blog post one: in which i talk

orientation was amazing. however, the real world is not.

i wish i was more practical.

Final Presentation!!!

Hey! I just want to let everyone know that my final presentation will at 2:00 on June 5th at Emerson Point Assisted Livings.  It will be just around 30 minutes and there will be treats and refreshments afterwards.

See You  There!

-hl

Thomas – Special Thanks!

Well, the final amount that we raised for the University of Iowa hasn’t come in  quite yet, but at this time, we’ve raised close to $5,000!

Special thanks to our Sponsors for the event:

Special thanks to:

Every Bloomin’ Thing

The Englert Theatre

Jane William Sax Studio

Dottie Ray

M.C. Gingsberg Estate

Thomas H. McMurray & Mary McMurray

Tom Hein and Mary Hein

John Mergen and Tami Mergen

Ed Zastrow

Tina Burrill

Linda – The Concert

One week later, I finally figure out how to post video links to this blog. Yes, I’m just that talented.

But here are snippets of some of the performers from last Friday night. There was this one boy – well you’ll see in the clips.

You can watch all the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/YFei0728#grid/user/EF5CD7525A4F4AF8, but I’ve uploaded a few of the concert highlights on this blog.

Issay Niki playing the Prelude in G minor by J.S. Bach. Get this – he’s only 6!

Miera Kim, on violin, and Carey Bostian, on cello, playing the Internezzo movement of the Eight Duets, Op. 39 by Reinhold Gliere.

Thomas performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata, No. 2, Mvt. I.

Anthony Arnone playing Gaspar Cassado’s Suite for Cello.

Justin Moser (soprano sax), Elizabeth Lin (alto sax), Kap Mueller (tenor sax), and Curt Oren (bari sax), playing the Quatuor, Mvt. III by Pierre Max Dubois.

Thomas ending the concert with Alexander Scriabin’s Etude, Op. 42, No. 5.

Plus:

Ticket stubs!

I had a great time at the concert. And it was pretty fun hanging out back trying to discreetly film all the performers. But wow, did my feet ache after the concert – 3 hours of high heels = ouch.

Thanks to everyone who came and for all the businesses and people for their support!

After the concert…

Well the concert is finally over..  and it was quite a success! I was able to get the concert into two of our local newspapers, the Press-Citizen and the Gazette, which attracted the attention of our Local TV news station KCRG TV9, who decided to do a story on the concert for me as well.  I believe that a “post concert report” will be showing up soon in a newspaper from Des Moines as well!

More than 130 people showed up for the concert, and a third of them ended up buying tickets to come to the reception afterwards.

Not to mention, at the concert alone, more than $1,300 were raised in donations alone.  I think that I raised about $5,300 from the concert- not too shabby!   Checks are still flowing in, so I’ll have a final ammount hopefully by the end of the week.

Honestly, I was touched to see how many people care about our community at home- one man came up to me and thanked me for setting an example for “all the folks, young and old, in Iowa”.   It really made me think about the meaning of compassion. Hopefully I’ve inspired some kids or even adults to help out the community as well.

Even among the hundreds of emails and countless hours I’ve spent on this project, I fell like it was completely worth it.  I had a blast with this project! I’m even thinking about doing something similar to this next year for our local hospice.  This project really inspired me to look at my community and the world in different eyes: you can make a difference, as long as you try.

I’ll post some pictures soon, and some video should be popping up from the concert on Linda’s profile!

Cheers,

-Thomas

Thomas – How ’bout an update?

I can’t believe that there are only five days left until the concert! (Jenny’s note – the concert is TONIGHT!!  May 21st.  Go see it!!)

The past few weeks have been filled with an uncountable amount of emails.

The letters to the sponsors were a huge success: I’m leaning on about a 50% success rate, and I’ve raised about $2000 so far- but there is one huge lesson that I learned during this project: The best way to contact people is through the phone- not through email or by letter. I’ve had quite a bit of difficulty with contacting people through letters.. apparently the postmaster lost them, or something went wrong in the process, because a good 10 companies didn’t get my letter through the mail. Email was a bit of a flop as well, many of the emails went unanswered or ignored, or refused to send in the first place.

Hayley – Clarinet progress!

This shows the clarinetist at their fourth lesson. They have really grown in their playing abilities, and the confidence they have in themselves and their music. Playing trios and duets, as they are here, has also been really helpful for this as they have had to think independently about what they were playing as opposed to listening to the people around them.

DaRin – Intro to my project!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the super belated blog post, but better late than never, right?

For my project, I will investigate El Sistema, the revolutionary music education program in Venezuela, and compare it to the music education program in my hometown – Iowa City/Coralville. Although music ed in Iowa City/Coralville is amazing, I think there’s always room for improvement, and I hope that researching and spreading the word about El Sistema will inspire people to strive for the best in music ed!

I’ll be more diligent about this blog – watch out for a bombardment of my posts in the next few days!

-dl

p.s. cheers to my first blog ever!

Harin – Rehearsals @ Emerson Point

Hey. I just had my fourth rehearsal with the tenants of Emerson Point Assisted Livings. I am conducting the chimes and

accompanying the chorus. We are having a lot of fun. The chimes group is playing 6 pieces, and the chorus is singing 5 songs; I let them choose most of the pieces/songs.

I will be visiting EP two more times, then it is the final concert!!! All of the tenants are really excited to perform. Many of them said they will invite their families to come watch!

Tell you more about the concert later!!!

-Harin

Linda – Reflection – at FTT meeting

At West High in the South Band Room for the leadership meeting. It was really nice seeing what everyone has done, and how much they’ve done. It was amazing at how much everyone managed to accomplish!

Even more, it was nice having everything out there and realizing exactly what I’ve managed to do and what I really need to get done now. It surprised me at how I could relate to a lot of the difficulties that everyone faced, even though we’re doing such different things.

I’ve just been threatened and blackmailed into talking about success. Kidding. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about what success was for this project, but thinking back, it was most likely that hopefully people would come and that maybe we would possibly, on the off-chance, raise some money for the university. Honestly, I was a little doubtful that it would really work out. I’m just a natural pessimist.

But working through it now, and hearing how well everyone has done, I definitely want to work harder and spread the word. And I realized, especially after talking with Jenny, that success doesn’t have to be raising a million dollars, but learning (and wow did I learn a lot about the limits to my organizational skills) how to organize events. It’s so much more different then school projects, and I’ve learned so much more how taking the initiative and planning (planning is so important!).

Concert on Friday – hope to see some familiar faces there!