014//I miss camp.

Namely, I miss session one. This is…Donovan, from NC, wearing my horn’s bell as a hat.

013//Mahler and friends

Whoa, August 1…what?! This past weekend, I was able to play with one of the high school orchestras on the fourth movement of Mahler’s 1st symphony. It was an amazing experience; not only did I get to play Mahler, I was able to play with a fantastic conductor and I rediscovered why I love playing horn! Mahler for horns is somewhat of a holy grail and while it was super challenging (on top of my extremely out of shape chops), it reminded me of how rewarding it is to work on something, loathe yourself for the majority of the process and then finally end with a great performance. Just because all the notes don’t make it doesn’t mean it’s not worth credit; if you, your orchestra members and audience feel exhilarated afterwards, that’s what matters. You can use that exact feeling to fuel your next practice session/rehearsal/performance. Ah, music, you feel so good to make. Once you get out of that cycle, it’s hard to remember the feeling, but when you do remember it, BAM! Now hopefully the feeling will linger, so I can keep it going when back in Boston.

My ensemble manager extraordinaire recently begun a music series in his college town. That’s an incredible feat, especially considering he’s been working on everything from afar and managing four performing groups alongside it all. I really wish I was going to be in Iowa (probably one of the few times I will write that!) but I’d love to see his hard work in action. More information and tickets can be found here: www.wsmsdecorah.org and www.facebook.com/WaterStreetMusicSeries. Look! They even have a snazzy logo: 

I’m really fortunate to have worked with Dan and I’m sure when we meet in the future (it’s happening!), he’ll regale me in tales of WSMS success, maybe some even involving Mahler or Interlochen alumni or…both!