I have just embarked
on the longest and most intense tour of my life, I didn’t plan it this way but
one tour merged into another and the frequency of one masterclass or concert to
the next simply turned into a very long five month journey with very little
thought to rest or geography.
If I had a manager
who organized this mega tour (world tour feels a bit indulgent), I would fire
the manager, but alas, I created it all myself!
At this moment I’m
riding the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka, where I will teach and
after 3 days on to Okayama. Without going into details, after returning to
Tokyo I will travel to Amsterdam, Salzburg, Bamburg, Würzburg, London,
Manchester, Tokyo, Penn State, Los Angeles, Bloomington IND (ITEC), Hong Kong,
Osaka, Interlochen MI, Carlesbad, CA, Italy, (Italian Brass Week), London,
Carlesbad, Jeju Korea, Japan and finally to Mexico, where I will stay in the
town of Tlahuitoltepec. Ah, but that will certainly be the focus of future
blogs.
Sadly, I had to pass
on Steve Rosse’s TubaMania in Bangkok, Thailand, which would have been the week
following Manchester; even with the kind support of Yamaha, the aspect of the
same day travel from Manchester to Bangkok after the previous 3 weeks of travel
schedule, my 75 years protested. I’ll be at TubaMania in 2015.
It was exactly one
year ago that euphonium icons Steven Mead and Misa Akahoshi fell in love in
Bangkok at TubaMania. After their wedding in the small town of Fenny Drayton,
not far from Manchester, They will return to Bangkok for the 2014 TubaMania.
I’m very happy that I will be able to attend their wedding. I always thought June was
the appropriate month for weddings but this year, March clearly seems to be the
month of choice.
The reason this mega
tour formulated in the first place is that on March 15th my daughter Melody and
her fiancé Matt Poole will have their wedding ceremony in London. A couple of
years ago, when Melody told me she had a new boyfriend and it looked serious, I
ask Melody what he did. “He’s a rock and roll drummer”, she said! “OMG”, I
thought. As it turned out he was a writer for a technical magazine and now he
has become a supervisor and advisor internationally for several technical
magazines; I’m very proud of Melody, I’m very proud of Matt and their future
together appears to be bright and happy.
Unlike many of my
colleagues I’ve known in my orchestra days, I have always enjoyed being ‘on the
road’ and this tour, because of the very special wedding days, seems to be one
of special significance.
February 19, 2914 on
the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka
