Twas the night before take off

Tomorrow we leave for Brazil. It is finally hitting everyone that this is actually happening.

After reading Dr. Vondran’s blog and Dr. Fansler’s reflective pep talk after rehearsal today, I’m hoping everyone is realizing what huge deal this is.

For my sister Andrea and I, this will be our first time on a plane. Our mother is sick with anxiety — I anticipate this to be true for everyone else’s parents.

I’m really excited about the repertoire we’re taking on the trip. In the past I haven’t been much of a fan of marches, but now I love them. We’re taking a few marches down to Brazil — of American and Brazilian flavor. The Brazilian marches are a lot different than the American ones. They’re repetitive, but are a lot more contrapuntal and musically intriguing (and sometimes more technically demanding). I’m hoping that the crowds we play for will be pleased by the variety of repertoire we’re bringing. I’m interested to see how Sensemaya will be received.

In the music world, a lot of people are writing for symphonic band. It’s a newer genre of music and this modern touch is prevalent in the band literature. Sensemaya was originally written for orchestra in 1938 but we are playing a transcription, which is sometimes typical. Such great music has been written for orchestra and bands want to be able to play it. But now, there is great music being written for bands. We are hopefully going to share some of that with the Brazilians.

Oh my gosh I’m going to Brazil tomorrow…!!!!