A Musical Summer and Bucket Lists

I realized this past year that I am in the midst of fulfilling a bucket list item. My entire adult life I have wanted to be more involved in music in a broader way. I knew I could never earn a living at it, but I kept my musical chops at least somewhat in shape. As many of you know I have continued to play my trumpet and, in the past five years, greatly increased the amount of time I spend. This has been made possible by going into "partial" retirement.

I am currently in two community-type concert bands, a brass quintet, a big band and sub in another big band. As a result I was looking at my musical schedule for this summer and realized that I have become a musician. Between May28 and August 30 I will have 18 different concerts, performances or gigs. That will be seven concerts, six big band performances, a parade, Trumpets at Twins, Salvation Army Donut Day and a Quintet gig as part of a vintage band festival. On top of that, of course are the practices for the different groups, not to mention my own personal practice time. This adds up to several things.

• It is almost like being a real, full-time musician without worrying about earning anything for it.
• My skills have increased radically over the past couple years.
• As a consequence so has my confidence.
• My embouchure has never been in better shape.
• It’s a lot of fun!

All this as I turn 67 this summer.