October brings with it a number of different horn-related activities for me, with something going on almost every single weekend. This will make for a busy – but also interesting and fun(!) – month.  Once the dust settles and I’ve had some time to reflect, I plan to blog in more detail about several of these events.  To kick things off, this weekend I’ll be judging horn and probably tuba as well at the Louisiana All-State Band and Orchestra auditions.  All-State auditions in Louisiana are held in two separate rounds, this one being the second, and final round.  The week after that we begin rehearsals for the Monroe Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert.  The program includes the Symphony No. 2 of Brahms, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy.  The following week I’ll be playing two more concerts with the Rapides Symphony Orchestra on a special choral program; works include Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy, “The Promise of Living” from Copland’s The Tender Land, and Bernstein’s “Make our Garden Grow” from Candide. For that concert I’ll be playing principal instead of third.  And the week after that…October will wrap up with another Rapides Symphony concert, this time featuring Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. I’ll be returning to my usual third horn part for that one.  I’m looking forward to all of these concerts, despite the busy schedule and full teaching load along with it.  Although there is sometimes the perception that college teachers don’t perform that much, this isn’t the case at all.  Many college music professors are extremely active performers, with experience in solo, orchestral, and chamber music.