Euphonium.com

Hello again,

Turns out I have finally caved to many requests to start using Twitter.  With my crazy travels I figured it is easier than always writing a blog...don't call me lazy...I just have lots to get accomplished.

So I will visit 5 continents, 7 countries in like 8 weeks, so come along for the ride by following me at:

http://twitter.com/Euphadamfrey

All the best and one the plane headed south...way south to Colombia, South America!!

Well my July the past few years has been crazy busy.  This year is busier than ever!!  My 6 weeks of travel with about 3 days at home (I actually counted that I would spend more hours on the plan then in my house of the next few weeks).  On the way to Allentown, PA for the Cosmopolitan Tuba Euphonium Workshop hosted by Mike Milnarik.  A great week (actually 10 days) of master classes and rehearsals.  I come up for 3 days to play in the quartet (one of my highlights each summer), share some new repertoire, and teach the students. 

As always it was well organized and had good attendance.  I was pleased by the students and great to play in the quartet with the great players and arrangers Mike Milnarik and Matt Brown.  As, Roland Froescher from Switzerland normally plays along with the group but could not make it this year, so we got Lauren Veronie from the US Army Field Band.  Great to work with a wonderful player and we had some serious laughes during our short time together.  It was great fun and got to meet a bunch of new students. 

Well I am headed home for a few hours, so until next time.

Hello again,

IEI was great and I still think about all the great performances during the week by the students and artists.  It gives me great pride to see how the students progress from year to year.  One year struggling a little on the recitals and the next year being confident, well prepared, and sounding like they know what they are doing (I mean this as a HUGE compliment, but a jab at all).  I am inspired by the week as well.

I have 2 and half months of travel with 7 countries and 5 continents coming up.  I have finally caved to joining twitter and making an account.  If you are interested, you can follow my movements and activities via Twitter by signing up at:  http://twitter.com/euphadamfrey  I will likely update this much more, but hope this helps me some in keeping people up to date.

CTEW was another fun year.  I greatly enjoy playing in a quartet and chamber setting and Matt, Mike, and Lauren was AWESOME and we had so much fun playing rock tunes and a few new pieces as well. 

Will send out the July Newsletter soon and then updates from South America!!

All I can say is WOW, WOW, WOW!!

What amazing students and teachers.  We had some amazing concerts, wonderful chamber music, kids from around the world (Thailand, Singapore, Canada, and the US) along with teachers from the US, Germany, United Kingdom, and Argentina (good luck in the world cup!!).

I invite you to check out the 2010 IEI Festival Program from the week and and also to mark you dates for next year as June 19-26, 2011!!  It will be a great week.  I will write more later, but still have to get things cleaned up.

Best wishes,

Adam

Back from Yellowstone National Park and I can HIGHLY recommend it to any nature lovers and people that want to see some amazing country.  Grand Tetons was really nice (except for the rain). 

On my last day in Cody, I went hiking and we came across some relatively fresh bear tracks and a freshly "removed" deer leg...it shows mother nature is at work and I am thankful I brought along some high powered bear spray after seeing those two things.  Thankfully, I did not need to use it.

Now, I am tackling the prep work for the IEI festival.  Each year I get more and more excited by this week and it is an amazing adventure for sure.  Always great to see all the efforts of the year come together.  And it is always great to see how far students and teachers travel for the week.  We have students coming from Singapore and Thailand and even Cuba. 

The large group has got some AWESOME arrangements from Carmina Burana, the rock band Queen, and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

Should be awesome indeed...

More later,

Well after a big month of May, I took a one week vacation with my family (I have a huge family of 5 sisters and 1 brother, and 6 nieces and nephews) in Cody, Wyoming near Yellowstone National Park.  I remember about 6 years ago, my wife and I and two friends from Germany took a 3 week RV trip across the US.  It is one of my most memorable trips in my life. 

This trip we spent a few days driving around Yellowstone, I got to see Bison up  close (crossing the road in front of our car), a grizzly bear and two cubs, lots of elk, a big horn sheep up close, and more...it was incredible and I can not recommend it enough to people that love nature.  As far as the landscape, it was more impressive to me than the wildlife...the mountains, rivers, plains, waterfalls, gorges, and canyons were immaculate...I hope you will check out the photos in the photo section (I will try to post these next week, but not sure 100%...IEI is coming soon).

Janet (my wife) and I also got to go camping one night in Yellowstone and had bison wandering around the campsite and also to the Jackson Hole near the Grand Teton's...weather was a little tough, but we still had some amazing views...Wyoming is an incredible place and I think the people that live there are super lucky to be surrounded by such beauty ever day.

More later after my horse back riding adventure!!

Hello everyone,

 I had the great pleasure to take part in the ITEC 2010 conference in Tucson, AZ.  Hosted by Kelly Thomas and Mark Nelson (that both did AMAZING jobs), this conference was one of my favorites for sure.  I got to see and hear so many amazing performances and hear a lot of great new repertoire and of course see many of my friends from around the globe. 

It was also great to see many students from South America where I have been working a lot recently.  For my recital, I decided to feature a bunch of chamber music.  I think it is important to expand our horizons and chamber music really adds a new dimension and exposure for our instrument.  I featured the Wilhelm Duett Concertino with Trumpet, the York Conversations (with Saxophone), the Censhu Windows Open to the Ocean (with euphonium), and the Cuatro Intentiones (with tuba) as well as the Nissan 300ZX.  I did not feature the complete pieces, but movements so that many players can get some ideas about new pieces to program.  It was so fun and I appreciate all the people that came to the recital.  I shared it with the my friend from South America, Patricio Cosentino (who is teaching at IEI as well).

I also heard so many incredible performances by my friends and also got to play in a red hot ensemble that featured alumni and current students from the RNCM.  In 2 hours of rehearsal, we put together an amazingly difficult program conducted by Steven Mead.  It was so much fun and challenging.

Some other highlights of the week where to listen to a rehearsal of my Japanese friend, Shoichiro Hokazono (I had to fly out before his recital).  He is always commissioning loads of new interesting music and a great player.  Also it was a pleasure to hear the Salt River Brass Band conducted by Patrick Sheridan.  Great music, programming, and pacing of the program and some great playing by Steven Mead and David Childs.

I am sorry that I did not get to hear more of the programs, it was a busy week with rehearsals, teaching private lessons to students, and working at the Euphonium.com Booth.  This was the second time we brought the store to the ITEC and it was great to help people discover so many new pieces.

Well, I am off to Yellowstone National Park for a bit of vacation  before my crazy summer schedule.  More later.

Hello everyone,

I have been very busy putting together some really cool things for everyone.  We have lots of new recording projects and new commissions and compositions.  So I will list things for you as that might just make it easier!!

New CD - Beyond the Horizon - volume 3.   Adding more new music to the repertoire and hopefully raising awareness about great new music also.  Pieces by Szentpali, Ewazen, Sparke, Kaska, Fraser, and Wilhelm.

New Compositions and Award Winners

2010 ITEA Harvey Phillips Award for Excellence in Composition

Finalists - Conceirto Iberico by Tim Jansa and The Journey Home by Martin Mikles.  The winner will be announced next week at the ITEC convention in Tucson.

We are also happy to release to the public the 3 works commissioned as part of the 2009 Euphonium Foundation Consortium Commission.  Contributing members received PDF samples of the music this past September, November, and January.  So they have had exclusive time to play the pieces, and now we are releasing them to the public.  For more informaiton on the Consortium Commission Project, visit here.

Sketches of Da Vinci - Allen Feinstein

Euphonium Fantasy - Bruce Fraser

Gemini - Anthony DiLorenzo (Euphonium, Horn, and Piano) 

Off to work on some more things for the ITEC next week.  I look forward to seeing many of you there!!

I had the great pleasure to return to Fredericton, New Brunswick (just north of the top northeast corner of the US) for the Fredericton International TubaFest 2010 this last weekend. Richard Riding has organized this event for 7 years now and it is a fantastic event for sure!! The growth of the festival has gone from 17 and this year had 39. This is AMAZING growth for a festival that pulls participants from the US and Canada. I had the pleasure to teach with Øystein Baadsvik and Lance Nagels (tubist in the Quebec Symphony). I taught this same festival in 2007 and the numbers were much higher this year, the level of playing has improved tremendously, and their level of great questions has matured. It was fantastic to see so many old friends and make many new ones as well.

Thanks and kudos to Richard Riding for his continued improvement and refinement of the two day festival. He has great ideas for the master classes and sessions. One other wonderful thing about the two days was the diversity of students in regards to age (11 years up to 70+) and playing levels. I appreciate the variety of questions also ranging from very simple questions from the beginners up to more subtle phrasing inquiries from the students.

We played chamber music on Friday night, I sat in with the Mainiacs (nick name for tuba euphonium ensemble of 8 players from Maine) group and we paid tribute to the Canadian hosts by starting with O Canada. Then played a nice set of duets with Øystein (Telemann Canonic Sonata) and with Lance (a new work I had not known before, the Double Portraits, by David Uber originally for trombone and tuba).

Conducting is a fun past time of fine and I enjoy it greatly, so working with a small group and the large ensemble on a few pieces. With the large group, I got to choose the Overture from the Poet and the Peasant arranged expertly by Mike Forbes. I got to play this piece when I was in 9th grade and it kicked my butt. I had just been promoted from the easy 8th grade band to the top band at the high school and the music was a bucket of cold water…I had to practice…a lot!! Anyway, I got to have a good time with this piece.

Another highlight for me was the faculty recital, Lance Nagels played a work by Macintyre for tuba and piano and one of the neat things was the multi-phonics in the 2nd movement (all three of the teachers featured multi-phonics at some point in their solo recital). I played the Sonata No. 6 by Handel, Ropartz Andante and Allegro, Rule Britannia, and a little solo encore.

We followed this up with the participants’ part and they played fantastic. They gave their heart especially when Øystein offered the audience to rate the last piece a thumbs up or thumbs down. If they gave the group a thumbs up, they would be able to partake of a cold adult beverage after the concert…they earned it COMPLETELY!! We (the teachers) realized we should have been offering this all weekend.

On a special note in regards to travel, I have now visited all but one of the US states, Delaware remains….for now. I had not been in Maine before, but had a lovely drive each way with my good friend Elliott Woodbury from Bangor, Maine across the state of Maine and then into New Brunswick. I got a nice view of Mt. Katahdin, the Saint John River, and some moose signs (check out the new photos page).

My thanks again to Richard Riding for his organization and dedication, Øystein and Lance for teaching me some things, and the participants for appreciating and working hard for us. Until next time…

So this week I will be part of a Consortium World Premiere of the new Euphonium Concerto by Libby Larsen. The concert is Wednesday, April 21 at 8:00 PM in Atlanta with the Emory Wind Ensemble at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

The new work features the euphonium with a number of great moments. The work is not overally taxing except from a rhythmic perspective. There is an incredible amount of intricate rhythms and detail in the articulations and these very small details really allow you to get into the part.

I think the other really interesting thing is the story of the piece. It is meant as a "out cry" about the troubles of the world that have taken place in 2009. The euphonium is the main voice and is sometimes very strong and emphatic. At other times, reflective.

It is a very interesting piece and I thank Brian Miexner from Slippery Rock University for heading the consortium that made this work possible.

There is a live webcast of the concert if you use the following link:

The Emory Wind Ensemble live concert webcast will take place on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 8:00 pm EST at this url:

http://realaudio.service.emory.edu/ramgen/broadcast/SCHWARTZ/CONCERTS/EWE10-04-21.rm

RealPlayer is required for viewing.

Well, Peru LBF was once again a fantastic week for me. Traveling internationally always gives me a new perspective on so many different aspects of life: food, music, travel, culture...it is always great.

This is the second time I have been in Peru and this was an improved visit for sure. While we had few euphonium and tuba students than in the years past, it was still great to work with motivated students. The staff as always was amazing and I got to hear once again Jorgen van Rijen and Brandt Attema from Holland. Both incredible trombonists as well as Maestro Branimir Slokar. Andy Hunter taught and played popular music and we soloed together with the PUCP Big Band...it is fun to do a little jazz on the euphonium and a little improvisation. Hearing Andy and Sergio Carolino play with the big band has gotten me inspired for sure!! I think euphonium can do many great things; so a little jazz will be a good avenue for many players.

I also got to play some fun chamber music with my friend from Brazil, Wilson Dias. On a recital for a number of the international ambassador's, we played one of the Telemann Canonic Sonatas. Great chamber music always brings a smile to my face for sure.

As far as interesting food and music, Peru is famous for the Pasco Sour, sort of like a Margarita, but with Pasco instead of tequila. The other difference is that is it made with whipped egg whites on the top of the drink...it is very delicious. We also had loads of crevice that is a great fresh food that cools you down on a hot day. I think the seafood is top notch and really hits the spot.

Other interesting music for me was just all the talented students. We heard the Venezuelan Trombone Ensemble...they guys and gals are amazing (13 young professionals/students from Caracas)!! They had great playing skills, but also a level of awareness with skillful arrangements and programming. I look forward to hearing them again in the future.

My final thank you should be the Carlos Quiroz for his organization. He works VERY hard to make this happen and it is an inspirational experience for students from all over Central and South America. So it is a great thing and I appreciate his dedication to the event.

Well a few relaxing days now with lots of work on publishing new compositions and arrangements just in time for ITEC and IEI!!

More later,

Come join us in Atlanta for the IEI 2010. Prepare to be INSPIRED...at the International Euphonium Institute June 20-27 at http://www.euphonium.com/ieifestival.html

Check out the ALL-STAR Line-up:
• David Childs (Euphonium Soloist from the UK)
• Adam Frey (Euphonium Soloist from the USA)
• Manfred Heidler (German Armed Forces)
• Roger Behrend (Soloist and former Principal - US Navy Band)
• Patricio Cosentino (Prin. Tuba - Buenos Aires Symphony)
• Jamie Lipton (Henderson State University)
• Martin Cochran (University of Montevallo)
• Charae Kruger (Prin. Cellist - Atlanta Opera and Ballet)
• Tom Gibson (Kennesaw State University)
• Bernard Flythe (Kennesaw State University)
• The Georgia Brass Band
• Caryl Conger and Magi Shumanova will also grace IEI with their supreme talents on piano.

During the week, participants will have:
• Private Lessons with Faculty
• Perform Solos in Master Classes and Recitals with piano
• Enjoy Chamber Music and Coaching Sessions
• Play in Large ensembles (more than 50 members...WOW!!)
• Meet students and teachers from around the world

APPLY at: http://www.euphonium.com/ieifestival.html#applications

More information at the IEI Homepage: http://www.euphonium.com/ieifestival.html" target="_blank
Download Applications on the IEI Application Page: http://www.euphonium.com/ieifestival.html#applications" target="_blank

Our supreme thanks to our confirmed sponsors for the week: Yamaha, Miraphone, York, Sterling, and Willson.

Back in the UK for a little brass band music
So I was INCREDIBLY excited to head back to England (and Wales) to play with my old brass band Point of Ayr in the Welsh Regional Championship. The test piece was English Heritage by George Lloyd. While there are lots tests for the principal cornet, there are plenty of other challenges for all the rest of the band and the euphonium part has loads of tricky measures. I had forgotten how challenging the brass band repertoire can be for the solo euphonium. The role it plays and the demands placed on it are intense and technically awkward. For this piece, there was not an extreme use of range like in many of the works by Sparke, Wilby, or Graham, but just more midrange curve balls. English Heritage is a very fine work and I really enjoyed playing it. I encourage you to check out the piece when you have a chance. It is a wonderful piece for sure.

It was wonderful to have David Thornton, we were at the RNCM at the same time, pick me up and think back on fun times and then I got to work with the euph students at the Chetham’s School of Music. Chet’s (as it is called) is basically a highly specialized school for students with a keen interest and very high talent in music. The building dates from the 1700’s and I think even some are older than the 1500's. It has an incredible amount of history there and really neat to teach in an REALLY concert recital hall. Amazing the age of the buildings in the UK. Makes me realize how young I am (especially when my birthday is just around the corner).

The band room in Wales and many members of Point of Ayr were as I remembered them from 8 years ago when they had me come over to play solo euph on Jazz by Philip Wilby and from when I was full time during . The smiling faces and great laughs were immediate.
One of the things about the competitions is that they are normally held in old concert halls or town halls. The one in Swansea Wales is quite old, but has a great acoustic to my ears and has a great feeling. It is a little intimidating though with all those people in the audience waiting for the slightest slip. The band had a good performance and the concentration and adrenaline was like I had not experienced since the last brass band competition…something musical, exciting and dangerous all at the same time.

I am happy to say that another great part of the trip was to meet all the new members of the band and that was great fun. Happy to say I have some excellent new friends there now. I enjoyed meeting you all and just know that wish the band continued success and hope to be back again in the future!!

Well I have a 6 AM flight to get home to go straight to a rehearsal on the new Euphonium Concerto by Libby Larsen with the Emory Wind Ensemble…let's hope the flights run on time!! Next week I will write from Peru….

A Return to Colorado with the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra.

Wow March is the month of heading back to places I have been many years ago between Colorado and the UK and then Peru at the end of the month. I was fortunate to have won the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition 10 years ago with the Cosma Concerto. I remember them calling me because the euphonium wasn’t actually an orchestral instrument and they were not sure if they would listen to my tape in the preliminary round. I asked them just to listen to the tape and if it was not good enough, then no problems, but that the euphonium was WORTH them allowing in the competition. They passed me through and I made it past the audition round to the finals with the Fort Collins SO. I played against a violinist from Juilliard playing the Sibelius Concerto and a violist from Curtis playing the Bruch…and then a euphonium playing who…Cosma. I think the audience really appreciated the “newness” of the euphonium.

Well I was really happy that the new music director of the FCSO is a “reformed” trombone player who knows conductors the Colorado State Univ. Orchestra and the FCSO. He was enthused to have me back in celebration of “Where are they now?” and we decided to feature the Concerto for Euphonium by Allen Feinstein. This was a really neat aspect because a) the work is only 6 years old, and b) it was written for me, and c) it is a great piece of music that really conveys the instrument well. The orchestra enjoyed playing the piece and most importantly the audience really enjoyed it as well. I know it was a positive step for the euphonium to play with a symphony orchestra and I can honestly say that I have performed as soloist at Lincoln Center twice…Lincoln Center in Fort Collins Colorado (BTW there is a Carnegie Hall in Virginia if I remember correctly…a really neat play on words I believe).

Of course on the great aspects was to see so many of my old friends. I still remember my host family from the first trip, Dave and Amy Rosenberg. They were great hosts and lots of laughs and fun…just like last time. My thanks to them and their wonderful dog Winston who is so entertaining!! I also had the chance to work with some of the great students at Colorado State University and teach Bob Brewer. Always wonderful to work with enthused students that make great efforts to excel!!

Well, I do like to have fun on my travels, so Janet, my wife, joined me on this trip and we spent 2 days skiing in Winter Park, Colorado AFTER the concerts. I would not want to hurt anything before a big concert. We had a little place near the slopes. We had near perfect weather since it was snowing both days…we got around 16” of snow over the 2 days we were there. Amazing fresh powder and the mountain was not crowded at all. The funniest thing happened while I was up snowboarding on the top of the mountain by myself. I had not seen anyone for about 5-10 minutes and was enjoying the moving through the trees and the scenery when all of a sudden another snowboarder and two skiers came out of the trees. I was a little surprised and as luck would have it, I hit a little jump and was not paying attention, so I had a nice whip out!! I laid there and laughed. It was a great little vacation and rush to ski and snowboard the mountain. Off to practice a new concerto and brass band repertoire…until next time…

Happy New Year to many of you. I am sorry for the long delay in writing, but I am finally going to do a better job of keeping things up to date...really. I have a lot of interesting things happening, so I will try to put up weekly updates.

So in January, I got to go spend 10 days in Portugal and Spain. The trip to Porto, Portugal with Sergio Carolino was GREAT fun. I had a full day of travel via NY City and Madrid, but finally got to Porto and it was great to Sergio's smiling face. We had about 10 students from all over Portugal, the conservatories, military bands, and enthused players. We also put together a fun concert with Sergio's euphonium tuba ensemble, How Low Can you GO?? It was great fun to play Pantomime and Rodrigio's famous Concerto Aranjuez with the group. They will be releasing a CD in a few months and I am sure it will be GREAT!!

I then had a very fun flight on a small propeller plane from Lisbon to Valencia...wow I have not been on a plane this small in YEARS!!

I was honored to see again my great friends from the Spanish Brass for their 3 day festival, Spanish Brass Surround Torrent. It takes place outside Valencia and it was a great festival as well. 12-13 students with some coming from Tenerfie as well as most from around Valencia. I made some great new friends and my thanks to the Spanish Brass and Juanjo Munera from the Band in Bilboa. A great player and a great friend. I also got to hear the amazing Spanish Brass again as well as meet some new friends including the trombone brothers Urrecho. Two funny and great players.

The students did GREAT work and really helped me with my Spanish skills and I they were quick to make some wonderful progress. I also got to work with a budding young composer.

Spain has great euphonium talent and I look forward to going back.

Lastly, a HUGE Kudos to the German Brass...it has been almost 10 years since the last concert I heard from them and they still amaze me...I wanted to go practice immediately!!

I had the great opportunity to meet Steve Rosse, Prin. Tuba with the Sydney Symphony, when I took part in the Tubamania competition in 1999. I remember playing Blue Bells and Golland Euphonium Concerto #1 in the finals. I got to meet so many interesting people as well.

I have been lucky to keep in touch and also have his son take part in the IEI Festival. He organizes a festival every two years. He recently starting hosting the festival in Thailand because they have a lot of interested students, good central location for other Asian students and teachers, and GREAT food and GREAT prices!!

We had a number of concerts and master classes during the 4 days and a HUGE thank you to Yamaha Thailand that was the major sponsor and one of the reasons that the festival was possible.

I enjoyed working with students from Thailand, Japan, Australia, and Singapore and got to see many of my friends. Sergio Carolino came from Portugal and played some great new repertoire. He informed me he is commissioning some new works for euphonium by Portugese composers, so I am REALLY excited about that.

Overall the students were great and we had a very high playing level. I taught at Maihdol University about 5-6 years ago when JD Salas was teaching there and at that point they were making good strides forward, but things have vastly improved so my kudos to the teachers in Thailand that are taking things up a notch!!

I also got to work with the fabulous pianist Tomoko Sawano...she was GREAT.
Also got to give the Asian Premiere of William Brusick's Concerto for Euphonium with the Kasetsasart University Wind Symphony. Fantastic group indeed.

Well off to catch the plane to Chicago for Mid-West...I am writing from the airport in Seoul, South Korea...I get to come back here next August to judge the Jeju Competition. It will be great!!

Hello all,

I am very sorry for the long break in writing. I know the purpose of a blog is to update regularly...I will make it my new years resolution to write regularly!!

So, exciting news...one of the new CDs has been finished, Beyond the Horizon Volume 2. I am really proud of this series because of all the pieces that have been commissioned for these. I am enthused by the great sales response and it encourages me to continue my efforts.

If you have not heard it yet, you can check out sound files at the following webpage:
Beyond the Horizon Volume 2. It features a number of great pieces: William Brusick's powerful and triumphant Concerto for Euphonium, the lyrical writing of Jiro Censhu's duet The Windows Open to the Ocean. As well as two pieces for the 2010 Falcone Competition: James Stephenson's Sonata for Euphonium, and Philip Catelinet's, Call of the Seasons. As well as young composer Martin Mikles charming work, The Journey Home. Featured last is a great friend of the euphonium, Scott Stewart on saxophone in Barbara York's Conversations for Saxophone, Euphonium, and Piano. I hope this is another fine addition to the growing repertoire and enlightens audiences around the world to the great new music for the euphonium.

And just before you ask, the motorcycle is NOT mine, but my brothers. It is a great looking bike indeed.

Well, heading off to Thailand for the Tubamania festival there. It will be great I am sure.

Friends, it is with great sadness that I let you know that Fred Mills was involved in a fatal car accident on Sept 7. It is a terrible thing for sure and the brass world will miss him dearly. I was lucky enough to study with Fred at UGA and have him as a great supporter of my music. We also recorded the Wilhelm Duett Concertino for Trumpet, Euphonium, and Piano on the Beyond the Horizon Volume 1 CD. I will miss speaking with him and seeking his advice greatly.

I feel VERY fortunate to have spent last week with him during the brass festival in Italy.

There will be a memorial concert for him in Athens, GA on Sept 20 at 3:00 PM at the University of Georgia where he taught. You can watch it live at via the link at:
http://www.music.uga.edu/events/view_event.php?id=4511

One of the fun events this summer was traveling to Italy to work with the Penta Brass. They are the principal players for the Theatre Orchestra in Turin (basically symphonic concerts and operas). They are great fun and they have been hosting a brass festival each year in a small town Quincinetto that is north of Turin. It is home of some GREAT wind musicians even though it is a little town.

This was the first year that they included the euphonium and that is a great thing. I had 4 students that came into various classes over the course of the 4 days ranging from a very talented 11 year old to a military band professional. It was an incredible week also because of the faculty. We had Andrei Ikov, trumpet from the Bolshoi in Moscow, Chris Martin from the Chicago Symphony, Fred Mills formally with the Canadian Brass, Jacques Mauger a French trombone soloist, and Frank Lloyd an English horn soloist and teacher now living in German. We also of course had the Penta Brass guys and it was such a nice relaxed time and great to really chat about making great music.

I got to play a few things from the recording sessions from July with the Penta Brass and I also played in the brass ensemble with Fred Mills conducting. The audiences were great...the whole town came out for the concerts.

Lastly, we had our final concert in a castle very high on the hills in the valley that runs to Mount Blanc. It had some incredible views and the audience was again enthused...just that darn wind...good thing I played from memory.

Off to Norway next!!

I was fortunate enough to visit Bogota Colombia for the 2nd Colombia Tubas festival. This was a fun week course that was really focused on helping students of the euphonium and tuba in Colombia (and we had one student from Venezuela) excel at their playing skills. My thanks to the hosts of Freddy and Juan that made a great week. The interesting thing about this week was the participants that attended and the growth and development of the euphonium in Colombia. It has a very well developed wind band scene, but not many students study music professionally. The other really neat aspect was the location. While the last year’s festival took place in Bogota, this year, the festival was housed at a Catholic school about 40 minutes of the city proper in Chia. The school was also a convent for nuns and so it was GREAT fun to meet the nuns, perform for them and also learn some Spanish from the “Irmanas.”

As part of the week, we played concerts and recitals at the National Museum in Bogota as well as 2 concerts at the convent. The final concert was at a great university hall in Bogota. My also thanks to Patricio Cosentino, tubist from Buenos Aires for his hard work for the festival and the invitation to take part. I learned a lot of Spanish and was really enthused that even though my language skills were limited, the students were able to understand. Music is INDEED an international language. I look forward to returning to the festival in 2010 and hope many South American euphonium and tuba players choose to take part.