We had a great Christmas in Colorado Springs with Kate's parents. Here is the best picture of the week. It's Kevin with his "Thrill My Grillz" that Adam slipped into his stocking. Not appearing in the picture is the money clip with a $ on it - sweet!!

Legend:

Webster's dictionary defines it as "a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated" or "an extremely famous or notorious person, esp. in a particular field".

Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic, has achieved such status in the trombone world. First of all, he can be called simply by "Alessi" and everyone knows exactly who you are talking about. There is only one other trombonist in the world today where this is true: Lindberg. I first heard Mr. Alessi at the International Trombone Festival in Boulder, Colorado and then the following year at Potsdam, New York. When I tell the story of that day it seems almost impossible: Alessi played a full recital with the trombone quartet Four of a Kind, then did a masterclass where he played a lot for students, and in the evening, he played concerti. It's hard enough to do one of those things in a single day, but to do all three? It was legendary.

With his most recent recording, "Visions" with the Columbus State University Wind Ensemble, Alessi shows why he will be remembered. The album contains fantastic recordings of both Bert Appermont's "Colors for Trombone" and Eric Ewazen's "Visions of Light".

Go get it!

Link to iTunes Store

I love finding new music! iTunes is amazing to me; I can look for artists really fast and then have their music with me on my computer or iPhone in seconds. This is especially great for us classical musicians. Sometimes it can be a real pain finding a recording of a piece we are working on. Simply enter the composers name and *BAM* you have ten recordings to check out! Sometimes I just type "trombone" in the search field. This time I discovered a trombonist that I had not heard of prior to Saturday: Jesper Juul Sorensen. Mr. Sorensen is Principal Trombone of the Danish National Radio Symphony. He has had a few other recordings, but I can't seem to find them. On this recording we find a great recording of the Launy Grondähl Concerto - without stuff taken up an octave ala Lindberg or Alessi. Everything is as written! Students should pick this one simply based on that alone! The other pieces on this recording are: the Vagn Holmboe Concerto, Hyldgaard Soren's "Concerto Borealis", Axel Jorgensen's Romance, Op. 21, and his Suite, Op. 22. Each of the pieces are of the utmost quality in performance and recording quality. Check it out!

Link to iTunes Store

This video was sent to me by Larry Zalkind. Enjoy!

Every year the Tuba/Euphonium studio at the University of Iowa puts on the Holiday Tuba concert. They encourage people to bring toys to give to Toys for Tots, so there is a service attached to the fun concert. Here are some pictures from today's event.

Here we have Professor John Manning being interviewed for the Press Citizen.


Still being interviewed. We also see Professor Manning's baton, the candy cane.


Michael Ozment and Phil Runkel (both MM students in Horn Performance) are interviewed by the same guy that interviewed Manning. He interviewed them because they brought coffee.....


Some kid playing Sousaphone.


Laura Westfall and Bonnie Varga, BFF's! Just kidding. Laura is an undergraduate Music Education Major and plays the bass trombone. Bonnie is a first year Masters student in Trombone Performance.


More Random people I don't know.


M.O. and P.R. sporting their candy canes that were distributed by some lady that I have never seen before.


It was a cold, cold day, but the tubas put on a good show with all the Christmas hits and a rousing round of "Dradle, Dradle, Dradle". Good times and much merriment were had by hundreds in attendance.

While walking to the school this morning (after my MRI reading) I ran into this this little guy:



Awesome! He was sitting on a tree just a few feet from the sidewalk. I initially hung up from talking with my Mom so that I could try taking a couple of pictures with my iPhone. Then I realized that I had Kate's camera on my back because I was on the way to Holiday Tubas (pictures to follow)! So, I quietly took out the camera and gave it my best, amertuerish shot.



This last one I love because it shows a little more the result of our ice storm from earlier in the week. We had about a quarter to half and inch of ice accumulation. It has melted a little yesterday and today, but here is the result:

I got the MRI results today. I don't understand well enough what is going on, so I will just copy what the report says.

Findings: The muscles and tendons of the rotator are normal in appearance without evidence of tear. There is subtle increased signal within the infraspinatus tendon consistent with mild tendinopathy. A small amount of subacromial/subdeltoid bursal fluid is demonstrated consistent with bursitis. There is no evidence of rotator cuff tear. Mild cystic degenerative changes at the greater tuberosity are demonstrated.

There is subtle abnormal signal in the anterior/inferior labrum suspicious for possible tear. There is posterior de-centering of the humeral head. Bone marrow signal is within normal limits. The long head of the biceps tendon is in normal position. No masses are demonstrated in the right shoulder.

Impression:
1. Mild infraspinatus tendinopathy and mild subacromial-subdeltoid bursitis.
2. Posterior de-centering of the humeral head. If there is continued clinical concern for soft tissue pathology of the shoulder and if clinically warranted, MR arthrogram would be recommended for evaluation of the posterior de-centering to exclude intra-articular pathology.
3. Subtle abnormal signal along the anterior/inferior labrum suspicious for possible tear.

I just went over these with the physical therapist today. I am meeting with the orthopedic surgeon soon to determine the next step.

The injury to my left shoulder has not allowed me much practice time in the past few months. While dealing with this issue I have learned several things about performance. I used to be one of the musicians who required an hour warm-up to feel their best. For nearly a decade I have played a forty minute to an hour daily routine. If, for some reason, I hadn't played a routine and I had a lesson or rehearsal, I would be so stressed out from not "properly warming up." I have had to simplify my performance and practice time, so one of the first things to go was the length of the routine. Some days I can only play for an hour, so an hour warm-up obviously doesn't cut it. I don't really do much different than I did before, I just do less of it. I feel just as warm, and actually a little more secure - less chipping/fracking of notes!
Related to the issue of limited time on the horn is the fact that I simply don't have the time to mess around in the practice room. Sometimes a five minutes session is all I can do for now so I have to maximize the time that do have. I have been buzzing more, and singing more. This has really increased my ability to hear intervals and resolved an issue I have been having with accuracy on partials. I am spending more time practicing small chunks of music slowly and this seems to be working really well for me. These things combined have increased my ability to memorize (which I never did well before) and have put a major positive spin on what could easily be a very challenging time.

Today I finally had the MRI on my shoulder. It was as claustrophobia-inducing as everyone says. They gave me ear plugs for the noise though and I actually fell asleep and had a nice little nap!

We should have the results by Friday. It will be nice to have some kind of idea of what is going on. Then we will know how to proceed.

I am a perfectionist. I am always updating this site (if you are reading this, you probably already know that). In an effort to simplify and streamline, I have decided to forego my blogger account, do blogs within the page, and no longer link to the outside source. I will probably copy over the older blog posts, but this transition may take some time. Thanks!

I am supposed to be doing Musicology, but my brother, Nicholas sent me this video. I could not contain myself from sharing it with others!!