Random Monday: Phoenix Symphony, Cannibalism and Miss Mussel

Anyone who has read Farkas knows he was quite concerned with pressure and not using too much pressure into the high range. As a result many students especially believe that they are using “too much pressure” because they get tired too easily or the high range does not work well or whatever. Are they using [...]

A command from Uncle Sam. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July. In the U.S. this is the day Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In another declaration, the character Uncle Sam — a symbol of American spirit — wants you to get busy.

An eclectic collection from a world traveler. I can’t remember exactly when I found Phil Holcomb’s web site but once I did I was intrigued by his story and his odd collections. The title of his site — Rugs-n-Relics — says it all. It is a web site displaying his large collections of oriental rugs, [...]

Earlier this year I had a couple interactions with conductors (not in Arizona) that gave me pause. One conductor, on a work that was in a jazz idiom, asked several times for us to make it more “sleazy” or to play it in a more sleazy manner. What would that mean to you? Eventually I [...]

Jonathan West and Bruce Richards get their bloggity-blog on. Two new and noteworthy horn-related blogs have appeared on the radar that are worth pointing out. The first is called Horn Thoughts and is authored by Jonathan West. The description in the title describes it best: One of my passions is music, I play the french [...]

A Phoenix area institution gets a new web site. Founded by its musicians in January 1988, the Salt River Brass has been entertaining audiences in the East Valley of Phoenix for over twenty years. Since Pat Sheridan and Sam Pilafian have gotten onboard, the band has taken leaps and bounds forward. Next season, they are [...]