The Great Thing About Suspended Animation

Now on the other side of 5 credits at Kent State University, I actually have some free moments to think and there has been a couple of things I have been wanting to share. Actually there is more than a couple, I just have not had the time. Most of them deal with new music that I have come across […]

Processing adjudication festivals

Tuesday was awesome!  I was able to take all 3 of the concert bands at Mercer to the PMEA Instrumental Adjudication festival at Westminster College.  I am very pleased with the groups and their performance.  Pennsylvania’s adjudication circuit allows directors to choose music from the state list (which NEEDS serious revamping PMEA!!! Not that I dwell on the problems within […]

From Student to Teacher

Today marked the second day without a student teacher for the first time since Mid-January. Over the past eight weeks, I had the pleasure of working with Nick Samson (from YSU), and in a couple of weeks Krista Schmidt (from GCC) will join me. I enjoy the opportunity to have student teachers come in to the program, and watch them […]

Did NO ONE "listen" to the Grammy’s?

I need to keep evolving.  That means staying current, and that means staying up with what these youngsters are listening to.  So it requires some time on my part and sometimes painfully enduring the contrived chord progressions and hollow lyrics of any number of artists that students feel compelled to ask me to listen to.  So I decided I would […]

Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic

It is the Super Bowl of Music Conferences.  The Cadillac of Music Cars.  It is the only place where you hear gems like: Francis McBeth” “I am proud to say I have lived long enough to see the rise and fall of Communism in Russia and 12 tone rows.” A wonderful two days in the city of Chicago, Illinois.  There […]

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