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!!

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.

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!!

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

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,

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!!

 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.

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!!