Today was the day of my solo recital. I had a dress rehearsal followed by lunch at a local hotspot.
After that some much needed downtime till the concert. The first portion of the program was by tuba great, Marty Erickson. He plays with amazing control and confidence. It also seems that he never actually gets tired!
My program was:
“Tromba Sola” Ketil Hvoslef. I reviewed this piece here on ATT. The sound clip is from a different performance.
“Sonata for Trumpet and Piano” John Stevens. This was my first time with this sonata. There are a couple of tricky spots to put together with piano and a lot of technical patterns on the trumpet that need to be carefully worked out. That all said, I really like this piece and know I will be doing it often.
“Vignettes” James Stephenson – with percussionist Dane Richeson. I love this piece and it is always a hit with the audience. All 7 movements have completely different color pallets (and instrumentation).
“Body and Soul” –unaccompanied
“St. Thomas” – with Dane Richeson and Marty Erickson
After the concert we all took a long walk through what I would think is “real” China and found this little restaurant. When we arrived they had closed. Our host, Fan Lei called up the chef and he came back to work with some wait staff! We had the place all to ourselves and had at least 12 different dishes. This time EVERY ONE was outstanding. But, my hands down favorite was the Peking Duck, a specialty of Beijing.
Tomorrow I play on Dane Richeson’s concert which will be primarily jazz but we will be doing a couple movements of the Stephenson Vignettes again. Oh yeah, and then will all go out to eat.
Dave! Looks delicious!!!! Say hi to Marty for me, of course. I’m at Coopers tavern, outside on the Square in 67 degree weather slurping down an Old Speckled Hen reading your blog in the sun drenched warm afternoon. Good times had by all!