NHCUE GUEST ARTIST RESIDENCY This is a photo of the NHCUE Brass Ensemble, with myself as conductor.  They are a fine group of players; very keen, with strong technique and good musicality.  Many have studied since primary school, and play professional level instruments such as Bach, Yamaha, and Shires.  It is a pleasure to work with them, and conduct this wonderful ensemble.

On the right is Prof. Chieh-Nan Cheng, and his colleague and friend Leo.  Prof. Cheng is the director of the Wind Ensemble, and works tiresely to make the ensemble one of the best in Taiwan. A graduate of the Univesitat der Kunste Berlin, he is an outstanding clarinet player, and gifted musician.  As Director of the "Forward to Excellence" progam, he approached me to be an Artist in Residence for the 2007-2008 academic year.  Leo is a wonderful euphonium player who is finishing his doctorate in astro physics in Beijing.

This is a live photo of a performance I gave of the "Concerto del Garda" by Elizabeth Raum, in Decemeber 2007 with the NHCUE Wind Ensemble, Mr. Cheng conducting. Also as part of my Artist in Residence agreement, I performed a solo recital the following evening, and conducted number of Brass Ensemble concerts.

One of the rare moments a euphoim player has rests to count!  On this day we were performing for an electronics company in Taipei, and had arangements of opera arias for wind emsemble with a tenor and sopano as soloists.  If I remember correctly, this image catches me watching in the middle of the clarinet solo of "E lucevan le stelle".  The soloists recieved three encores; they were well deserved.

After one of our Elementary school concerts, a group of girls from their orchestra came up and asked for a photo, and they were so excited to see us. Students here start early and work hard - I once adjudicated a small festival which included a 10 year old boy who performed Mozart's Horn concerto No. 1 flawlessly!  This photo highlights one of the aspects of this residency which I enjoyed the most, namely, getting out of the practice room and making music a living, breathing part of everyone's life.