Passing the Baton
Last night, the Triangle Brass Band gave it’s farewell concert for Mike Votta. Mike is moving to Maryland as the new Wind Ensemble director at the University of Maryland. I think this is rather neat, myself, as his predecessor at UMCP, John Wakefield, was a clinician and judge for solo and ensemble festival which I did every year when I was in school growing up in MD. Wakefield was also a friend of my Mother, who was a UMCP Music grad. In addition, Dr. Richmond Sparkes is also on Faculty at UMCP, and he was a great inspiration to me as a youngster as he was the conductor for nearly all of the honors bands I participated in as a kid.
So, with Mike being shipped off to Maryland, the TBB picked me to replace him at the helm as Music Director of the TBB. Mike gave me a very nice introduction and I came out and stumbled through a few words, and conducted the band through Amazing Grace. I didn’t get a chance to rehearse it with them, so there were not tricks. We just played it down, and it went very well.
The band sounded very good for the entire concert. A very nice reception was set up at Sullivan’s Steakhouse on Glenwood Ave. What a mess that area is at night. parking is bad, and there are so many people. I guess it is good that there are signs of life somewhere after 9 PM. Hahaha. All in all, it was a nice event.
tonytuba.org 