Schools update

I was accepted into UNL, but rejected from Iowa. No word on assistantships from either UNL or Wright State yet, so I'm still waiting for that.

Krista has gotten calls back to interview at a few schools this week: Norfolk Catholic, Archbishop Bergan Catholic (Fremont), Bancroft-Rosalie, and Bertrand.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

Assistantship Results

Assistantship results came in an email from Dr. Miles immediately after band today:

" We had 3 Graduate Teaching Assistant positions open this year and had 10 applicants for these positions.  I plead your case to the rest of the faculty as they discussed the strengths of their applicants as well.  At this time, you are first on the waiting list for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship should one of the other three reject our offers. "

Not as good as I had hoped, but it is highly possible that one of the three chosen applicants will take an assistantship somewhere else. I guess this means I will still be waiting for a final update.

Audition #3 Done

My visit to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio was pretty awesome. I arrived at about 2pm to warm up briefly and meet the professor, Dr. Ben Miles. Dr. Miles seems like a really good teacher and a good guy in general. After giving me a tour of the department's facilities and letting me listen to the Wind Symphony's rehearsal, he led me to the recital hall so that I could warm up more for the audition. The recital hall is basically a tiny lecture hall with a piano on the stage... for WSC students, think along the lines of the art room (19?), but a bit bigger, a raised stage, and theatre seating and lighting. My audition went very well, I played Hindemith 1 and 3, as well as Civilization 1 and 3. Immediately after the audition, Dr. Miles told me that I was basically 'in', but that assistantships would not be decided until today.

After the audition, I sat in with the Tuba/Euph studio as they rehearsed for their studio recital on the 15th. The ensemble played a Gabrielli piece that I recognized and John Stevens' The Liberation of Sisyphus, with grad student John Hardisky of the Air Force Band of Flight playing the crazy solo part. Like much of John Stevens' work, it was pretty fun to play.

After a quick supper at Penn Station (a really good sub shop), we had a lesson. Dr. Miles pushed me a bit, and gave me some great pointers for the Hindemith. After the lesson, we went and watched the Wind Symphony concert. They were sounded very good, and played pieces by Steven Bryant and John Mackey that I really enjoyed. All in all, this was a very pleasant visit, and I left feeling very excited about the possibility of studying there.

...& Brasswind Visit

So yesterday, I visited the Woodwind and Brasswind store in South Bend. Wow.

I wish I would have had my camera with me, because it is almost indescribable. The tuba room was simply awesome: literally 30+ tubas in this one room. I spent 4 hours playing around on F tubas and CC tubas. I would have loved to look through the other rooms, but I just ran out of time. I found a couple of horns that I really enjoyed. One was the MW 45-SLZ (you are right Josh, this horn sounds fantastic), which was a rotary valve F. I also liked the MW Kodiak F and the Miraphone Petrushka, but my favorite was that 45-SLZ. Some CC tubas I tried were Miraphone 188, 1291 in silver, 1292, MW Thor, 2155, Gronitz PCK, and Besson 995 (German-made). I also tried out the MW Travel F... it is ridiculously small, and plays pretty well. Overall, it was a fun trip. Now I have to get ready for my last audition.

Audition #2 Done

Greetings from South Bend, Indiana and Eastern time.

Holy cow, has it really been 2 weeks since I blogged?

Yesterday was a long day of driving. I started at 9am from Wayne and got to Iowa City at about 3pm for my audition. I didn't realize that the 'old mall' that UI's school of music had relocated to temporarily was just that: an old shopping mall. After the audition and stopping to fuel up (again), change, eat, &c, &c, I left from Iowa City at about 6pm, and drove to Indiana through southern Chicago, arriving in South Bend at about 10:45pm CST (11:45 local time). What a long drive!

The audition went very well, and I feel that I showed off what I was capable of. I played through Hindemith 1 and 3 with a few mistakes, but tried to keep it very musical, and Marcello 1 and 2 went just a bit better. I really felt like I NAILED the orchestral excerpts (Ride, Die Meistersinger, Symphonic Metamorphosis, and Prokofiev 5).

Audition #1 Done

Well, audition season has officially begun for me. Lincoln on Saturday went pretty well, I thought. I played through movements 1 and 3 of Hindemith without accompaniment first, and while I missed a few notes, I felt like I played it musically. Next, they asked for Ride and another excerpt of my choice- I played Prokofiev 5. Ride was ok, but Prokofiev showed me off a bit better in my opinion. I would say that Prokofiev was the best thing I played for them, and it was also the last.

In other news, the car died again, this time in Lincoln, on South 27th, right across the street from Southpoint mall... I am now going to have a discussion with Arnie's to express my serious dissatisfaction at their service.

Car

Well, I jumped over another hurdle today for auditions: the car is (finally!) fixed.  According to the mechanic at the dealer, the ignition module was overheating and would cause my car to die and not start. Hopefully, this means the end of annoyingly sporadic engine stalls. One of the times it died, I was about to pull out on to Main Street to go south from the corner by Rice... about 3 seconds longer before cutting out would have left me stranded in the street, just over the hill from view of oncoming traffic... it would have been bad. Anyway, there goes another lump of cash that I had not intended to spend on my car.

Studio stress

I have noticed that there have been multiple blog posts and breakdowns over the past couple of weeks from various members of the studio experiencing some feeling of personal failure in one thing or another. I just want to give you all something to think about while you are feeling the stresses of college bearing down.

You will fail at some point in your life. It is an inevitable fact of life. The most important thing about failing some personal goal is to know why you should get back on the horse. Most of you know that I took last winter semester off from school, though many of you probably don't know why. Here it is: I got burned out, every year, for about 3 years in a row. I did very well during my first 2 years of college, with the only possible exception being that I decided I didn't want to get an education degree (which I am starting to think was a mistake). Over the course of years 4 and 5, I gradually slumped until I reached a point where I only practiced a couple of times a week. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to do a recital, but as a composition major (at the time), it wasn't required, so I didn't take it for credit. I picked somewhat difficult literature for it, but nothing that was terribly out of my range. It would have required a bit of work to do. I ended up having to scrap a whole piece and a movement from the recital because I simply had not put in enough time working on them. Thankfully, I was sharing the recital with someone, so it was still substantial in length. To this day, I kick myself for not working harder on that recital. The next semester, I flat out quit practicing because I was not required to take lessons (I had reached the minimum requirement). I guess you could say that I just let myself go when it came to school. Eventually, I just decided that I didn't see the point in paying for college when I wasn't succeeding anymore, so I took some time off. It was exactly what I needed: a swift kick in the pants realization that I couldn't live without music. I also realized that I had limits: I couldn't (and didn't need to) participate in every ensemble (at one point or another, I have been in marching band, wind ensemble, symphonic band, brass ensemble, brass quintet, jazz ensemble, choir, madrigals, church choir, and bell choir). So my question to those of you who are doubting yourselves is this: what would you do if not music? I could not imagine many of those whom I have seen stressing out lately doing anything else. Spending spring semester of 2009 working full time made me realize that I cannot live without music and playing tuba. I hope that none of you have to go to the lengths that I did to figure that out.

I guess the main thing that I want to say is this: we all fail, at some point or another. Use your failures as lessons, learn from them, and you will grow stronger.

Audition

First audition is set for 9:20am on Saturday at Lincoln (just got confirmation last night). I think I'll play movements 1 and 3 of Hindemith, as well as some orchestral excerpts (see the playlist on CMO - I have been listening to some of the ones I didn't know as well). I feel pretty prepared, I guess. Practicing has been going pretty well, I just need to learn the excerpts a bit better. I would take either UNL or Wright State, and would have a tough time choosing between the two if they both offer an assistantship. I guess I would probably take UNL, as it is closer to most of my family, and closer to all of my college friends, but it also depends on how lessons with both of the professors go. Also, I really don't like the music building at Lincoln... it feels very closed in compared to Wayne. On the other hand, UNL gives its assistants health insurance. I'll let you all know how it goes when I get back on Sunday.

More on Graduate Schools

For those who haven't heard yet, yesterday was a pretty good day. I applied online to Iowa, UNL, and Wright State. I also got a few professors to write letters of recommendation. I am really excited about Wright State... it seems like it might be a really good fit for me, and everything has just kind of "clicked" with them. Dr. Miles has a pretty open day for a visit and a lesson on the Wednesday that I'll be there, and that night, their Wind Symphony (which is their highest band) has a concert. They also have a concerto competition and an annual honors recital, both of which are apparently very competitive. Dr. Miles was also able to reply to my email, even though they had a snow day (Kent State has not been as good yet about replying). Things are also working out pretty well with Lincoln, as it looks like I will be able to go down there on graduate audition day, and Mr. Fuller has been very willing to schedule a lesson for me. Lincoln also has an assistantship in technology, which I think I would really enjoy. Iowa is right now the most uncertain, as Mr. Manning's current assistant is still contracted for another year, but there is the possibility that he will find a job and the position will be open. Iowa would be an amazing opportunity. First audition is Lincoln on the 20th, and Iowa and Wright will be the 8th and 10th, I believe.

One other awesome thing of note is that both Mike and I will be in Intercolleiate Honor Band, which is awesome, because it really shows how far our studio has come - we are showing up some of the big schools.

Refocused

After a long night of practice (3 hour session), I have decided a few things.
1. 3 hour sessions are not as productive as they would be if broken down.
2. I can play for 3 hours when needed.
3. I am going to apply to only as many graduate programs as is reasonable.
4. I am in much better shape than previously suspected  with the VW... but not there by a long shot.

I did some more research on grad schools after practice, and here is what I have decided on:
1. Iowa
2. Kent State University (Open TA confirmed) -Kent, OH
3. UNL
4. Wright State University (Open TA confirmed) - Dayton, OH
5. UNI

Based on what I found out tonight, all i need to work on besides solo repertoire is:
1 Bordogni etude
1 Kopprasch etude
Orchestral excerpts including: Die Meistersinger, Ride of the Valkyries, Sensamaya, and Symphonic Metamorphosis

I think that cutting down the options is going to help relieve some of the stress and anxiety from earlier in the week.

2am second thoughts

I'm up doing some research into a list of 11 schools (below) that I was considering applying to for graduate study in tuba performance. It seems that several of the schools have audition deadlines that fall before midterm break, which is when I had kind of planned to try making some visits. Others seem to have really high bars set for entrance. After a not-so-great practice session, I am really starting to have some doubts about whether or not I should try out for some or even any of these schools. My grades have not been the best, so it doesn't seem likely that I would earn an assistanceship, and there's no way I could afford any of these schools without one.

Practice tonight was only somewhat productive. It is amazing how much more comfortable steel mouthpieces are than plain old silverplated. I didn't notice that I hadn't been getting the red ring around my lips from playing for the past month until I got it again tonight. Oh well, at least I can play without hyperventilating now. Some of the VW concerto got better, but that's about it. I wish the building were open for at least another hour...

More on mouthpieces

I am really glad that I did some of my homework before ordering mouthpieces. I had originally expected to keep the 72, as it had once been my main mouthpiece, but it turns out that it was too bright for the horn. It has awesome rim (which is something that Perantucci is not as good at), but was just too shallow. The 82, which I am keeping as my small ensembles and solo mouthpiece, keeps the rim but adds a bit of depth, darkening the sound to a pleasingly bright sound, but not overbearing like the 72. This left the 88 and the 90 to contend for my large ensemble mouthpiece. Now, the 88 is pretty much the biggest mouthpiece around, and the 90 is supposed to be its smaller replacement. The 90 actually proved to be too small, and it was difficult for me to remain consistent with articulation and tone. The 88 was a bit squirelly too, but with time I should be able to keep it in line. So, for $165, I now have two really good matches to my horn. I can't wait until practice time tonight to really start getting used to them.

Mouthpieces incoming

I just dropped a couple hundred dollars on some Perantucci mouthpieces to try out, and they are shipping today. Hopefully, after a couple of days, I'll be able to narrow the selection down to two of the four, as I would very much like to get some of that money back.

Models ordered:
PT-72
PT-82
PT-88
PT-90

The 72 and 82 seem to have the same rim, based on specs, and the 90 is the slightly smaller version of the 88. Basically, the 72 will be the main solo/chamber mouthpiece, and the 82/88/90 will be for the bigger stuff like band. I can't wait to get them sometime later this week.

I'm not sure yet what to do in studio. All that I have that is truly ready is carryover from last semester, and not much of the new stuff is ready yet... I think I am going to go practice and figure that out. Easy way out would be to play the muted movement from Civ, but the Marcello 2nd movement is pretty easy both tonally and technically. I guess that means it's time for practice so that I can figure that out. Also, I think today I'll remember to do my high range stuff for lessons, where I will be doing the Romanza from the VW Concerto, which basically sits at the top of the staff and higher.

Also, you have to watch the second of these...

Mouthpiece Search

I have realized over the past couple of weeks of getting used to the new horn that I need a new mouthpiece. Actually, mouthpieces. I have loved the way that Perantucci's german-stye mouthpieces have reacted with my horn from what little I've tried, and I think I am going to start looking for 2 or 3 mouthpieces that fit really well with the horn. What I am thinking are cup-shaped mouthpieces in various depths to affect the presence of overtones in the sound. I am really bummed out now that Tubonium isn't going to take place this year, because I was really hoping to try out a bunch of PT's back to back to back. Now, it looks like I will have to order a bunch and send some back. Refund checks never come soon enough.

Also, for those of you who haven't seen this yet...

Tired chops and dent removal

Pep band sure can have a toll on one's chops, especially with two nights of double headers in a row. Practice this weekend took a less traditional approach - singing and listening to recordings of the Hindy and VW. Of course, time away from the horn gave me the opportunity to replace the rest of my cork bumpers with neoprene, as well as give the pig a bath. Yay for a bathtub that now smells of vinegar.

Recital material is set, somewhat. Looks like the program will be something along these lines:
Cello Sonata no. 5 - Benedetto Marcello
Civilization and Its Discontents - Richard Wilson
Concerto - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sonata - Paul Hindemith
Music 4 Tubas - John Stevens

In addition, I am supposed to premier the new Charles Liu concerto sometime in the next year as part of the 2010/2011 North American Tuba Repertoire Initiative, and would prefer to do it at school... not sure yet how that will work out. Also, an article will be published in the ITEA journal about the project, so yay for professional recognition.

Today, Josh gave me an intonation tendency chart to fill out for my new tuba, as it is a very different beast from the ones I have played recently. More on this to come as it affects my ability to play in tune (which has taken a decline recently, due to the still unfamiliar horn and mouthpiece).

Favorite video recently has been this one. I definitely want this for myself, as I am somewhat clumsy and very paranoid (which is due in some part to the fact that somebody once set a chair leg on the bell of the tuba I played at the time... and then sat on said chair).

New Tuba

First thing's first: I bought a tuba over break.

I have been playing tuba since the seventh grade, which at time of posting amounts to a very little bit over 11 years. This is the first real tuba that I have bought (The first 'fake' one was essentially an antique - 1907 Conn Eb - although it does play, and seems to be fairly close to modern pitch when put to the tuner somehow). It's pretty awesome to own my own instrument finally. Here's the bizarre part - I bought it without playing it first (this made me incredibly nervous at first) or even seeing so much as a photo of it in poor lighting. We shipped it UPS, against which I was strongly advised, and almost none of the packing advice was followed. The tuba was shipped in a gig bag, which was wrapped in paper, surrounded by packing peanuts, wrapped in a plastic bag, surrounded by more peanuts, in a tall cardboard box with one of those metal beams across the top. It somehow arrived unharmed (and unflattened), much to my surprise upon seeing the packing.

This tuba is awesome. I love the sound it has when I play it. I feel that it similar to the sound I had with the Perantucci horns i fell in love with three years ago at HRTEC when I was first trying out horns, but only cost a third of the price. It has awesome response, and can actually pop out the low notes with relative ease. I initially bought it with the mindset of "if i don't like it, I can easily sell it for as much as I bought it, and it will get me through the recital just fine." Now it's just flat out going to be MY horn (until circumstances require otherwise). I am now waiting for my refund check from student loans so that I can buy a bunch of mouthpieces to try out, as none of my mouthpieces fit the euro shank receiver.

I will be uploading pictures soon, but it is my guess that most of you reading this have seen it in person...

I definitely love my Cerveny Piggy 603.
(for those of you who didn't understand the blog's address, yes, it's a play on words - when have you ever known me not to make ridiculous puns?)

Lastly, who knows what I can do with 15 cubic feet of styrofoam packing peanuts?