Hello from UTAH!

Welcome to my blog, now appearing via www.jasondham.com! Glad you could visit for a minute...

Well, the trip to Utah has been a blast thus far! Utah is such a beautiful place, and it is a delight to finally get the opportunity to visit and perform here. I arrived on Wednesday, February 27, just in time to make the trip from Salt Lake City to Logan for a rehearsal of David Gillingham's Vintage with the Wind Orchestra at Utah State University.

I have since gotten to know the director of bands, Dr. Tomas Rohrer, and the low brass instructor, Dr. Todd Fallis, quite well. They are great gentlemen and wonderful hosts. Dr. Rohrer is one of the clearest conductors that I have seen in academia in some time. He has great interpretation of the music and is simply a pleasure to be around. Dr. Fallis has been fun to get to know as well. Being from Poughkeepsie, New York, it's kind of nice to have some of that New York edge out here in Utah via Dr. Fallis.

Last night I had great fun rehearsing with both the USU Wind Orchestra as well as the the combined bands of the Wind Orchestra and the Symphonic Band. I'm not sure, but this must be one of the largest bands to perform Philip Sparke's Harlequin, numbering between 110-120 players in the combined band setting. Let's hope that the breath is working quite well out here in the thin Utah air tonight when I perform it on stage at USU! It takes quite a blow to get past the band, but we're all having great fun on it!

If you're in the northern Utah/northeastern Nevada/western Wyoming/southeastern Idaho area, feel free to come to Logan for this exciting performance: 7:30pm, Kent Concert Hall, at Utah State University.

From Utah,

Jason D. Ham