Adam Frey Euphonium Blog

Just a quick message as I going to try to update more often!!

In Peru for vacation and it has been amazing. Such an incredible place. We are heading out for 4 days to hike the Inca trail and see Macchu Picchu!! I will post some photos eventually. But certianly an adventure for sure!!

What a whirlwind summer indeed. It has been really a great few months. After IEI, I went directly to Cincinnati with a number of the IEI participants. A hearty congratulations to the guys taking place in the competitions that including Mark Carlson in the Artist Division, and in the Young Artist were Kennedy Wells, Paul Dickinson, Blake Unger, Brett Blackstone, and Raphael Rosse. We were lucky enough to have Mark Carlson (also an IEI TA place 2nd) and Kennedy Wells won the 1st in the Young Artist and Paul Dickenson earned 2nd in the Young Artist. I was proud having taught Kennedy for more than 4 years and helping Paul get ready since the beginning of April. Paul studies primarily with Mark Britt at Furman University.

ITEC featured some incredible playing and due to having the Euphonium.com booth, I wasn’t able to attend everything, but I heard some amazing playing by so many great players. The Brusick Concerto that I got to première with Rod Winther and the ITEC Band was great fun and the reactions and inquires about the piece were uplifting to know it was well liked. I also got to perform Bugler’s Holiday with Neal Corwell (US Army Band) and Phil Franke (US Marine Band). I got to feature some new music of Eric Ewazen’s new Sonata as well as some fun chamber music with Tormod Flaten and Sergio Carolino on my 8:30 AM Friday recital.

After ITEC, I had a little down time and then off to Boston for Mike Milnarik’s NETEW workshop with Roland Froescher. It was great fun again and kudos to Mike and Sanae for all the great organization and inspiration. For those interested, check out Mike’s site for the camp at www.netew.org. I don’t get to play in a quartet very often so it is certainly a highlight of my year to take part in that aspect and make great music with Roland, Mike, and Matt Brown (Millersville State University). Thanks again and look forward to the next meeting of the Cosmopolitan Quartet!!

Before a busy fall schedule and school starts at Emory and Georgia State, I get a 2 week vacation to Peru. I will post more when I get a chance. A fun and exciting adventure for sure. I will write more about that in the future.

Wow, the 5th year of IEI is now over. It was an incredible week of inspiration…from having THE Eric Ewazen in residency for two days…his new Sonata is AMAZING and part of the consortium commission program for 2008 to the closing concert with Oystein Baadsvik and the 60 piece Massed Ensemble performing Widor’s Toccata from Symphony No. 5. You can find photos and sound files of solo, quartet, and ensemble performances on the IEI 2008 Review Page.

Having Jukka Myllys and Oystein Baadsvik as our international guests were outstanding in addition to our fabulous American teachers of Brian Bowman, Gail Robertson, Martin Cochran, and myself.

The master classes and concerts were amazing and my thanks to all the staff and participants that made the week excpetional. It was an EXCEPTIONAL WEEK. I wanted to list all the staff and participants below and a personal thanks to all of you:

IEI 2008 Staff
Adam Frey, Jukka Myllys, Øystein Baadsvik, Brian Bowman
Gail Robertson, Tom Gibson, Stacy Baker, Martin Cochran
Caryl Conger, Karen Mullins, Janet Frey, Magi Shumanova
Scott Stewart, Richard Prior, Jamie Lipton, Mark Carlson
Eric Ewazen, Melissa Plamann, Robert Ambrose, The Georgia Brass Band

IEI 2008 Participants
Duncan Albert
Sandy Alvarado-Ortiz
Brett Blackstone
Tim Brandl
Donald Bruce
Jason Casanova
Ryan Chen
Adam Cipinko
Noelle Christie
James Cunico
Antonio Del Sesto
Chris Dickey
Paul Dickinson
Reid Dickinson
David Dimmit
Mike Drosd
Chasse Duplantis
Jake Finn
Gary Garvin
Dan Geldart
Andrew Geocaris
Nathan Giroux
Ryan Hartman
Alexander Hayes
Grayson Holland
William Holmes
Nicole Holstein
John Huber
Jonathan Hunt
Scott Inman
Patrick Jones
Brett Keating
Genna Krecicki
Brian Lew
Sam LoBue
Kyle Lucas
Jesse McConnell
Paul McCutcheon
Kody O’Keefe
Alex Parke
Robert Pendergrass
Raphael Rosse
George Streitenberger
Jonathan Tyler
Blake Unger
Kevin Warstadt
Kennedy Wells
Truman Williams
Elliott Woodbury
Daniel Zimmicky

Well things are moving right along with a busy summer involving lots of performances at acronyms…like IEI, ITEC, and NETEW!! With instrument names that are many syllables, initials are so much easier. Well planning for IEI has been exceptional and for year 5 we have more than 50 participants…a new record!!! There will be some new things in year 6 to accommodate more interest, but that will have to wait until the fall.

The line ups for IEI and ITEC look amazing and the concerts will be first rate. What I look forward to is seeing the growth and development of all the students at IEI with all the close contact and lessons during the week. I love to see the students’ eyes open as they really become aware of all the possibilities.

I hope many of you can make it to some of the fabulous evening concerts at IEI in Atlanta. They are all free and take place at Emerson concert hall at 1700 North Decatur Road, Atlanta GA 30041. You can visit http://www.arts.emory.edu/village/index.html for detailed directions.

Sunday, June 15 - 7:30 PM
International Artist Recital - Jukka Myllys and the Georgia Brass Band

Monday, June 16 - 7:30 PM
Artist Recital - Adam Frey and Friends

Tuesday, June 17 - 7:30 PM
Artist Recital - Mark Carlson, Martin Cochran, Tom Gibson,
Jamie Lipton, and Brian Bowman

Wednesday, June 18 - 6:30 PM
Alpharetta First United Methodist Church
Alpharetta, Georgia

Thursday, June 19 - 7:30 PM
International Artist Recital - Øystein Baadsvik
Jazz Night - Gail Robertson

Saturday, June 21 - 7:30 PM
Gala Concert featuring The International Euphonium Institute Ensemble
Guest Soloists with the Emory Symphonic Winds

Hope you can join us!!

Back to practicing and preparing.

Sorry it has been a long time…been REALLY busy on a number of fronts…Been playing and teaching with Music for All (Bands of America), Univ of Alabama, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Northeastern University, MENC National Convention, a concert on my birthday at Georgia State University at the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony!!

Oh yeah, I got some free time in for a day of watching a Practice Round at the Master’s Golf Tournament that is about 2 hours from my home. It was incredible. I have posted a load of the photos on the website at 2008 Photos Webpage.

Also, we have a number of great new titles coming out at Euphonium.com including some new award finalists for the Harvey Phillips Composition Awards. So be sure to check out the New Items at the Euphonium.com Store.

Also, been working on finalizing all the details of the IEI program. It should be a GREAT and INCREDIBLE week for sure. We have just a few spots left, so hope to confirm these shortly. If you want or need more information, please visit the IEI Home page.

I will be releasing some information and programs for IEI in the next few weeks, but until then…