My Peak Musical Experience
In 2007, I was a Masters of Music Education at Florida State University. I auditioned for the Wind Orchestra in my second semester, just for the fun of it, and, surprisingly, made the group. I was super excited to get to play with a group of really fine musicians. I was thrilled, and then I heard that the group was planning a tour that semester. We were travelling all the way to the University of Michigan for a concert. Wow! That sounded like fun.
Anyway, we worked our tookuses off all semester, playing the same few pieces over and over. We demanded that our level of performance was extremely high, and in a group of what are for all intents professional musicians, that level was very high. We rehearsed a LOT. In fact, it got to the point where we were getting bored of the music. It started to wear on us, but we knew that we were going to play in front of an important and knowlegeable crowd.
The crowd, in Michigan, was the CBDNA, or the College Band Directors National Association. Its essentially the most educated audience that any of us would ever play for. They know music, they teach it, and they've worked with groups like ours on music like ours. It was going to have to be good.
On the way to Michigan, we stopped at Kennesaw Mountain Landis High School, where we played a concert. Unfortunately, no one remembered to tell the students, parents, or community. We played to an empty house. It was frustrating for us, because we worked hard, and we wanted to play for an appreciative audience.
By the time we got off the bus two days into the trip, we were tired, frustrated, and didn't really care much for the music any more. We were already ready to get back on the bus and go home. Harumph.
Then, it all changed. 
We went to a preview concert the night before our own concert. When we saw the hall that we were to play in, we stood in shock. Not only is it the most beautiful concert hall I've ever seen, but it was the most acoustically perfect. I could sit in the middle of the balcony and hear the conductor having a whispering conversation with someone in the group. It was literally the best sounding place i'd ever been to. As soon as we heard Hill Auditorium, we knew that this was going to be an amazing concert. We knew that we were going to play as well as we had ever played. We knew, that no matter how good the other groups we heard were, we were going to rock their socks off.
The day of the concert, we were suddenly PUMPED to play this concert for this group of people. We went to have the hall to ourselves for a few hours for dress rehearsal. It was incredible to be able to whistle on the center of the stage and to hear it in the back of the hall. We were so excited.
In the end, we did rock the concert, and the audience went bonkers. John Mackey, the composer of one of the pieces we played, told us the the FSU Wind Orchestra played his piece better than anyone else ever played it. It was amazing. Check out the recording of Turbine here.
