September 2011 Update

Hello All,
Thanks to a friend (who actually reads my blog), I realized I needed to update this blog. Since March, there obviously has been some big changes and transitions. For one, I got married (this is where I could get overly excited, but I am working on self-control). We were married in Buckeyeland on August 6th and spent our honeymoon in the mountains of Seattle, WA. Everything from the wedding ceremony to the flight back from Seattle went perfect. :)

We are settled in our new apartment in Pittsburgh/Bloomfield, as I begin my second year at Carnegie Mellon. I am really looking forward to this school year, musically. We have 9 tenors and 1 bass bones in our studio, and all are quite good. Everyone is excited to play together. In this first cycle, the CMU Philharmonic is playing Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique. I am not playing that piece; however, I do get to play Liszt's Les Preludes, which brings back memories from playing the same piece in the 2005 FL All-State orchestra (this time, it sounds much much louder, making it more fun!)

I also purchased a "new" bass trombone at my wedding. Grace College has been selling some of their instruments, and one of my professors at Grace found the horn and mentioned to me that they would be selling it. It is a Conn 62H dependent valves with rollers (yes, ole-school). It has been repaired very nicely since I last played it in college, and it sounds good! I won't say the price that I purchased it for, except that I got it for a very small fraction of what Dillon was selling it for (close to $3,000). I figure it will come in handy and be a good starter bass bone.

Whelp that's all for now. I will keep you posted on more news and thoughts that I may have here and there. Right now, I'm doing a research study (for credit) in dealing with "Why are there so many professional orchestras and hardly any professional wind bands?" I'll provide more info on my findings as I get closer to gathering it all.

From J-Man
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"My life is the clearest proof that if you have talent, determination and luck you will make it in the end: never give up!"-- Sir Georg Solti