What's in Store for February

Hello All,
Whelp been out of touch via blog for at least two months. With good, musical reason though. Almost literally for the months of December and January, I was traveling with Tim Zimmerman and the King's Brass to both sides of the country. For December we were in Nashville, the Midwest for two nights then flew to California (where it was sunny for the last two days we were there). We played our Christmas program and it was quite fun. For the first time, I played the John Rutter Gloria, a fantastic piece for brass and chorus. It was fun to play loud and then louder. It was quite an enjoyable tour, playing in large churches, small churches, staying in a mansion located on a 28-acre avocado ranch, etc.

The group had about 2-3 weeks off before we got together in Florida to continue our "summer" program. We traveled anywhere and everywhere between Orlando and Miami. We were able to meet many people (including Kylee's great aunt), and make new friends (like John and Esther Fitzstevens who are retired missionaries to Vietnam and work closely now with Franklin Graham). When tour was over I had to quickly fly from Ft. Myers to Columbus via "red-eye" flight then wake up at 4:45 in the morning to drive to Pittsburgh for my 9:00 class.

It is good to be back in good 'ole Pittsburgh since being for over a month. It's nice to get back to learning about music. I haven't really been able to practice much since we have been on the road a lot, and it was sure nice to really sit down and start back digging into excerpts and solos. It is amazing how fast time goes, and I've realized that with graduate school and must really soak in all that I came here for. And never regret taking stuff too lightly or half-heartedly. It needs to be "All in!"

As for February, musically, I'll get to reunite with the Grace College Pep Band February 12th and play with them as well as meet up with my former teacher, Jim Kraft for some duets and/or excerpts. February 10th is the CMU Wind Ensemble concert which I get to be a part of. We will be playing pieces by Holst, Mussorgsky, Mackey, and variations piece for Bagpipe and Band. Then February 25th I'll be reunited with my friends from King's Brass down in Florida to perform for a weekend.

It's gonna be a good month, and hopefully I'll do a better job at blogging than the last few months (or the lack thereof)

From
Jer (Hebrews 13:21)