Fancy Band news and a sad update
An email went out yesterday from Dr. K, sharing some Fancy Band news with us. While the full roster isn't settled yet, in part because there are a number of educators in the band who weren't able to submit their audition recordings during the school year, he still wanted to share the people who are among the confirmed members. He won't release seating assignments until after mid-June, which is fine. I have a feeling I'm firmly second part, and that's okay. This whole situation makes me really nervous. Also, he'll post the music online so we can get a jump on it. Sweet! Legit, I'd been thinking about reaching out to him to see what was going on, and if there was a chance to get the music early, because I imagine it's really hard and I'm not a good sightreader. Not that I would tell him all that, but it's the truth. I'm good up until about Grade 3-level music--much of what we played at camp the last few years was more Grade 2 or 2.5. I'd be surprised if anything in this band is lower than a Grade 4, and most likely 5 or 6, AKA I'm gonna die. Ah well. I'll die doing what I love, heh.
Back to the roster, there were many names I did not recognize, but I'd say about 20% of them I've come across somehow, or heard of. Several are band directors in the area. I think there are four that I recognized as recent NCC grads, including two of the flutes. The rest of the flutes I don't know. The biggest, and most pleasant, surprise came from the sax section--Larry is going to play! Holy cow! That's awesome! I don't know why that excited me so much, but it really did. It'll be nice to see him again, and what a change to have him behind a stand instead of holding a baton.
That got me thinking about the one time I recall hearing him play, at a faculty recital while I was a student. We'd had a professor named Rufus who'd composed a sax solo, and that's what Larry played: Five Transcendental Cupcakes. I remember people saying they could see the sprinkles, heh. That then got me to thinking about Rufus; what a character that guy was. Every so often, I think about how my classmate stole his thermos and Rufus went chasing him around Pfeiffer. Throw in some Benny Hill music and you have an old-school comedy sketch. He lived in Elgin, and on our drives in we'd actually take the same route for part of the way; occasionally we'd come to class and be like, did you see that jackass in the brown car? I wondered whatever happened to Rufus and what he was up to.
This is where the story goes dark: Rufus passed away in 2005. He was just 32. There's no cause of death listed in the obituary I found, but I know it's him; I remembered him talking about his daughter, who was a year old when I first met him, and she had a name with a spelling variation that stuck out to me. Seeing the obit, I remembered that his wife shared my name. They'd had a second daughter.
Rufus was such a quirky, memorable guy. I recalled doing a series on some of my favorite teachers back in 2007, and sure enough, Rufus got a post. It was nice to read through that and go back to that time. I had a lot of fun with him, even if it freaked me out to know I had a college friend who was older than him. Most college professors are in their 30s and 40s at least, if not older; to have a guy who was maybe 25 was pretty unusual. I found an article about him from shortly after he died, written by a friend, that said he was teaching at another college in Northern Illinois--Kishwaukee, I think. The friend's article was rather amusing, in a morbid way, and it mentioned that he actually hated teaching. Perhaps because I'd had him early in his teaching career, I didn't get that sense about him, but he really wanted to do was compose, and he'd even put out an album, which the friend was listening to as he wrote. I imagine the friend was a bit quirky, too; those types tend to congregate together, I've found.
Anyway, yesterday was bittersweet. I'm excited and looking forward to being in this new group, to see what it's like and how we mesh, and I'm saddened to have learned of the passing of someone who probably could have written music for us to play, if only he'd lived long enough to write it.
Back to the roster, there were many names I did not recognize, but I'd say about 20% of them I've come across somehow, or heard of. Several are band directors in the area. I think there are four that I recognized as recent NCC grads, including two of the flutes. The rest of the flutes I don't know. The biggest, and most pleasant, surprise came from the sax section--Larry is going to play! Holy cow! That's awesome! I don't know why that excited me so much, but it really did. It'll be nice to see him again, and what a change to have him behind a stand instead of holding a baton.
That got me thinking about the one time I recall hearing him play, at a faculty recital while I was a student. We'd had a professor named Rufus who'd composed a sax solo, and that's what Larry played: Five Transcendental Cupcakes. I remember people saying they could see the sprinkles, heh. That then got me to thinking about Rufus; what a character that guy was. Every so often, I think about how my classmate stole his thermos and Rufus went chasing him around Pfeiffer. Throw in some Benny Hill music and you have an old-school comedy sketch. He lived in Elgin, and on our drives in we'd actually take the same route for part of the way; occasionally we'd come to class and be like, did you see that jackass in the brown car? I wondered whatever happened to Rufus and what he was up to.
This is where the story goes dark: Rufus passed away in 2005. He was just 32. There's no cause of death listed in the obituary I found, but I know it's him; I remembered him talking about his daughter, who was a year old when I first met him, and she had a name with a spelling variation that stuck out to me. Seeing the obit, I remembered that his wife shared my name. They'd had a second daughter.
Rufus was such a quirky, memorable guy. I recalled doing a series on some of my favorite teachers back in 2007, and sure enough, Rufus got a post. It was nice to read through that and go back to that time. I had a lot of fun with him, even if it freaked me out to know I had a college friend who was older than him. Most college professors are in their 30s and 40s at least, if not older; to have a guy who was maybe 25 was pretty unusual. I found an article about him from shortly after he died, written by a friend, that said he was teaching at another college in Northern Illinois--Kishwaukee, I think. The friend's article was rather amusing, in a morbid way, and it mentioned that he actually hated teaching. Perhaps because I'd had him early in his teaching career, I didn't get that sense about him, but he really wanted to do was compose, and he'd even put out an album, which the friend was listening to as he wrote. I imagine the friend was a bit quirky, too; those types tend to congregate together, I've found.
Anyway, yesterday was bittersweet. I'm excited and looking forward to being in this new group, to see what it's like and how we mesh, and I'm saddened to have learned of the passing of someone who probably could have written music for us to play, if only he'd lived long enough to write it.