Semester Reflection

End of Semester Reflection

Link to my video reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2XrjlEbcJU

Service Learning Final Video Reflection

Link to video reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Lnhg9DOoA






Sorry it isn't the best quality but here is a picture of the rehearsal I got to watch yesterday when I volunteered.

Zac Byrd - Overall Service Learning Experience #6

Service Learning Post #3 - Zac Byrd

For my 3rd volunteering experience with the Lexington Philharmonic I volunteered at the Philharmonic's concert with the guest artist time for three. Time for three is a orchestral trio that plays  a variety of genres and is a very versatile group. For the last concert I volunteered at, Amanda Tallant had me helping with will call and with the set clean up after the concert. This time Amanda told me I would be helping people through the handicap entrance, guarding instruments, and being a bouncer.

Singultary has two entrances, one for everybody and one in the back for handicap/elderly individuals. I had to open the doors for the patrons coming through because the buttons that open the doors can be hard to find.  I also had to make sure I helped them over the bump where the entrance was to prevent any major injuries.

After the concert started and the amount of concertgoers coming into the venue ceased I went in to guard the instruments.  During the last concert a wallet or purse was stolen from a performer's case.  For the performers to feel safe leaving their instruments in the rehearsal room me and Olivia had to watch over the instruments, which was a lot less
strenuous than it sounds.

When the concert came to a conclusion I went out to the lobby to be a bouncer.  Time for three was going to be outside signing CD's and taking pictures with people, and to make sure no crazy super-fans attack the artists. I was behind the desk unwrapping CD's and making sure nothing bad happened to the performers. I got to talk to them and they told me how much fun the concert was and we took a picture, but my phone broke so I don't have the picture. This was my last time volunteering with the Philharmonic as part of this CIS class but I hope to continue this in the future.

Pictures retrieved from www.ecanh.com and www.bouldertheater.com.

My experience with the Lexington philharmonic

Mahler 2 Community Service Video Reflection #2 - Zac Byrd

Video Blog Reflection

The link to my video: https://youtu.be/OZyIgFiiW2o





Here is a taste of what I listened to at the oboe auditions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-pIudhSCSg

Vexillology and You: A TED Talk Review

     The thing about TED Talks is that it’s impossible to watch one without coming away caring deeply about something you’ve literally never thought about before. Today, I watched “The Worst Designed Thing You’ve Never Noticed” given by Roman Mars – whose presentation was equally as awesome as his name. Mars’ began by joking about his setup, as he was seated at a large desk with a microphone and soundboard. He explains he’s going to recreate an episode of his radio show. This interesting format definitely made me interested in what was going on, and the topic only hooked me even more.

     Mars’ speech was about flags. Specifically, flag designs, especially city flags in America. He brought up the five elements of good flag design: keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, use 2-3 basic colors, no lettering or seals, and be distinctive. An excellent note made was that a design should be simple enough that a child could draw it from memory. For comparison, here’s what I just found out the city flag of Lexington looks like:

     Eeeeeeyeah. But compare that to the city flag of Amsterdam:

     To quote Roman Mars, it’s “…the most badass city flag in the world”! So clearly high standards of flag design exist! Even comparing the state flag of Kentucky to my home state of Tennessee feels pretty lacking:

     I distinctly remember having to draw the state flag in third grade, along with our seal. The flag is definitely a whole lot easier! I love our flag. Kentucky…. not so much. The flags of Kentucky and Lexington are both just their seals on a solid color background, which violates at least three of the five basic rules of flag design: simplicity, no lettering (or seals at all!), and distinctiveness. Every city or state that has a seal in its flag looks more or less the same, unless you get close enough to read the lettering. And that’s counterintuitive to the whole idea of a flag! Mars’ passion on this topic really shone through as he showed examples of amazing and terrible flags, and it’s hard to stop it from rubbing off on you. If I had lived in Kentucky long enough to know anything about it, I’d probably try to design a flag myself!
     Mars’ use of his radio-style setup while giving the speech was immediately fascinating. It made me think about the level of comfort he has with that type of speechmaking as opposed to pacing around an empty stage in front of everyone, and how he used familiarity to ground himself. His use of sound clips from interviewees (I presume from the original broadcast of his radio show) was effective, but in some cases heavily overdone and sometimes pushed too close together. The Powerpoint slides accompanying his speech were relevant and not overdone, and were very well used to give examples of flag design.
     It seems he may have made use of notecards, as he glanced down a lot, but this also could be due to the sound clips he frequently played. His actual speaking was, as near as I can tell, flawless. I don’t think I heard a single stammer or “like-um-uh”s, and his steady radio voice carried the entire performance excellently. The “radio voice” did at times come across as a little too steady, and was almost monotonous, but as he got further into the speech his passion and interest kept me absolutely interested. The audience was included very well, as Mars’ gave frequent examples as he was speaking, and addressed them specifically many times, such as asking if they knew what their city flag looked like. He also used humor to great effect, by being outwardly passionate about his subject and by giving well-timed punchlines (like Milwaukee’s city flag!) (Yes, Milwaukee, you’re a punchline. Sorry.)
     Overall, Roman Mars was an excellent speaker and gave a very interesting speech on an unusual topic. I’ve already spent a lot of time looking up state and city flags, and daydreaming up better designs for most of them (Kentucky, I’m still looking at you). I really recommend giving this a watch, and I can almost guarantee you’ll come away with a brand new special interest.

TED Talk - Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver is a 34 year old male from England giving a TED talk about the food that we eat and what we can do about it, in Long Beach California on February 2010. Jamie asked the audience how many children they have, and how many aunts and uncles they have.  Just about everybody’s hands went up. This displayed that the food America eats does not have to only affect their bodies but it can affect others around them.

My parents, and grandparents, according to Jamie have “blessed” me with a shorter life span than my parents and grandparents because of the food I eat. And the positive fact behind the leading cause of death in the US, heart disease, is that it is preventable. Not only is heart disease preventable, the next two highest causes of death in the US are also preventable. This can be attributed to American’s diet.  

A few people who make executive decisions about what to put in our food and how to serve it are causing this issue. Jamie brought up a triangle of how the food in our society flows to our mouths. Main stream food has turned into the fast food, the big brands, and the supermarkets all around us. 30 years ago these foods were largely grown and eaten as local foods, but now these are largely processed with a bunch of additives in them. Other problems such as massive portion sizes and misconceptions about food due to labeling are also issues.

Home. Throughout the generations Americans have started to rely more heavily on dishes prepared from restaurant. Children are learning few of the recipes because parents have decided its easier to go out and buy food than cook it themselves. Schools are one of the biggest issues.  Children get meals, like breakfast and lunch, from schools around 170-190 days a year. The food these kids get are loaded with sugars so that they will enjoy them. 1 bottle of milk, a drink kids consume twice a day, contains as much sugar as one bottle of soda. The solution Jamie discussed dealt with targeting this issue with the education system and in supermarkets.  Give kids the knowledge of what foods are and how to fix quick, easy, healthy meals. Put people in supermarkets to share knowledge with others about how to fix healthier meals rather than going out or buying frozen pizzas.

Throughout his speech Jamie seemed like he was ranting about the obesity epidemic in America.  It was a TED talk that at the end made me feel very passionate about his issue and like there was a call to action for me to do something about this situation.  HIs eye contact and presentation with the use of visual aids were very effective.  He used a couple videos to show his points of how kids don't know which foods are which and to display the average weekly diet of some American families.  The reason I found this talk was bearable to listen to and not like an angry man yelling about a topic was that his facts were very effective, he included some humor, and most importantly he acknowledged that we weren't the only country suffering from this problem.  This is a worldly concern. He could have yelled a little less and included more humor but his visual aids and props that he used were extremely effective.  I felt like he approached this piece with more of a scare tactic with an eventual call to action.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOPl8P2S-Lw

TED Talk Analysis

The TED talk I chose to watch was one by Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and author. He was speaking at a TED conference in London in September of 2015. The title of his talk is “How to stay calm when you know you’ll be stressed out.” His purpose was to inform others of the science behind stress and how to avoid situations that lead you to make poor decisions because of stress. I personally am fascinated by the science behind stress because stress isn’t a disease or infection yet it makes us sick more than we realize. In psychology, I studied the negative effects of stress and it actually stressed me out thinking about all the horrible things happening to my body when I am stressed. Obviously, I think this is a relevant topic that is worth covering and a great way to inform others how to prevent stressful situations.

 Levitin began his talk with a personal story that was extremely effective. He told a relatable story about how he was locked outside of his house, so he broke a window to get inside because it was -40 degrees and in the middle of the night. He added some humorous aspects to the story so it was funny, yet a good way to show the audience he makes poor decisions when stressed as well. He then moved into the main body of the talk which was about how stress causes clouded thinking and poor decision making. Levitin talked about ways to prevent stressful situations, like having a designated place for commonly lost items, and gave scientific support for it. He discussed how the hippocampus helps us remember where we put things and that it only works if we put things in the same place. He then concluded his talk by bringing the story full circle and telling the audience how he installed a lockbox with a house key inside to prevent having to break windows in the future. Levitin appeared to be passionate about this topic and was a fairly animated speaker. This lead to a good delivery and an audience that also cared about what he had to say. He used some shocking statistics such as only 1 in 300 people are actually helped by a certain medicine and that 15 of those 300 are actually hurt by it. Jaw dropping moments like this kept the audience interested and passionate about the topic as well.

One thing he could have improved was he stayed in the same place the whole time instead of walking around. He also didn’t use any visual aids or props which could have been very useful in his talk. His talk was very organized though; I could tell exactly what his intro, body, and conclusion were and his thesis was clearly stated. Overall I think it was a very interesting TED talk and he did a great job of telling a story and delivering a talk on a relatable topic.

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_levitin_how_to_stay_calm_when_you_know_you_ll_be_stressed?language=en

LexPhil 2 - Acoustic Boogaloo

            About two Saturdays ago (October 24th, for those of you playing at home), I once again trekked across town to the First Presbyterian Church of Lexington to volunteer at auditions for the Philharmonic. Unlike last time, however, I showed up about 30 minutes early. As it was a Saturday and there were actually people in the building (as opposed to the emptiness of Sunday at the ArtsPlace) I walked inside and up three flights of stairs, where I sat on a step outside the Philharmonic office door and finished my lunch. One level down was a ballet class with a group of girls of various ages all running around, with their stuff tucked into corners all over the staircase. I did ballet in a old studio until I was 6, and the worn wooden stairs and slightly peely paint were a nice backdrop to my mostly-cold Chik-Fil-A sandwich.
            When 12:30 rolled around I called Amanda (the volunteer coordinator), she told me they were already set up at the church, and I crossed the street to start working. That day, they were auditioning bassists. For reference, here's what a bass looks like:

A string family rests in its natural habitat, headed by its matriarch: the mighty bass.
[An assortment of string instruments sitting in the grass]

(The bass is the largest.) My first job was to sit and greet the last few basses as they checked in and to check their IDs. The bassists actually came from all over the country, and at least a few showed me their passports as ID! Being a percussionist, all I had to carry to concerts was a few pairs of sticks and mallets, so watching them maneuver these giant bulky shapes was fascinating (and admittedly pretty funny, in a schadenfreude kind of way)!

            I also got to just sit and chat with Joel for a while (shoutout to Joel!), which was nice because now I know another person's name in the class! Joel and I talked for a bit about video games after I said the faint echo-y strains of the bassists warming up sounded like the Skyrim soundtrack. The bass is such a peaceful and powerful instrument, and it echoed through the church like something out of a dream. Certainly, the rich warm bass tones were easier to listen to for extended periods of time than the oboes! We also talked some about his engineering classes and the VR headset project they were starting.

            After all the basses were checked in and set up in their warmup spaces, Joel was given the task of shepherding basses to and from the audition room. I got the job of alerting basses about five minutes before their audition came up, which mostly involved sitting around playing solitaire on my phone. We were both given different tasks than we had our first time volunteering, so I didn't feel too bad about Joel running around while I walked up and down the hall every once in a while. After auditions, we helped with cleanup by carrying chairs and the HEAVIEST music stands I've ever encountered back down into the entryway, and then went home. I actually managed to avoid the rain despite the 45 minute walk there and back!

A sheepdog herding sheep while a shepherd watches in the background.
This time, I'm not the metaphorical dog, I'm the dude with the sweet hat (sweet hat not included).

            I only have about 3 more hours of volunteer work left to fill, and I'm looking forward to it! I'm thinking of volunteering at a concert at the Singletary, partially because it's been so long since I've heard a full orchestra and partially because it's on campus and waaay less of a walk. Also, working backstage is a pretty familiar situation. There's not a lot of other situations where sprinting across a stage while looking for your equipment in near-blackness and total silence is a needed skill, but it's one I've meticulously honed over the years and I think my spidey skills could use a stretch. I really, really love working with music and musicians again. I'm halfway tempted to find a music class to take, or possibly join the non-major concert band that apparently exists (although being an art major is already a more-than-full-time commitment). Either way, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to help a wonderful organization and participate in something so familiar and fun!
[Images from stringproject.music.utexas.edu and agesor.com.uy]

Reflection on the Auditions

          So far I have held volunteer at the Lexington Philharmonic by attending their musician auditions for the viola and the bass. Both Saturdays I rode my bike downtown to a nice little church where they hold the auditions and I met up with Amanda to begin the day. The first Saturday that I worked, the viola auditions, she set me up in a texting chain so that I could work behind the scenes at the auditions. My job was to run around, from room to room, warning the musicians when they had five minute to go before their performance. The task was not hard, but at times it was very repetitive and I didn’t appreciate it as much as I would have liked.

          The bass auditions however, were altogether different. As Amanda told me at the begging of my second day of working, the musicians’ personalities can be generalized based on the instrument they play, and she said that bass players were generally more upbeat, happy, and willing to talk. This time instead of having me work behind the scenes to tell them when their audition was starting, she had me escort the musicians back upstairs, with all of the heavy equipment that bass players carry with them. I really enjoyed this task because as Amanda warned, bass players could be really talkative. I had a few amazing conversations with these extraordinary musicians from all over the place while I led them around this church.

         Of everything that I have done so far with the Lexington Philharmonic, that day of audition has by-far been the best. I don’t think I ever forget the casual conversations I was able to have with those incredible musicians. In just a few minutes with each bassist, I connected more, and appreciated the task more, than the entire day I spent working with the viola players, It was very fun.

Time For Three at The Lexington Philharmonic

This past Friday I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Time for Three concert for the Lexington Philharmonic. I was very nostalgic while standing backstage as the musicians performed; I have been a performer since I was 4 and for the first time I was the one behind the scenes. Since I was little I have done dance, cheerleading, and for a short period of time played the piano. It is almost funny to think someone that has been in the spotlight for so long can still have a more introverted personality as I do. Although working at the concert behind the scenes made me miss performing, it was a new and interesting perspective. I already understand how much work goes into recitals and concerts but it was different actually doing the work myself.

I was able to work the marketing table before the concert began and there I learned some of the Lexington Philharmonics marketing strategies. I’ll admit that I do not know much about orchestras but I have found that even in the music industry, business and marketing is a huge aspect of how successful a company is. LexPhil is one of the only well promoted orchestras in this region and because of this they have had good business for their concerts. They also have many guest appearances such as Time for Three that help with publicity.

I believe one of the main challenges for LexPhil is developing a large interest group to be their audience. The audience tends to be elderly couples but with new groups such as Time for Three, they are starting to attract younger audiences as well. I personally enjoyed the part of the concert I was able to listen to; Time for Three performed some covers of more modern songs that are popular with today’s youth. This may have been a risky move considering the audience was predominantly elderly people who may have been expecting only traditional pieces, but overall I believe Time for Three did a great job of incorporating music for all audiences. The group, Time for Three, has been rapidly increasing in popularity since their initial famous YouTube video and has continued to attract younger people from all over the world to their music. My experience working a concert for LexPhil was not only educational but very entertaining and I cannot wait to help them with the next concert.

9/13/15 Reflection About First Volunteer Day

For my first service learning opportunity I helped out with  the Philharmonic’s audition process.  I arrived at the church across from their “headquarters” where they were holding the oboe auditions. The big thing Amanda had to tell me first was all of the musicians identities needed to be kept confidential. Since I had interactions with the musicians as I was doing the job I will either have to generalize or change their names for disclosure.  It’s very important to make sure nobody’s name is thrown around after the audition because it could damage a reputation.  This is very important because say Thomas auditions for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and is a very good musician but has a bad audition. Somebody could tell others about Thomas and it  could make the rest of his career more of an uphill battle. This is also the reason that I felt like I  wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the location I worked at. Being a musician is competitive enough, but one bad audition made public to everybody could hurt their future prospects for jobs.

Amanda then explained to me how the audition process worked.  The auditions were for oboes and they were divided up into two separate groups of 10.  Each person in the group would draw a number and that was the order they would audition in.  When the auditions started there was somebody to take the musicians down to the audition room from their warm-up room, and there was somebody giving people a 5-minute warning for when this would happen.  From these two groups the judges will select the people they want to hear again and they will compete in a final round.  I helped with the set-up and then I was on 5-minute warning duty.    

I got to hear all the musicians going through their warm-up routines. As a musician it was interesting to see how they warmed up with their practicing for pieces, and with their fundamental warmup.  Each musician had their obvious strengths and I got to talk to a couple after their audition.  They told me they were nervous and that they thought they could have done better but just wanted another shot at the final round.  One in particular told me how they prepared in their practices for this audition by working on different fundamentals and then building the piece up slowly.  This is exactly my audition process so I thought it was nice to know I’m doing the same setup as some professionals do for their auditions.

First Impressions of Lexington Philharmonic

The Lexington Philharmonic is an orchestral society formed in 1961 (originally called the "Central Kentucky Philharmonic Society"). The mission of the orchestra, LexPhil for short, is to "foster excellence and innovation in the performance and presentation of great music; to enrich the lives of our diverse citizenry; to educate current and future audiences and to bring distinction to our community through the orchestra’s presence and standing." The orchestra was originally formed to provide background music for a film produced by the Department of Agriculture at UK. During their first season, the orchestra had three concerts, all performed at Henry Clay High School. 
Since 1961, the Lexington Philharmonic has come a long way, having had four different conductors since then, and today, LexPhil performs over 100 concerts year round in an effort to "provide innovative and exciting opportunities in music across the Bluegrass". LexPhil's current Music Director and Conductor, Scott Terrell, has been entrusted with that position since 2009. 
 So far, my experience with the Lexington Philharmonic has been a positive one. My first exposure to volunteering with LexPhil came on Sunday, where I helped with the auditions process, particularly the bassoonists. My job was quite simple-- registering the musicians, showing them where to go, directing them to the nearest restroom, etc. All of the workers at LexPhil were kind and glad to have me (as well as the other volunteers) there to help. Overall, it was a good experience, and I look forward to volunteering again, especially at the concerts. 

LexPhil - Dawn of the First Day

This past Sunday, I helped with the Lexington Philharmonic during their oboe auditions. I helped with some of the setup, put up signs directing auditioners to the entrance to the building, and then led them from the audition room to where they'd wait to learn the results of their audition. Even though most of my job was climbing up and down stairs, I had a really great time! It was awesome being around music and musicians again (I was a percussionist for six years), and listening in on the auditions was incredible. The oboes were really nice people too. The first guy to audition had been sick the past few days and came out after his audition triumphantly crowing "I didn't cough!!"

A panorama of the interior of one of the sanctuaries
 of First Presbyterian Church of Lexington.

The auditions were held in the First Presbyterian Church of Lexington, which was built in 1872. As an art student and major art nerd I was absolutely swooning over the stained glass. Old churches are some of the most breathtaking buildings to be in and this was no exception. The exterior was old brick with a pair of giant front doors leading directly up into the main sanctuary. The acoustics were amazing as well, which obviously is a good quality to have in an audition setting. Everything echoed and rang and felt overwhelming and everywhere.

A proud oboe farmer displays her crop.
[A woman standing next to an array of oboes]

Something interesting I noticed on Sunday was that they placed carpet squares (like the sample sizes you'd see at a flooring store) on the floor where auditions were taking place. I read a while back about how even with blind auditions (where the judges couldn't see the candidate) men were disproportionately more likely to be hired after an audition, until someone put down carpeting. It turned out that the judges were hearing the women's heels clicking on the floor and even that little bit of information was enough to color their perceptions of the auditioners. It was really cool to see that concept in action firsthand!

One of my favorite "jobs" of the day was when some of the judges needed to take a restroom break. The restroom was down the hall from the audition room, but you had to walk past the waiting room to get there. The judges weren't allowed to see the auditioners at all, so Amanda Tallant (the woman in charge of the college volunteers) and I stood in front of the doors while the judges rushed past. It was pretty hilarious. 

Chatting with the musicians was really neat. I didn't get a lot of conversation in besides "Do you need to get anything from your warmup room?", "The waiting room is right this way", and "This staircase. No really THIS staircase", but it was still neat. I got a few compliments on my hair, offered a few Werther's Originals to some, and even cracked a bit of a joke: "My job is pretty much just 'this way to the waiting room... I'm basically the oboe sheepdog"

One last image for the road:

An image portraying me, hard at work escorting the oboes.
[A sheepdog, herding sheep]

[Image sources: kaintuckeean.com, hannahsoboes.com, belfasttelegraph.co.uk]

First Impressions of Lexington Philharmonic

While walking into the large, old cathedral style church where the Lexington Philharmonic auditions were being held, I had many thoughts racing through my mind. "What will I be doing? Who will I get to talk to? Can I watch the auditions?" I already had somewhat of an idea to what I was getting myself into primarily from the research I had done on the organization and what I had learned on my orientation date. One thing that initially caught my attention while looking through the official website of Lexington Philharmonic is the history. The Philharmonic began in 1961 when they were creating background music for a film being produced by UK students. I appreciate how they started out small with only volunteer artists, but have grown into an organization that attracts many music loving families. Another thing that caught my attention was the vibrant colors and pictures they included on the website; although it appears very professional, the web designers included an artistic element that their primary audience would enjoy.         

During my orientation I learned more about some of the events they host around Lexington. One of the more intriguing events I saw was the PB&J series; elementary age students could learn about different instruments while snacking on PB&Js and listening to a guest performance by a popular classical music group. I will get to have the opportunity to volunteer at one of these events and I am so excited to be able to work with the kids. I did not originally expect that I would get to work with children at all considering orchestra seems to be geared towards a more mature audience, but I am very excited to be able to incorporate working with children into my volunteering as well. This past Sunday afternoon I got to work the oboe auditions. I was surprised how much it reminded me of dance auditions when I was in middle and high school. Similarly to the auditions I am familiar with, each contestant had a number and one at a time they would be called into a room and be judged on how they play sections from three different songs. I had the chance to speak with each of the contestants because my job was to lead them from their audition, back to their private warm up room. In one case I got to listen to a conversation between two friends who were both auditioning and once again the similarities between my dance try outs were incredible. For example, after one man auditioned he told his friend to watch out because the room is very "boomy," and in dance we would warm our friends if the floor is slippery. One of the pieces I got to hear being played was Ravel- Bolero which was a familiar melody I enjoyed listening to. I believe my first volunteering opportunity at the Philharmonic was an opportunity for me to connect with musicians and find a common ground with them even though I am not a musician myself. I often found myself getting nervous for them before they walked into the audition and celebrating with them if they feel like they had performed well. I am looking forward to the next time I get to volunteer, which will be at an actual concert. Hopefully I will have discovered once again that I can relate to the artists and experience the moment along with them.

Initial Philharmonic Post - Zac Byrd

The Lexington Philharmonic strives each year to “foster excellence and innovation in the  performance  and presentation of great music; to enrich the lives of our diverse citizenry; to educate current and future audiences and to bring distinction to our community through the orchestra’s presence and standing,”-Philharmonic website.  The Philharmonic upholds this by being a very involved orchestra.  They perform over a 100 times a year with people that are hired from all over the nation.  They also hold events so that kids will be interested in the music and instruments that are being played.  These concerts are fun for the kids and the community as a whole to bond with the Philharmonic and get excited about music.

There have been four different musical conductors since the birth of the Lexington Philharmonic.  Robert King in 1961 started the conducting position for the orchestra, and helped it grow to a fully functional orchestra that was the largest in Central Kentucky.  Then Leo Scheer took over King’s position in 1965.  Scheer implemented a paycheck system as opposed to the musicians volunteering like they had been for four years. Scheer resigned in 1971 and Dr. George Zack (pictured right) took over for 37 years before handing the position off to the current Music director and conductor Scott Terrell.

Each year the Philharmonic uses donations and concert profits to pay for its musicians.  They have auditions in the fall and start the season early October with their standard Mahler 2 concert.  For each of their concerts they play in the Singletary Center for the Arts on UK’s campus.  They also bring in a number of different guest artists, mainly at their pops concerts that happen in the spring time.  This past  year they brought Wycliffe Gordon (pictured left) to play with them.  Wycliffe is a grammy nominated trombone artist whose influence in Lexington has grown over the past few years, especially among the jazz scene.  For their auditions and concerts they are always in need of people helping to run these events.

I know a few people in the Lexington Philharmonic and have talked to them.  My dad sometimes subs in for the trumpet section when somebody like Dr. Van Fleet can’t perform.  I have also met with Philharmonic administrator staff.  They informed me about the process for auditions which are very competitive and the orchestra is very involved not only with music they play, but with the community.  I am very excited to start volunteering this coming Sunday.

"The Lexington Philharmonic." The Lexington Philharmonic. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://www.lexphil.org/>.

"Picnic with the Pops | Lexington's Favorite Summer Event." Picnic with the Pops. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://lexpops.com/wp/>.