October in May

Congratulations to my former school and to my former roommate!  Joel Baroody arranged Shostikovich's October for the CCM Brass Choir.  I have never had the pleasure of playing under Joel, but his conducting looks pretty steller in this video.

To my knowledge Joel has an arrangment of a movement Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony for brass quintet, and an original composition for 8 Loud Trombones which I have been lucky enough to perform twice.

Hero #2

Early on in the existence of this blog I wrote about the importance of being Young at Heart.  Being optimistic and energetic about the world can keep us positive and help us enjoy life.  No other teacher was better at being young at heart than Dr. Dorothy Payne.

Dr. Payne was a true inspiration to every music theory student taught.  And she truly believed any student could learn music. Even at the end of her career, when I was her student, she was upbeat and full of energy.  She taught either from the white board or from her piano.  Her large vocabulary and quizzical nature always made her class interesting and playful.

Dr. Payne was the only classroom teacher, in my sixteen years of education, that I disappointed. I was usually very slack in my approach to academics; Dr. Payne did not mind much as long as I aced the tests.  One day Dr. Payne decided to see who did the reading.  She asked every student in class if they knew what an Italian augmented sixth chord was.  Finally she addressed me, "Surely, Russ will know." No ma'am I don't.  Disappointed she continued the lesson.  I read the entire chapter during class and gave Dr. Payne a run down of every international augmented sixth chord, their function and their spelling after class.  Pleased she thanked me and I went on my way.

I have many more stories about Dr. Payne and I will always remember her with affection and awe.

Hero #1

In my recent job interview I was asked about my hero.  I had difficulty with this because there is actually no one person that I idealize.  Instead, like most musicians, I look for the best attributes in individuals I respect and try my best to incorporate them into what I do, myself.  Hopefully, this will be the first blog in a series outlining some of the people that I have come to respect.

Dr. Brad Edwards was my trombone teacher at the University of South Carolina.  I studied with him for four years in Columbia, where he became a great mentor and a trusted friend.  He helped teach me to hold a high standard and to be patient.  He was always focused on the musical outcome and spent a great deal of time talking about the tune.

2010 Guest Recital at USC

Russ Zokaites, Brad Edwards, Katie Thigpen

In the first master class with Doc he discussed how he was not going to teach us to play the trombone.  He was simply going to teach us how to practice.  He knew then that our musical journey would not end when we left Carolina.  He spent a great deal of time showing us various exercises to practice excerpts or scales and he would then encourage us to come up with our own.  In education this is called creative problem solving.

His focus and drive lead him to publish three books, teach numerous students including several that went onto study at competitive conservatories and a few that play professionally, give recital tours, take auditions, play in two orchestras, and coach his sons lego team.  Doc will continue to be a huge influence on my teaching, musicianship, and my approach to the trombone.

Great Job Powell Middle

Over the last four months, I have had the opportunity to work with the students, staff, and parents of Powell Middle School in Littleton, CO.  While at Powell I had one goal in mind, teach the students making a living with music is possible and give them the tools needed to start them on their way.  I also wanted to take the four months to give the students, parents, and administration an idea of what I thought a music program should look like at a high caliber school.

In four incredibly short months the students and I were able to:

• Give two concert cycles, including two complete concerts with the sixth grade, a chamber music concert and a pops concert with the seventh grade, a combined concert with another school in the district and a full length concert consisting of classics, pops, a concerto, and contemporary music with the eighth grade, and the participation in the LPS District Jazz Festival.
• Work with four guest artists including: Katie Thigpen, the former director of Camp Bernstein at the Blue Lakes Fine Arts Camp, Brian Wilmer, the clarinet graduate assistant at the University of Georgia, The Trombonastics Trombone Quartet, and Greg Harper of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
• Discussion about and meetings with young musicians on the audition circuit including: Will Timmons, recent winner of the Air Force Ceremonial Band in Washington, D.C., Joel Baroody, recent finalist in several auditions, Cecilia Kozlowski, artist deploma student at CCM (who attended the seventh grade pops concert) and William (Jack) White who was recently named as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony.
• The growth of the program from 161 students to 170 students, a growth of over 5 percent in a tumultuous year.
• Incorporate a daily warm-up addressing technique, tuning, ensemble and musical concepts applied to music.
• Be named to the Colorado Schools to Watch Program
• Prepared and performed in two award ceremonies and one recruitment concert
• And several students winning positions in upper level bands at high schools within Littleton

 I am very impressed with the students capacity to work and their dedication to the school and community.  I was surprised by the intelligence and audaciousness of these young men and women.  I hope they succeed in their future endeavours. 

Monteux

I posted a few weeks ago about the openings at Monteux for the coming summer.  They have filled some, however some are still vacant.  If you are not doing anything summer, please read my previous post and consider attending this wonderful festival.

This youtube video is of the Stravinsky octet in summer 2009.  Will White, the conducting associate, is conducting.  Will was just named as the assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  This video is typical of the performance quality and Mr. White will be returning to Maine to work with the festival this year.

Openings include:

Oboe
Bassoon
Bass Trombone
Violin
Cello

Again the Pierre Monteux School is a wonderful and relaxed place to read lots of repertoire and to gain tons of experience.

Meatloaf's new single

What will famous people do for popularity?  I would say many would compromise artistic output for a stunt.  However this video is in the exact style of Bat Out of Hell III and the words are actually a litte better.

Meatloaf: Ode to Bagel Bites

I hope you enjoyed one of my early musical inspirations......Thanks Mom.

Crazy Time

Over the next two weeks I will be incredibly busy with teaching, performing, and hosting a few friends while they are auditioning for the Colorado Symphony. 

Cecilia Kozlowski 5/8-5/10
Concert Band and Symphonic Band 5/10
Puma Band 5/12 (Greg Harper guest conducting, me performing)
Too Many Trombones 5/14
Katie Daugherty 5/15-5/17
Tromboniacs 5/19
8th Grade Continuation 5/19
Last Day of School 5/20

I am looking forward to the next two weeks, staying busy is important to me.  And the great news, spring is finally in Colorado; although I do hope to hit A-Basin one more time before they close in early June.

Current listening selection: Credence Clear Water Revival, thanks local coffee shop