At least once a year I take Julio to RDG woodwinds in Los Angeles to see repairman extraordinaire Tom Yaeh. He is fantastic at what he does and a terrific person. I imagine it’s a spa like experience for my bassoon. They keys get oiled, pads replaced and overall is gets spruced up. Many times […]
Two-Wheels take a Road Trip
Occasionally all three of our schedules don’t line up to do a gig so two out of three wheels play and we find a substitute for the third. No one can truly be replaced, but you get the idea! This was the case last week as Rebecca and I drove up to Santa Barbara without […]
Fantasia
This weekend I get an opportunity to play principal bassoon with the Brentwood Symphony Orchestra. On this program we are going to do a variety of music including Ravel’s “Bolero”, excerpts from Stravisnky’s “Firebird Suite”, Debussy’s “Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun”, and other selections. Bolero is a BIG bassoon excerpt for orchestral auditions. […]
Fall Cooking
Even though this is an extremely busy time of year (we’re about 7 weeks into the Fall semester), I still find that cooking a nice hot meal after a long day relaxes me. On Tuesday night I started out around 7:30pm after getting home from teaching. I knew I wanted to try out the swiss […]
Fall Favorites
Fall is my favorite season. I love the (slight) change in weather. Here are some of my favorite things about Fall. 1. Oak Glen http://www.oakglen.net/ I went last weekend and had a blast trying many different varieties of apples, tasting apple cider and even picking raspberries. 2. Owls I love to collect owls and this […]
Farewell Symphony
This weekend Pacific Symphony opened their 35th Anniversary Season with Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto! I’ve been lucky enough to work at Pacific Symphony’s box office for the past six and a half years – it has afforded me great opportunities for Third Wheel to perform at events such as opening weekend. The cocktail and dinner […]
What’s Cookin?
Fall is just about here, and it has me in the mood to be in the kitchen! My schedule has kicked into full-gear insanity. When it gets this hectic, I really love to cook up a big recipe and then instantly, I have leftovers to eat for the entire rest of the week! This week, […]
Get The Led Out.
During Second Sundays at Firefly Bistro Third Wheel has the chance to play a variety of music from our gig books and play music that we have arranged or has been arranged for us. Some of my favorite pieces are “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5, “Carinhoso” by Pixinguinha, and “Blackbird” by the Beatles. […]
Second Sundays at Firefly
As most of our fans, friends, and family know, we’ve been lucky enough to secure a regular gig at Firefly Bistro in South Pasadena. Regular gigs are hard to come by, particularly when you play in a woodwind trio! We’ve coined it “Second Sundays” and it is a once-a-month opportunity to relax and hear live […]
Heavy Chamber Music
As a member of Third Wheel, I pay a lot of attention to other chamber music ensembles. Especially the groups that are inspiring and really pushing the boundaries of chamber music — just like we aspire to do in Third Wheel. Edmund Welles is one of those ensembles. Yes, that’s the name of the group […]