I attended a Colorado Symphony Orchestra concert. The guest soloist was Edgar Meyer. I had not seen him perform since 1993, when I spent the summer in the small town of Sewanee, Tennessee for the Sewanee Music Festival. I've seen a lot of soloists over the years at music camps, and I don't remember the name of a single one of them except for Edgar. I think it's for 2 reasons. One, bass is an unusual soloist instrument and two, he's just that good. He performed a concerto he composed himself with a percussion instrument him and a friend invented made of PVC pipe.
The CSO also performed my favorite piece - Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.
Another reason I like Denver: I woke up at 6:30pm from a nap, took a shower and still made it downtown in time for the 7:30 show that I only had to pay $5 for a student ticket and had an excellent seat.
Another Note: Speaking of Sewanee, it inspired me to look up my old clarinet teacher, Bruce Dinkins (who was also a conductor at Sewanee). While I was in highschool he had moved from Georgia to South Carolina to be the conductor at Irmo High school. In college I met a girl that had gone to the highschool and knew him. Looks like he has moved on to a high school in Austin, Texas but is still conducting some in the summer at Sewanee. I remember that he would wander through his house during my lesson, but I never doubted for a second that he was listening because then he would holler like a drill sergeant from another room with corrections. At Sewanee in the cafeteria, he put his finger in my brownie and then asked "don't you hate it when people put their fingers in your food?". Interesting sense of humor but definitely one of the best clarinet teachers I ever had.
