WMU. USO. DSO. OMG.

Can you tell I'm excited?

On Tuesday, WMU University Symphony Orchestra went on tour to Detroit!

While we were there, we observed the DSO rehearse and we played our own program in Orchestra Hall that night. While we did have to get on the bus at 6:30am and we got back to Kalamazoo at midnight, it was so worth it. On our program was Cindy Mctee’s Timepiece conducted by Jeff Spenner our wonderful conducting GA,  Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor with Lori Sims and conducted by Bruce Uchimura, and the Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses with none other than Leonard Slatkin himself. Sitting principal meant that I had a front row seat to the action. One of my favorite moments of the day was at the end of our time with maestro Slatkin in rehearsal. Liang, our concertmaster got a handshake and as Slatkin stepped off the podium. I got a nice pat-pat on my shoulder.

I am very proud of the work that everyone in USO has put into this concert cycle. And it really paid off because Tuesday night’s concert was a blast. With three very different pieces conducted by three very different conductors, we really delivered stellar performance.

I usually try and tie some “moral of the story” into my posts… but I don’t really have one this week other than that our trip was a fantastic opportunity. It was fun, it was educational, and I didn’t have to pay for dinner. It was also nice to spend some quality time with members of the orchestra. What more could you want?

A big thanks to all of our conductors, administrators, personnel managers, and supporting staff for making this happen. Every single member of the orchestra that I talked to today was drained from yesterday but everyone said that it was an incredible experience.

Photo credit for the pictures of the orchestra goes to Emmalyn Helge, my dear sister.