The Amstel Quartet came back from a succesful series of concerts in Russia. The ensemble made their debut as soloists in Tristan Keuris' Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Nizhny Novgorod.

Friday night

Friday night. Two posts on one day. Holland won its second game. Boring game though.
Say Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tonight. Movie's ok, wouldn't recommend it though. Book's great. I 'read' the audioversion as read by Stephen Fry.

Friday 1030, just came back from running and took a shower

Friday 1030, just came back from running and took a shower. About to go study after doing some shopping. At 1300 I have a lunch meeting with someone who might make a new concert costume for me. After that rehearsal with Wijnand and then the Netherlands play again at 1800. After that Ailed has a performance at 2030 with het Kabinet.

I never bought a new iMac. I might in the (near?) future but not as for now. The recovery of my hard disk is already very costly.

For the baritone sax I am trying out a new mouthpice. An AL3 by Vandoren. It's a nice mouthpiece, very flexible. But it has some problems form forte and louder. I have to see this week if I can fix that before going to Russia. I haven't been too happy with my Selmer D, it always has been a compromise.

Right, wednesday today

Right,
wednesday today. Came back from a good quartet rehearsal. We're studying Keuris to play with orchestra in Russia en Glazounow for a recital there. Eveything is more or less on schedule. The Glazounow is exciting because he's Russian, of course and we're playing it there in Russia... let's see if we get it right!

Today I might buy an iMac, I am not too sure yet, we'll see, it's a lot of money, and I still have to pay for the recovery of my other HDD... expensive stuff!. On the other hand, I spend a lot of time behind my computer so it should be a good one that I feel comfortable with. My Powerbook is fine, but I need a desktop too. Bigger screen and all, you know.

In August I will play a solo with the New Cool Collective for Grachtenfesitval and some of these weeks the soloparts should be finished. Very exciting stuff! The week after I will do a solo recital with Ivo Bol (www.ivobol) also in the Grachtenfestival. I am looking forward to this very much, although it will all be right after holidays... For some reason I always play most at the opening of the season...

One month almost since my last entry

One month almost since my last entry. I am just about to go off to Germany now with the quartet to play a concert. Just one unfortunately. We'll be back Saturday afternoon. Although it migh be relaxing, couple of hours in the car.

Rutte won the VVD elections. I was hoping for him, but afterwards I realized that the VVD is not my party and that I don't really care. Although Verdonk could have changed the political climate in the Netherlands or at least have caused a riot.

Maastricht wanted to move some coffee shops to the Belgian border to get them out of the centre. Belgium is protesting. I wasn't sure about their side of the story, but Leers said that the problem wasn't the coffee shops at the border, but the faxt that the Belgians are not allowed to buy soft drugs (they can carry 3 grams!).

I am studying a lot these days, I have an important audition coming up in July. My standard repertoire: Denisow Sonata, Creston Sonata, Lauba Balafon, Demersseman Fantaisie, Debussy Rapsody, Schulhoff Sonata. NIce repertoire and I love to study it. Also I am studying the Rascher top tone method now. I really started to work on the first couple of pages studying long tones in many varieties. I can really recommend doing this for every saxophonist. A few pages later I will start playing high tones but not after I have mastered the first couple of pages. Especially the pages on tone imagination are very good!

I have to find out a way to avoid carrying the baritone on my back . I wasn't too fond of the baritone anyway and now it is ruining my back also! Remco had a good and simple idea: to let the bari lean on my hips with a belt like back packs. We tried it out with my own belt and it worked. Now I should get a pro to make a working system.
I also thought about buying a 'bakfiets' so I don't have to carry the instrument on my body. That's also a good option, although the bari will have to endure Amsterdam bike rides which can be bumpy at times.