Tom McCaslin: News

Sometimes too much time goes by for an update.  My "Twitter" feed seems to help get my random thoughts and musings out.  Since I last updated I've been doing a lot of teaching, playing with the Key West Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony among other things.

 

Most recently I had a great trip up "north" to Washington, D.C for the US Army Tuba Euphonium Conference which was followed by a visit to West Chester, PA where I was a featured artist at the 4th Annual West Chester University Trumpetfest and Brassfest. 

 

In Washington I heard some wonderful performances but none more breathtaking than that of Carol Jantsch.  Carol played a wonderful recital completely by memory.  Her musicianship is inspiring and everything she plays comes from such a passionate place. Check out her site and great new CD:

 

www.caroljantsch.com

 

 

In West Chester, PA there was a great lineup of guest artists on all brass instruments.

 

The artists were:

 

Trumpet
Vince DiMartino
Joe Burgstaller
David Krauss
Kevin Eisensmith
Brad Ulrich
Olivier Theurillat

 

Horn
Adam Unsworth
David Jolley
Elizabeth Pfaffle

Trombone
Nitzan Haroz
Jim Pugh
Haim Avitsur

Euphonium
Eric Spinelli

Tuba
Tom McCaslin
Paul Mergen
Jonathan Fowler

President's own Brass Quintet

 

What was even more amazing was that everyone fit into 48 hours!  I had the pleasure to play Jorge Salgueiro's cONCERTO fOR tUBA with the WCU Wind Ensemble and a split recital with Jonathan Fowler who teaches Tuba and Euphonium at West Chester University. In addition, I taught a warm-up class and a masterclass on "High Range Playing".  All of the students and attendees were engaging and had tons of questions which made the discussions and masterclasses a pleasure.

 

Tom and Jonathan Fowler

 

I would STRONGLY recommend attending this conference in future years.  Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski, Professor of Trumpet, and long time friend (go Sun Devils!!) organized such a great event that it will only grow bigger and better.  Check it out in 2011:

 

www.wcutrumpetfest.com

 

Finally, this past weekend the great Harry Watters (www.harrywatters.com) came down to ECU for our hosting of the North Carolina Eastern District Band Festival.  Harry gave a great masterclass at ECU (which has inspired better practice from yours truly) and gave a great performance with the ECU Wind Ensemble and Jazz bands. Check out this great clip of Harry playing with my former teacher Sam Pilafian:

 

 

 

2010 is shaping up to be a busy year.  Speaking of "shaping up"...take the advice of my good friend Hulk Hogan (who I met and worked out with in Key West):  

 

"Train, say your Prayers, eat your vitamins! Be true to yourself, be true to your tuba and be a real musician!!"  

 

I may have changed a couple of words in that quote......

 

"Eat your vitamins.  Practice hard."

 

In November I had a one week visit to Lahti, Finland.  Invited and hosted by the great Harri Lidsle (www.harrilidsle.com) I had the opportunity to teach 25 private lessons, perform 2 recitals, give 2 masterclasses and play 4 concerts with the world class Lahti Symphony.  It was one of the busiest weeks of my life but I enjoyed every second of it. 

 

There a couple amazing things about the brass world in Finland.  For starters the sheer number of guest artists that have come through is staggering!  Sergio Carolino, Roger Bobo, and Allesandro Fossi are just the tubists that Harri has brought over this year!  In addition they have several wonderful annual festivals, including the Lieksa Brass Week, which have brought a who's who of brass artists through the country. 

 

Highlights of the trip included the split recital with Harri Lidsle and Harri Miettunen (from the Tampere Symphony), the private lesson with a young Russian girl on tenor horn who was 6 years old(!), playing with the amazing low brass of the Lahti Symphony and hearing two students perform in a local pub which gave us all free beer.  Seriously! 

 

Thank you Harri! Thank you Finland!  As Harri used to say: Be cool, go to Finland!

 

Recital in Tampere

6 year old phenom....

Lahti Symphony Low Brass Section

Lauri and Ville jamming in the pub

2009/2010 is a busy time so far!  The studio at ECU sounds great and we've already finished our 3 night Octubafest.  I think it was the best one yet with more people in the audiences than ever before.  Bravo to all my students!

 

"Inside Out" continues to do well and has received some very nice reviews and press:

 

Yamaha Bell and Barrel Blog

 

Dave Werden Blog

 

I'll be doing some touring in Finland this November and in January will be one of the artists at the 4th Annual International Trumpet and Brass Fest in West Chester Pennsylvania.  Check out the site:

 

Brass Fest

 

What a lineup of great artists!

Enjoy the fall, practice hard and make great music!

TRM

Busy, busy, busy! That’s been life since school started after Xmas and as I write this there are only three weeks left. Crazy! What a great couple of months.

My CD has finally, after many trials and tribulations, gone to the printers and will be for sale this summer. I am VERY happy with the results. Please check back for more updates.

January started with a recital for me at ECU and was followed the next week with an appearance at the US Army Tuba and Euphonium Conference. It had been a couple of years since I was last there but I was mightily impressed. It was especially fun to play with Kelly Thomas who is a FINE musician.



In February Tony Granados came out to ECU with Demondrae Thurman who gave an EXCEPTIONAL masterclass at ECU. Teaching 8 students in two hours was incredible since he didn’t repeat himself once!


February rolled into March and the 1st weekend found my students and I at the South East Regional Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Winston Salem. I performed a half recital with Adam Frey. I’m also proud to say that ECU students performed amazingly great all weekend long. The ECU Tuba Euph ensemble played exceptionally well early Saturday morning. Dan Cobb and Anthony Hingley both played very well in the Mock Orchestral competition. Brad Pino made the semifinals of the solo tuba competition and was winner of the Mock Orchestral Competition. Jesse Rackley won the Euphonium solo competition and performed the Gordon Jacob "Fantasia" on the final concert of SERTEC with Wind Ensemble. The conference was very well organized and I enjoyed hearing the virtuosic performances and meeting new friends.





At the start of April ECU hosted Euphonium great Adam Frey to ECU. Adam played a great recital and gave a very inspiring masterclass. If you have the chance to hear him live you are encouraged to!


All and all 2009 is flying by! Everybody hang on.

April 2009,
TRM

Season greetings! Things have finally winded down around ECU for the semester break. I know the students need a break and I’m looking forward to some holiday time myself!

The last month has been a whirlwind. I gave a very fun presentation at the North Carolina Music Educator’s conference with three other Tuba Professors from North Carolina. Joanna Hersey, Dennis Askew, Dan Johnson and myself all tried to give Band Directors as much useful information as we could!

During the rest of November I put over 3000 miles on my car travelling to do sub work in several orchestras. Albany, Detroit and the North Carolina Symphonies all have great low brass sections and it was a pleasure to spend time in the “back row” again.

Finally, TubaChristmas in Greenville was also a blast. My students all enjoyed playing Xmas carols for our supportive crowd.

Have great holidays and I look forward to a great 2009!!

TRM

Last week ECU hosted the US Army Tuba Euphonium 4tet for the 1st night of our 2nd annual Octubafest. They were spectacular. Thank you Neal Corwell, Dean Miller, Charles Giannelli and Tim Royster for a great show. The recital hall walls are still shaking from the beginning of “Russian Sailor’s Dance”.

Wednesday and Thursday night we heard everyone in the ECU Tuba Euph Studio play solo pieces in two recitals. Everyone played extremely well and the overall level of the studio continues to push higher and higher! We’ve come a long way!

I’m hitting the road for a couple of orchestral “sub” gigs and am looking forward to seeing good friends and making some good music. I’ll post some pics when I’m back.

While I write this I am listening to a new concerto by Antonio D’Almeida performed by Sergio Carolino. WOW. Sergio tells me it will be released soon onto CD. Watch out for this one. It’s a long expansive, tour de force for the tubist and orchestra!

Happy surfing,

TRM

Recently Yamaha asked me to put a list of tips for students together. They are developing a Facebook application that will send out a different tip every day from a different Yamaha Artist. I thought I'd post mine here since I seem to use these phrases daily in my teaching. It's fun to realize the influence that my past teachers have had on me. Apparently some of their catch phrases have stuck.

TRM

“Playing in the high register is difficult but if you focus on how you use your air and not adding “pressure” you’ll have much more success. Play with a more focused, higher speed air flow in a slightly downward position and you’ll find the high register starts to become much easier!”

“Take a great breath, feel the air move past your lips and then concentrate on blowing from the lips.”

“Chase the sound in your head, not the feel of what you play.”

“What happened? Where did it happen? How can I fix it?”

“You can’t drive without gas and you can’t play without air. BREATHE.”

“It’s harder to unlearn bad habits than it is to learn new information. Focus on the new information and slowly the bad habits will disappear.”

“The best players in the world have taken more private lessons and played for more people than anyone else.”

“Private lessons aren't for students who can’t excel but for the ones who are willing to.”

“Listening to recordings and hearing the best players of your instrument is the only way to develop the sound YOU want in your head.”

“Slow practice is always an effective way to learn the technical passages. Try slowing down a tricky passage under half speed and play it 5 times in a row. Then take it up to tempo. Did it get better? See…slow practice works!”

“Good equipment is important but it’s the musician who plays the instrument. Are you trying to be a musician or a technician?”

I'm very happy that two of my students did very well at the recent Greensboro Symphony Audition. Anthony Hingley, a Music Ed Junior, advanced into the semifinals and Brad Pino, 2nd Year Master's student, won the job! Bravo to Anthony and Brad!! Brad's got a lot of great rep to play this year. Hopefully he can get us all comp tickets!

TRM

It's fun to finally have my own website! I'll try to keep things updated so it won't quickly become an internet relic. I'm very excited about my current endeavors. My first solo CD is being edited and put together right now. After eight days of 114 degree weather this summer I was very happy with the results. It was also a homecoming of sorts returning to Arizona and working with Sam Pilafian. I forgot how good his ears are and how nothing gets passed him. The CD should be out by Xmas and will be available everywhere. Take a look at the pictures from the sessions in the "Photos" section.

My students at ECU are all working very hard and the improvement is remarkable! Bravo everyone.

Speaking of which, we have a very busy year ahead. Please check the Calendar for more info on the special events and recitals we have coming up at ECU. October is Octubafest time and earlier in October Sam Pilafian will be here to work with the Marching Pirates, the Tuba/Euph studio and much more (including a lot of BBQ eating!). Check out the "Calendar" for more info and feel free to email me with any questions.

I hope to hear from many of you out there surfing and to meet you at upcoming events!

As we say here in Greenville and at ECU: ARGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

TRM