Hi everyone!!!

Well, we’re having fun now!!We’re driving from New York LaGuardia airport to our concert tonight in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania (Dec. 6). Our dear friends at US Air were unaware that their plane was going to need mechanical tending to when they sold all those tickets to their 9:30 am flight.

Sooooo, we left the airport, rented a van, and we’re driving to Elizabethtown.

This is fine with us, cause we have things to chat about (and I have things to write, as you’re reading right now). Here’s the problem, or opportunity. Someone must tell Starbucks that coffee is needed on Highway 78 West!! We may not make it without our daily fix… wish us luck! In other news…

We have officially begun our Christmas tour 2007!

Hooray!!We began in an amazing Gothic church in Toledo, Ohio (Dec. 1).

Here’s some interesting backstage brass information. The original venue we were booked in had an explosion a few days before our appearance. This church was booked as our replacement venue. Pretty amazing replacement, eh?!

This picture was taken at our concert in Henderson, Kentucky (Dec. 4). More about how our Christmas tour is going later. But first, where did we leave off in the last Backstage Brass?

NEW YORK CITY!!! We went to New York City (Oct. 28) to perform for a corporate event. Here’s a sneak peek into the event…(shhhh!!!!)

Here we are on our way back to the hotel after the show.

Yes, Joe lives in the city.Yes, Chuck lived in the city.… but New York still can stir that sense of awe in a person. “It’s a bird.It’s a plane!” Those crazy kids…

Our next stop was Kansas City (November 3).

Joe’s father worked with railway equipment in Europe. Joe was very excited to see the Kansas City Railway!! He ran up to the trains just bursting with excitement!

We think he expected it to be much bigger…

We then flew to Europe to do some concerts in Switzerland and Germany. Our first stop was…

Lucerne, Switzerland (November 9)! This was the beginning of the end of me not drinking coffee! Cheers!

Nice Swiss flags above our heads, eh? It is quite a long trip, and each of us have different ways of landing as energized and healthy as possible.

Manon says, “ I put in ear plugs, read and sleep as much as possible! I also memorize new music and listen to music on my iPod.”

For me, there is much energy to be found in surrendering to the fact that I’m stuck on a plane. I’ll change everything I can to make it better, like trying to get in an exit row, but otherwise staying calm saves energy. I also remember that I’m on a long flight, so that means I’m definitely going somewhere new and exciting!

After writing my thoughts on travel, I received this from Chuck:

Long ago I read that one should avoid food on airplanes - -I’ve followed that idea with great results. Sometimes I carry certain snacks that I know are good for me so that I don’t need to starve, on the other hand. Also sleeping through trips as much as possible and immediately putting myself in the new time zone to which I am traveling helps lighten “jet lags.” Nothing however is more refreshing that getting out in a new and exciting city, just waiting for exploration.

There is a beautiful bridge in Lucerne that is in many pictures you see of the city. At one time it burned down. They restored many of the paintings that hung in the rafters of the bridge.Here is a picture of the five of us in front of the bridge. We just had the most amazing lunch of Italian food…freshest vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Eating is definitely an art form in Europe! Oh, and the guy in the middle of this picture is named Jeroen Berwaerts. He plays trumpet… poor guy!

The rafters on the bridge are very impressive! Here’s Chuck looking at some of the art on those rafters. Comedian Eddie Izzard once said, “I’m from Europe, where the history comes from. ”It’s just so true.Well, ok… Japan and Africa and others might have some older history too…but anyway… walking is never just walking in Europe. There is so much history to experience!

The fastest walking we did was because our dear friends at Lufthansa must have dropped my heavily armored horn case from the sky. My lead pipe got bent. Ohhh, the excitement!!

The bend is almost imperceptible. It’s pretty amazing how that little bend made the horn unplayable.We luckily found some amazing people at “Atelier Lohri” who stayed late, and fixed things up perfectly!

They were amazing! Thank you Christoph and Mathais!!!

The guy from the picture of the five of us in Lucerne, Jeroen, not only dabbles in trumpet playing, but he dances on the side. He’s seen above showing off his latest move, but sadly none of us were watchi—–ooookayyyy, Jeroen is a major musician in the trumpet world. He is principal trumpet with the Hamburg Radio Orchestra and teaches at the Hannover Conservatory.As many of you know, he is part of our “Trumpet Dream Team” and he joined us for our European Tour.

He is a complete joy to perform with…

…and hang out with as well…

We love him! Almost as much as our audiences do! Unfortunately for him, though…there might have been a little mix up with the train tickets. We felt really bad about it, and tried to fix the situation, but we were unsuccessful. It seemed that Jeroen ended up with a 2^nd class ticket for our first train trip.

He seemed ok with it, and after unsuccessful attempts to fix the situation, we used our “surrender to what we can’t change” wisdom, and went with the flow.

Traveling on a train in Europe is such a wonderful experience…

…unless you’re being bothered by people who aren’t in the section they should be in.

Joe really tried to help Jeroen surrender to where he was supposed to be sitting on the train. Jeroen kept forgetting he just wasn’t worthy of 1^st class yet.

I don’t think Jeroen was quite ready to surrender, so Chuck and the boys helped put him back in his place.

Once things were put right, the rest of the trip was quite serene, and uneventful.

…aaaaaand don’t’ worry…everyone laughed about the whole thing later…

We went and saw our friends at Yamaha in Frankfurt as well. I tried some new combinations of horns.

Having a lot of choices can be a blessing and a curse at the same time!! So many horns, mouthpieces, equipment thingys…so little time. That’s why I believe “you are your instrument”. We do love playing our Yamaha instruments, though…those quotes on ads are not just for show, we promise!

Our tour was awesome, and as difficult as it was to leave Jeroen , the European culture, and the wonderful audiences, it was time to come home to our wonderful North American audiences. It was time to start the Christmas Tour!

We’re getting ready to do our double quintet show with the New York Philharmonic principal brass.

Matthew Muckey, Phil Smith, Manon and Joe

We do this concert every year in Lincoln Center to a sold out crowd, and we do new music every year.

Joe Alessi and Gene

We come in and out of New York a few times throughout our early December dates.

Alan Baer and Chuck

 

The concert is in a few days, Sunday December 9 at 3pm!

Phil Myers and me

We can’t WAIT!!

I have so many great pictures, it’s hard to not include them all here. Here’s one of the best pictures ever!! It was taken in Henderson, Kentucky (Dec. 4).

We call it:

“A Christmas Hornsmoke with Manon scaring off the

brass boys as the bullying bad ‘guy’ “Bb Bart””

One does not know fear until you have to face off against Manon Lafrance in a gun fight! She’s such a bully…oh, and a beautiful trumpeter! One of these nights I’ll win that gun fight!

This month’s “Backstage Brass” thoughts are about all those times we say, or hear people say, “I have high standards”. High standards are a very good thing, when wielded for good! The problem is how often they are used for something else. Here’s a good way to explore whether they’re being used for good or for…well…many things, starting with excuses or defense of destructive thinking. Ask yourself how often do we talk about our high standards in celebration of those standards? In contrast, ask yourself how often, “I have high standards” is said as a qualification for why we’re upset at how our performance didn’t live up to our high standards?

In other words, think about whether we say, “I have high standards!” after someone has said to us, “hey, great job!” or do we say that in response to, “hey, why are you so upset about your performance?”

I hope that standards are high in most people who get up and perform in front of others. The important thing to note, however, is that there are many areas in which we can have high standards. Most performers know when they’ve played to a high standard, and know when they haven’t. This is a high listening standard. The evidence that most people project their high standards on others is revealed in the immeasurable high standard of critique that comes from people, regardless of their own performing abilities. We could go on and on, but what I find interesting is looking into using the word ‘standards’ in a more limited way. I don’t mean change your standards…keep them high!!

But I think two things.

1. High standards should be used mostly in the practice room. Let those standards be your teacher, and your guide.

2. High standards can be set not only on our playing, but in many other important areas. Areas like our performing abilities, our constructive self-critique techniques, our applause and complement receiving abilities, our ability to seek out, discover, and integrate ways of raising our standards… and countless more!

I think #2 is pretty clear, so I’ll write just a bit more on #1. Once you are in a performance situation, replace having high standards with having high goals. Phil Myers (pictured above) once said, “I don’t try to play my best anymore. I just go out there and play like me.” He brings incredibly high standards into the practice room with him, and he has those mold what happens when he goes into a performance with the high goal of “playing like him.”

The reason I say standards should be used mainly in the practice room is because thinking or speaking of high standards during or after a PERFORMANCE puts the performer behind the task at hand. Our job while performing is spinning the note we’re on as best we can, and doing with it what is needed to create the best musical experience for that moment. …and now this moment. …and now this one. …and so on. Applause. Money. Fame. …and then we die. Amen.

Ok, that’s a bit strong… but clear, yeah?! If we’re thinking about how we’re doing during a performance, we’re now a second behind our task at hand! If we’re thinking about how horribly we missed the high note 20 notes ago, that’s even less professional!

My mother’s voice teacher used to tell her “if you’re listening, and the audience is listening, then who’s singing?” To me, this is a key element of performing. It is the voice inside our heads that says negative stuff to us after we’ve done something we’re not completely happy with. If we choose to speak that way to ourselves, our inner dialogue can become 100% destructive during performance. If we’re taking that extra hundredth of a second to listen to what we are doing and make sure we’re succeeding at keeping our “standards” high, then we are missing out influencing the only music making opportunity that we have…the one RIGHT NOW. …and now. …and now.

Happy Holidays from Chuck, Gene, Joe, Manon, and me!