Kris pointed out that I had accidentally published this post months ago but never finished it...opps! I'll work on it over the next few days but here is the first edition
This year I was finally able to attend PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference) with Kris. The conference was from November 11-15 (yes I'm a bit behind with this post). It also happened to be located in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. For anyone who has never been to San Antonio I cannot rate this city high enough. PASIC was held in the convention center and while we stayed plenty busy with attending various performances and clinics we still were able to sneak in a few sightseeing moments.
On the way there we had to stop at the Louisiana Welcome Center since it was the first time either Kris or I had been to (or through) Louisiana.
We stayed at the Crockett Hotel which was a nice hotel located across the street from the Alamo. Just in case we ever forgot what state we were the Crockett Hotel made sure to remind us at breakfast...
The first day of the conference was packed with some incredible concerts. That day we saw quite a few avant-garde type performances as the theme of this year's day was the Percussive Gesture. Other performances we saw on Day 1 included the TCU Percussion Ensemble, Tennessee Percussion Ensemble, Gene Koshinski and Casey Cangelosi. One of the highlights was also seeing a piece that Kris and I commissioned for sale on the Expo floor. Last year we officially formed the Sonorous Duo and commissioned four composers to write for Viola and Marimba/Vibraphone. Below you will see the piece that David Gillingham wrote for us...
Although the Expo floor was quite loud we still made the rounds and found a few toys to play with along the way.
That night we went out for dinner on the Riverwalk, which is the best part of the city. We ate at a Sports Bar where I enjoyed my drink...
We closed off the first night with a great concert featuring Ghost-Note
Day 2
Concert highlights for this day included Col Legno (a bassoon and percussion duo), Laurel Black and the Front Ensemble of the Santa Clara Vanguard. Our big adventure for the day was lunch at the top of the Tower of the Americas. Kris handled the elevator ride up pretty well. Our lunch was great and the views were wonderful as well.
The evening concert featured four incredible jazz vibraphonists: Joe Locke, Warren Wolf, Tony Micheli and Stefon Harris. Although I'm not a huge fan of jazz I was blown away by the talent of each performer, this was by far my personal favorite evening concert.
Day 3 update to come.....
