SONORAN DESERT STARS
By the spring of 2007, I had a few National Parks under my belt. I was a sophomore in High School and in Wind Ensemble. While I enjoyed playing music, I knew that it wasn’t my passion and that my interests were more aligned with what I did out of school and out in nature. That said, while I was in school, playing music was a fun activity and an engaging pastime that kept school tolerable. That all changed in the spring of 2007 when we got a new band director who, quite frankly, inspired me to be a teacher…. So that I could do the exact opposite of what he did in the classroom. Essentially, the man was a tyrant. Some of you reading this are probably smirking about this and remembering back 15 years ago to us being in the band room during this director’s reign of terror. Anyway- one of the only happy memories of band from 2007 was the piece “Sonoran Desert Holiday”, which we played for our concert competition. Despite being forced to live, breathe, sweat, and bleed over this piece, I loved it. Ron Howard’s orchestration devoted to the grandeur and drama of the American Southwest distracted me from the stress of band and brought my mind back to the wilds of Arizona which I loved and missed and fantasized about visiting again. Music, even though used as a tool of a horrible teacher to garner results, was still a balm for weariness. Paired with mental images of the desert and cacti and nature? ‘Sonoran Desert Holiday’ was the redeeming factor of that last year I spent in band. Despite all my travels since 2007, I hadn’t found myself back in the Sonoran Desert until this past year. And while the trip was already sweet and exciting for getting to see an incredible landscape of extreme diversity, it was also nice to return to a place that bolstered my spirits, even though my “visit” back in High School was through a totally different medium and through musical interpretation. Coupling those memories with the new experience of seeing the place that inspired the art elevated the adventure and even softened the harsh memories and stress from that time in my life. The desert, in all its forms, is healing, revitalizing and extreme in beauty and inspiration.
SONORAN DESERT STARS
By the spring of 2007, I had a few National Parks under my belt. I was a sophomore in High School and in Wind Ensemble. While I enjoyed playing music, I knew that it wasn’t my passion and that my interests were more aligned with what I did out of school and out in nature. That said, while I was in school, playing music was a fun activity and an engaging pastime that kept school tolerable. That all changed in the spring of 2007 when we got a new band director who, quite frankly, inspired me to be a teacher…. So that I could do the exact opposite of what he did in the classroom. Essentially, the man was a tyrant. Some of you reading this are probably smirking about this and remembering back 15 years ago to us being in the band room during this director’s reign of terror. Anyway- one of the only happy memories of band from 2007 was the piece “Sonoran Desert Holiday”, which we played for our concert competition. Despite being forced to live, breathe, sweat, and bleed over this piece, I loved it. Ron Howard’s orchestration devoted to the grandeur and drama of the American Southwest distracted me from the stress of band and brought my mind back to the wilds of Arizona which I loved and missed and fantasized about visiting again. Music, even though used as a tool of a horrible teacher to garner results, was still a balm for weariness. Paired with mental images of the desert and cacti and nature? ‘Sonoran Desert Holiday’ was the redeeming factor of that last year I spent in band. Despite all my travels since 2007, I hadn’t found myself back in the Sonoran Desert until this past year. And while the trip was already sweet and exciting for getting to see an incredible landscape of extreme diversity, it was also nice to return to a place that bolstered my spirits, even though my “visit” back in High School was through a totally different medium and through musical interpretation. Coupling those memories with the new experience of seeing the place that inspired the art elevated the adventure and even softened the harsh memories and stress from that time in my life. The desert, in all its forms, is healing, revitalizing and extreme in beauty and inspiration.