Busy Month

As the title says, September was a very busy month.

The month began with a visit to Oklahoma for a memorial service for my late teacher, David Etheridge. I am truly grateful to have been part of his legacy. While the circumstance was tragic, seeing so many people who shared my own sentiment, was touching. This will be the last thing I say on the subject but I feel like it should be said: I miss him terribly but I'm glad to have spent 8 years as his student. I think about him every time I even think about clarinet and it is heart-wrenching but I hope it never stops. While I can no longer ask him for a letter of recommendation, I feel like a rockstar every time someone asks me who I studied with. Again, I miss him a lot, but I learned a lifetime's worth while he was here.

Elissa, Me, Chauvin, Chase and Spencer

Kelly and Christina

Ok, there are my thoughts - on to happier things. I really enjoyed my Oklahoma trip. I only wish it were longer. It was wonderful to see so many friends from my past! My how time flies. It seems like just yesterday we were making a studio "bench" and playing Play That Funky Music White Boy in the orchestra room. Yep, you heard right... we were that cool. (Once, we got a noise complaint at a hotel for singing Bach chorales too loudly... haha, that was also the trip where Dr. Etheridge drove the 18 passenger van like his Miata while commenting "Oh, you guys" as we tried to make a beat-less chord in the back...) Good times.

Old paper comments...

Back in Philadelphia, school has really started to get going. I love my Current Topics class. We read, argue/discuss and write. The end. But it is so rewarding and wonderful to be allowed an opinion. As a future college educator, I would love to find some way to teach my students that if you don't have an opinion on the matter, you just aren't thinking about it hard enough. We turned in our first paper and though the little blue microsoft word editing boxes covered my screen, they all said really good things that I just didn't know. I think this means my writing might actually be improving! Yay, me ;)

Current paper comments!

Aside from class, other things are going really well! I auditioned for ensembles here and since I am unavailable during large ensemble times, I was placed in a woodwind quartet with the principal orchestra players! We are having a great time and working on putting together a recital for later this semester. Also, this week was my first week as a rep for the Philadelphia Orchestra. We had a concert for college students only and it was fantastic. The house was absolutely packed and the program included Joshua Bell playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Mahler's First Symphony. There was a big reception in the Kimmel Center lobby after the concert with free food, drinks and "stuff" (water bottles, gift cards, tickets etc.). I am definitely looking forward to more Phil Orch events!

But alas, from here on I will be a writing fool. I have 3 major (20 page) papers and a film scoring project left for this semester. Also, I have picked a Thesis topic and am VERY excited about it but you'll just have to check back next time to see what it is! Until then, cheers and Happy Fall!