Fall 2011 Happenings

Posted on 13. Oct, 2011 by Raquel in News

Fall is my favorite season of the year. It is a time for new beginnings, Football, and Baseball playoffs (GO Rangers!). I had a great summer, mostly spent in Dallas. I started jogging again and now I have a goal to run in a half marathon this year. More on that soon. This year started great with new students and new duties for me. I am now the brass choir director in addition to the concert band director at NKU, it has been alot of fun so far!

The Fall began with Star United rehearsals and performances. We again won the DCA Mini-Corps Championships for the 6th time in a row! It was a fun and challenging show this year, I got to play Bb piccolo trumpet in addition to Bb trumpet. We performed music by Tchaikovsky and the show included much movement! I am looking forward to working with this group and expanding our performances in the future. DCA 2012 will be in Annapolis, MD.

2011 Star United

Here is a standstill encore performance immediately following the competition:

I have been keeping busy playing this semester, I had fun playing Eb soprano with the Dublin Silver Band at the Dublin Irish Festival. I also recently played a new instrument for me, a bass trumpet. The instrument was a Holton 58, in Bb. I used a Yamaha Trombone Mouthpiece, 47 small shank. I played some  excerpts from Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. I had the horn for a week and I gave a short presentation to the NKU Brass Choir before returning the instrument. Many thanks to the Cincinnati Symphony for the rental of the instrument and Kentucky Symphony Orchestra for the opportunity. Here are a few pics:

The bass trumpet with my other horns

NKU Low Brass Students with a Bass Trumpet

I am looking forward to playing in 3 upcoming recitals. The first is a joint NKU Brass Faculty Recital in which we will play some fun pieces including Divertimento for trumpet and trombone (Boris Blacher), Sonata For Horn, Trumpet and Trombone (Francis Poulenc),  Fanfare for Bima (trumpet, trombone, horn, tuba) by Leonard Bernstein, as well as others.  I will also play a cornet solo with the Lexington Brass Band. I will be playing “Rule Britannia” by John Hartmann on Nov 6, 2011 at 3pm, Lexington, KY. It is a fun piece, very much in the “Carnival of Venice” vein.

An exciting event that I am very much looking forward to is the NKU Brass Day on Saturday, Nov 19th. **Currently Being Rescheduled for Spring 2012** This will be a fun event that will feature CSO Bass Trombonist, Pete Norton with the NKU Brass Choir. The participants will also play in a brass choir concert. Please visit the Brass Day website at: http://www.nkutrumpet.com/brass/ for more info!