Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lil Brother

Josh and Katy
Josh and Katy - July 2010

Champ and I drove up to TN to see the lil brother (who, obviously, is not so little and could actually pass for my twin) perform in the last concert of the music festival that he was interning/studying at this summer.

I think this is the part where I add in some back story.

Josh-man has been playing oboe since 5th grade. The band director in his elementary school band (who, by the way, is still, to this date and about 10 band directors later, still the best I've ever had) picked his ability to hear if an instrument is in tune or not from the start and told my parents that she wanted to do something unorthodox. She wanted to start him on an instrument that most kids only started playing because a band director in high school coaxed a flute player into changing their instrument. Instead Ms. Baker started Josh off on oboe.

Over 190 years later he's still playing. In about a month he starts graduate school at the University of Hartford's conservatory, The Hartt School. This summer he was at the Sewanee Music Festival. The big part of the concert was his English Horn (which..is like a larger oboe...he's going to yell at me for that, but that's the best frame of reference for someone who doesn't study it) in the Largo movement of New World (Dvorak Symphony No 9).

It was incredible.

I've been listening to him play for a looong time, but this was easily my favorite. When it was over and he stood up, the whole place cheered. Not just my family. And the orchestra itself broke into resounding applause.

The little man has reached the bigs.


(also for those you paying attention I cut my hair short! which you can see in the photo)

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