Ska Concerts, Brass Playing and Cooking Shows

Monday, October 27th—Tuesday, October 28th

These days consisted of practicing a ton, doing a little bit of homework and hanging out with Andrew’s parents who are in town for a few days. On Tuesday night we went to a taping of the British cooking show “Daily Cooks Challenge” with Anthony Worrall Thompson, which was basically a laid-back version of Iron Chef where two chefs compete in three sections (making a dish in 5 minutes, making a dish with a 75-cent budget, and making a dish using an ingredient chosen by the celebrity guest judge). It was a lot of fun to be part of a live taping, even if we couldn’t taste the food. The guy who would talk between sections of taping, Miles, was trying to open the audience up and get us laughing while we waited. Omar randomly got roped into explaining how to make a green curry dish, and although his recipe didn’t really make any sense, he beat the other lady who, when asked for a recipe for crab cakes, told everyone to buy them at the grocery store and heat them up in the oven. Good job, Omar.
Also, Tuesday night was the first snowfall of the year. Apparently it’s not supposed to snow in London until late December/early January, but it definitely snowed tonight, enough for a light coating for a few hours, then melting into slush. This is much less intense than New Jersey, where they have 5 inches of snow and 50mph winds, knocking down trees and downing power all over the place. Sometimes I miss America, but tonight was not one of those times.


Saturday, October 25th—Sunday, October 26th

This weekend there was a Brass Festival at the Guildhall School of Music and Dance, featuring the German Brass (a group of 10 brass players who are phenomenal at their instruments and play together so well it’s hard to believe that it’s really them playing). The first day consisted of workshops and performances by students at the Guildhall school. This school is mainly orchestral, meaning the euphonium is seen as a “doubler’s instrument” (something that a trombone or tuba player should learn so that they can play the orchestral repertoire that calls for it, and nothing more). The tuba studio consisted of 6 students, all great players, and their professor, Patrick Harrild, is the principal tubist of the London Symphony Orchestra. I really liked the trombone ensemble performance and workshop because the teacher, Simon Wills, was so crazy and had a great attitude towards playing brass instruments. He said it’s not all about being a superhero, it’s about relaxing and making everything easier on oneself, and having the mentality that things aren’t as difficult as they seem. Later on that evening, there was the performance by the German Brass, which blew Omar, Erin and myself away. Omar almost cried after the first piece because Matthias Hofs, 1st trumpet player, is such a virtuoso and makes everything seem effortless. They played baroque/classical/romantic music on the first half, and jazz/pop tunes on the second half from “Around the World.” At the end of the concert, they played “The Peanut Vendor” song, starting out with the bass trombone player (principal of Berlin Philharmonic), then the two horn players coming out with maracas (there was a story about how God banished them to play percussion instruments until Judgement Day), then the other two trombonists, then the trumpet players coming out with slide trumpets (very small trombones) in continually smaller sizes, and finally the last trumpet player comes out with a trombone the size of a Christmas ornament, and he played it. I don’t know how that’s physically possible, but he did it. What an amazing performance.
After that, on the walk back, I thought long and hard about my future as a euphonium player. I didn’t really fit in at the Guildhall school because I was solely a euphonium player, and the tuba professor made a comment about how hard it is for euphonium players to make it professionally in the world today. I realized that I have only had one 20-minute lesson with a real euphonium player in my career (the other teachers have either been tuba or trombone players). As soon as I got back to the flat, I sent Steven Mead (world-renowned euphonium virtuoso who teaches at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester) an email about the prospects of having a lesson. I figured nothing would come of it.
The next day there were master classes at the Guildhall school with members of the German Brass. They were educational and interesting, but everyone seemed a bit stand-offish to the fact that I was a euphonium player, and I left the school feeling really down about my playing. When I got back, I checked my email and found a response from Steven Mead saying that it would be possible for us to have at least one, possibly two, lessons before I go back to the states. This made my weekend, and possibly my life. It was great to hear all of that amazing brass playing this weekend, to hear the British style of playing and to hear students my age and younger playing their balls off of their instruments, but I don’t fit at that school. My drive to play was kick started from hearing this playing and from realizing that hopefully in a few weeks, one of the greatest euphonium players on the planet will listen to me. I’ve got a lot of work to do before then.


Friday, October 24th

I had a lesson today and it was awesome. I played through the 3rd movement of Vladamir Cosma’s Euphonium Concerto, which is ridiculous, and I nailed about 90% of it somehow. I was really surprised with how well I’ve played since taking 10 days off. I guess buzzing on the mouthpiece during breaks really helps keep your chops up.


Thursday, October 23rd

Tonight we went to a gig at the Scala (not the opera house in Milan, but a club near King’s Cross) for our Brit Pop class. We saw a couple of bands: RBG’s (a quartet of girls playing keytars jumping around stage), Mr. B (a banjulele (banjo and ukulele) player who sang hip hop songs using the Queen’s English, “from whence it came”) and Emperial Leisure (a British ska/punk/rap group who released a CD recently). It was an awesome concert, especially the final act, because they were so over the top that it was impossible to not have fun. And it was really hip music too. Andrew tried to crowd surf but that failed miserably. Kind of not surprising.


Monday, October 20th—Wednesday, October 22nd

These days were spent recuperating after the Italy trip. Basically we did a lot of homework and practicing to catch-up. For my architecture class, we went to the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square to check out excellent paintings from the Flemish artists and others from the Renaissance. I thought our teacher was going to kill the masses of schoolchildren that were running around the exhibit unsupervised. She used phrases such as “This is quite unfortunate” and “Oh dear me” which are pretty high up there on her list of negative phrases. It was still great to see amazing art.