The Band-Personal Narrative

The Soloist by Steve Lopez is the true story of Mr. Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and his journey to move a stranger-turned-friend off the streets and into a place where he can get the help he needs and be able to flourish as the talented musician he is. The star of the book, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, is a 54 year old homeless musician with a mental illness. Nathaniel (or Mr. Ayers later in the book) uses music as something to ground him, to calm him down and bring him back to reality. This book brings into light various topics that most people prefer not to think about (homelessness, mental illnesses, etc.) and shows how music can aide anyone in tough times. It is common knowledge that music helps the soul.

For many years I have been known for being a very talented athlete. But what many people do not know is that I was once in the Elba Marching band. Being in the band has taught me a lot of things, like reading music, discipline and organization. The most interesting thing about the band was that we had to learn how to read music. At first this was a challenge for me, but I soon got the hang of it.

I could feel the blood rushing to my face, I wanted to just hide myself away due to the lack of preparation I had put into my solo, especially when a bass clarinet chuckled at the fact that I messed it up. At that moment, I was determined to sit down and learn the music. During seminar the fourth week of prep, I sat in a practice room and played the rhythms repeatedly until I engrained the fingering pattern in my hands. It wasn’t easy

Throughout the play there was singing that pleased your ears however, you were continually guessing about what has just happened and what could possibly happen next in this story of

The stage lights were beams as bright as the sun, and made the whole stage feel ten degrees hotter than the room. Of course, with me was my music, and my trusty violin. It was no million-dollar Stradivarius, but it was exactly what all I needed. It was an impressively

I have always been a particularly musical person. When I was younger, I wanted to become a singer when I grew up, but upon joining the choir in elementary I realized I did not have the talent for singing that I thought I had. Continually singing off key and never sounding as good as my peers did, I decided to confine myself to singing at home where only my family could hear me. Despite this revelation that I was, in fact, a terrible singer, I still wanted to participate in some type of musical performance and decided to join the band in middle school. After trying out various different instruments, I settled on the flute and quickly fell in love.

Standing in front of the stained glass window, the talkative conductor knowing quiet comments were not his strength, passionately lashed out during the loud section of the music, calling into question their integrity of the musicians because of their routine performance of the Fifth Symphony. With excessive coolness the novice bassoon player said the conductor’s comments made no sense because the musicians were playing the way they were being instructed by the conductor, as musicians follow the long standing tradition of following the conductors directions. She also remarked that musicians do not play for their own benefit but rather for the immeasurable greatness of the music itself. On her own the stunned bassoon player decided to quit,

The orchestra maintained the musical score and provided ornamentation and emphasized the melodic contour of the singer’s vocal line. Without reading the subtitles, there is such emotion and energy in the male singer’s performance that it is easy to see, along with the physical positioning and facial expressions of the female performer, that there is an impassioned dialogue being given from him to

Despite my passion for athletics, I have spent the majority of my high school career involved in show choir. I participate in the Executive Session at Sauk Prairie High School. Show choir incorporates training under professional choreographers, undergoing numerous voice lessons, and traveling the country for competitions. This self-disciplinary activity pushes me to work hard and strive for perfectionism while taking leadership roles in a professional environment. Furthermore, show choir allows me to impact others through my performance and to take risks.

It’s a perfect night for a concert, warm, calm, and overall elegant. On Friday, September 11 in the Nightingale Concert Hall, a fabulously performed concert called the Argenta Concert Series, The Fifth Anniversary Season, directed by Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park, took place. In this performance the following musicians performed; Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio on the violin, Dustin Budish on the viola, and James Winn on the piano. Not only that, there was also a guest appearance by Jonah Kim on the cello. Although not the best turnout, there was still a decent audience.

As in Harry Potter, where the wand chooses the wizard, the trumpet chose me—although, at the time, I thought I was choosing the trumpet. Four wind musicians stood before me in my elementary school’s auditorium. Each one played an excerpt showcasing the instrument’s ability, trying to entice us all to play that instrument. I was able to resist the lures of three, but the fourth instrument, the trumpet, captured my eye and resonated with my soul. Little did I know, that sound would come to mean so much more.

The pre show jitters intesified when the stage manager was nowhere to be seen yet david calmy gave cues for the first number via cell phone, dashed to the audtiorium , changed into his ballerina outfit a couple minutes later the crowed was in tears folowed by thunderous applous, moments later he was in the booth running the show. I can say without the shadow of a doubt that he is one of the most naturally gifted and hardworking students with whom I have had the pleasure to work with. David's abiding interest, is preforming. He has developed strong ties with the administration, faculty and students with his ability to speak, innovatively think, and lead. He had a commanding presence on stage with a natural ability to create a marvlously complex character, as Trinculo in the Tempest he made the audience laugh and as the Milkman in Our Town he made the audience feel.

Working as much as I could with him, my voice improved drastically, but my sound had not completely formed to my goal tone. Continuously and slowly improving, I learned various techniques and exercises that formed the foundation of my voice, the air support from the diaphragm. The only obstacle that prevented me from progressing more was the natural anchor of my voice still changing, which prevented it from having a developed tone. It was not till my twelfth grade year that my voice matured and developed the musical tone I always knew I could

I couldn't help but smile to myself that I had discovered a shining gem, deep within the trenches of my first impression. This experience prompted me to study orchestral conducting. More importantly, I realized that always keeping an open ear and mind help bypass the subjective first

On Saturday the 6 November, 2014, I attended a performance of the Oklahoma State University Symphony Orchestra director by Dr. Eric Garcia. The performance was held at the Seretean Center Concert Hall located on the Oklahoma State University Campus. The concert was attended by a number of people of varying ages, and seemed to have a good number of music lovers in the audience from the number of people who instantly gave a standing ovation at the end of the performance. The concert consisted of two pieces the first having two movements and the second having a total of four movements.