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Week 3 Update

Week 2 completely got away from me because it was my last week working in New Orleans, we had a ton of services and also quite a few horn quintet shows and I was hopping from couch to couch and socializing with my hosts.  It was a pretty great last week of work and I'm glad that I spent it with people I care about and will miss!  I didn't get any time to think through a change in routine though until now! On the audition prep front, many things have happened.  Things were progressing steadily when I left for Nola and then as I played shows and had less time to focus on really detailed practice, I felt like things started to feel a little odd halfway through the week, but I pushed through the shows I had left and came back to Houston feeling a bit worn down.  So this week, I'm bringing things back to the basics.  I don't feel like I need to do a ton of building exercises anymore, that will come through the excerpt work and that's a more applied use of it anyway. ...
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Getting after it. Week 1 Routine

I've just completed my move to Houston and am ready to start getting down to business.  So today I'm writing out a pretty detailed plan for myself to get in shape and learn all of the music I need to know.  The list is pretty extensive and of course I know a lot of the excerpts just from school, but I've never taken a principal horn audition, so there's plenty of rep that I have never learned or played at all.   The list includes Till Eulenspiegel in its entirety and the Mahler 5 obligato in full as well as excerpts from Ravel Piano concerto, Schoenberg Chamber symphony, and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1.  So, my first step is sorting through what I know and don't know and prioritizing time spent on new rep.  1's, 2's, and 3's are the categories.  Most will be 2's but let's see how it shakes out. 1 (Don't know or never played) Till (entire1st part) Schoenberg Chamber Scheherazade Mahler 5 Obligato 2 (Know but needs a decent amount of...
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Farewell to New Orleans...

 It's been a long year of hardships for everyone around the world, including orchestras. We have suffered just like many other arts organizations.  I consider myself extremely lucky to have been a part of a musician run organization during such a difficult time so that we were able to make our own decisions to go forward with an altered season.  Of course there were pay cuts, but we were paid and had our other benefits still intact as well.  It is with a heavy heart that I've decided to leave the LPO at this season's close.  It's difficult to leave a full time symphony job, as it is an amazing thing that many musicians never get to experience in full and I've grown very attached to my wonderful section here in New Orleans.  We've grown especially close this season, playing lots of quintet and quartet shows on porches, outside bars, and even inside a record shop!  We've gotten a truly unique experience of learning to play and work together, just the 5 ...
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An Oudrageous program: Dances from all over the world

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When I was living in Vienna, I had many opportunities to see the Vienna Philharmonic play live, right there in the Musikverein- one of the most acoustically perfect halls ever built.  I took every chance I had to hear them, even when I was unfamiliar with the repertoire.  One of the concerts included a piece I had never heard before and it happens to be the piece that we are playing this week.  The first- and only time I heard Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances was live with the Vienna Philharmonic.  We've got some big shoes to fill this week. The interior of the one and only Musikverein, oh the memories <3 "Symphonic Dances," originally titled "Fantastic Dances," was Rachmaninoff's final composition and I think it's fair to look at it as his swan song.  If you've heard any of his other symphonic music you would know him to be conservatively Romantic.  His symphonies and piano concertos gush with flowing melodies and sweeping lines blende...
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We're playing.. my favorite piece?!

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When I was in college and just starting to break into the professional music world, I was excited to play anything and everything.  My first Brahms symphony at Indiana University, my first opera with a professional orchestra (which happened to be Siegfried- nothing like a good 5 hour trial by fire!), my first pops concert with the Houston Symphony (Pink Martini), and everything in between.  However, as musicians become more tenured and we've played Tchaikovsky's 4th 57 times or we're thrown an old piece by someone famous that's rarely performed (there's usually a reason it's never programmed- looking at you Wellington's Victory!), we start to get less excited.  However, I believe every musician has a few (or more than a few!!) favorite pieces that can always spark some joy and imagination no matter how many times they've played it.  This week, we're playing a symphony that I will never, ever, EVER get tired of playing.  I promise. This piece send...
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Puppets endowed with life, mysterious islands of death, and other spooky tales

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We killed it at our Halloween Spooktacular concert a few weeks ago!  But now that it's finally Halloween, it's time for a very mysteriously eerie Classics concert featuring some true heavy hitters. LPO Horns rocking it as the Four Seasons There are an endless amount of exciting second horn parts in the orchestral repertoire.  Beethoven always has me ready for exciting duets and low solos, Brahms has me leaping into the depths of the lower tessitura, and Mahler has every horn soaring on epic melodic lines.  Recently though, I've discovered just how exciting a composer who wrote predominantly Ballet music can be.  Stravinsky is intensely exciting because he keeps your on your toes.  I don't think I know another composer who wrote with as much variety in what he asks for technically.  We have beautiful, flowing melodies, the shortest and sharpest of accents, thick, gentle, shadowy low notes, loud, high, brash interjections, not to mention plenty of mix...
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A Czech Composer Teaches Americans what America Sounds Like

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LPO's Beethoven and Mahler week was a success!  For me, it was some of the most fun I've ever had performing.  Sometimes when we, brass players, especially section players, specifically 2nd horn players have one single solo in a piece, we obsess over it and put so much pressure on ourselves for our one shining moment.  In Mahler, there are so many soaring lines, intricate patterns, and delicate solos (even for 2nd horn!) that you are forced to relax and enjoy it without becoming too wrapped up in making one line sound perfect.  You have so many opportunities to pour your passion out your bell that you can have more fun with it! And I certainly took advantage of that and had an amazing time on stage. LPO Horns and our Music Director, Carlos Miguel Prieto after Mahler's 5th Opening our season with such invigorating music really set the tone for the rest of our season.  This week we are jumping right into our 2nd Classics program of the year with one o...
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