Update from the road

Hi everyone,

We're in the middle of our of our Louisiana/Mississippi tour, and things are going really well!  This tour was a special treat for me because I got to introduce my Mirari friends to the other half of my life, my terrific colleagues and students at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.   (Not to mention not having to travel to get to the beginning of a tour---can't beat that for convenience!)   We spent all day Monday at ULM, doing some lessons in the morning with brass students, then working with quintets and talking about music business in the afternoon.   I've been so incredibly proud of the players in the student quintets--they have come such a long way in a short time to working on some tough repertoire like the Cheetham Scherzo and part of Eric Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy.  It's a great honor to get to work with talented and engaged musicians such as yourselves!  And thanks to my friend and colleague James Boldin for the nice writeup in his HornWorld Blog---definitely check it out if you haven't already.

Tuesday we changed gears quite a bit and headed out to Elm Grove Middle School in Bossier City (outside of Shreveport).  We spent all day playing for and working with Steve Turner's sixth grade students.   These types of shows are so much fun to do because it seems like the students have an inexhaustible well of questions to ask (including asking Sarah in THREE straight classes, "How do you tongue so fast?")   Yesterday, we did another residency at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.   Jessie held an inspiring workshop on Fearless Performance for the entire school, and gave all kinds of great information on enhancing the mental/emotional/spiritual side of your playing and how it can carry over to the rest of your life.   Later on we did masterclasses and again heard some really great playing.  It was a real treat getting to sit in on the ULL Faculty Brass Quintet rehearsal as well as hang out after our concert.   I'm really glad to meet so many new friends there, especially since I live so close by!  Thanks to Paul Morton for setting up the whole thing.  

In any case, we have to be on the road heading to Cecilia, LA today and Ocean Springs & Vancleave, MS tomorrow.  I have 13 minutes to pack up, check out of the hotel, and load the car!  

See you next time,
Alex