use but there's a mistake in one that I'm not certain will be forgiven by a committee. We shall see! I wonder if it's best to always just record fresh for things like this? Or (and this is the option I'm going to work on this summer) maybe I should just have a few recordings of some standards that are as good as I can get them and re-record them every year or two. Either way if I'm going to continue on this path I need to make sure I'm prepared for things like this!

Coming up this week I have my first Lansing Symphony Concert. I can't wait to have my first rehearsal on Saturday! Here's to a great week of music making.

Have a great week and until next time bye!!

Classical Revolution Detroit

Another month has begun! This month is particularly exciting for me because on the 22nd I have my first official concert as Piccoloist of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra!! My contract has been signed and I am gearing up to get practicing. It has been over a month since I've tooted the picc so...I had better get to work (since they did hire me to play it). I'm really hoping that with the beginning of my work in Lansing will also come a more steady assortment of gigs (especially given the last months dry spell). Cross your fingers for me!

The past week has been a bit crazy with the holiday and all. My parents were in charge of Thanksgiving this year and since I am currently residing at their address I was needed to help get things ready. As our kitchen has been under construction for the past month this turned out to be a bigger job than I expected! We needed to make sure the kitchen was ready to be used given all the food it needed to produce, that the house was relatively more childproof than normal (with children ranging from 10 months to 10 years old coming by) and that it met my mothers higher than normal standards of cleanliness. I am proud to say that much to the entire family's delight we got the place into tip top shape and dinner went off without a hitch. There weren't even any arguments this year (which is quite a feat for a large Polish family)! The best part of all this? We have so much left over food that no one will have to worry about making a large meal for a few weeks...and then of course it's Christmas so we're pretty much set for the next month. But enough of the boring stuff and onto the real meat of this blog.

On this past Tuesday I taught all my lessons, drove home, got into my pj's, put on family guy and went to check my facebook messages. I had a blue notification from my very first flute teacher, Carol, and if there is one thing I am grateful for since I've moved home it is her. She is the one who recommended me for the Livonia Symphony gig and once again came to my rescue this past week. The message said simply "Flute mob tonight for Classical Revolution Detroit...be spontaneous!" Had she not sent me that message I never would have flung myself out of bed, into respectable clothes and drove down to the Cadieux Cafe to have a delightful evening of sight reading and beer. We performed as a flute mob (there were 9 of us...made for a very interested interpretation of some Nutcracker and Bizet), I got to play a solo (Enesco with Carol's husband Doug) and I also met a ton of great and fun musicians who live in the area. I can't wait until the next one! These kind of things are so important for helping to build the value of classical music within the community and also (specifically for someone like me) for networking with other freelance musicians. For more information on Classical Revolution Detroit I will post a link to their facebook page right above the pictures below:

www.facebook.com/clasrevdetroit

Part of the Flute mob

Mozart quintet happenin

Mozart Quintet (the intimate bar space made this piece really come to life)

My mind is starting to churn out some very interesting ideas that the upcoming week will most likely see me starting work on so sometime in the near future I may post more than my once a week to keep you all updated on things as they start to happen. Peace!!