First, I’ve been heavily involved with the graduate fellowship brass quintet. We are a young but able group, consisting of me, Peter (Michigan), Kristin (Concordia), Chris (Oklahoma City), and Joseph (Kansas City). Everybody brings something positive to the table, it seems. We rehearse four times per week and are coached by Professor Tom Stein. This year, we won the state division of MMTA chamber competition and will continue to the regional, then (hopefully) the national convention. With the quintet’s help, I arranged three dances from Terpsichore for the group, which has been met with positive comments from faculty, judges, and members of the quintet themselves.

I am also a part of the conservatory wind symphony, under Professor Steven Davis. Rehearsals are well-lead, and we play primarily a combination of new band literature and the more difficult end of the standard repertoire. Last night, I played a Vaughn Williams piece and the Colgrass, The Winds of Nagual, which is one of my new favorite pieces of music. Next semester, we will be attending the CBDNA National Convention in Austin, Texas.

I have been serving on the CSA board as Vice President of UMKC’s International Trumpet Guild chapter. Since I have been involved, it feels as if the group has finally shed a passive approach to solving students’ problems here, with a “convocation” on the way to becoming a reality, extending computer lab hours, helping to fund students’ competitions and masterclasses, arranging guest speakers, etc. Through the CSA, I have been also serving as the graduate student representative to the faculty curriculum committee, which puts me in an advising role to faculty who decide what it is students have to do to graduate.

As a soloist, I have been working with Kristy (two words: perfect Hindemith. FREAK.) to put together some recital and competition material. I hope to do the ITG competition– it has always been a far-off goal of mine, and the repertoire this year seems quite reasonable but also competitively hard… good choices by the academic trumpet community. We have so far completed some initial recordings of the Hindemith, of which Dr. Benjamin speaks highly, so at least an NTC submission is likely (which often gets paid for by the CSA). Listening to my various submissions last year, I feel I have improved substantially, especially musically. Several issues seem to be getting fixed, but I am also more aware of my strengths. There are lots of things to do, but I believe I am on the right track.

Speaking of music, I am playing every weekend this month. Though not always paid extremely well, I am happy to be playing and that I am getting calls. I will be performing 3rd trumpet with the Lee’s Summit Symphony on their Christmas program next Friday. The vocal department will be performing Bach’s Magnificat, of which I will be playing 2nd trumpet (whew! playing next to Ryan is always fun, per Man of La Mancha, and Jaime on 3rd). This Sunday I will be playing with Chris, Karen, and Jeff at “Mrs. Dr. Elswick”’s church. Finally, I will be playing a Christmas Eve service for more money than I ever thought gigs would pay. All in all, not a bad month. With some luck, thorough preparation, and good playing on my part, even the freebies give me a chance to make a good impression among the directors, other musicians, and innocent bystanders.

Classes went well this semester. I believe I have stamped out some problems I’ve always suffered from in terms of school work. I enjoyed my teacher, Dr. Tyrrell, for Research and Bibliography, and hope to take other classes from her in the future.

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