TromboneChat

Only a little trombone content here, but its been a pretty good couple of weeks......

A week back, I got to spend a weekend with my daughter in Pasadena.  She lives a pretty full life out there, managing to play varsity basketball and play trumpet in concert band, while maintaining a heavy course load at Caltech.  On Saturday evening I was able to see her last home game of the season, a win, and one of her better games of the season (15 pts, 10 reb, 5 blocks).

On Sunday afternoon, she played a concert with the Caltech - Occidental concert band, at nearby Occidental College's Thorne Hall.  Nice venue and a terrific concert. The concert band is comprised of Caltech. Oxy and a few Pasadena City College students, grad students, staff/faculty and alums, plus some JPL employees and community members.  Conductor is Dr. Glenn Price.  The program was an interesting mix of pieces, including Carmina Burana, and the concert also featured 3 smaller ensembles - flute, clarinet and trombone choirs, who played a couple of pieces each.  Nice performances by all, and I was glad to be there for it!!  (and if I had not left the program home, I would tell you what else they played!!)

Then this past weekend, we reached a milestone in my son's athletic career as we traveled to Christiansburg, VA for the CAA Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.  These were the final swims of his collegiate career, and he went out in fine fashion.  His school, College of William & Mary, swept both the men's and women's championships (three-peat for the men and second in row for the women), and he successfully defended his 200 freestyle title, took silver in the 100 free, and anchored 3 relays (3 Gold, 1 Bronze).  It was a terrific way to end his career.  Next up, graduation in May!!

While I'm proud of my kids all the time, the past couple of weeks were really pretty special, and I just felt like sharing!

~Peter

Kudos!  We all need more news like this!  Thanks for sharing you good news with us!

Cool.  I also got to see my daughter this past weekend.  The Oberlin Orchestra had a concert Saturday evening, so it seemed like a good opportunity for a road trip.  Daughter played trombone on the Shulamit Ran Violin Concerto.  Concert was excellent.  As a conservatory student, there is a lot my daughter does not have time for.  She played Quidditch for a while, but it took up too much of her time.  She hopes to be dual degree, but music has to be the priority, and takes up most of her time.

I know what you mean.  Elizabeth is majoring in geophysics, and the course load is crazy.   In addition Caltech is a quarter school, so her semesters are compressed into three academic quarters (summer being the fourth quarter).   Basketball has been great to 'force' an outlet for some physical activity for a couple of hours a day, and I'm glad she was able to keep up some playing.  I don't think she has much practice time beyond rehearsals during her season, but she'll find more now that the season has just ended.  ( and catch up in her sleep).

I'm really not sure how they do it.   But I guess it's balancing what's important to you. 

She's making noise about trying to get an internship on the west coast this summer.   It will be good for her, but I will miss playing in our summer community band with her. 

That's a good story Peter, my daughter (freshman) was considering Caltech (she plays Bass Clarinet and Volleyball) but she decided to go to the Univ of Minnesota (microbiology). I got my Geology MS at UC Riverside and we had a few students from Caltech, plus we would often go down there to use some of their equipment.  Great place, and a great Geophysics program. I have two college freshmen this year, my daughter (UofM microbiology), and my son (Gustavus Adolphus, Economics, football, T&F), and both are involved in music as extracurricular activities; daughter plays bass clarinet in the Maroon Campus Band, son plays tenor trombone (Conn 88HTO) in the Gustavus Wind Symphony and bass trombone (DuoGravis) in the Adolphus Jazz Ensemble.  The ensembles aren't touring ensembles but it does keep them busy in music.  They both enjoy it, hopefully they'll be able to keep it up until grad school.

That's a good story Peter, my daughter (freshman) was considering Caltech (she plays Bass Clarinet and Volleyball) but she decided to go to the Univ of Minnesota (microbiology). I got my Geology MS at UC Riverside and we had a few students from Caltech, plus we would often go down there to use some of their equipment.  Great place, and a great Geophysics program. I have two college freshmen this year, my daughter (UofM microbiology), and my son (Gustavus Adolphus, Economics, football, T&F), and both are involved in music as extracurricular activities; daughter plays bass clarinet in the Maroon Campus Band, son plays tenor trombone (Conn 88HTO) in the Gustavus Wind Symphony and bass trombone (DuoGravis) in the Adolphus Jazz Ensemble.  The ensembles aren't touring ensembles but it does keep them busy in music.  They both enjoy it, hopefully they'll be able to keep it up until grad school.