Sunday, June 22, 2008

What's ahead.

Well, besides having a ton of fun my first time in an internet chat room last night, I haven't done much. This week is going to be fun, though, because my dad's going on a business trip, my brother has gone to Mexico for the week, and my sister and my mom are driving across the country, moving my sister back here from Florida (long trip). So I get some rare time to myself at home.

What I mean by the title, really, though, is my big trip coming up in, oh, would you look at the time... a little over one month! I am an Alumnus of the University of Washington Husky Marching Band. [http://www.huskymarchingband.com/]
My director was invited by the Chinese to lead the American portion of the Beijing Olympic Orchestra, a part of the 2,008 member ensemble.

Needless to say, he invited members from the Husky Band, and I am going! We have a mini band camp the last week in July, and then we fly to China and stay in Beijing and Shanghai for 14 days.
I do not know the details of our schedule, but we will be involved somehow in the Opening Ceremony. We'll be performing throughout our stay, but will get time to be tourists, and of course go to sporting events. I'm pretty excited and grateful for this once in a lifetime chance!

Speaking of that, I need to go practice my music. We have this 8 page piece that has to be memorized... and I'm not very good at memorizing music. So, um, what am I doing on the internet?

In case the question arises in anybody's mind: I play the Mellophone.
And the next answer is: it's a marching French horn.
It is shaped like a trumpet, but is much bigger.

I started my musical career on piano at age 8, but didn't like it very much. In the fall of 1997, I went to school for the first time to take band (I was home-schooled) and started on the Cornet. I then switched to trumpet and then, finally to French horn in 2000. After community college, I took up the Mellophone in order to join the Husky Band. I graduated in 2006, but continued in the band for 2 more seasons because the first two were not enough. I've since had enough, and I am now just a band alumnus.

Hope my musical history was interesting...
So ends my post for today.
Until next time,
Jp

1 comment:

Linda said...

Well, too cool, Jen! I'll look forward to your trip notes about China!