Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! I had the immense pleasure of an inaugural week of concerts and classes with Spark Brass last week in Lancaster, PA. We had a fantastic time on and off the stage, and it was a delight to play with such fine musicians and socialize with such great people! We created dynamic programs of classical, jazz, Latin and interactive performance and the audiences really enjoyed the variety and high level of performance.  One favourite event of the weekend was on Saturday night when we played in an Irish Pub for a few hours for a wonderful audience.  We read some fantastic jazz and classical arrangements of some great Christmas tunes, and even through in a few standard quintet pieces, which the audience really enjoyed! Check out a video of Rudolph on our Spark Brass Facebook page!  To all my family and friends, enjoy your break, and

Yesterday was a very neat experience for me.  Three of my high school students had the opportunity to play in a master class for Jeff Nelsen, Dale Clevenger and Rick Seraphinoff, all teaching together! I was incredibly proud of their bravery and persistence in the class, and thought they did a great job presenting themselves.  At one point I thought about the fact that there were several generations of students and teachers in the room: Jeff studied with Mr. Clevenger, I studied with Jeff (and Mr. Clevenger), and the high school students studied with me. Yet all the generations had a chance to work together, and I think that was a very special learning opportunity, and I truly enjoyed being both student and teacher in that situation! 
The master class was arranged by Don Krause as part of the first Bloomington Horns A Plenty Christmas.  It was a neat event and a great way to start the holiday season.  Hoping that everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and safe travels wherever they might go!