Zoom camp in the books

Last week was the 2nd Annual Fraser Street Saxophone Camp. And even though it was on the Zoom, it went great!

My young, enthusiastic teaching faculty did a fantastic job team-teaching the HS and older MS students (I taught the youngest MS students). And our special guests were a hit (more below).

Overview

» 20 students, aged 11-18, divided into 3 groups by age and experience

» 3 guest artists: Ian Hendrickson-Smith (the Roots!), Greg Johnson (SF), Kate Anderson (NY)

» 4 Assistant Teachers — homegrown kids who are now studying saxophone in college:

• Alex Rothstein (studies with Steve Jordheim @ Lawrence U)

• Shane McCandless (with Gary Keller @ U of Miami)

• Jimmy O’Donnell (with Jim Umble @ Youngstown State)

• Ian Brannan (with David Stambler @ Penn State)

» We focused exclusively on process over product, making the experience engaging and positive for the students. There was a lot of time for watching/listening and discussing music. We had engaging conversations on different aspects practicing. And our guest artists discussed everything from performing on live television, to effective embouchures, to being willing to fail in order to grow.

» We did our best to expose the students to all kinds of saxophone music, including Jazz, Classical, Ethnic, Pop/Rock, and beyond.

» We had a faculty solo concert and a rousing round of Saxophone Jeopardy!

» And, of course, there was camp swag, including the 2020 pandemic special edition COVID-19 mask

Ian Hendrickson-Smith

Kate Anderson

Greg Johnson

Middle School group 1

teacher Jimmy O'Donnell

Camp faculty

Special edition FSS mask

As much fun as this week was, we are all hopeful that in 2021 we will all be vaccinated from COVID-19 and will be able to hold the camp in person. Fingers crossed!

Send me a note if you’d like to be notified when the the 2021 camp begins enrolling.

2nd Annual Sax Camp

The second annual Fraser Street Saxophone Camp is now enrolling.

Find out everything you need to know about it on this page.

Silent Night in Sydney

I woke this morning to receive this text from a longtime friendly acquaintance and former teaching colleague:

Rick, I’m standing in a jazz club in Sydney (Australia) about to hear the Sydney Jazz Orchestra play some of your jazz arrangements. Cheers! /Rob*

(That’s Robert Nairn, the phenomenal professor of Double Bass at the University of Melbourne)

A few minutes later he sent me this phone video:

One final thing for us Northerners to acknowledge is that it’s the middle of the summer right now in Australia!

View / download / purchase Silent Night here

Battle Hymn of Iowa

This video just in:

Here’s the Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band playing my brand-new arrangement of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Inspired by Elvis’ version in his 1972 American Trilogy. There’s a nice talkover narration in the middle followed by wailing brass at the end.

Dig it.

2 New Sax Quartets

» Listen & View Score

» Listen & View Score

Here’s why I’m excited about these new arrangements:

• They’re long overdue, especially Swing Low.

• They sound great.

• They’re quite playable.

• They’re scored AATB flex. Though I wrote these AATB, there are substitute parts for each of the four saxophones, allowing for maximum flexibility.

• They’re road-tested with students and pros.

• Ode to Joy is especially great to use with as many sax players as you can gather.

Please do check them out — I think you’ll like them.

Halftime update

This year I got to write a boatload of halftime music for the great university marching bands at Penn State, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Here’s the music that has been performed so far:

Penn State University Blue Band

Bye, Bye, Bye (NSYNC) / Sucker (Jonas Brothers)

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Firebird Suite (Stravinsky)

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MARVEL UNIVERSE: Marvel Studios Fanfare, Avengers Theme, Can You Dig It?, Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1, Black Panther

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University of Wisconsin Badger Band

FUNK SHOW REHEARSAL:

You’re Still a Young Man/What Is Hip, Higher Ground, Through the Fire, Let’s Groove, Uptown Funk

PIANO SHOW REHEARSAL:

Piano Man, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, Empire State of Mind, Love Song, Bad Romance/Shallow

BROADWAY SHOW:

Opening Up, Lady Marmalade, Waving Through a Window, Alexander Hamilton/the Room Where it Happens

NO VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE :-(

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LADY GAGA (Bad Romance/Shallow) in LAMBEAU at halftime of Packers-Raiders game!

Still to come this season

University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band — one selection TBA at Nov. 9 game honoring Veterans Day

Penn State Blue Band — entire halftime show TBA vs. Rutgers on Nov. 30

With any luck at all, I’ll be able to track down some videos after those games.

new Strut bootleg

The US Navy Commodores played a concert Monday at State College Area High School, which is right down the street from my house, and many of my students attend.

To my delight (and surprise!) they played two of my tunes, Giddyup! and Strut. Of course, they sounded incredible. SO locked in, yet flexible with the music.

I ‘filmed’ them playing Strut. Dig their amazing bass trombonist Matt Neff absolutely owning this music:

STRUT, composed & arranged by Rick Hirsch | Get the sheet music http://shorturl.at/eyO03 Featuring the amazing MATT NEFF on bass trombone! Recorded live in concert at State College (PA) Area HS. Octover 21, 2019. p.s. Sorry for the bootleg vid quality - still sounds great!

p.s. Sorry for the lousy video work (the audio is decent, though!)

p.p.s. Strut has been flying off the shelves. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the score, please do.

new Badger Band arranger

I’ve been arranging halftime music for the Penn State Blue Band annually since 2002. Listen to many of those arrangements here.

As of this marching band — I mean football season — I am now a contributing arranger for the University of Wisconsin Badger Band.

I’ve arranged the full halftime shows that will be performed on Sept. 21, Oct. 5, and Oct. 12. I’m thrilled to be writing for this iconic college marching band.

As a side note, I’ll also be arranging one tune for the University of Iowa Hawkeye Band (as I did last season, too).

Stay tuned…

Fraser Street Sax Camp

Middle school group performing for parents on last day of camp

For some reason I thought it’d be a fun idea to run a saxophone camp. Indeed, it was a blast!

For a week in late June I had twenty-two middle and high school saxophonists for half days. We rehearsed in small and large groups, had special guests David Stambler (Penn State saxophone professor) and Dan Yoder (Stambler’s predecessor!), had a saxophone petting zoo provided by our local saxophone tech-extraordinaire, Jack Eggert; and performed for friends and family in the park across the street.

I shared the teaching duties with a few of my former students, all now in college: Ian Brannan (Penn State Music Ed.), Alex Rothstein (Lawrence Conservatory Bio/Jazz Studies dual degree), and Shane McCandless (U of Miami, Jazz Studies).

The camp was an outgrowth of my after-school saxophone ensemble, the Fraser Street Saxes.

As you can see from the pic above, we even got snazzy t-shirts!

3 New Jazz Ens. Charts

I’ve just released three brand-new pieces for jazz ensemble.

And the coolest part is that all three of these have been received the Editors’ Choice designation in the JW Pepper catalog.

James Brown goes big band • Grade 4 • Bass Trombone or Bari Sax feat.

Oh yes, it’s raucous.

Check it out

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Up-tempo swinger • In a Japanese Pentatonic mode • Grade 4-5

Alto & Trumpet feature • B.Y.O.G. (Bring Your Own Gong)

Check it out

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Grade 1 • Sneaky, swingy, and bluesy • Don’t wake Mom and Dad!

Check it out