This summer, part of the repertoire that we are playing in the wind ensemble concerts at the navy band is Ticheli’s Blue Shades. Most band people are probably familiar with it, and even more clarinetists know of the notorious full page solo near the end. I was browsing Youtube this morning and I found this […]
Author: sandyclarinet
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.
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Big project finished!
A few months ago, I decided to start on a project to consolidate all my various band audition packets into one volume of excerpts that I can practice from. After much work, I have finally finished it! I have yet to print it out, but its all set to go in PDF form! It was […]
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Back from vacation!
Yesterday was my first day back at work after two weeks of vacation. It feels great to be able to take time off from practicing and clarinet (without feeling guilty), but man, its hard to go back! Luckily, I knew what my schedule was going to be like (a ceremonial band gig, and another sub-in […]
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Flexibility is essential
So I’m officially on my summer vacation! No clarinet, no Navy for two whole weeks. Yesssssss! It feels great to be able to take so much time off to reset. Things have been really crazy the past couple months or so, I needed this respite. Anyways, the subject of this blog is about my last […]
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My professional solo debut
Well, its not exactly how people imagine it. Most musicians dream that their professional solo debut is at a place like Carnegie Hall or somewhere similar. Mine turned out to be a park. Yep, that’s right, outside in the elements, no roof. Not exactly the ideal place for most classical musicians. Luckily, I don’t care! […]
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Summer season
Well, summer is upon us. Here in Virginia, it is uncomfortably hot. I was always used to Colorado summers, hot, but DRY! Here it is the same temps (80s & 90s) but there is so much humidity to go along with it! I’ve been going out on runs before work (6am) and it still feels […]
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Years of service: 1
One year ago today I embarked on this crazy journey called the Navy. Its been a crazy ride – especially those first months. I look back at boot camp with fond memories, I still have a picture of my division on my dresser! Never have I been pushed out of my comfort zone so much, […]
Wow this week has been busy! I feel like I’m back in school…well, minus the homework. I started rehearsals again with the Virginia Wind Symphony, had craziness and gigs galore at work, and to top it all off I had my audition with the principal clarinetist of the Virginia Symphony, Patti Carlson. The highlight of […]
This week I whipped out my Hadcock book for the first time in…I don’t even know because its been that long! I have an opportunity to play for the principal clarinetist of the Virginia Symphony at the end of the month to possibly get on the sub list, so I need to brush up on […]
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Extra key questions
One thing that I’ve been playing with ever since I joined the Fleet Forces band and got my new Buffet Prestige Bb is the use of the extra Ab/Eb key. Everyone that I’ve met that has had a clarinet with the extra key says that it’s so hard to use that they don’t even bother […]
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet 