Seeing as this is the first post ever on this page, I'll give it a little preface:
I've always had a knack for writing. Often I find it to be an easier and more comprehensive way of expressing myself than verbal communication. Yet for whatever reason, save for a few Facebook notes and an assortment of MySpace entries (from back in the days when people still used MySpace), I've never really maintained a serious blog. My good friend and colleague Brian Morgan (aka "Slidefunk") had asked me to be a contributor to his Blogger page, which required me to create an account of my own. Hence, I am giving web logging another whirl. We'll see how long this one lasts.
OK, here we go. Post #1.
Since July 5th, I have spent a total of nine days in the United States of America. Traveling, especially internationally, is one of the most fortunate byproducts of a career in the performing arts. I've been abroad enough in the last several years that simply being in a foreign country doesn't "shock" me, but it still puts things in perspective when I think about how little time I've spent in my home country in the last few months. After barely having time to soak in everything I was feeling after my long awaited second trip to Japan, I was on a plane again, this time bound for Monterrey, Mexico.
I'll spare the long story of how I ended up down here (if you don't know and want to, just ask me) and instead give a little retrospective on the experience itself.
I don't think it's any big secret that Mexico on the whole is not the most stable place on earth in which to spend an extended period of time right at the moment. The unfortunate thing about Monterrey, is that it is one of the more modern, economically stable Mexican metropolises and for a long time was considered to be the safest city not only in Mexico but in all of Latin America (along with Santiago, Chile). Unfortunately, in the past year or so the cartels have begun to assert themselves in this region and the locals are starting to feel much less secure. That said, as a law-abiding private citizen and a foreigner, it's not as though Mexico's problems just find themselves on your doorstep. In eight and a half weeks here (including an undeniably treacherous nine day orchestra tour through several volatile border cities in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas) I have neither witnessed nor experienced anything out of the ordinary (knock on wood). Whether this has more to do with luck, or whether international news media such as the BBC have exaggerated the situation down here for the sake of shock value, I don't know. Nor do I particularly care.
My personal experience here has been largely positive. I have met many great people and have been treated well. The orchestra I have been playing with is, for all intents and purposes, the primary performing arts organization for the city of Monterrey, a metropolitan area of approximately four million people. That is definitely neat to think about. Many Mexican orchestras are funded and salaried by the governing body of the state or in which they play (similar to European orchestras) but this one has an affiliation with the local state university. Therefore its official title is "Orquesta Sinfónica de la Unversidad Autónomo de Nuevo León". The orchestra is in somewhat of a transitional period at the moment, as they recently severed ties with their previous conductor and hired a new one whom most of the musicians expect can take the orchestra to a new level of respectability. Without delving too deeply into my entire experience playing down here (which would take many paragraphs), I have immensely enjoyed the opportunity to feel as though I am playing with a full-time ensemble, especially as principal.
The orchestra has enjoyed my services too, it seems, as they have expressed a serious interest in my taking this job permanently. I have mixed feelings about this prospect, certainly, but many things about it are enticing. Foremost, it's a full-time job playing trombone. For whatever reason this orchestra has had a particularly hard time keeping principal its trombonists, and except for a few brief stretches, the position has been vacant for several years.
Were it not for the winter audition season looming, I would actually consider telling them right now that I'd be willing to come back in January and play at least through the winter and spring. I'm only 25 and don't yet consider myself to be the best musician I hope to be one day, so I want to leave my options open and give myself the opportunity to be in the best possible situation a few years down the road. Talking with many of the expats who have been playing in the orchestra for several years, many of them did not intend on staying as long as they have. While in most cases they have good reasons to stay, I'm not sure I want to allow myself to get rooted in a situation like this just yet. I fear that if I committed to a contract and stayed for a couple of years, I'd be the same musician when I finished as when I started, and I'm not sure I can reconcile with that prospect when I won't even turn 30 for five more years.
While I've been saying for awhile that I would like to spend time playing abroad early in my career, Mexico is not necessarily what I had in mind... One perk, however, of being here as opposed to somewhere in Asia or Europe (except Spain, of course) is that it allows me to work on my Spanish. For those who don't know, I took four years of Spanish in high school and it was generally my best and favorite subject outside of band. I had even briefly considered majoring in it in college before I decided to play music instead. As it was, I essentially didn't use my Spanish at all for about 7 years... That element of this experience has particularly welcome, to be sure.
I have really been missing being where the "action is" lately. That doesn't really have anything to do with being in Mexico as opposed to Portland, necessarily. I've just been thinking about the opportunities I once had to be around world-class musicians on a regular basis and feeling as though I took that for granted at the time. I've been feeling particularly nostalgic about Chicago and Northwestern and the time I spent there. I was ready to be done when I graduated and was satisfied wholly with my decision to do so for awhile, but now I sometimes wish I had stayed. With that said, I'm trying to get the "coulda woulda shouldas" out of my thought process, and with one phase about to finish and another about to begin, it's an ideal time to start thinking about the future, not the past. I'm trying my best to think of everything I do as an opportunity to grow and improve rather than just a means to a greater end. It's still a work in progress!
I have one more concert to play here, this week. The highlight of the program for us will be the Scriabin 2nd Symphony. If you're not familiar with it (I wasn't), give it a listen. Very Germanic in style, with clear influence from his slightly older contemporaries, Wagner and Strauss.
On Friday, I fly back to Portland and will be there for about 56 hours... Just enough time to pick up a few winter clothes, see a few friends, and maybe get into some Halloween shenanigans. On November 1st I leave at the crack of dawn and fly right back to Houston, Texas where I will begin tech and rehearsals for a touring show called "Handel's Messiah Rocks".
OK folks, that's gonna do it for now. Solid return to the world of blogging if I do say so myself...
I will discuss the "Handel's Messiah Rocks" tour in greater detail in a later entry, but for those who are curious as to what I will be doing for seven weeks in November and December and want a basic idea, here's a link to the website:
http://www.handelsmessiahrocks.com/
--Louis
Very Cool!!!!!
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