One year down

Yesterday marked one year since I moved to Toronto, Im pretty pleased with how the entire year went, moving up all i hoped for was to get enough work here to live on and hopefully play just ONE orchestra gig. I figured this town was an impossible scene to break as its overflowing with percussionists. I moved up and had an awesome year! I went from hording every opportunity i could find to play and now i have to sub out work regularly...Which is a totally different pain in the ass but significantly better than the pain of being stressed out because you have no gigs lined up that month..

Right now the dance class work is off the charts, this year I'm on staff with Ryerson University and Toronto Dance Theater, I also do a few classes on the side with other schools and companies as my time allows...

Brampton is going well, Learning how to be a principal when the rest of your section has at least 15 years on you is a little dicey, right now I'm being pretty lenient with how things are but am thinking about lowering a bit of a boom soon. There are some things that just don't fly with me in terms of how the section works...not in a bad way really, just my section will run different then how its been run in the past... I want the percussion not to be a weak link in the orchestra and if i cant bring in the players i want then the ones i have will hopefully work out, with a few helpful suggestions... The hardest part of it all i think is not coming off like a prick...Ill figure it out sooner or later...

Tomorow is a gig with the Sneak Peek orchestra, a group in the city comprised of young professionals and students...Its easily one of the best ideas if been a part of...essentially a conducting student and a composition student started the group to get experience and get the composers music played...its a satisfying group, everyone is pretty professional about it and the level of players, particularly the brass for this concert is quite high. Im happy to hang in there for some Prokofiev...

School is going good...Its not a whole lot of work classroom wise, its all practice and performance based...which is exactly how it should be, in my mind...We have a concert coming up including Scheherazade which should be pretty rad. Im playing timpani in the show which will satisfy a bit of a dream I have which was to play the timpani part to that piece after seeing david kent of the TSO (and my current teacher!) really kick it in the ass a few years ago... I mean the piece is a heavy one for all percussion and excerpts from most of the parts apear on lists all the time, Snare drum part is is actually on every list that will ever be put up for an audition ever...but the timpani part is just kind of a fun ride, some great notes and some chances to really kick some ass. im pumped!

Here's some Scheherazade with the best percussion section in history, Philly with ormandy. Look around for the 3rd and 4th movements to see them play...as its timpani only in the first mvt... enjoy!