Day one of the rest of my life

I essentially started this because I'm sick of calling everyone to tell you how my first day went.

Now I can tell you about the next 6 months.

So here I am - elementary/middle school teacher turned reed pro in the National Touring Broadway Musical, "The Drowsy Chaperone". Initially, this all came to fruition in the car while talking to a good friend of mine, Mr. Harry Freeman. We started discussing our long term goals -- essentially how great life would be to just hit the road and leave with a broadway musical.

It turns out I did just that. Made the calls, sent the emails, and here I am... reporting from the end of the first day of this beast from St. Charles, MO -- I know, I've never heard of it either.

Good news from the homefront, two USF roadies are here with me, Dave Torres and Sukhbir Channa. They filled out our gargantuan trumpet section of two. Some familiarity -- excellent. In addition, I've met some of the coolest people so far within the pit. The other reed players, Mike and Jason are pretty hip. I already told you about Dave and Suk, so we don't need to hear about them any more than we need to. My roommate, Matt, is the bone player, huge Philly sports fan. I'm sure I'll hear much more of this Tampa Bay/Philly bash/banter fest throughout the next half year. Greg, the percussionist, definitely a cool cat (and quite funny when he's not being cool), and to top it all of our fearless leader Mr. Jason Wetzel keyboard/conductor/total warrior.

Did anybody catch nearly half the orchestra's name is Jason?

I think one of them suggested we call each other by our last names, with a preface of "Mr.". I've always wanted to go by reverend...

Let me exclaim to the whole world how inspring it is to be around great, legit, and professional musicians. Pretty much everyone in this orchestra has boatloads of ink on their resume, but what I'm floored by is how well everyone gets along. We can only hope...

So in case nobody knew, I'm playing clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, and bari sax.

"Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can." -Henry Drummond


AHA! Henry Drummond didn't have to play bass clarinet with a contrabass clarinet ligature though.

Ran through the entire show minus two pieces today. It was pretty hip to say the least - loose as you can imagine, but coming together minute by minute.

Shout out to NETWorks for providing me with a Bari Sax

http://www.music123.com/Yanagisawa-Model-B-991-Professional-Bari-Sax-460589-i1142612.Music123

7 G's later, what a great company...

Oh yeah, check out this Box 5 hotel we're at for the tech week...

MADE TO ORDER COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST. Mom said never turn down a free meal.

830am, here I come...