After a couple of weeks off, it’s time to get back in gear for the spring semester. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season – I know I did! Over the break I got some much needed rest, and as the new year approached my thoughts turned towards the various activities coming up for me in 2012. For my first post of this year I thought I’d give a brief overview for a few of these activities, many of which I’ll be writing about in more detail in the future.

• Chamber Music Galore: February will be a very busy and exciting month for chamber music, as I’ll be collaborating with my colleagues on three faculty recitals. The first is a concert of music by Eric Ewazen, where we’ll perform his Ballade, Pastorale and Dance for flute, horn, and piano. It’s a great piece, and is really becoming well known in the literature. For the second concert I’ll be joining a member of our voice faculty for Vitaly Bujanovsky’s Evening Songs for soprano and horn. Though not very well known, this is a wonderful recital piece. If you haven’t heard of it, check out this fine performance by Sofia Kapetanakou and Antonis Lagos.
  To close out the month Black Bayou Brass will present our annual faculty recital. This promises to be an exciting program as well, with the big piece on the concert being Anthony Plog’s Triple Concerto. Later this year Black Bayou Brass will also be performing several more concerts – some of them at home, and some in far away places! More on that to come.
• Orchestra Concerts: In addition to lots of chamber music, there is also plenty of orchestral playing to go around. Program highlights this spring are Pines of Rome by Respighi and Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss.
• 44th International Horn Symposium: This year’s symposium will be held at The University of North Texas in Denton, and I’m looking forward to hearing some great horn playing as well as catching up with several friends and colleagues. For my part I’ll be appearing as a contributing artist, performing Jan Koetsier‘s Sonata for Horn and Harp with Jaymee Haefner, harp professor at UNT. Koetsier’s music is gradually becoming known in the U.S., and he has several very fine works for horn. Later this year I’ll also be recording the sonata along with other works by Koetsier for a forthcoming CD project.
• Blogging: I’ve got several drafts for posts in progress, so it’s just a matter of getting to them over the next few months. One blogging project I’m particularly excited about is a weekly series reviewing recent publications and recordings.
• Summer Teaching: This year I’ll be on the faculty of Cannon Music Camp in Boone, NC. This three-week high school music camp is held on the campus of Appalachian State University, my alma mater. I attended CMC during my early high school years, and I have very fond memories of the time I spent there. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to being on the faculty.

Though I’m sure 2012 will bring with it new challenges (i.e. opportunities), I look forward to this year with optimism and enthusiasm – I hope you do too!