ITEC opinions

[BopEuph]

After ITEC, I just have to say, this is the best ITEC I have been to. I've only been going to them since the 2002 Greensboro one, but they just seem to be getting better and better. The venue was great and the conference was very smooth, and the clinics and concerts were world-class.

However, I do have a few issues that I thought would help the future ITECs:

1. Why was there no shuttle to a venue for the jazz nights so far away? I hopped the shuttle to take the hotel guests to the hotel, but there was no shuttle afterwards to come back.

2. This is the first time the last party did not include free beer. As a matter of fact, it was $7.00 a beer at Red Rocks. The Beer Garden wasn't much better, at $6.00 a beer. No free beer for tuba players? Bah! (This is not one that would really help future ITECs, but it was a shock to see how expensive beer was at this one.)

3. I understand there was some difficulty for the quartets trying to rehearse. The practice rooms were small, and all the larger rooms were locked up or taken.

4. I understand the virtual practice rooms being used by the artists, but when every other room was taken except those or there was a concert/function going on and those rooms were empty, I see no problem in using them. Granted, I would have given the room up if an artist asked me to so they could practice.

5. This IS a tuba-euphonium conference, but I see a problem in cornholing us into ONLY listening to or respecting this genre. It would be great to hear about musicality from a top-notch violinist or breathing from a vocalist. Maybe hire a well-known tenor sax player to host one of the jazz nights? The mission statement says it all.

ITEC is a function I look forward to every other year; it is what I wish every day was in a university for me. There is so much learning and comraderie at these functions. I'll see you all in Cincinatti!

Nick

[Steve Marcus]

I understand the virtual practice rooms being used by the artists, but when every other room was taken except those or there was a concert/function going on and those rooms were empty, I see no problem in using them. Granted, I would have given the room up if an artist asked me to so they could practice.

At ITEC 1998, there were plenty of practice rooms at University of Minnesota for attendees to use.

[james]

I thought the conference was run very well. Admission price was a little high but the facilities and clinics were VERY impressive. Ummm...other instruments at a conference? It's called MidWest. Also, check the performers fee for a popular violinist. If Joe Alessi charges in the $XX,XXX's you can only imagine what a string player playing real music would charge. Also, beer was $3 at the booth I saw and the food was free. That equals a pretty good deal in my book. My 4tet was able to find rehearsal space just fine. I also, saw non-artist people using the virtual rooms with no problem. Maybe we caught some of these events at different times. I was too blown away by Gene Pokorny's
"class/recital/private lesson for the audience" to consider the price of a beer anyway.

-James

[charlieJ]

It was great! So you get stiffed on beer - that happens at a Rockies or Bronco game too...Kathy and co. put on an excellent show.

[quinterbourne]

I definitely think that the $ received from registration fees and corporate sponsorship should be used to fund the clinics, masterclasses, competitions, etc... and not alcohol. But then again, I'm not a big drinker.

[tofu]

BYOB

In this day & age of lawsuits I can understand organizers not wanting to give out free or heavily subsidized beer and having someone get loaded -- who then falls into the bell of his tuba aka "gets his bell rung" -- goes to the ER -- where they surgically remove tuba from head -- and then he sues the heck out of the organizers for letting him drink himself into a stupor with free beer.

Of course, even with free beer there will be all the complaints about serving free light moose piss vs. free dark moose piss and then all the "I want only imported free moose piss made by three one-eyed monks in a tiny monastery in the Alps folks".

Violins -- saxaphones -- I go to a tuba conference to hear tuba's and to hear from tuba players -- Those other instruments can be heard everywhere if you need to inflict pain upon yourself.

[JayW]

The Beer came from (sp?) Wynkoop Brewery - and was outstanding. And at $3 for a large cup a good deal to me (try NYC prices some time)

The conference seemed to be run extremely well and was definitely orgainzed with much time and care.
Thank you to Kathy and all of her staff for making it an outstanding time !!

[BVD Press]

ARound here $3 will get you half a shot of beer! Then again, $7.00 will get you a half way decent beer.

I was lovin' the prices of beer in Denver

[Hiram]

Cincinnati=CHEAP BEER. DIRT CHEAP.
Cincinnati=An entire building dedicated to practice rooms, I'm talking about a 5 story building with approximately 60-80 practice rooms. We haven't got fancy practice rooms, but we have got a ton of them.
Cincinnati=Great Facilities, 800 seat main hall, A theatre, 4 recital halls, and rehearsal spaces galore (enough for 3 full orchestras to rehearse at the same time)
Cincinnati= Food is right there. Right there. Hotels are close. Good hotels.
Cincinnati= DIRT CHEAP BEER.

Hiram

[BopEuph]

It's funny how the least important one is the most responded to on a tuba forum. I'm not saying the whole conference needed free beer, but in previous ITECs, the end party had a few kegs tapped for the conference-goers. I just thought it was a little outrageous that it was $7 a beer at this year's last party.

In reguards to the other instruments point, I was talking to Oystein about this, and he said they were supposed to have Chick Corea at the 2002 ITEC, but due to planning problems, the band couldn't make it. Not only would it have been great to hear Oystein with that group, but wouldn't it have been great to have had an Improv masterclass with Chick? There's something strange when an entire group of the same instrument does something close to the same way, when in, say, a group of cellists, there is many different ways of doing the same thing. I think it would be interesting to see how someone like Janos Starker or even another brass player like Ed Tarr does it. In the jazz realm, why not see someone like Wycliffe Gordon, Terence Blanchard, or even a vocalist like Rebecca Paris? These people have made their names household in the world, not just the tuba realm, and it would be interesting to hear how they did it. What's more, I have seen every one of these names and more in clinic settings, so they DO make themselves available for these types of functions. I would like to see how they handle a different instrument group and how the group handled them. And, like Euphguy said, It would be nice to see combinations with the euphonium and tuba. I'm not saying a plethora of these guys at a conference, but maybe one or two of these would be nice.

Either way, it seems that I didn't get the point across that the ITEC was great. I DID think it was. Like I said, it's the best one I've been to. These were just a few points that I thought would be nice to point out to consider in future ITECs.

Nick

EDIT: I must have been misinformed on the price of the beer. My mistake.

[Arkietuba]

3. So, the conference was billed as "The pedagogy of great musicianship". I'd like to hear others' thought on what that actually MEANS. I didn't see how this theme tied in to the conference. I can say unhesitatingly that I enjoyed every event I attended -- just curious how others may have felt "pedagogy of great musicianship" tied in.

If you attended the Thursday 9:00 AM session you would have heard an hour long presentation by Louis Young (and the UCA T/E Ensemble) and Scott Watson (and the KU T/E Ensemble) on this very subject.

[BopEuph]

No offence, but you must be pretty lazy if you can't walk 2mins downhill!

I think he was referring to my above note of transportation from the jazz venue to the dorms after the shows.

Nick

[Jeremy K.]

This was my first ITEC and I had a blast! I felt like my brain was on overload by Day #2, what with everything going on with Mr. Deck that day. Heck, I even felt that way after just hearing Mr. Pokorny speak with Mr. Bobo, Mr. Bowman, and Mr. Johnson....

All of the concerts were top-notch as well, I thought, except for the ones in the evening especially were a bit long. Did the soloists have to submit times for their pieces?

It was also really note just seeing the legends of our instruments hanging out and chatting. Would that ever happen at a flute or violin clinic? I think not.

Personally I enjoyed all of the clinics a lot. I felt like there was a lot of information given to make all of us who attended better musicians.

I did take a lot of notes at the conference, about twenty pages worth typed, I think. Would I be breaking copyright laws if I were to offer them to people on here who want them if they were not able to attend or missed a session they really wanted to see?

[red0radio0head]

Cincinnati=CHEAP BEER. DIRT CHEAP.
Cincinnati=An entire building dedicated to practice rooms, I'm talking about a 5 story building with approximately 60-80 practice rooms. We haven't got fancy practice rooms, but we have got a ton of them.
Cincinnati=Great Facilities, 800 seat main hall, A theatre, 4 recital halls, and rehearsal spaces galore (enough for 3 full orchestras to rehearse at the same time)
Cincinnati= Food is right there. Right there. Hotels are close. Good hotels.
Cincinnati= DIRT CHEAP BEER.

Hiram

....haha....you never seem to change!

[fsgazda]

So, the conference was billed as "The pedagogy of great musicianship". I'd like to hear others' thought on what that actually MEANS. I didn't see how this theme tied in to the conference.

They had a session on this every day. Monday it was Porkorny talking about interpretation, Tuesday Deck and Ericson on Perception, Wednesday Bowman and Baadsvik on Phrasing, Thursday Perantoni and Griffiths on Rubato, Friday Mead and Bobo on "Sonic DNA" (not sure what that means, but great session). I took a lot of notes, there were a lot of specific ideas and examples about how to develop your musucianship, and a lot of ideas about how to teach it.

[The Impaler]

They did not do a good job providing rooms to rehearse for the quartets or assigning times for the competition. I agree that they didn't treat the quartets right.

Being a conference-goer that competed in the semis and the finals of the quartet competition, I really disagree with your statement entirely. Not only were there practice rooms available every time my quartet wanted to rehearse, but they also delayed the competition so my quartet could compete. All four of us had travel-related issues getting to Denver (I even spent a night in the Phoenix airport) and Dr. Young and the panel of judges worked with us so that we could present our quartet. I don't know of another association of musicians that would be that lenient with weather-related travel issues. Thanks so much to Kathy, all of her staff, John Stevens, and the Sotto Voce guys (who not only waited for us, but also gave us outstanding comments on our performances as well as how to take the next step) for making my first ITEC a really great experience. I thought that everything about the conference was wonderful, and I can't wait for 2008 in Cincy.

[Ryan_Beucke]

I really enjoyed the whole week, and thought it was just the right amount of stuff cramed together without making you miss too much or leaving you wanting more.

In regards to the beer, I'm not sure where everyone is getting this cheap cheap beer. $3 a cup for GOOD microbrew? Can it get cheaper? I was happy to pay for each cup, and I don't think it would be fair to include that in the conference fee. How would all of the underage or non-drinkers feel if they paid a few bucks for MY beer?

And yes, the lack of transportation BACK from the hotel sucked. I paid my 12 bucks 3 times to come back from the hotel, 36 dollars total. But I guess noone saw my post the week before the competition about sharing cabs back to the dorms

[dwaskew]

Hi all--

just to clear up a couple of things in this thread, and then I'll hush up:

in 2002 beer was not free, nor paid by conference fees. (to drink at the barbecue night at that one, you had to purchase a bracelet ahead of time(with proper ID), and no bracelets were sold at the event) I really don't know when free beer paid by registration did happen-- there were some ITEC's that had receptions paid for by a music company, like Custom or Meinl, etc. but none that I remember that registrations paid for it....

and, regarding the bringing in of outside musicians (other instruments) the cost is the primary factor. Really. Schedule issues notwithstanding, Chick Corea would've cost me $25,000, plus his travel costs AND the costs for his band. His fee alone was the 25 grand. it would've been another 10-15 grand for the band. Really. Having a top name cellist or oboist, etc. would've cost less, surely, but the bottom line is a very, very prominent factor in putting one of these on.

[Jesse Brook]

I was at ITEC 2000, because it was driveable (just) for me. It's too bad that I got to Regina at 3 A.M., because there was so much going on the next day that now, even attempting to remember it is difficult. The only thing I remember about the conference is that it was fantastic, and an absolute blast. (Through a tuba, of course)

[dwaskew]

T That limousine for our president isn't going to lease itself! Just kidding Dennis... Making sure you're reading this...

yeah, that "limo" this year is going to be driving a 15 passenger van chock full o' college students and tubas up to the conference.



dwa