EPTWell I guess I'm going to college in a week, and I'm not going to know anybody there. (of course there are a few facebook correspondents I have, but nobody I knew before being accepted is going to Oberlin). It's a chance to start over, and create a new identity. That being said, I'm pretty happy with how I turned out over the four years of high school. Especially the last year and a half, when marching band was out of the picture. Let's look at some of the awesome things that happened!
Nobody wants to work with me.
It was hard to get people to practice for it, but CMEA solo/ensemble 2007 was hilarious. 2 Superior/Command Performances and one.... good. For those of you that don't know the CMEA rating system, it goes Superior, Excellent, Good, Fair, Needs Improvement. Yeah. Good is.... well, you can figure that one out. Link to one of the pieces I played there:
Actually doing something in math.
4th place at SCCVMA in Leap Frog! Who would have thought, considering I am pretty much the biggest slacker in the Math Comps team (Thanks for all the help Robert)
On top o' the world
Conducting Everest was the coolest thing of my life up until that point. I was shaking from the awesomeness of the moment, to say the least. The picc solo still rips my heart out. Link:
I LOVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Or at least I was forced to repeat that phrase several times a day at UCLA summer 2007. I actually do like chamber music, especially when playing with people who know what they're doing. All of the help with individual playing was great, too. (Instrumental for college auditions. ohohohoho)
Asian girls with ponytails...
... is a pretty good description of CYS. That was a lot of fun, although my solo at the end of American in Paris was always really flat except the last time. Hopefully that's the one heard on the CD. Thanks Jennifer for getting me involved!
NOT DOING THIS
Marching band was horrible for me; I'm not wasting my time and energy working with people who hate what they're doing. Get over it.
I uhhhh have an interview. Or something.
Yes I did have an Oberlin interview the day of the county honor band concert. No that is not why I didn't audtion.
MIT needs better interviewers
My god, she really hated me.
College Auditions
Practicing scales and long tones for 45 minutes a day is really, really hard to keep up with. All necessary though, because I'm still not that good at saxophone compared to some other people I've met, at places like...
OMFG EASTMAN!?!?!?
Yeah I got rejected, but auditioning there, in the snow, and meeting all sorts of cool people constitutes the best day of my life so far. Unfortunately, it was proceeded by...
OMFG CINCINNATI!?!?!?
Screw Delta Airlines. I was stuck in an airport for 8 hours, knowing that somewhere, some people really needed my awesomeness. Fortunately, Koreans, Internet, Laptops, and Youtube exists, so I wasn't that bored. But winning Science Bowl Regionals by only 4 points was a close call. (ofc, if I was there, we would have won by 2x or 3x their score).
I am such a bad person...
After being nurtured by UCLA's music camp for 3 straight years, how do I repay them? By not showing up to the audition they scheduled for me. *facepalm*
I hate practicing.
... and so I didn't practice for state honor band. Ehhh, I was probably better than the guy who was first chair... Anyway, being sandwiched by two people I already knew was rather... coincidental.
What happens when you have a musician, a really unmotivated person, a clarinet player, and a flute player?
You get a perfect score at CMEA, with a command performance to boot! Seriously, this is like a cinderella story. The bari player had only been playing for a couple months, one guy never showed up to rehearsal, and the last person was uhh... well, pretty committed. Here's the command performance:
Do you like Strawberry?
Well then how about RAWWWWBERRY! Ahaha, unleashing the pwnage and placing (t)5th at national science bowl was awesome! Complete with a free trip to DC, a free backpack, and a frisbee that changes colors.
One final hurrah...
Only an awesome senior project could make a teacher miss a class he was supposed to teach. Unfortunately I don't have a video uploaded to youtube of the performance, but it was really great. If you were there, you'd agree.
JAPAN!!!
Travelling abroad with very limited parental supervision is awesome. Oh, and playing sax quartet stuff everywhere was great, especially since I soloed on like everything ever.
Anyway... yeah. Getting ready for college. Yeeeeahhh. Fortunately I'm entering with a year's worth of credits to start with, but I'm pretty scared. I need to practice more...
