Preparations

Well, with my trip less than a week away I'm getting pretty excited! I still have stuff to do before I leave, but I'm trying to take care of the most important stuff now. I'm trying to get some excerpts prepared - the festival asked us to prepare 5 excepts in addition to the music that we'll be playing at the concerts. They sent me music for:

• Shostakovich's 10th Symphony
• Mahler's 5th Symphony
• Mozart's Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra

and I'm preparing excerpts from:

• Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony
• Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Overture
• Brahms' 1st Symphony
• Mozart's 39th Symphony
• Beethoven's 5th Symphony

It's coming along but I need to put in some more work before I leave!! I'm also preparing Eccles' Sonata, which I'm going to be playing with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra next February. Hopefully the bass teacher at the festival, Mark Morton, will be able to give me some good pointers.

I won't be able to practice this weekend because by bass is in the shop - I just brought it down this morning. I have some major seams open that are rattling; those need to be closed before my trip down to sea level!

one of my nasty open seams

I took my bass down to Bob Ross in Denver, who is an amazing luthier and a great guy.

Bob Ross with one of his basses

Last year I took my bass to Bob when it was practically exploding right before my Grand Duo concert with BCO! He patched cracks in 14 places (!), fixed my E-stop on my extension, shortened my soundpost, fixed my tuning machines, and a few other things, and did an awesome job!! It's always fun to visit him because he is also extremely technically-minded and asks me all about my research and how it might apply to bass stuff :).

me goofing around with a Ross bass

His basses are amazing, both in terms of craftmanship and sound! I hope that he'll enter the ISB maker's competition one of these years. Check out his dragon bass!!:
























So, I probably won't post again until my trip starts. I'm arriving in Vancouver on Friday at 7:15 pm and am staying overnight with Gina, my friend Nell's daughter. Then I'm off to Powell River on Saturday by bus!