Jams, Not Java for a Stress-free Week

by: Jenny Baxter – AWS Percussionist

I’m up at 1:30 a.m. and too hyped up on coffee to sleep. (Ironically, it’s the Breakfast Blend.) I drank coffee at 11 p.m. because I have two papers and a test this week. I drank coffee so late because I procrastinated during the day because I went to class went to practice, made a much needed grocery trip and cleaned my room. I obviously don’t just procrastinate during the day.

I was doing alright, merging ahead full steam with my paper, reminding myself that other people in the symphony will have to get up and go to work tomorrow and I can’t complain about just having to form my opinion and write a few pages. I can’t complain that I don’t have to be at school until 10 a.m., though if I don’t go to sleep soon that will change. Then I plugged in the Ethernet cord. Sigh. Facebook. Sigh. Useless surfing.

I know many other members of the symphony are stressing about finals, work, the FIRST NIGHT CONCERT ON DEC. 31 or the dreaded approach of in-law visits for the holidays.

And in seemingly stressful times like this, I remind myself that,
Number 1: It’s not that bad, I have a lot to be thankful for and I need to suck it up.

And

Number 2: Music is always something that can cheer me up or calm me down.

Right now I have a million things running through my head thanks to Starbucks and one thing I’m thinking about is my second favorite quote, by Aldous Huxley. Music has so much power to transfer ideas from the performer to the listener. Music can transform speeding thoughts into a love melody, a melancholy tone or an upbeat rhythm.

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

An Intellectually Challenged Society?

by: Jenny Baxter – AWS Percussionist 

I want to dole out a big thank you to everyone who came to the Creature Features concert. I had a great time playing and was glad to see all the pirates, Frankensteins, skeletons, bees, wizards and even the Phantom of the Opera.

Now we are already in our fourth week of practice for the First Night concert on New Year’s Eve. Thanks to Branden for directing the symphony in the first couple weeks of practice; that can’t be an easy job during the sightreading stages.

“And now,” to quote Monty Python, “for something completely different.”

Before last week’s practice I watched a movie titled “Idiocracy” which was very funny but in a scary sort of way. The premise is that average Joe Bauer (Luke Wilson), who dawdles his time away in a military library, is chosen for his perfect mediocrity for a “Human Hibernation Project” along with a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph.)

By a string of bad circumstances, the one-year experiment becomes 500, and the pair awake to a United States that has fallen into a deep state of stupidity. This seemingly far-fetched plot is explained by the fact that stupid people reproduce more (think of your favorite trashy relative), causing Average Joe to wake up as smartest person on Earth. Looks, strength, profanity and advertising have replaced intelligence, morals and other virtues.

After watching the film, I listened to classical music on the way to practice just to feel smarter. I wondered if that time would actually come when we would completely value commercialism and profanity over music, literacy, education and morals.

I also thought about how classical music is always associated with intellect, by myself and others. Film and television music is generally thought of as lower in some way, similar to popular music.

Why? The music doesn’t require any less talent to play and studio orchestras spend hours perfecting a piece for a film. Part of our challenge is that people know the music we’re playing. Five-year-olds in the audience will know if we don’t play Batman or Superman perfectly. They may know Beethoven’s Fifth and William Tell Overture, but mistakes aren’t as easily noticed.

Stay smart, appreciate all music whether it really is “intellectual” and check us out on New Year’s Eve.

Below are some photos from our “Creature Features” concert… Enjoy!