A Day of Percussion

After an amazing week of Top of the Nation honor band, our choral area hosted the honor choir festival. As part of the event, I hosted a concert for the 100+ high school participants and their directors. It turned out to be a great night, with a performance by my steel drum band, 68 West Jazz Singers, and a closing performance by my jazz ensemble. The thought of boring the audience with some Sammy Nestico charts made me nauseous so I invited the Alamosa Salseros- a local group of dancers who are very dedicated to spreading salsa dancing throughout the community. We played some salsa, the dancers taught the audience to dance, and we had a party.

The following evening, I performed with the ASC Concert Choir at Sacred Heart Catholic Church before rushing over to the music building for a rehearsal with guest Valerie Naranjo. The 9pm rehearsal wrapped up at 2:15am, and I slept for a couple of hours before starting the process of setting up for The Colorado Chapter of PAS Southern Colorado Day of Percussion. Thankfully, Alamosa is a small town. I then ran back to Sacred Heart to perform with the honor women's choir. As soon as I was done, it was back to the college for set-up.

Preparing for a large percussion event is a bit of a logistical headache. Hosting guests, getting cumbersome instruments in place, getting mallets collected, sponsor banners hung, door prizes organized, sheet music in place, music stands piled, students put on task, signage posted, programs typed, programs proofed, programs changed, programs re-typed, programs printed, program sponsor catalogs displayed, payment of artists procured, getting the small instruments in place, finding storage space where there is none, and dealing with a power outage takes time. Yep- power outage as we were setting up. Half of the city.

For this event, I hosted Valerie Naranjo, Shilo Stroman, visual artists Kathy Park and Henry Woolbert, and Jon Latta and his Ft. Lewis College percussion ensemble. (Jon and I played together in the Air Force). The Fort Lewis students set up, rehearsed in near darkness, and then the we headed off for dinner to the west side of town where power was still present. As soon as the students sat down at the SLV Pizza place, the power went out. The entire town without power, hungry students, and a pending rehearsal sent us to the next town over for a marginal dinner of Mexican food and some student interaction between the two studios. We made it back to Alamosa by 8pm, met Shilo and Valerie, and began a four hour joint rehearsal.

After a few hours of restless sleep, it was back to school for the event. The last minute details always take more time than it should- late students, a locked men's bathroom, a jammed printer, etc etc before a morning rehearsal with Valerie. We finished that rehearsal, my jazz combo rehearsed with Shilo, and Tracy and I rehearsed for the first time on a duo piece. Here was the order of events:

10am- Master Class with Valerie Naranjo on her gyil transcriptions- deceptively challenging works on marimba. Four of my students played and did a great job.

11am- Remembrance Performance- Valerie, Tracy and I, and my percussion ensemble performed works in memory of many in the community and extended musical community who we recently lost.

12-1:30- Zimbabwean Marimba Clinic- Valerie led numerous community members in the study of some Zimbabwean music, with the help of my studio.

2pm- Shilo Stroman drum set clinic- Musical Glue- a great concept for a clinic. Shilo played with my jazz combo and I was very proud of them all!

3pm- Ewe Dance and Drumming with Jon Latta and the Ft. Lewis Percussion Ensemble. This event was similar to a recent clinic we had on campus by Jon's teacher, Mike Vercelli.

4-6pm- a concert featuring Valerie, Shilo, the ASC Steel Drums, ASC Percussion Ensemble, and the Ft. Lewis Percussion Ensemble. We concluded with some very powerful Zimbabwean and Ghanaian works with everyone involved- it was a blast!

By the time the event was cleaned up and everyone left, it was pushing 8pm.

I am grateful to all who helped make this event a success- with a special thanks to Valerie, my students, the president of our jazz club, Leslie, and of course, Tracy.

Moving on.

Almost March

One of my favorite news sources is local- the slvdweller. Not only do they provide links to the happenings pertaining to life in and around the valley, they also magically find links to bloggers who mention the valley. Today's discovery made me laugh. Their set-up is Defining Culture and the blog post suggests a lack of cell phone coverage signifies a lack of culture. Clever. As a side note, I've never had coverage problems here. In fact, the post contradicts itself by commenting on text messaging... anyhow. The post reminded me of two things: a. living here is a choice that's not for everyone and b. I should update my blog.

I want to begin with letter a. A couple of conversations come to mind. A great friend and financial supporter of my steel drum band once told the following story: A woman asks a local what the people are like in this town. The local responds by asking what the people were like in their last town. The woman responds, they were friendly, caring, thoughtful- everything you'd want in a community. The local responds that yes, that's what the people are like here as well. Moments later, another woman asks the local the very same question and the local responds with the same follow-up question. The woman states the people in the previous community were cold, rude, and disingenuous. The local replies with a yep, that's what you'll get here too. I don't think I need to point out the moral to the story.

In a discussion during our water "crisis" in Alamosa, a friend shared he is always secretly glad when the valley gets negative press. As a long time resident and self-admitted xenophobe, he's happy to keep others out who would otherwise muck up the wonderful community we have here.

Part b to this post intersects with my weekend. The blogger mentioned above was apparently a band director who attended our recent Honor Band. This year, we hosted the great Ray Cramer- the retired director of bands at Indiana University. He conducted the Wind Ensemble, as well as split conducting duties with Jamie, Tracy and I for the Concert Band. I personally enjoyed conducting- working with high school students who want to be here is a treat. As a conductor who loves to conduct but doesn't often do so, I had to reflect on what is most important to me as a musician. I've always appreciated a conductor who inspired, had artistic expression, and held me accountable for my parts. Tough was good, but rapport was essential. The students who attended the honor band were great and I was honored to work with them!

The honor band is a large recruiting effort on our part. Recruiting is hands down the most difficult part of higher ed. Actually, I should say for music higher ed. It's not a problem for a math professor who will teach math whether a math major shows up or not. They spend very little time recruiting, while on my day off today, I've sent over ten e-mails, put the finishing touches on my upcoming Day of Percussion, and pondered other approaches. This upcoming week, we have the honor choirs on campus, followed by the Day of Percussion, and then a week of classes before I head to Ft. Worth for some rehearsals. It never ends. Although, March is a nice break before the onslaught of recitals we call April. More later...