Minnesota Encore! Airport Warm Up

Last week I went to Minnesota again and had a terrific time playing in the orchestra, especially with Doug Wright, David Herring and tubist, Steven Campbell. The section sounds fantastic and I was happy to be a part of it.

The week was filled with interesting co-incidences, along with the more anticipated visits with family and friends. (Of course, I had a marvelous time with my wonderful siblings--sister Marcey and brother Neal, along with their spouses and my niece and two nephews.)

The week started off with my plane to Minneapolis being over three hours late in its departure. I decided to find a place in the airport to warm- up. This was a bit tricky since I did not have any practice mute with me. The good thing was that the airport was unusually quite that day. So, I found a spot and started to play. No one could really see me, but when the 'musak' stopped I think they could hear me.

People started to notice me and stayed around and listened to my warm-up. Parents brought their children over and i spontaneously started giving a mini youth concert. It was really fun! The airport staff really seemed to enjoy listening to me and said they preferred this to the piped-in music they were 'forced' to hear all day long.

Above is a photo of the window I was practicing near. I thought I would try to capture some of the experience on my cell phone camera and it surprisingly came out.

In the end, I got a good hour and a half practice session in and a few mini youth concerts. And I met a lot of very nice people that I would never have met if I did not decide to warm-up. People generally enjoy watching someone play music, even if it is a warm-up. They seem to get something from it, a bridge perhaps to communicate with another life. There are many kinds of concerts, stages and audiences. Some times they just appear....