Boston Brass and the ASU Brass Festival

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I've had the pleasure of hearing Boston Brass at Angelo State University today and yesterday. In both cases they were amazing. In fact, after their recital/masterclass yesterday I went immediately to a rehearsal with my accompanist, and played with more technicality and musicality than I have in three weeks! It's really true that your mental concept of how you should play has a major impact on the playing itself, and can often fix major problems with very little practice time. With the right concept, what might have taken hours to achieve can happen in a matter of minutes. But that's a tangent.

Standing with Andrew Hitz, tubist for Boston Brass,
after today's performance.

I also got to attend a masterclass with Andrew Hitz, their tubist. In addition to being a beast on the tuba, he's a really cool guy with a good sense of humor. Myself and the other older player in attendance let the Jr. High and High School students ask all the questions, but even so he was able to share techniques that are applicable at all levels. I thought it was interesting how he was able to pull that off.

Anyway, they're a tremendous group. I highly recommend checking the Boston Brass website, which has a streaming mp3 player with random tracks from their albums. They're in the elite tier of the world's brass quintets, so if you want to hear some music that will knock you off your seat, check these guys out!

While there are aspects about the program at ASU that I have gripes about, I'm honestly grateful to have Dr. John Irish and Dr. Ed Surface helming the brass instruction. These guys have studied with all the best, and are extremely well networked. As a result I've been able to meet and, in some cases take lessons with, some of the best brass musicians in the world. They work hard to put these annual festivals together, and if you ever get the chance, you should go! For more information about those festivals or the brass happenings at Angelo State, you can go to their website here. I'm honestly proud to have studied brass at ASU.

Program Notes for the upcoming Senior recital are on the way. I got some revisions from Dr. Surface, so once I get that knocked out I'll be sure to post it up here. It's shaping up to be a great performance, and I'm excited to even have some high school students I've worked with coming out in addition to many of my colleagues in the department and family members. I'm looking forward to it!

Until next time, thank you for reading, and take care of yourself!

Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper