Euphonium.com

So here is one of my craziest travel schedules. On July 3rd, I played a concert at the International Peace Gardens on the US and Canada border in North Dakota. Afterwards, drove to Minot arriving around 12:00. I had to wake up at 3:50 so I could get to the airport for a 5:00 flight to take me home to Atlanta. I arrived to Atlanta at lunch time, had nice lunch with my wife, did laundry, changed out suitcases and flight cases, got more CDs, changed music, and then had to be back at the airport by 7 PM to catch a flight to Paris to connect to Zurich. Once there, I took the train to Chur and Illanz where I was met by one of the staff (big Tony) of the Graubünden Youth Brass Band. Wow it was a long trip, but fun traveling for sure.

So I had the great pleasure 7 years ago to be the euphonium and baritone tutor for the Graubünden Youth Brass Band and also guest soloist. The week long course is set high in the mountains in a tiny village called Meierhof, Obersaxen. It is very quaint Switzerland and a lovely, lovely place. We had 11 euphoniums and they were great to work with as they matured and developed during the week. I tried to work on my German, and learned some great things, but still have MUCH more to work to be able to communicate better.

One of the conductors was a college buddy from the Royal Northern, Christoph Mueller. It was great see each other again (he has 3 children since my last visit) and we made great music with the B band. Yvan Lagger, a great young conductor that currently conducts the Swiss Champions, was the leader of the A band. We played Brillante and Nessun Dorma. My thanks to the band for fine listening and great sensitivity. As always, it was refreshing to perform with a superb brass band. I don’t get to do it as often as I would like, so it was wonderful to see all the friends from 7 years ago as well. I look forward to coming back and best wishes to my euphonium and baritone students during the week. I hope they learned a lot!!