2025: How is it almost August….
2025 has taken off like a rocket, and it’s almost August. SO here’s a quick rundown of what I've been up to:
Musically I had a pretty great end to the 2024-25 season. Some highlights:
In addition to playing more Puccini (one of my top 5 favorite composers) I also got to play Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet complete for the first time. The end of the season had a concert with La Valse and Daphnis and Chloe Suite No.2 on the same HALF of the program. That was just for Bass for me this season. A speed run through like, half of an audition excerpt list in one season, not bad! As a cherry on top, there was a weekend of 3 performances of The Fellowship of the Ring, which bridged my musical and martial passions in a tidy and loud way.
As I write this I'm getting ready for another installment of Steel City Clarinet Day, an annual community event in Pittsburgh where amateurs, students and professionals come together to participate in classes, seminars, gear tryouts and a community clarinet choir with a guest artist. Some years I get involved with leading seminars but this year I'm just looking forward to being out the low end of the band with the contrabass clarinet. The organizer, Dr. Amanda Morrison, really puts a herculean effort to pull this off every year and she deserves a lot of accolades for the contributions this makes to the musical community.
Another highlight of the year was joining the coaching staff for YC2, Youth Chamber Connection. I’m super proud of the students in the woodwind quintet I was assigned to coach this year. They showed a lot of initiative and willingness to stretch the bounds of what they thought they were capable of. Looking forward to doing more of this starting this fall.
And really, the season never is complete without some outdoor concerts for the 4th of July weekend. This year the road took me all over West Virginia with the Wheeling Symphony for 4 days, culminating in a 9am-9pm round trip bus ride, concert and ride home. Always a great time and in addition to the show in downtown Wheeling every year, the orchestra goes to different parts of the state that don't have a resident orchestra that they can see on a regular basis.
HEMA. I’m charting measurable progress in my fencing. Coming into this year, I had an overall record of 16-18. That doesn't really tell the whole story. There was a lot of losses early, first the sloppy kind that are in the category of “Bambi on ice” style of footwork and just not generally knowing what the hell I was doing.
After my first year, I was still losing more matches than I was winning at first. But in my second year, those matches did start to get closer. Less blowouts, a lot more close finishes, think 7-6, 5-4 etc. After I got really serious about my nutrition, fitness and weight loss and that started to click in August of last year, I started to stack some more wins than losses. For example, here’s 2025 so far in tournament competition in just pure W/L. Im not counting ties, of which I had 4 total. Not every ruleset uses them anyway….
Unicorn Cup, Open Longsword Pittsburgh PA January 2025: 3 wins, 3 Losses
Icebreaker, Open Longsword Minneapolis MN May 2025: 3 wins, 1 Loss
Queen’s Court, Tier B Longsword Cincinatti OH July 2025: 5 wins, 2 Losses
That’s 11-6 so far this year, a trend I’m determined to build on. I know that putting too much focus on an overall W/L number can be toxic and detract from other positives, but that stuff is looking promising, too. My movement, decision-making and preservation tactics are making strides, and I’m looking forward to building on all of it.
I’m working on some exciting potential projects in 2026, so i’ll be back later with more updates. Sometime.
