Children should be seen AND heard.

July brought one of the most anticipated projects for Barrage this past year--a week long intensive "boot camp" for high school orchestra students at the Music For All Summer Symposium in Bloomington, Illinois.

Though Barrage had performed for this eager crowd of high school band and orchestra students the year before, I could not wait to experience what was described to me by other members of the band as "the craziest audience ever."

The week began with an incredibly warm reception from the faculty and coordinators, as well as the receipt of a room key for housing in the residence halls on campus. Because I never chose to attend "summer camp" as a kid (except for a 2-week orchestra program at Idyllwild in high school), I was ecstatic to learn we'd be living on campus, in amongst the campers, counselors, and other faculty members.

Over the span of a few days, we spent quite a bit of time working with the orchestra students, many of whom had worked with us previously during high school visits over this past year. Not only was I blown away by the students' collective enthusiasm towards music and performance, but also by how down-to-earth, friendly, and hilarious they all were. Spending a week with the kids was truly rewarding! As a young musician myself, I'm so glad to see other young musicians similarly enthused about the power of music--Music For All definitely provides the perfect atmosphere for stimulating creativity in and dedication to the arts.

Here are some of the kids backstage before the show:

Picture prompt: "strike a pose like Barrage."

"Everyone get together really quickly so I can take a photo for my blog!"

All of our work with them lead up to a concert we gave toward the end of the week in this hall:

The view from Charlie's drumset.

Imagine that space, filled with 900+ rabid marching band and orchestra students, along with their teachers, some parents, and other staff members. Now imagine all of those students giving a standing ovation after every song. Now imagine that each one of those students is making the shape of an O with their arms above their heads, while saying "Ohhhhhhhh!" [This was the camp's method of visually and aurally demonstrating an ovation above-and-beyond a seemingly weaker form of ovating: standing.]

So they would break into wild applause, all start to yell "Ohhhhhhhh," holding it for sometimes up to 30 seconds, and then burst back into applause before sitting down.

After nearly every song. For 2 hours.

It was--for sure--the most unbelievable audience for whom I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Here's a small sampling of photos from the greatest concert I've played with Barrage in the past year. [All photographs taken by Jolesch Photography.]

[Most of] What happens in Vegas, stays in [mind for this blog entry about] Vegas.

After our brief time in the Windy City, we flew out to a city of a much different nature entirely.

Sin City.

I'll be honest: as a fairly general rule, I don't care too much for Las Vegas. It's just not how I roll. But, my experience there this time around was remarkably enjoyable.

We stayed for a few nights in a hotel off "The Strip" while we practiced new Celtic repertoire for the upcoming trip to Europe, but were soon put up in the Bellagio by a corporation for whom we played while in town.

The Bellagio is, without a doubt, the most incredible hotel in which I've ever had the pleasure of staying. There's really no easy way to describe the extreme opulence of the building...so I'll resort to posting photos:

A giant Chihuly display in the lobby.

Standing underneath the Chihuly.

The atrium.

However, the most wonderful thing about my time in Vegas was discovering the mind-blowing awesomeness of Cirque du Soleil. I went to my first Cirque show, "Ka," with Sarah.

Sarah with one of the lobby workers in full costume.

[Sarah and I didn't eat here, but I couldn't resist taking a picture
in front of a restaurant sharing my hometown's name.]

I loved Ka so much that I went and saw "O"--by myself--the next night.

Not knowing what to expect from either, I was taken aback by the visual and aural artistry of the performances, being nearly moved to tears multiple times (especially in O). Call me an ignorant starry-eyed softie, (and I hate to overuse this word) but I simply didn't know something so beautiful existed in the performing arts. After both performances I felt like I just needed to sit in silence for an extended period of time to process everything I had just experienced. It's like you take a concentrated dose of a year's emotions in an hour-and-a-half: happiness, excitement, anxiety, nervousness, shock (& awe), amazement, hysteria...and then before you know it you're viscerally overwhelmed by everything you've just witnessed.

I freely admit I'm prone to exaggeration and hyperbole, but I'd posit that that even the Grinch, whose shoes were too tight and whose heart was originally two sizes too small, would be moved by O.

And then, to top off the already incredible night, I consumed this delectable crepe from a patisserie in the Bellagio:


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P.S. Fully believing every human should have the opportunity to experience Cirque, I'm more than willing to strongly consider any offers, pending a check of the schedule and finances, to take turn-around trips to Vegas from Arizona for Cirque shows (mainly O).

Razzled and dazzled.

After our brief excursion in Chattanooga, we hopped aboard a plane, flew to Illinois, and drove deep into the heart of downtown Chicago.

I'm talking downtown downtown.

Here was the view from my hotel window, by night, when I arrived:

Chicago River, Chicago Tribune, and the Trump Tower.

And then by day:

Chicago River, Chicago Tribune, and the Trump Tower.

Trump Tower

[Apparently these condos and their parking structure are famous...?]

One morning for breakfast I decided to brave the streets of downtown all by myself. The challenge came when I saw someone walking with a coffee cup from Au Bon Pain, one of my favorite breakfast joints. I didn't want to appear like a tourist, so I decided I wouldn't ask anyone for directions to ABP; rather, I would just walk around until I found said ABP. It couldn't have been too far from where I saw this caffeinated suit, so I decided I would just make a loop around two very large city blocks and hope to come across the restaurant. Extremely logical, right? I was about to abandon hope when I came across the revolving door that stood between myself and muesli with a cup of coffee. Success. I grabbed a table by the window, began to eat, and the engaged in one of my favorite pastimes: people watching.

My favorite experience though, by far, was eating dumplings from Wow Bao with Charlie and all of the eager, young, business professionals, while sitting in a grassy tiered-park on the bank of the Chicago river, in near perfect weather.

It's the small things in life.

Tennessee: starting with a bang!

This last month's tour, though relatively short (about a month long), was filled with all sorts of ridiculous experiences in really awesome locations.

Here goes.

We kicked off the tour in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a general rule, first shows back are always a little bit more rough than you'd prefer. After a 6-week break, nobody's body is really ready for the physical stamina required to perform for 2 hours. But, this first show back was extra special. Chattanooga wasn't going to let us off easy--oh no, it had much more in store: an outdoor show, near the Chattanooga river (subtext: unbelievable humidity), with a temperature in the high 90's.

There was definitely a bright spot [pun ahead] to the show, however. Right at 9:00 PM, when we were about 2 songs away from the end of our set, the Riverbend Music Festival lit their fireworks extravaganza in the space behind our stage. Though we couldn't see the fireworks too well since they were behind us, we were all able to look around (if we weren't playing a solo down front) to check them out. I suppose it was quite poetic from the audience's standpoint--there must be nothing quite like a rigorous rendition of "Sing, Sing, Sing" complete with loud, banging fireworks in the shapes of hearts and smiley faces!

On the way back to the Nashville airport, our car detoured to the University of the South ("Sewanee"), where Sarah's sister Rebekah attends school. Since Sarah was familiar with the Hogwarts-like campus, she took us to a really awesome coffee shop and also gave us a small tour of the really beautiful chapel on campus. And after enjoying delicious food and coffee, Sarah took us to one of the lookout points on campus where you can view the whole valley. All in all, an incredibly relaxing afternoon.

En route to the Quidditch field.

Who knew Hogwarts was actually in Tennessee? Go figure.

Snack and lattes on the porch.

Looking out over the valley.