Megabytes

Notice the new link at the top of my sidebar? “Register to Vote”

Working Assets Wireless, from whom I get my cell phone service, is one of a long list of partners with RockTheVote.com. There must be hundreds of online partners, a goodly number of non-profit partners, corporate partners, and creative partners.

I’m glad there is a RockTheVote campaign. Unfortunately, this country’s citizenry has had a poor record on getting out the vote. The 2004 Presidential election had a 55.3% voter turnout. The 1960 election, 63.1% - the highest turnout in the last 47 years.

In an effort to increase the voter turnout, to support people of all ages to exercise their right to vote, I’ve included this very cool and righteous online voter registration applet on my blog. It doesn’t matter what state you are from, although it DOES matter what country you are from. U.S. Citizens only please.

So, be cool and vote in your state’s primary election and the national election. State primaries begin Jan 14, 2008 with Iowa.

Clarinetissimo is an all-day clarinet festival held at University of Washington School of Music, hosted by clarinet instructor, Sean Osborn. One of my clarinet students, Mike Rasmussen, went up to Seattle for the day and had this to say about the event.

Short Review
If you have students who are junior or senior in high school and considering college music, major strongly encourage them to go.

Longer Review
The event is very casual. If you weren’t going to perform (take?) a master class then just showing up was your entire commitment. Sean Osborn ran a relaxed event that contained a lot of educational content. His presentations kept the event springy and energetic.

During Osborn’s master class he used his time to teach the audience and the student simultaneously. He used his feedback to the student as a launching point for explaining a point of technique. My notes include placement of tongue, breathing technique, avoiding boredom while getting the most out of long tones, proper shading of tone (use the fingers over open tone holes, don’t adjust embrochure), use of resonance fingering, and clarinet to body angle.

In contrast Chris Sereque, principal clarinet of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, ran master class sessions that were focused on the student. As an audience member you were peeking into the fishbowl. Unfortunately for me Mr. Sereque was soft spoken and I missed almost everything he said.

Even more unfortunately I missed Jennifer Nelson’s master class. Judging from her comments during the evening concert it was an engaging, humorous session.

The evening concert consisted of:
Gerald Finzi - Clarinet Concerto (Sean Osborn, Rhonda Kline piano) Gordon Jacob - Five Pieces (Jennifer Nelson) Malcolm Arnold - Sonatina (Osborn, Kline) Henri Lazarus - Intermediate Duet No. 3 (Osborn and Nelson) James Waterson - Grand Quartet (Osborn, Nelson, Florie Rothenberg, Mary Kantor) The Beatles - When I’m Sixty-Four, with Clarinet Choir participants.

Osborn introduced each piece with historical and musical background. This include “listen for this” followed by an excerpt. For audience members unfamiliar with the pieces (yeah, people like me) this deepened the experience.

My favorite for listening was the Lazarus Duet. The quartet provided a lot of interest in listening to themes being reworked and moving around the four musicians. My sense of time was distorted during the performance - it was over much quicker than the listed playing times had me expecting.

A side element was the musicians working around the problem of condensation. The hall was cool and they needed to swab out their instruments between movements. Osborn and Nelson also made asides to the audience about dealing with condensation. This brought some meaning into what otherwise could have been distracting stage business.

So why have a college bound high school student attend the event? For the cost of a trip to Seattle (possible to drive home afterwards) and a day’s time the student would gain several benefits. Insights to the level of playing in the UofW program, an introduction to Osborn’s teaching, the actual lessons to be gleaned from the masters classes, an opportunity to ask UofW students about the program there, and a day of excellent clarinet music.

For a 50 year old beginner? It was interesting to hear the differences between the advanced student the and profession. It was even more interesting to hear, for the first time in my life, live professional solo clarinet from a distance of twenty feet, though I could have sat closer. The master classes included elements of such a fundamental level that any player could benefit.

Fifty years ago today, The former Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, known as Sputnik. This Russian word translates as ‘traveling companion’ or ’satellite.’

Many writers describe this event as the beginning of The Space Race, as well as an embarassment to the United States, because American rockets were not large or reliable enough in 1957 to put a satellite in orbit. It’s too bad people put in that context - comparing ‘them’ to ‘us.’ How about saying, ‘it was a great achievement for humanity.” and leave it at that?

Now, Mike Griffin, NASA Administrator in charge of President Bush’s Moon-Mars Project, describes the motivation to go into space as “the drive to extend our reach, human destiny…” The focus is not on competing against another nation for a prize. How refreshing to hear!
However, Griffin is not above using this a motivating factor to get monies into the United States space program. He points out that China has a growing space program, having put three astronauts into orbit on two separate occasions; 2003 and 2005. Further, China would like a space station of its own and is eyeing the moon for a colony.

Rather than fuel a new space race between China and the US, I would prefer to hear talk describing the Earth as a united planet; one that will go to the stars together. When Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn became the first humans to view Earth from space, they viewed one planet, without borders, without lines drawn between nations. They spoke of the beauty of the planet, not countries.

This image of the Earth from space gives me hope for a united global effort to continue the exploration of space.

The clarinet and saxophone students of Grace Notes Music Studio will perform music by Beethoven, Sibelius, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and others in duos, trios, and quartets on Sunday, November 25, 2007, Copland Chapel, Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church. Special guests, Clarinetwerk, a Portland clarinet quartet, will perform following the students.

The well-known theme “da, da, da, daahh” from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony has been arranged for a saxophone quartet by Werner Thomas-Mifune. Although not as well-known, Pietr Tchaikovsky’s Opus 54 includes the sweet melody, Old French Song. This will be performed by a clarinet trio.

Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia is a exquisitely soothing hymn to Finland. I found a beautiful clip of this song sung by one of Finland´s leading chamber choirs, Jubilate.

Students will be inviting their families and friends to hear them perform. This is after they have been practicing and learning and improving their musical skills for months. Bonus: Since the recital is Thanksgiving weekend, relatives may be visiting who would not normally be able to hear their cousin/grandchild/uncle play. Yes, uncle! Performers range in age from 10 to 50-something.

Would you like to attend the recital? Send me a note and I’ll put you on the evite list.