Joshua :)
I am a 19 year old bachelor of music student at the University of Alberta. Majoring in Clarinet Performance!
I live in the practice room and love rambling and cuddling.
Send me a message :) I love having a good conversation!
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
…wink
So I was warming up this morning, and I was working on embouchure, trying to keep my lips firm and my tongue up, but my throat open and without biting…
And maybe playing an instrument does mean you’re good with your mouth…
And so it begins. The bass clarinet excerpt for Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe.
Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet all day, every day.
“Although interesting, my training on how to analyze a Bartok String Quartet has never been of any practical use to me in my thirty five years as a professional performer. Yet, if I had had some training and experience in labor law and negotiating while attending my alma mater, I might not have gotten screwed out of approximately five thousand dollars in salary when I won my first symphonic position.”
http://www.polyphonic.org/article/%E2%80%9Cgee-all-i-ever-wanted-to-do-was-play-my-instrument-%E2%80%9D/
Great article! Worth the five minute read!
Hey fellow musicians, help me out and watch part of my Copland Concerto video??
Hey guys! I am a finalist for an Alberta music scholarship through the Alberta Music Education Foundation, and they also have a “People’s Choice” category for their finalists.
It’s just kind of extra on top of the scholarship decision, but I wouldn’t mind the votes!
You can click the link, and I submitted an excerpt from the Copland Concerto, which you could watch if you wanted! :D
Thanks, Guys!
Clarinet Concertos with Wind Ensemble
Hey guys! Any suggestions of clarinet concertos that have wind ensemble accompaniment?
I need one for the fall :)
Thanks!
Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 2
I’m putting the final touches on this concerto before I play it with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra on Sunday, and I just listened to Boeykens recording of this concerto (and the first one as well) on Naxos. It is BY FAR my favourite in comparison to a lot of the others I’ve really used to help my interpretation (Frost, Shifrin, Meyer, etc). I’m not sure about the little bit of vibrato he uses sometimes, I mean it’s quite charming and suits his playing but I don’t think I would do it.
He like..100% gets the character, and they are just so full of joy and excitement. And the orchestra sounds really full and lively, and they really just enhance the performance a lot.
The Weber Concertos aren’t my favourite works in the repertoire, but I’m really excited that this is gonna give me the last kick in the pants to polish off anything I have left. :)
You guys, I’m super looking forward to the $600+ of clarinet repair I have scheduled for May..
TEARS. At least my A will play gloriously when I get it back.
Le B-Flat Clarinet cracked right through the front tone hole. Unimpressed, considering I have to play a concerto on it in a month and a half.
Oh well, someone in my studio had his clarinet crack FOUR times this winter. The poor, poor soul.
Octave exercises always make me chuckle. #clarinet #etudes #instruments #music
Even when I have a large room, I practice myself right into the wall… #clarinet #practice
Dear god…
I just found the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas arranged for flute and piano. I’m listening to the first one, and I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Daniel Nelson Clarinet Concerto
Any clarinetists heard of this one?!
I absolutely adore it. Please go on Naxos and check it out!
I kind of want to learn it for concerto competition next year..but the part costs $84…
But Swedish music is just..insane and makes me so happy.
Ohmygod
My teacher and I just decided that my recital is going to be 100% French repertoire.
My life is literally perfect.
I need to pick one more tentative piece though! :)
Seriously, at least once a week I regret not knowing how to make an informed decision on what university to do my undergrad degree at.
I’m trying to pick classes to take for the last two years of my degree, that are interesting or relevant to what I want to do, and there are seriously almost no options.
I am not interested in electro-acoustic repertoire or composition (or not enough to take a senior level class in it) and I am not particularly interested in taking a research class in ethnomusicology either.
There are no orchestral repertoire or orchestral studies classes, no classes that have anything to do with wind instruments (even our mandatory history classes were almost ENTIRELY opera based, with occasional piano literature). There are no pedagogy classes that are of a wind/orchestral focus (woodwind and brass technique are hardly bearable options) and there aren’t any more classes for study on music from the classical or romantic periods, and the modern era that aren’t electro-acoustic..
The only things relevant now are the second instrumental conducting class, which I will likely take, and I’m debating taking instrumentation and arranging, because I think it focusses on an orchestral context.
I might also see if I can take Mus 485/487 which are composer studies or period studies, because I really really want to learn a lot more about French repertoire from 1800-now.
I just kind of wish I actually had the knowledge on what you should consider to pick your school for music. Because this school is great for ethnomusicology or electro-acoustic composers or people interested in that area of music. And there are even piano and vocal literature classes, and I just feel like I’m going to have to take stupid classes to fill credits and it makes me sad. Oh well. I WILL MAKE AN EDUCATED DECISION WHEN I AUDITION FOR MY MASTERS DEGREE. I will, I will, I will.
Also if anyone knows anything about the Mus 485/487 classes, give me a shout, so I don’t have to sound like a derp when I email Gramit.
Okay, some days the clarinet makes me want to throw myself off a bridge, but I’m not going to lie..out of all the orchestral wind instruments our repertoire is the freaking best. By far. I we play such an insanely cool, versatile instrument.
I’m listening to a clarinet recital on Naxos with common pieces I haven’t gotten around to listening through yet (Sancan, Arnold, Martinu, etc) and it’s just so hilarious and cheeky, while managing to be romantic and lush, and then frantic and energized. Coolest solo repertoire ever.
