Euphonium.com

Happy New Year to many of you. I am sorry for the long delay in writing, but I am finally going to do a better job of keeping things up to date...really. I have a lot of interesting things happening, so I will try to put up weekly updates.

So in January, I got to go spend 10 days in Portugal and Spain. The trip to Porto, Portugal with Sergio Carolino was GREAT fun. I had a full day of travel via NY City and Madrid, but finally got to Porto and it was great to Sergio's smiling face. We had about 10 students from all over Portugal, the conservatories, military bands, and enthused players. We also put together a fun concert with Sergio's euphonium tuba ensemble, How Low Can you GO?? It was great fun to play Pantomime and Rodrigio's famous Concerto Aranjuez with the group. They will be releasing a CD in a few months and I am sure it will be GREAT!!

I then had a very fun flight on a small propeller plane from Lisbon to Valencia...wow I have not been on a plane this small in YEARS!!

I was honored to see again my great friends from the Spanish Brass for their 3 day festival, Spanish Brass Surround Torrent. It takes place outside Valencia and it was a great festival as well. 12-13 students with some coming from Tenerfie as well as most from around Valencia. I made some great new friends and my thanks to the Spanish Brass and Juanjo Munera from the Band in Bilboa. A great player and a great friend. I also got to hear the amazing Spanish Brass again as well as meet some new friends including the trombone brothers Urrecho. Two funny and great players.

The students did GREAT work and really helped me with my Spanish skills and I they were quick to make some wonderful progress. I also got to work with a budding young composer.

Spain has great euphonium talent and I look forward to going back.

Lastly, a HUGE Kudos to the German Brass...it has been almost 10 years since the last concert I heard from them and they still amaze me...I wanted to go practice immediately!!

I had the great opportunity to meet Steve Rosse, Prin. Tuba with the Sydney Symphony, when I took part in the Tubamania competition in 1999. I remember playing Blue Bells and Golland Euphonium Concerto #1 in the finals. I got to meet so many interesting people as well.

I have been lucky to keep in touch and also have his son take part in the IEI Festival. He organizes a festival every two years. He recently starting hosting the festival in Thailand because they have a lot of interested students, good central location for other Asian students and teachers, and GREAT food and GREAT prices!!

We had a number of concerts and master classes during the 4 days and a HUGE thank you to Yamaha Thailand that was the major sponsor and one of the reasons that the festival was possible.

I enjoyed working with students from Thailand, Japan, Australia, and Singapore and got to see many of my friends. Sergio Carolino came from Portugal and played some great new repertoire. He informed me he is commissioning some new works for euphonium by Portugese composers, so I am REALLY excited about that.

Overall the students were great and we had a very high playing level. I taught at Maihdol University about 5-6 years ago when JD Salas was teaching there and at that point they were making good strides forward, but things have vastly improved so my kudos to the teachers in Thailand that are taking things up a notch!!

I also got to work with the fabulous pianist Tomoko Sawano...she was GREAT.
Also got to give the Asian Premiere of William Brusick's Concerto for Euphonium with the Kasetsasart University Wind Symphony. Fantastic group indeed.

Well off to catch the plane to Chicago for Mid-West...I am writing from the airport in Seoul, South Korea...I get to come back here next August to judge the Jeju Competition. It will be great!!

Hello all,

I am very sorry for the long break in writing. I know the purpose of a blog is to update regularly...I will make it my new years resolution to write regularly!!

So, exciting news...one of the new CDs has been finished, Beyond the Horizon Volume 2. I am really proud of this series because of all the pieces that have been commissioned for these. I am enthused by the great sales response and it encourages me to continue my efforts.

If you have not heard it yet, you can check out sound files at the following webpage:
Beyond the Horizon Volume 2. It features a number of great pieces: William Brusick's powerful and triumphant Concerto for Euphonium, the lyrical writing of Jiro Censhu's duet The Windows Open to the Ocean. As well as two pieces for the 2010 Falcone Competition: James Stephenson's Sonata for Euphonium, and Philip Catelinet's, Call of the Seasons. As well as young composer Martin Mikles charming work, The Journey Home. Featured last is a great friend of the euphonium, Scott Stewart on saxophone in Barbara York's Conversations for Saxophone, Euphonium, and Piano. I hope this is another fine addition to the growing repertoire and enlightens audiences around the world to the great new music for the euphonium.

And just before you ask, the motorcycle is NOT mine, but my brothers. It is a great looking bike indeed.

Well, heading off to Thailand for the Tubamania festival there. It will be great I am sure.

Friends, it is with great sadness that I let you know that Fred Mills was involved in a fatal car accident on Sept 7. It is a terrible thing for sure and the brass world will miss him dearly. I was lucky enough to study with Fred at UGA and have him as a great supporter of my music. We also recorded the Wilhelm Duett Concertino for Trumpet, Euphonium, and Piano on the Beyond the Horizon Volume 1 CD. I will miss speaking with him and seeking his advice greatly.

I feel VERY fortunate to have spent last week with him during the brass festival in Italy.

There will be a memorial concert for him in Athens, GA on Sept 20 at 3:00 PM at the University of Georgia where he taught. You can watch it live at via the link at:
http://www.music.uga.edu/events/view_event.php?id=4511

One of the fun events this summer was traveling to Italy to work with the Penta Brass. They are the principal players for the Theatre Orchestra in Turin (basically symphonic concerts and operas). They are great fun and they have been hosting a brass festival each year in a small town Quincinetto that is north of Turin. It is home of some GREAT wind musicians even though it is a little town.

This was the first year that they included the euphonium and that is a great thing. I had 4 students that came into various classes over the course of the 4 days ranging from a very talented 11 year old to a military band professional. It was an incredible week also because of the faculty. We had Andrei Ikov, trumpet from the Bolshoi in Moscow, Chris Martin from the Chicago Symphony, Fred Mills formally with the Canadian Brass, Jacques Mauger a French trombone soloist, and Frank Lloyd an English horn soloist and teacher now living in German. We also of course had the Penta Brass guys and it was such a nice relaxed time and great to really chat about making great music.

I got to play a few things from the recording sessions from July with the Penta Brass and I also played in the brass ensemble with Fred Mills conducting. The audiences were great...the whole town came out for the concerts.

Lastly, we had our final concert in a castle very high on the hills in the valley that runs to Mount Blanc. It had some incredible views and the audience was again enthused...just that darn wind...good thing I played from memory.

Off to Norway next!!

I was fortunate enough to visit Bogota Colombia for the 2nd Colombia Tubas festival. This was a fun week course that was really focused on helping students of the euphonium and tuba in Colombia (and we had one student from Venezuela) excel at their playing skills. My thanks to the hosts of Freddy and Juan that made a great week. The interesting thing about this week was the participants that attended and the growth and development of the euphonium in Colombia. It has a very well developed wind band scene, but not many students study music professionally. The other really neat aspect was the location. While the last year’s festival took place in Bogota, this year, the festival was housed at a Catholic school about 40 minutes of the city proper in Chia. The school was also a convent for nuns and so it was GREAT fun to meet the nuns, perform for them and also learn some Spanish from the “Irmanas.”

As part of the week, we played concerts and recitals at the National Museum in Bogota as well as 2 concerts at the convent. The final concert was at a great university hall in Bogota. My also thanks to Patricio Cosentino, tubist from Buenos Aires for his hard work for the festival and the invitation to take part. I learned a lot of Spanish and was really enthused that even though my language skills were limited, the students were able to understand. Music is INDEED an international language. I look forward to returning to the festival in 2010 and hope many South American euphonium and tuba players choose to take part.

So here is one of my craziest travel schedules. On July 3rd, I played a concert at the International Peace Gardens on the US and Canada border in North Dakota. Afterwards, drove to Minot arriving around 12:00. I had to wake up at 3:50 so I could get to the airport for a 5:00 flight to take me home to Atlanta. I arrived to Atlanta at lunch time, had nice lunch with my wife, did laundry, changed out suitcases and flight cases, got more CDs, changed music, and then had to be back at the airport by 7 PM to catch a flight to Paris to connect to Zurich. Once there, I took the train to Chur and Illanz where I was met by one of the staff (big Tony) of the Graubünden Youth Brass Band. Wow it was a long trip, but fun traveling for sure.

So I had the great pleasure 7 years ago to be the euphonium and baritone tutor for the Graubünden Youth Brass Band and also guest soloist. The week long course is set high in the mountains in a tiny village called Meierhof, Obersaxen. It is very quaint Switzerland and a lovely, lovely place. We had 11 euphoniums and they were great to work with as they matured and developed during the week. I tried to work on my German, and learned some great things, but still have MUCH more to work to be able to communicate better.

One of the conductors was a college buddy from the Royal Northern, Christoph Mueller. It was great see each other again (he has 3 children since my last visit) and we made great music with the B band. Yvan Lagger, a great young conductor that currently conducts the Swiss Champions, was the leader of the A band. We played Brillante and Nessun Dorma. My thanks to the band for fine listening and great sensitivity. As always, it was refreshing to perform with a superb brass band. I don’t get to do it as often as I would like, so it was wonderful to see all the friends from 7 years ago as well. I look forward to coming back and best wishes to my euphonium and baritone students during the week. I hope they learned a lot!!

I am SO SORRY it has been so long. I can only say that I have been swamped and traveling an incredible amount. After IEI, I headed to Minot, North Dakota for the International Music Camp. This is a great week of music making. I have not been there before but knew that Harold Brasch (a famous euphonium soloist from the 1950-70's) taught there. He actually has a teaching hut dedicated to him...see the photos tab to check it out. The International Peace Gardens are an INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL place.

I got to work with some great young students and one forgets how important it is to have quality teaching especially at the middle school level. One of the fun parts of the week was of course teaching and performing for the students, but also I got to meet a bunch of new teachers and that was great. As part of the teaching, I got to instruct a small music theory class and that was a new change for me.

I also got to play a few quartets with the esteemed teacher, Dr. William Winkle (wrote the Art of the Tuba with Harvey Phillips) and performed with a great festival band on the Friday evening concert.

Some other highlights included meeting the relaxed students and staff. Great to have a nice week...I got to play 9 holes of golf and some great bike rides around the Peace Gardens. I also posted some of the fantastic quotes that are featured in the Peace Chapel on the grounds. It was a very memorable and thought provoking place.

Well, IEI 2009 is officially over. It was an INCREDIBLE week for me and all 50 participants and all the staff as well. So many great performances and teaching by ALL the staff. It is such a pleasure for me to work with great musicians and staff and also wonderful to have a reason to hang out with my good friend Thomas Ruedi for 10 days.

I have just posted a slew of photos from the week in the photos tab, so check them out. We will be posting some videos to Youtube as well in the coming weeks.

My crazy summer is soon to kick off next week with trips all over the globe, so hope to see many of you at those events.

Best wishes and I promise to write more from the airplane!!

Well, we can't all write regularly, sorry about that. I will try to be better. Since April, I got to perform two packed concerts with the Athens Symphony Orchestra. More than 1,800 at each show and these were Pops concerts so we did more light hearted stuff. The staff arranger even did a version of Stairway to Heaven for Euphonium, Rhythm Section,and Orchestra...I was not sure at first, but it was GREAT fun and the audience TOTALLY loved it. I was asked many times if it was on one of my CDs...maybe an idea for the future...

I then was lucky enough to enjoy a one week vacation in St. Maarten...a really beautiful and awesome place...half the island is Dutch (where we stayed) and the other half French. We enjoyed a very peaceful vacation and drove around the island, had chocolate crossiants whiel sitting next to the yachts and drove around the island. It was a GREAT trip and I highly recommend this destination.

Since we got back I have been planning and prepping for the IEI Festival...one of my labors of love. It is going to be another incredible year...stellar artists, great students, and a fun time for sure. Check out the schedule on the IEI tab on the home page and please come join us for a concert or two. The will be amazing.

Also enjoyed some hiking and geocaching in North Georgia with my niece and nephew...good fun stuff.

Well, more next week as we get ready for fun camp.

This was a new performance opportunity for me this week in Houston, TX. I learned about the Association of Concert Bands when I played in Williamsburg, VA. A great organization focused on the development of community groups, the ACB hosts an annual convention. I got to solo with the Denver Concert Band on the Saturday night concert. They were wonderful and it was so easy to play De Luca's Beautiful Colorado and Buckley's Yellow Rose of Texas. My most sincere thanks to all the band members and their conductor, Jacinda Boughton, for all their hard work and dedication to great music making. I look forward to the opportunity to make music with this fine ensemble in the future.

Lastly, I had a great reunion with Robert Sheldon, composer and conductor. He was leading the convention band and they were performing the Fillmore march, The Klaxon. I remember Mr. Sheldon from my 9th grade All-State Band experience when he was the conductor and he had programmed the Klaxon…at that time in 9th grade it really was very hard for me. I asked him if I might join the band for this selection so that I might have another chance at playing it…it was GREAT fun!!

My thanks to all the people that really helped make it possible to be a part of the ACB Judy and Deidre!!

Well another full week with a trip to Des Moines, Iowa and Pella, Iowa at Central College for a number of concerts and master classes…I think I see 4 high schools, a full recital with piano, and 2 band performances in less than 2 and half days…it is going to be a lot of fun for sure!! Playing the Feinstein Concerto for Euphonium…the Director of Bands at Central College, Mitch Lutch, went to school with Allen Feinstein…it is indeed a small world many times.

Lima Peru has been so wonderful this week. We had incredibly sunny weather...sunny, blue skies, wonderful people and GREAT music. Since last time, the Peru Low Brass Festival has had many great concerts with the incredible staff. We heard an amazing Salsa Band...they use 4 trombones and have a really wonderful style. I also got to hear a very rare jazz euphonium player, Ramon Benitez. He is from Columbia and now lives in Miami playing jazz euphonium and trombone. His style and music certainly have a really hot Latin flavor.

We also had a low brass ensemble of the teachers and this group was a dream to play with during the week. The level and intensity was great and getting to hear all the teachers play and letting their energy build mine was awesome. We also played a "duet" version of Pantomime arranged for euphonium and 6 trombones. Wilson Diaz from Brazil and I made a version where we traded phrases and played some parts together. It is so much fun and a spontaneous musical adventure.

On the last day, the student ensembles played two concerts in the Plaza Major (the large public square) and also at the National Museum. They did so well and the audience enjoyed it. At the evening concert, after a big photo with everyone some tuba players started to play a Latin bass line and the entire group of about 100 players started to have a jam session. I improvised (which I normally do not play so often) and it was so much fun. I improvise more. It really makes one think more creatively.

Well a long flight home tonight and then off to Houston this week!!

All I can say is WOW!! Carlos Quiroz has organized a GREAT festival this week. We have more than 120 students for the low brass. Most are trombone, but the euphonium and tuba also have a younger tradition in South America...but I hope to help change this.

The amazing thing is all the INCREDIBLE faculty...we have Ben Van Dijk (Holland), Rotterdamn Phil Bass Trombone, Jorgen van Rijan (Holland), Javi Colomer (Spain), Carol Jarvis (UK - we played in Bras Band together and both went to the Royal Northern College of Music), Pato Consentino (Argentinean Tuba player), Wilson Diaz (Brazil - trombone and euphonium), Carlos Quiroz (Peru and Organizer), Ramon Benitez (jazz trombone and JAZZ EUPHONOIUM), Andy Hunter (US - Jazz trombonist in NYC), and Menlo Delgado (Peruvian tubbiest).

The recitals and concerts with the teachers have been amazing and I am inspired to practice. We play together in a faculty brass ensemble and played concerts at the Dutch Embassy and visited the US Embassy as well (a massive edifice). A short recital with euphonium got the audiences very enthused about the euphonium and working with the students has been great fun. They have so many questions and I am learning how to teach in Spanish, although I am lucky because I have many great translators.

Well off to the calienta (warm-up class) for the morning and then to technicas generales (general techniques).

Well it was a fun birthday on March 31st!! Been a busy year so far. On April Fool's Day, April 1, I got to drive to Greensboro, NC for a recital and master class with the students at the Univ of North Carolina - Greensboro. Dr. Dennis Askew teaches there and he is a fellow Univ of Georgia grad and studied with David Randolph as well.

We had a fun recital with a great pianist Inara that is one faculty. We played for a convocation of many undergrad music majors so we did a few transcriptions and then talked about the importance of new music and performed movements from the new Brusick Concerto for Euphonium and also from Roland Szentpali's Pearls 2.

We had a long 2 hour master class that featured 7 tuba and euphonium students. Dennis has a great situation at UNCG and the MASSIVE UNCG TUBABAND was great fun to hear 25 tubas and euphoniums. We had some wonderful discussions about interpretation and hope I presented some challenging concepts!!

From GreensBORO, I traveled to GreenVILLE where Eastern Carolina Univ and the studio of Tom McCaslin are located. It was another great visit with some very eager students. The worked and learned much I hope and it was truly great to hear the various students and meet many new hard working students. BTW, Tom's dog Franklin is so friendly and provided great entertainment for sure!!

In the end, it was AWESOME to visit with Dennis, Tom, and the students at both schools and I look forward to hearing them in the future again!!

I am off to Peru this week for a low brass festival...it is going to be great fun!!

Well, I returned home from Spain, heard some incredible auditions at Georgia State University...thanks to all the great students!! Then headed to Indy for the Music for All (Bands of America) Concert Band Festival.

The students and organization at this festival are TOP NOTCH!! Great to work with amazing students that have great questions, enthused to learn, and want to achieve great things.

It was especially great to see and work with the familiar faces of students that I knew from the IEI Festival, as well as lots of local Atlanta high school students from Pope and SW DeKalb High schools, and of course all the new friends.

Kudos to MFA and Yamaha for the invitation and as ALWAYS a great pleasure to work and meet with great players and students.

Back home for a few days before heading to NC and Peru in less than 2 weeks!!

I have had 4 WONDERFUL days in Spain for many hours of teaching at the Segovia Conservatoire in Linares Spain and my trip culminated with a FANTASTIC concert by the Municipal Band of Jaen conducted by guest conductor Javier Medina (who is also the euphonium / tuba teacher at the Segovia Conservatoire.

The band was MOST excellent and we have the European Premiere of the Feinstein Concerto for Euphonium as well played Fantasie Originale (Picchi) and Nessun Dorma (Puccini arr. Frey). They played so musically and listened SO well it was a great joy to make music with them. Also Javier did an INCREDIBLE job as my host and organizer...I especially enjoyed the very long lunches...the Spanish make everything so nice and relaxed.

I enjoyed the nearly 20 hours of teaching with the students of the conservatoire and they worked very hard for me. I salute them and look forward to hearing them again in the future!!

Andalusia is an AMAZING part of the country and they had exceptional weather...short sleeves and in the 65 (16-18 C) all the time and no rain...I am a little sad because I am going to Indianapolis at the end of this week and it is supposed to snow...but I don't think the kind I was lucky enough to ski in while I was in Utah.

Well, off to bed as I have to wake up at 3:45 AM (yes to read it correctly) to catch my flight back to Madrid and back to Atlanta for auditions for 7 incoming students at Georgia State...busy, busy, busy!!

My thanks again to Javier and the Segovia Conservatoire, and the Municipal Band of Jaen, and the town hall of Jaen that made this GREAT trip possible.

My congrats to Mark Norman and Brent Harvey for a fantastic SERTEC this past weekend. It was a great weekend, intense, VERY well run and organized. The playing was great by all the college ensembles (UGA, WCU, ECU, UNCG, UNCSA) and all the large ensembles were impressive, especially the James Madison Brass Band.

Some great recitals by the artists there...so sorry I did not hear everyone, but it is busy, busy time.

I got to play Brillante with the UNCSA Wind Ensemble and they did a very fine job and also am thankful to the great musicians that joined me on my recital for some great chamber music:

Mark Jenkins (US Marine Band) for a euphonium duet - The Windows Open to the Ocean by Censhu
Tom McCaslin (ECU) for Diversive Elements by David Gillingham - very exciting
Judith Saxton (trumpet at UNCSA) for Wilhelm's Duett Concertino.

Then I got to hear some great graduation auditions at GSU on Monday. Now I need to practice for my trip to Spain tomorrow!! Presenting the European Premiere of the Feinstein Euphonium Concerto with Wind Band...looking forward to it Javier!!

Hello All,
Well after a (actually) quite nice 16 hour flight from Atlanta, I arrived in Shanghai and we had a day of sightseeing before teaching and playing started with the APAC Honor Band course that is held at the Shanghai American School.

The Bund is a great display of Shanghai's new and old buildings, and style. Very cool neon lights and some amazing buildings and sky scrapers!! We also visiting the Yaun Gardens and had some great tea and food...so far I have eaten at restaurants were George Bush, (Sr) and the Clintons have eaten during their trips. Great and interesting tastes and NOT like the Chinese food we get in the states.

The band is 102 high school students pulled from 6 different international schools from China and South Korea. They are working very hard for the teachers and the energy is great. We are playing Nessun Dorma and Napoli with the band as well as about another 45 minutes of program.

Today, I got to play for some 3rd Graders at the school...they were TOTALLY into the euphonium and their excitement was great. So many times we forget about creating the next level of interest for the euphonium and "classical" audiences...they were enthralled and had loads of questions...about all sorts of things.

Well, some more practice for a recital tomorrow and then our final concert. Then back home on a 16 hour flight...should be an incredible finish to an amazing week.

Well, it has only been 9 days since my last post (an improvement for sure). I have been doing more editing on the two recording projects (Beyond the Horizon) and the Gemini with Jeff Nelsen. There are some sound samples links on the Newsletter that just come out.

I am starting out on a long series of trips tomorrow with a 16 hour flight from Atlanta to Shanghai...it will be fun. I am looking forward to performing and working with a number of students.

Also, updated some things in the webstore and have gotten the nice jukebox working on the CD page on the website. I hope you enjoy the upgrades and if you need the newsletter link, here it is:

You can also sign up to receive it automatically (along with literally thousands of other people...reallly there are that many people that want to hear about the cool things at Euphonium.com), sign up on the home page.

Just so you know I will be catching up on my email on the long flight!!

Wow, what a week in Salt Lake. My congrats to Scott Hagen and the University of Utah for an AMAZING recording session with Jeff Nelsen and myself. We were lucky enough to have Tony DiLorenzo on location for the world premiere and the recording on Friday. Kudos to the band for fine playing, focus, and energy through the long sessions. Jeff sounded great and we recorded Gemini (for horn, euph, and band - a piano reduction will also be available in the future) as well as a new arrangement of Monti's well-known Czardas.

After the recording, I was lucky enough to have my wife join Scott Hagen and myself for two days of amazing snow skiing. I don't get to vacation much, but had to build these days into my schedule almost a year in advance. We went to Alta and Brighton...two fabulous ski locations. Day 1 at Alta was great...I haven't been skiing in years, but the snow was wonderful and the conditions great...until day 2 at Brighton. Over night, Salt Lake and the mountains got more than 6" of snow...and it kept snowing all day on Tuesday, so bascially we had some of the best conditions possible...as one worker at Brighton said, "this is epic man." Scott also confirmed that the conditions were some of the best he had ever experienced...if you like to ski, you should know we basically had about 6" of fresh snow and powder. I actually opted for snow boarding this day as it was great fun. I will add some photos from the sessions in a few days.

All the best and a short break at home (not really...I am teaching most of the two weeks, listening to recordings, and hearing auditions at Georgia State University) and then starts a busy month of traveling.

Best wishes,

Adam

Hello all. It was a whirl wind end of January. The Georgia Brass Band gave a superb concert at the Georgia Music Educators conference on Jan 30th in Savannah. The group got to expose many teachers to the great sound of the brass band...something I miss from my schooling in the UK. I got to actually drive to Savannah that morning (about 4 and half hours), visit with some friends, play the concert, visit some more, and then drive home (arriving around 1) so I could catch an early morning flight to DC in time to visit the last day of the Army Band conference. Fantastic performances by all those that I heard and it was especially great to hear Adam Lessard play, a student that I taught when I was an undergrad at UGA and he was in high school. How so many of us mature and grow...

I am in Salt Lake City finishing up a really fun recording project with Scott Hagen and the University of Utah Wind Ensemble that features me and Jeff Nelsen, hornist with the Canadian Brass, as soloists and duet partners. We gave the world premiere of two new pieces on Thursday Feb 5th in Salt Lake. Gemini by Tony Dilorenzo is an AMAZING addition to the chamber repertoire for euphonium (there will also be a piano reduction available in the coming months...keep your eyes open for it in the next few months.

Also, just working on getting my VISA for a trip to China at the end of the month. Wow I am still THRILLED about my schedule for this coming spring...lots of fantastic trips.

All the best and more later,

Adam