freelance and stuff

I'm going to write about freelancing today, because things have been pretty busy lately and it's mostly what I'm thinking about. I'm going to give you a month in the life of Josh, so that aspiring trumpet players can know how crazy things can get (get out while you can). In the past few weeks I've had to do a wide variety of projects and be able to come in and "fit" in with all of them. For example, at the beginning of the month I was performing and recording a piece by Lisa Bielawa, a great composer, that involved performing in a transient ambient space. Her piece was very challenging both technically and musically, it required a lot of character and personality to bring it to life.

Next was a solo performance for a Terry Winter Owens memorial concert. This was at CUNY and was filmed by a tv crew for broadcast. I got the music only days before and required a lot of score study, since I was the only one who hadn't performed the piece before.

Then, I was off to NC to play with Carolina Brass, who I wrote about in a previous blog. But talk about shifting gears. Not only was the music making different, the whole life style was completely different. But it was really interesting to see how freelancers in NC do it.

After that, I'm slated for a bunch of shows at South Pacific. I guess the adventure keeps on going. Sometimes I know ahead of time what I have coming up, sometimes I don't. I think its about preparing to be unprepared, if that makes any sense. When things come up on the fly you have to just go with it. Anyway, I'm happy to be working right now and doing things I enjoy.