Euphonium.com

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.