why music is everything.

I just got home from playing a gig with Jazz Orchestra at UT and it was a blast. I am always on such a musical high after I play for people with amazing musicians. We played for the opening of this new AT&T Conference Center on the UT campus. It was a really big deal, and we were the featured entertainment. We started the set with "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and one couple got up at danced. We moved on to "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" and we got a couple more out on the dance floor. And by dance floor, I mean the small area of rug that was in front of the band. By the time "Moonlight Serenade" hit their ears, we had a full dance floor and they absolutely loved "In the Mood", "Pennsylvania 6-5-000", and our flashy closer, "Sing, Sing, Sing". I know that "serious" jazz cats give these tunes a bad rap sometimes, but it totally killed with these people. I don't know how many times I rolled my eyes in rehearsal at something silly in "In the Mood" or whatever, but this is seriously what gets some people excited about this kind of music. Everyone was so gracious and thankful when we finished the concert - we had so many people come up and thank us and tell us that the music was great. I got a lot of "only girl in the band" comments, but I'm used to that. :)

The other cool thing about tonight - we have this great guitar player in the Jazz Orchestra that moved here from Brazil very recently. Tonight he played us his album that he recorded in Brazil before he left. The music is extremely beautiful and I was ridiculously impressed. He said that he about 35 musicians play on the album (including a string orchestra) and it took them about a month. His stuff is awesome!! He's arranging at least one of his tunes for Jazz Orchestra to play sometime this year. I cannot wait. Here is a video on YouTube of him recording his arrangement of "Spain" in a recording studio. CHECK IT OUT.

Gabriel Santiago trio plays "Spain"

Seriously, though. My life rules. Plus I got an awesome package from my parents today, including a very old, long lost friend of mine. :)

*cough cough*

in other words, i might be sick again? i've been coughing all weekend and it is frustrating. couldn't really sleep last night because of it, and when i finally took cough medicine, i almost gagged. i have tasted and eaten so many things in my life (thanks to travel and weird food that my parents make :)) but i still cannot stand cough syrup. that stuff is DISGUSTING. not that anything my parents ever made tasted like cough syrup....

this week was great. did a lot of saxophone playing (it's only going to get more ridiculous) and had a job interview. it was for a receptionist position for the fine arts student center. i find out tomorrow - we'll see! i am also looking into teaching saxophone lessons at a middle school in south Austin. that would be really awesome. i briefly talked to the teacher - we need to get together this week and find out how many kids want to take lessons. i love middle schoolers. :)

went to the Husker game again yesterday - what a blast. Andrew, Spencer, Missy, and I played Apples to Apples while we waited for the game to start - that was awesome. i think it might be my favorite game. although Pass the Pigs might give it a run for it's money.....

looking forward to this week - gig with the Jazz Orchestra! also, Spencer's birthday is Thursday and mine is Saturday. we're having a party on Friday. i'm pumped.

go 'skers.

i just got back from watching the Husker game at the Cool River Cafe in North Austin. it is a beautiful place and it is a perfect place to watch the game (though slightly expensive). every time the Huskers have a game, they show it on all their TV's and people flock to this place. last week they broke a record - there were 774 people there watching at some point (it's a ridiculously large place). at least, that's everyone who signed in. that's INCREDIBLE - and these people are so into Husker football, it's amazing. last week i got raffle tickets and won a shirt and some Husker paper plates and napkins - pretty awesome. nothing as cool this week, but it was still fun to watch the game. i have to say that the 4th quarter was my favorite - i was a little worried there for awhile.....

we had our first rehearsals for everything this week and it was awesome. here is the program for our first Wind Symphony concert:

"Don't You See?" by Donald Grantham (starts with a big alto saxophone solo by yours truly....oh, and did i mention that Donald Grantham TEACHES at UT? crazy.....)
"Clocking" by John Mackey (he'll be here later in the semester to work on it with us - he actually lives in Austin now, which is awesome.)
"Give Us This Day" by David Maslanka (a truly spiritual piece that is difficult, like most of Maslanka's music....)
"Postcard" by Frank Ticheli (i played this piece at UNL my sophomore year and it was a blast - it's going to be hard to not miss Dr. Barber, however....)
Some Beethoven piece that doesn't involve me so we don't care about it. just kidding - it's beautiful. but obviously doesn't involve saxophones. :)

pretty awesome show, huh? if anyone would like to come down to Austin on October 13, you could hear it! not a bad trip if you don't mind driving for 13 hours. straight. oh well. i'm excited for that as well as Jazz Orchestra - it is a great group of musicians and we have been sight reading so much. we actually already have two gigs in September, so we are going to have to get our act together rather quickly. we actually get paid for one of them....so weird. :)

other than hopefully getting some teaching going here soon, that's about it. i'm lovin' it!

school anyone?

well, yeah. it's been quite awhile since i was here, and that's mostly because i forgot it existed. :) oops.

i have lived in texas for a month and a half. i have a fantastic apartment and had a bunch of help from friends to decorate it. it was really only about a week after i moved that all of the boxes were unpacked and everything had a place. spent way too much money at IKEA (check it out - www.ikea.com), but now i have all my furniture. we didn't want to move any big stuff down (besides my papasan chair) so we bought everything here. my parents stayed for about a week and helped with moving and getting my life in order. they are incredible people - i miss them dearly. here are some apartment pics:

couch side of living room! (i'm VERY proud of the pictures on the wall....i took them. they are all of my parent's garden in Lincoln.)

kitchen!

dining room! (i really like this, too. :))

entryway!



bathroom!

i'm pretty proud of the whole thing. :)

i've seen a lot of Austin and had some truly amazing food. i took a trip to California at the beginning of August to see people from the Disneyland All-American College Band from last year. it was an incredible trip and a beautiful reunion between people who hadn't seen each other in a year. i really love LA - maybe live out there someday? probably not for long....but it's a possibility. we went to Disneyland a few times, relaxed on the beach, saw "The Dark Knight" in IMAX (.....what.....), shopped, and went to the beach more. it would have been more relaxing, but i managed to get sunburned, roll my foot again, and get really sick the last day i was there (we're talking 102 temp, sore throat, dizzy, headache....and then i flew home. horrible.) what a weird trip - totally awesome for about 80 percent of the time, and then i just kept hurting myself. that's so like me.

came home (still sick) and studied for diagnostic exams. i took a music history and a music theory test and both were pretty difficult. i knew that the theory one was going to be fine, but i was all kinds of worried about the history. it was HARD - and i couldn't remember anything, of course. luckily - i passed both. yeah, i know. even i was surprised.

school started wednesday. i had my jazz audition Wednesday and my concert ensemble audition on Thursday. i found out then that i had made Wind Symphony (the second group) and was a little bummed, but then moved on to devastated when i found out that Wind Symphony meets MWF 2-4 and the top jazz group meets MWF 3-5. i went to talk to the jazz faculty and they said they were planning to put me in the top group. i thought that i wasn't going to get to do it - but then i received a phone call on Friday from the head of the jazz department. he told me that they had put me in the top group anyway (Jazz Orchestra) and that i was going to come to that rehearsal an hour late every time. i asked him if he was sure, and he said that it wasn't ideal but we were going to try it. how sweet is that? i was much happier after that news. :)

now it's Labor Day Weekend and i'm really not doing a whole lot. it's kind of hard living alone - but i'm surviving. coolest thing of the weekend - watching the Husker game at this beautiful restaurant in north Austin. there is a group called "Capitol of Texas Nebraskans" that i joined and they rent out this big restaurant for game days. they had a record turnout: 774 PEOPLE! it was amazing! i have never seen so much red in one area of a state other than Nebraska in my life! it was magical. and a pretty good game as well. :)

that's the news. more to come, i'm sure - life is about to get crazy. miss you all!