OK, we did get back pretty late. The concert was excellent -- it really got me going about playing again -- and I really think I want to play with Maureen's quintet. I like them all... they're a good bunch of people and fun to be with. We all enjoyed the Beethoven, we all thought the Schubert was a bit heavy, and we had a great time afterward. We went out to this place that specializes in desserts, and I had this sort of kiwi-fruit tart that was much more filling than it looked.
So, the rundown. Maureen is a flutist who's in her senior year at Northwestern, minoring in music and majoring in engineering. She likes acoustics. I think she's doing engineering so she'll have a job, and music so that she'll have a mind. I like her. She's from Massachusetts and turned down Berklee and Eastman because she wanted to know something other than music. She plans on staying at NWU for grad school, and so she wants to put the quintet together for the long run.
The hornist is from California. In any other circumstance, I'd have assumed Daniel was a surfer "dude" and would know more about the Venice early-morning surf than about Walter Piston or Shostakovich. But he's here, a graduate student in musicology, making money on the side as a parts copyist and playing when he can. He's tall, thin, blonde, and has a girlfriend named Elsa back in California.
Their clarinetist-to-be is a Canadian woman named Mary-Therese. She's from Hull, which, if I remember, is outside their capital, Ottawa. She is intense, one of those people who stares at you hard every second you're speaking, and then, when you're done, waits about five seconds, and then makes one nice, perfectly-packaged sentence her response. Hard to adjust to, but I like her, too. She was absolutely right on in her observations about the concert. Oddly, she was also hilarious at the place we went after, sizing up the horrendous fashion gaffes of some of the other female diners. I like the way she has, but I think I'd worry about someday being on the other side of her microscope.
Bassoonists have all been hilarious in my playing career, and Jenny is no exception. She's tiny -- maybe 4-11, if I'm being generous, and reminds me of no one more than the gymnast, Mary Lou Retton. She's from Pennsylvania and is just a fireball. She's apparently a senior in performance and was playing in a small ensemble, but personality conflicts led her to find another one.
Next to these people, I feel very dull and Midwestern. They seem to like me though. I hope. We'll see what happens after we get together and play. That blessed event is now set to take place Wednesday nights and possibly Saturday afternoons. I have a few more days to tune up my embouchure. And try to make some playable reeds, or break down and buy some.
Today, Saturday, was pretty nasty. It snowed a little, and I stayed in the apartment all day, writing, listening to music, and playing with Fargo. I also joined a thing called a "web ring," one devoted to people who keep online diaries and such. You may have noticed the extra links and picture at the bottom of my "calendar" index. That's the access for the Open Pages ring, which allows you to change to other people's diaries if you want. I've already cruised around the ring a little bit and found a surprising array of styles and views. These people are not kidding.
Tomorrow, I'm getting out the reed knife and seeing if I can salvage a couple of the less-than-great reeds I made a while back. Maybe I'll try some more.