Month: July 2012

Today’s workout

I gained weight at the beginning of this summer (for me this year. started around April 30). I didn’t realize HOW MUCH I sit until summer started and I didn’t have to walk around campus every day. I guess I what I really didn’t realize is how much I walk around campus all week. So I’ve been trying to do something active through the week as possible starting in June. Mostly, it’s been walking the dog around the neighborhood next to my house. If we go the whole neighborhood, it’s about 2.75 miles, up and down hills. It takes us about 35 minutes so that’s a pretty good pace.

Today, we only walked half the neighborhood because I wanted to do my Power Yoga video. It’s a deceptively good workout because you’re feeling calm and relaxed but later in the day, you realize ol’ Rodney Yee really helped you get moving. I am sore by the afternoon whenever I do it. I only get about halfway through it because I’m not quite limber enough for the backbends and such towards the end. Well, I put the video in and it starts skipping ahead during the workout. I looked at the disk and a few fingerprints but no scratches. I cleaned off the disk and put it back in only for it to just stop playing all together. Boo!

I remembered I had these magazine workouts I’d cut out recently, once called, “The All-New Muffin-Top Workout” from the June 2012 issue of Glamour (page 128). Okay, let’s give it a go. WOW, it’s a workout for your abs and mid-section! I feel good enough that I have no desire to slouch as I want to continue to feel the burn as I type this blog entry. That one is definitely a keeper. You just need some floor space for 3 of the 4 moves and either two 5 pound weights or a jug with liquid in it that weighs about 10 pounds. You’re sitting for that move.

Next workout might be from the August 2001 issue of Better Homes and Gardens (page 182). Not sure when or where I pulled this workout but I found it in a bag recently. Maybe it was from my dentists office….

Such an honor!

This summer has been my busiest summer in quite a while. Last month, I attended the University of North Texas Conducting Collegium for two weeks (4 sessions). It was such an amazing experience and I was fortunate to meet so many wonderful people (shout out to the Peanut Gallery!!!). There were 44 pieces and there was something enjoyable about almost every one of them.

The purpose of the Collegium is multi-fold. If you’re a conductor, you gain the experience of conducting the UNT Wind Symphony while getting feedback from the fantastic faculty, learn a great piece that you (hopefully) enjoy and if you’re planning on applying to UNT for an advanced degree, it’s a pre-audition of sorts. The pieces that are assigned for the Collegium are the pieces to appear in the next (9th this year) volume of Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, published by GIA. Directly after the Collegium, the Wind Symphony and staff worked an extra week to record all the pieces for the CDs that goes with Volume 9 and now, the staff is working on the CD edits. The participants in the Collegium are basically rehearsal conductors for the recording session. Pretty cool honor, huh? (But that’s not the big honor this entry’s title refers to.)

The piece I conducted was Celebration, by Joseph Turrin, and it is a great piece to open a concert with! It’s a Grade 3 piece but it doesn’t mean its easy. It’s available via C Alan Publications.

So, the big news – during the Collegium, they replaced a piece that was obviously too difficult to be considered a Grade 3 (this year’s music was all Grade 2 & Grade 3) once they ran through the piece. Every piece that is on the CDs has a Study Guide in the book written for it so one needed to be written for the replacement piece and Professor Corporon asked me to write the Study Guide. Yes folks, I’m about to be PUBLISHED!!! And it’s such an honor that of everyone that was there, he asked me.

I’m writing about Akatonbo by Joseph Spaniola. It’s published by Musica Propria. It is a beautiful piece and we read it several times with the Stony Point Concert Band but it never quite worked for their UIL program. I’ve also been excited that it’s a western interpretation of a Japanese folk song. Talk about fitting me to a T! 🙂 There are very strict guidelines from GIA on how it should be written but they include a template to work from which helps so much. I’m almost done with the writing part. I just have a few questions (which, of course, may lead to more questions) to get answered by Dr. Spaniola. Speaking of the composer, I’m so blessed that he’s been so kind and helpful in this process. They asked me to write the study guide in about 2 weeks (everyone else had about 3 months) and having access to him has been a Godsend!

Hardest part about writing for me is writing formally and not writing in circles. I’ve always had issues with that so editing takes a village. Thankfully, I have a few people who have offered to help. It’s about time to send them a draft. 🙂 Anywho, I just had to take a break from all my researching and writing I keep Tweeting about share this exciting news!

Love you, mean it!
~C