End of the Year!

The year is coming to a close and things should start picking up again. I've been lying low, practicing, auditioning, working, you know the drill.

I have two gigs coming up before the end of the year. Christmas Eve I return back to my hometown church, St. Ann's Catholic Church in Richmond Hill, GA. I haven't played midnight mass there in years, but this year I decided to come home for Christmas rather than pick up extra money to play. Last year I didn't play at all, I just wanted to hang out with my niece and nephews at the children's mass. It was nice just to relax...but I did miss playing.

The Friday after I have a gig playing a concert with a bunch of Eastman and Indiana alumni. Apparantly no Eastman flutists live in Atlanta. So the oboist in my woodwind quintet drafted me. Seems like its going to be a fun concert and I am looking foward to it. A really great way to finish out the year. I'm playing more in the concert setting, and its the best!

A look ahead to next year brings alot of playing as well, and hopefully duoATL can start really putting things together. After our concert in March we should have a lot of quality recordings to send out to potential venues.

As far as writing? I haven't done a lot this year. Almost nothing. So maybe I'll get back in the mood. Its time, I got a lot to say, and I need to start sayin it already.

Next Year: more writing, more playing, new website, new recordings....NO FEAR!!

Apparition Recorded!!!

After 4 years of waiting, I finally got to hear Apparition for the first time today! The performance is by James Strauss, flutist, and the string orchestra is Antunes Camera both located in Brazil. Here it is:

http://www.nikkinotes.com/music.html

Atlanta Ballet on AFM Unfair List

The saga continues...The ballet has been contacting musicians to record Michael Moricz’ score to “Great Gatsby” for the Atlanta Ballet. The score calls for symphonic orchestra, as well as a 17-piece jazz band. Needless to say the union is pretty unhappy about this latest endeavor.

A picket is planned for this weekend at the Fox Theatre during the ballet's performances:

Oct. 26 at 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Oct. 27 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Oct. 28 at 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Oct. 28 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Oct. 29 at 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Oct. 29 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM

I can give you contact info of the organizer of the picketing if you need it.

The journey continues

The journey continues to find out exactly where I belong and what i am suppose to be doing with my life. I think I know what I want but then life throws you a curve ball to see what you'll actually hold on to.

I think the next couple of weeks might help me determine what I want to keep striving for...of course you know the ol saying, "Anything worth keeping (or getting) is worth fighting for".

This week duoATL had a gig, although a minor gig in Cartersville. Anyone, but me apparantly, should have known that this was not the gig for us. I think the wind made that clear when it was finally successful in ripping the pages from our clips. Nothing worse than stopping to fix your pages and starting again, no matter how small the crowd. I don't see many more outside gigs in our future. Other than that and all the distractions (motorcycles, sirens, and trains) we played basically well. However, lesson learned in my booking capablilties. Better luck next time.

This Saturday I head off to Macon to try and audition for the Macon Symphony sub flute part. I will try to be confidant, and think positive. Finding inspiration from Anne's blog.

Wish me luck! This will probably be my last big event for the year, besides the usual musical wanderings I do for the rest of the year. Next big recital isn't until February.

Ahhhh Vacation Time!

I am officially back from a week in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. We had a great time, and the weather was incredible but was ready to be back home with the Spotted Rocket. Back to the ole grind tommorrow...and back to regular eating habits. Yes you can eat too many crab legs in Baltimore no matter how good they are.

The next gig will be with Brian in duoATL at the Legacy Fine Arts Festival in Cartersville, GA. We're are going to play more of our crowd pleasers which includes Villa-Lobos and Piazzola. If you around Cartersville on October 21 at 11am come check us out. I am always a little concerned about playing outside though. Pray for good weather.

Thanks to everyone that made it out to Capitol City Opera Company's performance of Andre Previn's "Streetcar Named Desire". It went very well and was a long one, and as a musician it keeps you on your toes the whole time...even when you are resting. The best performance by the orchestra by far. The singers, as always, were awesome. I hope I get the chance to continue performing as principal flutist with the company.

Crashing Gigs

I generally do not crash gigs...but this group was a bit different. I had just finished rehearsal for the opera and met some friends to hear a band they really loved called Swami. Since they are a band with Jam tendencies they seemed to be warm to the idea of having me play. Good times playing, nice change up from the rigidness of the music I've been currently playing.

I also played with Organized Time at the Five Spot this week. Love their style, but I played like a turkey. I think I tried to do to much that day work, duoATL rehearsal, and then meeting them to jam...I was already wiped out from opera rehearsal all week...oh well. I had fun though, and that's what matters.

Mini Recharge

What wonders a visit home can do! This Labor Day weekend I packed up the dog and my flute and headed to Savannah to visit my parents and sister. I have to admit I've been feeling a little down trodden about things. I really hadn't felt like I made any progress this year. Family and old friends always has a way of showing you the big picture.

After coming home on Saturday I was able to help Mom with a Powerpoint presentation. I hate Powerpoint, never been a fan, and perhaps it is because I don't use it much. Once we got that out of the way we went to a concert by Cuarteto Latinamericano at the fabulously renovated >Lucas Theatre. It really was uplifting to hear them play music by living composers, and composers that I feel write in a similar style as me. Needless to say it got me motivated. To get back into writing again. Its been way to long, I need to jump back on that horse.

Sunday morning I played at St. Ann's in Richmond Hill, a historic church with ties to Henry Ford. It has the best acoustics, very live, but just the way I like it.

That afternoon I visited a friend from high school who I hadn't seen in about 11 years. Its crazy how people with similar lives can take such different paths. I've been just trying to make life more pleasant and he's been trying to preserve it in one form or another. But he did offer some words of wisdom...You can see the glass as half full or half empty, the important thing is to drink it. And that's something I need to remember. I doesn't matter what I've accomplished or not accomplished, the important thing is to live life. Stop worrying and make it happen for myself. Whatever I feel "it" is.

Yesterday was a sliding back into normalcy. After getting toes done with mom and sister, I headed back to Atlanta. And made it just in time for opera rehearsal. I feel better. I think I know what I need to do, and I just need to stop complaining and whining about it and get it done already. I just need to remember to lighten up sometimes and have fun. Which I hope to accomplish on my east coast road trip in a couple weeks. That should give me the ultimate recharge!

Week of Rejection

So this wasn't a steller week, and actually a pretty broke week. The dog had surgery...good news is he's recovering very well, the rotor and brakes went out on the car, a work of mine was rejected from a local performance group (there were 200 submissions so I don't feel incredibly bad about that), and I didn't make my audition for the Alabama Symphony (I didn't even advance past the initial round).

Needless to say, this week has been a huge blow to the ol' ego. When it rains it pours. Oh well, I've had worse weeks. Rejection is nothing new, and I'm sure it will never go away. It'll just make the few small successes better...when they finally happen.

I am looking foward to some vacation time, and I'm gonna go home to Savannah this weekend to try to get a jump start on feeling like I am on vacation. I'm gonna step back and see if I can get a new plan of attack.

Spotted Rocket Scuttled

Some of you know about my dalmatian, Jesse aka the Spotted Rocket. He had a couple of growths removed today. All went well. I'll know in a
couple of weeks exactly what they were. Hopefully, like last time,
they'll turn out benign.

Here's some pictures of the poor pup...they are a little gross, so if
you don't have the stomach for seeing Frankenstein type scars don't
bother clicking on the link. He'll have his stitches removed in two weeks:

http://www.nikkinotes.com/jesse/

I know this has nothing to do with music, but he does accompany me
when I practice. So in a loose way he is my music buddy, even if he
doesn't always sing in the right key.

Save the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra

Atlanta Ballet has decided they need to dump the orchestra. Here's a little petition that's been started to show support for the musicians:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/abos8306/

Our Own Banner

I love gigs like these. Highland 5 (http://www.highland5.org)had a very nice gig at Young Harris College. We were paid well, played under a huge gazebo with superb weather, played well, fed ice cream, and were put up at a fancy resort in the mountains. If only all of our gigs could be as relaxing and luxurious as this one.....ahhhhh. We love you Young Harris College.

Buy my own orchestra

You know its gotten so discouraging getting my stuff performed, it might come down to me buying an orchestra. And look here's one for sell on Ebay:

Belgian Orchestra for Sale

Vegas, Baby!

The hardest thing about trying to become a full-time musician, is having an awesome day job. I have a fabulous job with fabulous people, not to mention the great perks like an all-expense paid company trip to Las Vegas. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been easier to make it as a musician had I not had this awesome fall-back....There could be worse things, I could be unemployed and starving. As far as I can see a great day job is the best problem to have.

My first blog

In an attempt to become an articulate writer, I have started my own blog. I seriously doubt I'll keep this up, but we'll see.

I am a composer and flautist, but am currently a web designer at an outstanding company during the day. Maybe by the time I retire, I'll have a full-time career as a concert composer...only time will tell.

I haven't decided what I'll put on this blog. Hopefully it will serve to motivate me to follow through on goals, since its in writing and out for anyone to see, and help me find out what has worked for me in the past. Who knows, maybe it will help someone else seize opportunities I find that work for me. So let's see how this will turn out.