After achieving my dream of graduating from Eastman with my MM degree in 2009, I chose to not to go back to school for a doctorate (which is what many musicians do after their masters degree) and decided to go for it and pursue a full time performance job. After over a year of working an office "day job" and auditioning like crazy, I have won a job with the U.S. Navy fleet bands and will be shipping out in May 2011. But my auditioning adventures are not over, there is a position open in the premiere Navy Band in Washington D.C.! I will be auditioning for that position in January 2011.
Here I document my successes, my failures, and my overall thoughts on life.
Exciting musical things are happening in my life! For the first time in a long time, I feel totally motivated about music and performing…hope it lasts! The first big thing is that I have the opportunity to play Mendelssohn’s Concertpiece No. 2 with the Fleet Forces Wind Ensemble this summer! I’m playing with another clarinetist […]
This past week I got promoted to 3rd class Petty Officer! Check out the pics: A very exciting moment in my new career. The next promotion won’t come for another couple years probably so I better enjoy it!
Ok, I really am going to try to make a better effort to blog. Even if its just a little update…I’ve just been too lazy! I guess that’s what happens when I have a job that takes so little work. Anyway, things have been pretty slow at the band. I am usually on only one […]
Lately I’ve kind of had “blogger’s block” with regards to writing about clarinet. My musical life just hasn’t been that interesting as of recently. I’ve been practicing scales and Rose etudes only and haven’t had any inspirations to do anything else. In fact, I took two weeks off of work and didn’t even touch my […]
I’m finally starting to feel settled in at the band (I’ve been there almost two months!) and things are going pretty well. I’m getting used to the routine of going on gigs, and I’ve been on quite a lot. I’m not complaining though, this is definitely what I signed up for! I just love playing […]
So things have slowed down quite a bit for me compared to my first week of gigs. Â I’ve only had a couple of them since the last time I wrote. Â The most notable one was a wind ensemble concert this week in North Carolina. Â It was really fun, its been a long time since I’ve […]
This week marked my first week of actually playing gigs with the Navy.  I finally felt like I have a purpose!  It also reinforced the feeling that I’ve had all along my journey:  I’m going to LOVE this job. Monday we had off, but I did receive a phone call…there was a last-minute gig on Tuesday and […]
This week was my first week at my band. It was awesome! I’m going to love it đŸ™‚ It was a short week, because the band had liberty on Monday and Tuesday, so my official first day wasn’t until Wednesday. Basically, all I did all week was check in with people and practice. That’s it! […]
Well, its been a long five months, but I made it! I am officially a military musician now. I graduated from the armed forces music school on Friday and reported to my band in Norfolk. I’m so excited to get started with my new career! Some of the highlights from the last couple months include […]
Wow I can’t believe its been almost a month since my last blog post! Time has been absolutely flying by. I’ve been so busy this month, I’ve hardly had time to do anything! The best thing that’s happened since the last time I wrote was that Ben moved here to Norfolk and I moved off […]
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet