clarinetting

Still haven't had a chance to "test" the Laubin in a rehearsal - nothing going on til Thursday. But yesterday I went to j's band and played clarinet. It was really fun! Since I play out of tune (somewhat) on clarinet it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Hehe. Anyway, I'm playing 3rd, which actually had some great parts, and I am quite sure I won't be bored with this. I will play oboe on any solos he needs (as there is no other oboe available) but mostly I'll just be 3rd clarinet. This is great practice for me doubling.

This weekend I was a judge for our young artists competition. I was pretty excited to be asked and it was fun but I also felt a lot of pressure, deciding people's fates. There were at least 8 people in the winds category (the only one I judged) who flew in from the east coast from big name schools. It is kind of unfortunate that the local students really don't stand a chance with such competition, but there was a definate tier of abilities. Several of the locals did a good job, but they were not even close to the professionalism of these fancy imports. Having said that - it is exciting there is such interest from all over the country, and it was so hard to narrow down the top 5 spots to just one winner. I was exhaused and sooo glad I didn't judge the other 5 catagories.