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 Sunday, August 27, 2006
To purchase a copy of my first solo CD "Everyone But Me" please go to CD BABY.
It looks like a trip to Alabama for a couple of recitals and probably masterclasses is shaping up for next April. More info later.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Summer Wrap-Up Well, this has been a really fun and eventful summer for me. Mainspring played a successful showcase concert for the PA Presenters Conference in June. So far we've gotten one gig out of this in November, and hopefully we'll get more soon. We played the gig on a river boat, which was a new experience. Thankfully I didn't get sea-sick unless I stared at the water.
The International Tuba/Euphonium Conference in Denver, CO at the end of June was a blast. I played Prescott Poem by Drew Fennell and the Arban's Variations on a Tyrolean Song on the Thursday evening concert with the Denver Brass. The performance went well and I should thank Deanna Swoboda for helping me out with the schtick....it was good! Then the next morning Mainspring played on a recital that was also received very well I thought. And we even managed to sell a few CDs! Yay! It was also great to see friends and hang out. That's really what makes the conferences so much fun. Thanks so much to Kathy Brantigan for inviting me and for doing such a great job. Thanks also to Pittsburgh Concert Society for helping to sponsor my trip.
At the end of July, the River City Brass Band held a number of auditions and I'm happy to welcome Brian Meixner and Tara Davis to the euphonium/baritone section. I've known Brian for a long time and it will be great to have him in the group.
Speaking of which, Lance Laduke has taken a one-year sabbatical from the band as he has accepted the position of trombonist with Boston Brass! Congratulations to Lance! So, for this year, I will be the acting principal euphonium. I think I can act like a principal euphonium player.
Friday, February 3, 2006
We returned this past Sunday from our first official Mainspring tour. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was absolutely glamorous. We left a couple of days early to make the drive down to Arkansas to visit my mom and grandma. We had Pam, myself, and the cat (Chloe) stuffed into the very...spacious Hyundai Elantra which also held all of our clothes for two weeks and an entire sound system. It was quite a feat of engineering that will be featured on an upcoming episode of "Modern Marvels."
1/12/06
Ah, yes, this was the life. We got another healthy shot of "the life" when (only an hour and a half into the trip) the cat became car-sick and started to throw up...on Pam's leg. Thankfully I was driving and therefore found this to be quite funny. I've only ever seen our cat puking, but I wonder if all cats look the same when expunging...like a slightly younger, hairier, and quieter Gene Simmons. Fortunately for us, the cat hadn't had much to eat that morning.
1/13/06
Once we got to my hometown of Alma, AR, the party really began. We went clubbing every night, caught a KISS concert, hit a rave or two, and drank until we looked like slightly younger, hairier, and quieter Gene Simmons's....OK, not exactly. Alma is in a dry county, the only "clubs" around are used to hit chickens, everything closes at 9pm and the only "rave" around is of the hairspray variety (Rave is a hairspray, right?). Anyway, after a nice visit at home we left the cat with my mom to cat-sit, and headed down to Texas.
1/16/06
Whenever Pam and I lived in Texas, we weren't that crazy about the scenery. But traveling back there now I don't see why. There was lots of beautiful...tree, and rolling...hill.
The weather in Texas was great and when we arrived on the 16th we stayed with our friends Brian and Audrey Meixner. It was good to see them again and we had a good hang. That afternoon we went to UNT to rehearse with 2/3 of the rest of our group (our guitarist Micah wasn't flying in until the 17th). Josh Dresser was on percussion and Tyler Jackson was on bass. They both did a great job with a very small amount of rehearsal time. Tyler's main instrument is actually the tenor banjo and he has a CD out called "First Impression" which sounds awesome. Everyone should definitely check it out, he sounds great!
1/17/06
On the morning of the 17th Pam and I drove to DFW airport to pick up Micah from New York. His plane arrived safely but his mandolin was "misplaced" for about 30 minutes. I know that feeling all too well. Several times my euphonium has been lost in the Pittsburgh airport after coming back from a brass band tour. We fully expected airport worker Steve to come back and say proudly, "don't worry Mr. Burgess, we found both pieces of your mandolin!" But it was happily in one piece.
We drove to UT-Arlington where we had a quick rehearsal with Tyler (Josh couldn't make that one), set up the sound system, and then I did a masterclass. Incidentally, Josh got stuck behind a traffic accident on the way to the gig and had to rush to set up his set so we could do a quick sound check ten minutes before the show started. Just like we planned it...
The show went really well. We all had a blast. Doing Mainspring concerts is definitely the most fun I've had on stage or playing my horn, period.
1/18/06
We had a concert at UNT on this night, but that's not the most important part of the day. Micah had stayed with a friend from school (NYU) who lives in Dallas--Ron Jones. Micah had decided that while he was in Texas, he had to partake of some genuine Texas BBQ. Who were we to object? I never used to be one for BBQ, but I have now changed my ways, thanks in no small part to the well known Dallas BBQ spot, Sonny Bryan's. It was sooo delicious and we were able to eat outside which was great.
This was also the day that Micah introduced Pam and me to Shooby Taylor. If you don't know about Shooby Taylor (the Human Horn) you've got to check it out. He's so unintentionally hilarious...just check it out. Come to think of it, this tour should from this day forward be known as the....Mainspring BBQ Shooby Tour. So it is written, so it is done.
1/19/06
Today we drove back up to Fayetteville, AR to rehearse with our new bass (tuba) and percussion guys. Dr. Ben Pierce played tuba with us and Derek Doyle was on percussion (sorry if I misspelled Derek, Derek). You know Ben's not actually a medical doctor, but he does have a disturbingly large hoarde of rubber gloves in the trunk of his car....hmm, oh well. Pam and I stayed with my best friend since 1st grade Andy, and his wife Jocelyn, and their son Weston. It's always great to see them and I wish we could have spent more time there. Micah stayed with our new friend Lisa, who (because of my inability to enter names in my cell phone) will ever be known as "Jjlisa." Sorry Jj.
1/20/06
We had a really fun gig this night at the University of Arkansas. During the day the three of us had lunch with Lisa (Ben was feeling under the weather and so couldn't attend) at the popular Arkansas eatery, the AQ Chicken House. When you go there you get to pick out your own club and your own chicken and then you get to poundin'!! OK, that's not true. After the concert we had a really good time hanging out at "Jose's" where we got into a riveting discussion fueled by Jjlisa and her friend Michael about whether Michigan was in the mid-west or the north. Both had compelling arguments: Jj--"It's listed as a part of the midwest!"
You can't seem to argue with that, but Michael retorted: "What state is north of Michigan?!"
Well played, good sir, well played. Obviously things got pretty crazy, one thing led to another, and there was a raucous bar fight with a sax quartet (called "The Opposite Sax")that also had a concert that night and who claimed that Michigan was located in south-central Canada. Let me just say that Jj is really good in a scuffle.
1/21/06
Pam's parents sent us bail money and Mainspring was off to Little Rock for an afternoon rehearsal (with Ed Owen on tuba and Josh Knight on percussion) and an evening concert at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Little Rock's Coffee House Concert Series (now holding the record for longest headline in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette). Micah did an opening set by himself for this show and it was a nice change of pace to play in a very intimate setting. Thanks a lot to James Thomson for inviting us and for doing so much to promote the show.
1/22/06
Mainspring was off to Jonesboro and Arkansas State University. We stayed with Ed Owen and his family and it was great to meet all of them. They were very kind and gracious to us. Ed was so gracious that he was able to rearrange our rehearsal time so that we could watch the Steeler game. Now that's a good host! After a Steeler win we were off to the university for our rehearsal with Ed and Craig Collison on percussion.
1/23/06
Today we continued on the BBQ Tour by going to "Demo's." This place was recommended to us by Derek from Fayetteville and it was really delicious. The sandwiches were great. In the afternoon Pam and I both did masterclasses while Micah tried to shake off his BBQ hangover. We were all eventually free of the influence of pulled pork and had a good show.
1/24/06
We were all sad to leave Jonesboro because we'd had a really good time there. But it was back to Little Rock to stay again with one of my teachers from high school--Dr. Denis Winter. He and Linda were nice enough to let us stay there not only for the concert at University of Central Arkansas but also the Saturday before for our coffee house concert. They have a gigantic Newfoundland named Tasha who at only 9 months already weighs at least 375 pounds, smokes cigars, and works as a lumberjack on weekends. Their cats Oscar and Romance were also very friendly and Oscar would actually sleep with us--he's a bed hog. We had a rehearsal at UCA with Josh Knight again on percussion and Dr. Louis Young on tuba. Louis is coordinating all of competitions for the upcoming ITEC; a thankless job I'm sure. So I'll say it here first, "Thanks Louis!" I feel like I should compete just so I can marvel at the coordination of it all!
1/25/06
I had a masterclass in the afternoon at UCA and then the concert that night. I got to see Andy's brother Adam and his wife Joy, and Andy's sister Amber. It was really nice of them to come to the show and it was great to see them. This was our last concert of this tour and Micah, Pam, and I were very sorry that it was over. I expected to have a good time on tour, but I didn't expect to have so much fun. Plus, the really good news was that Micah, Pam, and I found out that we can all stand each other after two weeks in a Hyundai with 3 people, 4 bags of luggage, 7 instruments, and one sound system!
1/26/06
We woke up very early to get Micah to the airport by 6am. I drove and the trip to the airport was uneventful as we all slept on the way there. Then Pam and I had to make the drive back to Alma to be ready to do some afternoon clinics at Alma Middle School. One of the kids quizzed me on my knowledge of death metal bands and I failed miserably...but at least I can buy cigarettes...take that! Not that I buy cigarettes, but I could. We had a really fun dinner out that night with my mom, Andy, Jocelyn, and Andy's dad Bart. We had a great time and I later exposed Andy to Shooby Taylor (thankfully Shooby didn't expose himself to Andy).
1/27/06
I did a rather lengthy clinic/masterclass this afternoon from 4-7:30pm (playing, teaching, etc.) at the University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith for some students there as well as students from two local high schools. Thanks to Mike Jones at Van Buren and Steve Kesner at Fort Smith Southside for bringing their students in! A big thanks to Yamaha for helping to sponsor this clinic. Thanks also to Kevin Sanders for getting things organized at the university. It was fun to see Kevin again because we had actually played together in All-State Band in high school!
1/28/06
Well, we packed up the car one last time and headed back to Pittsburgh. We took with us memories of all the great people we met, the great BBQ we had, Shooby, and the contact information of Dustin, our new parole officer from Fayetteville. We had a great time and we can't wait to get back....on the road again (please go and listen to your favorite Willie Nelson song now).
-Matthew
Monday, September 26, 2005
I wanted to take a minute and write about what a good time I had at the Bowling Green State University Tuba/Euphonium Festival a couple of weeks ago. Congratulations to Tim Olt on putting together such a good program and a good time. The hang was good!
I went just to attend the festival, but once I arrived, Matt Tropman informed me that Ken Kroesche was sick and not attending that weekend. Since Ken and Matt were sharing a recital the next day, Matt asked if I wanted to play half a recital with him. I generally don't know what's good for me...so I said OK.
I performed three pieces: Relentless Grooves: Armenia by Sam Pilafian (with Matt on egg shaker, Deanna Swoboda on tuba mute...yes, the tuba mute was our other percussion instrument..., and Deanna and TJ Ricer on tuba drone), Love Will Come by Vince Guaraldi, and a makeshift arrangement of some Scottish and Irish folk tunes (with Deanna playing the bass part).
Anyway, it was the most quickly thrown together performance I've done, and definitely one of the most fun!
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