Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass

December 19, 2008

I think it's been about a week since I last wrote on my blog. I believe I did the last one from my blackberry...that took some time. I'm moving along a little easier sitting at my pc in my home no longer hindered by the tiny square buttons which surprise me as to how I spell decently while using that thing.

Anyways, depending where you are around the country, you might have encountered some nasty weather. I know I sure did when I left Chicago this morning. Before we headed for bed last night, I stood up watching the local tv station talk about the crazy day that would be ahead of us. Growing up in the Chicagoland area and now living in the Indianapolis area, I love hearing different reports on weather...especially snow. The projected snow fall that would be there in the morning would be 2" - 12". And, of course, when it was all said and done, the storm seemed to have mostly shifted to the north of the city, leaving us with only about 2 inches. IDOT, Illinois Department of Transportation, was asking everyone to stay off the roads if at all possible, but not us! Leslie and I were on the road at 7:45 this morning and were driving around Chicago trying to find the toll road amidst slush and blowing snow. Fun times. I like to think that I don't mind driving in any kind of weather, especially bad weather. It can be dangerous, but if you're careful and mindful of your surroundings, it can be a little adventerous (especially if you drive a jeep like me). Anyways, the drive out of Chicago and into Indiana sucked. Slush EVERYWHERE and no one knowing where the white dashed lines in the road where, no one knew where their lane was. To make things a little less
"exciting", I wasn't driving my jeep. We had decided to take Leslie's toyota corrolla it's terrific with gas these days. None-the-less, it was a challenging drive back home, but we made it back safely. Unfortunately, there were many vehicles that didn't. We saw 1 flipped moving truck, a semi that drove off the road, and a van that got stuck in the emergency lane on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago (which was filled will piled up snow).

So, my wife and I headed up to the "windy city" for a day of fun and relaxation, and of course, to see the Chicago Symphony Brass play as part of the Midwest clinic. The picture to the right is outside of Orchestra Hall looking above the heads of the hundreds of people in attendance to see the Chicago Symphony Brass. Since I do want to stay happily married, I promised my beautiful wife Leslie that we would head up to Chicago for a day off from our hectic schedules and enjoy the CSO brass in concert...no work...just a day for us. We had decided to do a little shopping along Michigan Ave. a.k.a. "The Magnificent Mile" and I got to experience eating of an entirely different style. I believe it was called Foodlife. It's in the Water Tower Place and is a series of various eateries and you choose what you'd like, they swipe it all on a card that you are given when you walk in and then you pay whatever you put on that card when you exit. It was kinda neat. A little little loud and pretty crowded, but kinda cool. After that, we went to get our wedding bands cleaned at Tiffany. Such beautiful jewelry in there, but it's so expensive! Anyways, we left back to the hotel to change and get ready for the concert. We were finally ready and jumped into a cab to head over to Orchestra Hall. Holy smokes, it was pretty packed inside and outside. I guess everyone from Midwest was there to see this awesome group play. There's not much to say about the concert, except for that it was beautiful and a great treat for any music lover. My wife, a hornist, and I were discussing the volume in which the horn section was playing for the concert. She had mentioned that so many young horn players tend to back off a bit when plating, whereas they should be stronger, which usually does translate into being louder. I know this is something that I address on a regular basis with the horn players in the wind ensemble. A general rule that I have lived by as a performer, is to play mindfully strong and be able to back off, as opposed to being timid and being too soft. It always seemed to be so much easier to be strong and then back off as opposed to being too afraid to play out.

Don't be afraid to play out! Do this mindfully, of course.

So, after the CSO brass performance, my wife and I took an eventful cab ride to Daly Plaza to go see the Kriskrindelmart (German Christmas festival). Since Leslie studied and lived in Germany and Austria for a while, I always want to do "German" things with her. Since the fullest extent of my German involvement include layovers in Munich and Frankfort...12 years ago...I enjoy being able to learn more about the German and Austrian cultures. It also is pretty cool that we have neighbors with Canadian-Austrian duel citizenship. I digress, so we took our eventful cab ride (driver didn't know where Daly Plaza was) to Daly Plaza and had some fun drinking glühwein, hot chocolate, and shopping around. After that we had a nice dinner in the Walnut Room of Macy's, followed by a nice walk over to Millennium Park for ice skating. No broken bones or bruises...so we shall consider that a success. Lastly, we walked back to our hotel and watched local tv talk about the doomsday storm.

It's time for me to head on to the rest of my list of things that need to be accomplished. Update blog...check.