Check out this clip of the Atlanta Symphony featured on CNN. It also features our principal trombone, Colin Williams. You can spot me (barely) in the back row when they start talking about the drum line.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/12/19/nr-baldwin-sounds-of-the-season.cnn#/video/bestoftv/2011/12/19/nr-baldwin-sounds-of-the-season.cnn

I am honored to have been chosen as the new member of the Atlanta Symphony trombone section!

I received the news on a Sunday and found myself driving a truck across Canada and the US the following Tuesday. I arrived in Atlanta to meet my wife and son (they got to fly!) on Sunday and was happy to have a home to practice in - instead of rest stops and hotel rooms along the way.

This week we are playing Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Rimsky-Korsakov's Cappriccio Espagnol and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. Fun opening week!

There is a lot of fun pieces to play this season, but I'm particularly looking forward to our Carnegie tour in two weeks.

More soon!

There was a great review of last night's concert of Mahler 2 in Seattle. With a specific mention to Ko-Ichiro and the trombone section:

"Ko-ichiro Yamamoto and his trombone section [Ko-Ichiro, principal; myself, second; David Ritt, 3rd; Stephen Fissell, bass] offered especially cultivated soft tones."

Playing with the Seattle Symphony is always fun, but this time it was also eye opening. This year in the VSO has been the most taxing year of my life. We played 158 concerts in 39 weeks. It's the most I have done in this short period of time and I've built strength because of it. So when I sat down to play Second trombone with Seattle I was ready to crush some second trombone parts David Finlayson style.  

After the first page, Ko-Ichiro leaned over and asked me to take a little heat off of the sound. So I backed off about 5% and paid attention to not letting my sound cut. I concentrated on always producing a great sound and never taking the sound to its limits for the whole week. My perception was that Ko-Ichiro and I worked together and not against each other. Our unisons sounded like one giant trombone and the tuttis had a great sound that projected to the back of the hall (both loud and soft dynamics). I had my cousin Brandon (UGA trumpet professor) come to the show and he agreed with my assessment.  

I have come to the conclusion that I need to rethink the way that I play trombone. There is a time to play with some cut to your sound, but 90 percent of what you need to do is play with the most relaxed efficient sound possible. Not only will you sound better, you will be able to play longer. I am not saying that I have been playing with a bad loud sound for the last couple of years - I am saying that I can produce an even better, and easier sound.  

Here are some of the positives that will come from this concept change:

1. Your power will increase as your effort decreases.  
2. Your conductor will give your section a green light at all times.
3. You still may get fatigued, but you will always have enough face.
4. Your work satisfaction will go up exponentially.

See what happens when you get your whole section to play like this. This is one of my summer projects, give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Cheers!

Today I'm off to a clinic at a local school in Surrey, BC. This is one of my favorite parts of my job - teaching.

This weekend I enjoyed teaching lessons to more advanced college-aged students at the STW, but I also love the students who just picked up the trombone. Both groups are very different to teach, but very rewarding.

The clean slate of a new beginner holds so much potential - I make it my goal in our weekly lesson to unlock as much of this as possible. Today's younger student's schedule is so packed with activities that I try to make realistic weekly practice goals, but it is truly amazing how much improvement I've seen with students who may only practice at band and in private lessons (of course I don't advocate this approach!).

The professional masterclass or clinic teaching environment is fun and challenging as a clinician because you want to introduce large concepts that can apply to both individual students and the larger audience.

Whatever the teaching environment, I love it! 

I had a blast this weekend at STW! It was an honor to play alongside Ko-Ichiro and Stephen in the recital on Sunday evening!

I should have some new audio from the recital up soon - Aura, Bach Prelude, Thoughts of Love and Casterede.

Keep checking in!

If you haven't heard through the grapevine, I will be performing at this year's Seattle Trombone Workshop on May 22nd. I've been really excited to be working on solo repertoire again. 

I'll be giving a masterclass early in the day and then performing with Ko-Ichiro Yamamoto, Steve Fissell and pianist, Chiao-Wen Cheng that evening.

My program will be Aura by Anthony Dilorenzo (the piece I commissioned in memory of my mom), Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite no. 2, and 

I have come across a very interesting slide.  

I'm updating the audio section of my website so all audio is hosted here instead of an outside site. I hope to dig out some fun old stuff to post. Also, I may start recording some new stuff soon...any requests?