The Best Use of Money

[Ryan_Beucke]

Well it's been a few days since I got back from ITEC, and I'm still trying to settle in and decompress, but I thought I'd say this:

ITEC was a lot of money. Many people couldn't gather the funds to go. But that one week of recitals, master classes, lectures and etc. was absolutely worth every penny. I can't tell you how much I've learned and been motivated by listening to all of these people talk and play. Recordings are great, but there is absolutely no substitute for hearing live performances.

I would urge anyone who is serious about music and brass playing to try to save up money to attend conferences like this. Even if you're a euphonium player (like myself) and are looking at the list of players attending thinking it's a lot of tubas and only a few euphoniums, you still need to consider attending. I enjoyed every tuba performance just as much (sometimes more!) than the euphonium performances. Great musicians are just that. It doesn't matter what's in front of their faces, they're doing the same thing.

[tmuabxa]

I also went to ITEC, I totally agree with you. I learned alot from all of the seminars and also got to meet some of the greats as well as some kids my age (high school).

(forgive the spelling)