Good morning! I apologize again for abandoning this diary of musical insight from a somewhat well trained amateur musician. It is funny that starting a new blog for work has brought me back to this blog today. Life, again, swept me away from my musical musings, yet life has deposited me again along its soft, sandy shores to write to you, loyal and undaunted reader, my inconsequential and lackluster opinions and experiences in music.

Since last writing, my non-musical schedule has increased, causing me to relax my role in the ever-improving UMBC Symphony. They really are a great bunch of young players and I am excited for my alma mater as they grow better and better musicians and prepare to move into a new facility. The spring concert is approaching and I am only playing on one piece and playing second trumpet, which is just fine with me. I will be performing on Parade by Erik Satie. This was one of my favorite pieces from college when everyday was filled with analyzing the fascinating works of the late romantic, impressionist, and modern music eras. Parade is a ballet with caricatures of different circus acts. The original performance had its sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso, concept written by Jean Cocteau, and was written for Diaghilev's ballet, and the choreography by Leonide Massine. It truly was all the mediums of the time merging into one.

To perform the piece is just plain fun. There are typewriters, a lottery wheel, milk bottles, a little ragtime, and of course the siren. The siren poses the only difficulty, which is to not smile and giggle during those sections when playing. The piece, in my opinion, is very successful in recreating the fun atmosphere and transporting the listener to the mood of a circus. Check it out on May 5th at UMBC Recital Hall.

In other musical news, a friend and I attended the Bond and Beyond concert by the BSO. I am a huge James Bond fan (I will not bore you trying to justify my statement). The pieces selected for the concert were quite nice overall. I was happy to hear the main themes from You Only Live Twice, and From Russia With Love, and the guest vocalist did well with the theme from Goldfinger. After intermission, the program strayed to Secret Agent Man, the Soul Bossa Nova (Austin Powers theme), and Concerto for Cellphone, before returning to Bond for the theme from Skyfall, and then a medley of themes they missed to close the concert. The Concerto for Cellphone, which is a charming piece, and not really written to be a mockery, was performed as such. The guest vocalist didn't have the pipes to hold up to Adele with the Skyfall theme, and in my opinion, the orchestra was not putting its full effort into the surprisingly challenging music from the James Bond films. I was also irritated that the orchestra used a synthesizer for the trademark low range electric guitar solos in the principle James Bond theme. The keyboard didn't sound like a guitar, nor did the attack of the notes sound clean or edgy. The intent of the concert was billed to honor the music, while it felt like the concert was made to mock. I understand it was a pops concert, but as a James Bond fan, I felt as if the group was humiliating one of the key characters: the soundtrack. You can't separate the image of Sean Connery riding along the romantic Orient Express without hearing those sweeping strings, or Daniel Craig running through the streets of a city in Madagascar without the flairing brass behind him. The concert left me somewhat heartbroken, to be honest.

Thanks to graduate school and being a grown up, I had to be more selective of my summer music ticket purchases. I chose two shows. Fun and the Lumineers. I will do my best to write about those shows in the near future. Until then, my loyal, loving, doting, reader, I bid you a good afternoon. 

In The Flesh

Greetings, my loyal reader. I won't insult you with an apology for not writing. I write tonight because I finally feel inspired to write again. A bunch of things have happened to me in my musical universe that should be shared, and my opinions are blossoming into fertile flower beds of statements that don't really matter, nor will anyone really care about, but this comes with the territory of having a blog.

So, some major things have changed in my life. I have lost a significant amount of weight. I know in the manifesto of this blog I said I would never mention personal life issues, but this has affected me musically. Mainly, my trumpet playing, I feel, has improved dramatically. I have less resistance and my upper register doesn't sound so strained. My endurance has increased as well. I have dropped 135 pounds of weight off my lungs, torso and upper body. Before, holding the trumpet up was enough of a stress. This has led me to successful performances of Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony, a long production of "The Secret Garden" and currently great rehearsals of Shostakovich's 5th symphony.

The weight loss has also made attending concerts and performances much more bearable. I was able to attend my first Broadway show. Melanie and I saw "The Addams Family" starring Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, and Kevin Chamberlin. All three we spectacular, and although catchy, the musical was a bit cliche. With such a great and flexible and outlandish medium as the Addams Family, I thought it could have been a bit more "out there".

Also, with comfortable seating, Melanie and I (noticing a theme? She has become quite the little concert goer herself) attended two symphonic multimedia concerts. First, we saw "Planet Earth Live". The Baltimore Symphony partnered up with George Fenton, who composed the soundtrack to the amazing documentary series, to present clips of the show, with their accompaniment played live. Mr. Fenton conducted and narrated the program, explaining how he was moved by certain footage to inspire the music that he composed. We definitely enjoyed the polar bear segment. His music at times would make you laugh, or just well up with tears. The second multimedia symphonic concert we attended was "Star Wars: In Concert". This concert we straight up didn't like. Narrated by Anthony Daniels of C3PO fame, this concert didn't really teach you anything of the inspirations for the soundtrack but merely retold the story of all 6 movies with a series of movie trailer footage mash-ups and selected medleys from the soundtrack. It would have been much better if they took direct full scenes from the films and played the soundtrack to that scene. We only became interested at the end when they began showing behind the scenes footage from making the films, such as artist sketches for different character concepts. Frankly, the subway ride with Boba Fett and Obi-Wan was more fun. Also, I was pretty amused by the line that had a solid 200 people in it, just to get an autograph from "Darth Vader".

Now, also during this time off from the blog, I attended concerts of previously two of my favorite live bands to see: AC/DC and Iron Maiden. We revisited AC/DC on their second stop to the Verizon Center in Washington, DC simply because I had the money and Ticketmaster offered me seats up close, almost floor level. They are a totally different experience up close, as opposed to in the rafters. Melanie and I of course donned the flashing red devil horns and screamed our heads off. AC/DC this time sounded a bit more fresh, and played more classics and less from their new album, which was definitely welcomed. Sadly, though, when seeing Iron Maiden this past time, they did the exact opposite. I barely recognized anything from their setlist. They perfomed songs from their new album, which at the time hadn't been released. Dream Theater opened for them. Little did I know that it would be the last time to see Dream Theater play with Mike Portnoy for quite awhile as he has now left the band. The saving grace of this show was my weight loss, as the Wicker Man Iron Maiden tour shirt I purchased fits me.

Just a few weeks ago, I had an experience that really refreshed my musical spirit. I participated in the Rusty Musicians program with the Baltimore Symphony. I won't make this sound impressive, as all I had to do was be one of the first like 30 trumpet players to e-mail the symphony, but I will say that it was immensely rewarding. I got to have 40 minutes on stage in a rehearsal atmosphere with two trumpet players of the BSO, and conductor Marin Alsop leading a group rehearsal of Brahm's "Academic Overture". The only way I can explain this experience to non-musicians is that imagine your boss at work acted as if they were a partner and was in the situation with you, but also could clearly in one sentence, tell you exactly what they want you to do, how to do it, and make you feel like you're the office hero for doing it. It was so rewarding, and I got a nice compliment from one of the pro's to "play louder". In trumpet speak that's a compliment. It invigorated me to want to play more, and for a second made me think I could actually play in a symphony orchestra of that level. Again, without the weight loss, I would have never even taken the initiative to send the e-mail to get to have this amazing chance.

Melanie has also gotten me to loosen up about pop music as I have now become an official fan of Lady gaga and Florence + the Machine after watching the Video Music Awards on MTV a few weeks ago. I have to admit Lady Gaga's character, plus catchy hooks could make her a big landmark on American music if she can keep the creativity up. Though, I do still hate Auto-Tune. I'm looking at you Justin Bieber. And as a quick note, thanks to Melanie, I have began listening to the Beatles after a 18 year hiatus. Happy Steve?

To wrap up this very lengthy, and self gratifying blog entry, I predict that this weekend I will see a concert that will change my life. This weekend, Melanie and I are seeing Roger Waters' "The Wall: Live" concert at the Verizon Center. This is as close as Mel and I will ever get to see Pink Floyd. Though, I am sad that him and David Gilmour couldn't have buried the hatchet for this tour, my wallet thanks them for not doing so, because I'm sure the ticket price would have been double. "The Wall" is my favorite album by my favorite band. The tension between the band mates rings through in the album as the album deals with the band's inability to handle fame, yet also has a deeper message with hatred and war. This show should be unbelievable as they construct the wall.

This blog entry itself has been about me tearing down my wall of sorts and shedding the barrier that has been keeping me from enjoying life and music for so long. I have my regrets of not doing this in college when I was still competitive in my music and could have gone to grad school. But at the same time, it took help to tear it down. I needed the accomplice to help break a hole in the wall so I could escape the prison my own thoughts and weight had formed. A few years ago, I was saying Good Bye Cruel World, and that I was Comfortably Numb. But now, after The Trial, I'm Outside the Wall.

Concert Etiquette

Hello my friends. I come to you this evening to discuss a couple things. Both topics are spurred by the music events I attended this weekend. I witnessed incredible violations of concert etiquette and experienced some horrendous musical theater cliché. Lets start though with the etiquette. Here are my rules for concerts:

1. Respect the Performer
2. Respect the Performance
3. Know the rules of the performance - e.g. if it is a classical concert, do not clap between movements, clap for the concert master, conductor, and solist everytime they enter the stage.

This past weekend, me and a lovely friend of mine attended a performance of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier. The group performed the "Armenian Suite" by Richard Yardumian, Piano Concerto no. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev with Yuja Wang on piano, and closed with "Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz.

The BSO has matured quite a bit under the new directorship with Marin Alsop. The performed all three pieces with intensity and precision. They presented a concert of such passions that it made you have to move. A man a few rows in front of me was getting into the concert and was doing some small conducting of his own in his seat. This is not unusual especially at a concwert with such rhythmic and all out primal feels such as the Armenian Suite and Piano Concerto (Soloist at one point got so into it she pulled a Jerry Lee Lewis and stood while playing for a bar or two). The man in the seat between me and armchair conductor is getting ore and more agitated for some reason. You must understand that the guys seat was not rocking and hitting his legs, his arms weren't blocking a view and he wasn't making any noise doing this. When the concert finally ended and everyone jumped to their feet to give the group and its conductor a standing ovation, especially the percussionists who were incredible, the man directly in front of me, grabs his wife by the arm, gets in the enthusiast's face and says "He's the conductor not you, and now you know for the next time". He then proceeded to storm out of the hall, not giving the orchestra his respect. Never mind that this is taking place 4 rows from the stage, on the side where the conductor enters. The conductor made multiple nods down to us and could clearly see the scene. I was furious, I was embarrassed for music lover in me. The upset man simply didn't get the passion of romantic music. In his own maneuver to punish a man loving music in demand of having a concert the way he wants, he forgot the key thing that its about the performer and the listener and nothing else. This man was not listening and experiencing the music and in that he disrespected the performer, which violates the first rule and second rule. I had to tell the faux conductor that I appreciate his passion and that you have to let it out. He was so friendly we practically made a new friend on the way out of the concert, with him and his daughter. We walked out together and the jerk was forgotten. The group performed so well and its sad it had such a bad audience. I heard at least 10 cell phones ring and there was a woman two rows back that I swear had tuberculosis. It was gross and rude, and she never excused herself. I could only imagine the level of embarrassment her guests had.

If you've ever been to a classical concert with a soft section you know that coughing spreads like a plague. People have no control or concept that everything in the hall projects and your cough is as loud as a trumpet to someone concentrating. I don't understand why you would come to something like that sick. Also these coughs are normally just throat clears done without covering the mouth or muffling in anyway and its just gross and distracting. COUGHERS OF THE WORLD, HEAR ME NOW WHEN I SAY GET A HALLS, A COUGH DROP AND GET UP AND LEAVE THE HALL UNTIL YOUR THROAT IS CLEAR. Stop punishing us who can control ourselves.

Now that my rant is done, I must bid this post farewell. Thank you for reading, let your meter be simple and cadences be perfect.