Bassoon Symposium

So a lot has happened and i have been lazy, so i am not even going to try to catch you all up on EVERYTHING. The thing on my mind now is the bassoon symposium i went to this weekend. (before this our music line went on tour and then i had a fun winter break in Drammen, e-mail me about it if you really want to hear about it, i dont feel like telling now.)

So the symposium...IT ROCKED!! There were about 40 bassoonists, many of them professionals, many in the process of getting doctrites and masters degrees and it was me and 2 others from another folk school that were the youngest there. I tell, it was a very stimulating/scary environment. On Friday morning, we started with a welcome concert where Per Hannevold (Principal bassoon of bergen philharmonic) and John Miller (principal bassoon of Minnesota Orchestra and bassoon teacher at MSU...what a coincidence!) played the 4 pieces that fridays master class was on and then with some students from the grieg academy they played a quartet.

After that was the master class, i didnt play anything for this one, just watched an learned.

After the master class we had lunch and then bassoon band rehearsal. I really wish you guys could have bee here, i tell ya, it was cool. Imagine about 23 bassoons (not everyone could be at the concert) playing in a (mainly) 4 part ensemble. WIcked, eh? We played hits such as Watermelon Fag (based on a popular jazz tune), In the Hall of The Montain King (so fitting), Oh Danny Boy, Cantina from Star Wars (possibly my favorite, it was SOOOO cool!!!!!), and the that one song where the singer goes "FIGARO!! FIGARO FIGARO FI-GA-ROOOO!!" We played it and it was cool, the melody traded nicely between all parts. We playe many other songs as weel but i forget what they were.

After rehearsal we had supper and then a reed class, which helped me a lot, i took many notes. That is the end of friday.

Saturday, we had band and then a concert at a huge shopping center in Bergen, many people enjoyed hearing, it was cool.

Then it was lunch, then a seminar on the contra bassoon. It was pretty wicked

But I am not going to finish telling u the schedule because you probably dont care and i am feeling really lazy. All in all it rocked and I want to do it again...enough said.