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Well, I'm back in Boulder. i had such a fun trip! It was pretty intense meeting people for only two weeks and then leaving. Things I missed the most while I was away was my own bed (yessss - no more air mattress!) and my own transportation (bike and car). It was such a pain having to either always wait for a bus or walk all over town!

Sunday was kind-of surreal. When I woke up everyone who was there the night before had left the Academy! Only a handful of people were left, but most of them left on Sunday too. Kate was also leaving on Monday - we walked down to A&W for lunch, and I used my free root beer coupon :). I slept all afternoon!! I was really exhauseted from the festival I guess. I woke up for dinner - I walked to a mexican restaurant with Kate, Brandon and Michiko. The food was pretty good, but the service was so slow! I spent the night packing.

On Monday I got up around 5:30 to get a ride to the bus stop. It was the chairman of the music festival who gave me a ride! I had fortunately remembered to stop at an ATM the day before to take out enough cash for my bus fare. Michiko also was taking the bus. I slept through most of the ride, so wasn't keeping my eyes peeled for whales like last time. Blast! So, no whale sightings for this trip. Maybe I'll have to come back next summer to continue the watch. The bus was late for the second ferry, and we had to wait two hours for the next one! Some people on the bus missed their flights. I got to the airport in timeto get through customs. They made me open my bow case and unscrew the bow at security - I never had to do that before! I had a layover at San Fransisco. Everything went pretty smoothly, except that they checked my bass onto the next flight after mine for some reason. They gave me a meal voucher, so I went and grabbed some Burger King with Jeremiah while we waited for the bass ot get in. Jeremiah was really great to come pick me up from the airport, my flight didn't get in until 11pm and then we had to wait for the bass. It was such a long travel day - I was really exhausted!

Local Loco's / Concert

Saturday was great, but also kind-of sad since it was the last day that I saw everybody. In the morning we got up and bussed over to the complex for our Mahler dress rehearsal. After rehearsal I had a lesson with Katinka the cello teacher! Here is a picture of me and Katinka after the concert. She had some great comments - I played the first movement of the Eccles Sonata for her.

Oh yeah - They put a picture of me in the loacl paper - the Powell River Peak. Click on the Photo Galery to see it. The festival also finally put up the roster for the opera orchestra. They should be putting up a photo gallery sometime soon, too. They took a bunch of pictures.

After the lesson I met some people at Local Loco's (where I went with some people on Wednesday for open mic night). I brought my bass with me! I had to walk for 20 minutes through the forest with it and a stool. It was worth it, though - I played bass for awhile for the people there. They seemed to enjoy it - nobody had ever heard a solo bass before. I played Eccles and also the Scherzando from David Anderson's Four Short Pieces. Patrick and Jenna also improvised some stuff - it sounded really good! Here they are - someone took a picture of me playing but I never got a copy of it. Maybe they will email it to me and I can put it up?

After I played I walked back to the complex with my bass - I got Patrick to carry the stool for me (thanks!), but going back was uphill so I had to take a bunch of breaks. On one of them I took a picture of my bass in the forest.

After I dropped off my bass I walked from the complex back to the academy to change into my tux. That was a long walk, too! I met up with Hessica and Christine there, who were getting a ride back to the complex, so at least I didn't have to walk back!

The concert went really well I thought. Mark said that he really enjoyed it and thought the basses were awesome. The picture below is the bass section after the concert with Mark. From left to right: Jared, Robin, Mark, Eric, Ray, Me and Kate.

After the concert the festival had a party for us at the Beach Gardens hotel. If I go back to this festival next summer I'm definitely staying at this place! They gave us a free beer and a bunch of food. I danced some - Christine had taught me how to salsa earlier in the week, so I made an attempt at that - haha - I'm not very good at it.Below is a picture of Kate, Mark and Ray at the party.

Masterclass / Faculty Concert

Yesterday morning we had a masterclass with Mark. Robin, Ray and Eric played. Mark had interesting things to say as usual. He was asking us how we did our thumb position vibrato - he's trying to make his wider. He's experimenting with keeping his thumb down or lifting it while vibrating.

We had Mahler rehearsal after lunch - it's starting to sound better but is still pretty rough. Hopefully it will come together for the concert!

After dinner was the faculty recital - it was really good. They played the Prokofiev Quintet, which is for violin, viola, bass, oboe and clarinet. It was soo cool - it really featured the bass quite a bit and Mark sounded so good on it. I think that I will order the music when I get back. They also played the Mozart Gran Partita Serenade, which also used bass (no other strings). The faculty here is really quite good!

Ok - I'm going to write about today tomorrow - I have to go back to the Academy quickly and change / take a shower before the concert!

Mock Audition / Beach Party

Thursday morning was free time for me because other people were getting private lessons (I had my lesson Tuesday morning). I practiced all morning for the Mahler and the excerpts for the mock audition. After lunch we had another Mahler rehearsal - it's not really sounding so great. The symphony is really difficult! Before dinner the clarinet, viola and cello sections gave a concert. The violas played a peice that was actually written for 5 violas - it wasn't a transcription! The cello section played a really interesting piece written by Pablo Casals originally for vocalists and then transcribed for cello.

After the concert and dinner were the mock auditions. We did them combined with the cellos - that was really interesting. There were 6 basses and 7 cellos. We drew lots to decide who whould play when - they intermixed the cellos and the basses. The first seven people played while the remaining six listened and wrote comments with Mark and Katinka (the cello teacher) - then the remaining six played while the first seven listened. I didn't win the audition but Mark told me that I played really well. After the audition we all went to the Beach Gardens (the hotel where some of the students and faculty are staying) for a bass/cello party. Mark and Katinka bought us beer - it was a good time. I asked Katinka if she could give me a lesson before the festival is over - she said that she would. She plays cello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I've never taken a lesson with a cellist before - I hope that there's time to fit it in!