Meaghan Austin should be playing her clarinet solo today at a community concert to showcase her musical skills. Last February, she auditioned and won the Lovezolla 2020 Scholarship Award. She won’t play for a live audience. The Puyallup Valley Community Band stopped rehearsals for that concert on March 10–the same day a Skagit Valley choir… Read more
music
“That first breath,” says Kaity Adkins, “isn’t for the audience. It’s for you and for the people you are connecting with in the band.” She would know how best to begin a concert. Currently attending Rogers High School, Adkins plays five instruments in four different bands and recently won the Puyallup Valley Community Band Scholarship. She started practicing… Read more
Jennifer Rhee begged her parents for years to let her play the flute. She’d seen someone play at a wedding when she was seven and knew the melodic instrument was for her. Only when she turned nine could her fingers reach the keys so she could begin to study. But ever since that beginning, she’s… Read more
Dear Readers- I’m going to try too much in this post. I’m going to tell you of youth and beauty, of talent and hard work, and of a failed audition. I’m going to tell you of the Russian, of the day my dad died, the day another dad hugged his daughter, and why teachers matter. It’s… Read more
“Band Director Conducts Daughter in Solo Scholarship Performance” Eighteen-year-old Mikaela Rink has a secret to her clarinet success. “It’s like living with a human metronome.” Rink said, referring to her father and the clicking timekeepers musicians use to keep rhythm. Bob Rink often passes by her door as she practices at home, telling her if… Read more
I never meant to disappoint Mr. Zorro. Seriously, who could want to disappoint a teacher with a name like that? He wasn’t as swashbuckling as the guy in black, but I liked Mr. Zorro. I agreed to do the solo contest under his guidance in college like I had done so many others before that–just… Read more
Jessica Lewis, the trombone soloist in our band, reminds me of Marci Kobayashi-Smith, my good friend in high school. Jessica is tall, with cropped dark hair and skin like the color of vanilla ice cream. She plays in the toasty church where we practice, wearing a knit hat in a quirk that Marci did not have but I wouldn’t… Read more
The other day my son said, “You know you’ve got a LOT of books on writing on your bookshelf. Have you read all of those?” Mostly, I told him. (He wasn’t particularly impressed — just astounded that I could stay focused for that long on reading books about putting words on paper.) And he doesn’t even… Read more