TMEA 2009

Last week was the annual TMEA (TX Music Educators Assn) convention in San Antonio. Robyn spearheaded the effort to have the UH bassoon studio present a short concert at the convention. Last fall they made a sample CD and sent it in for consideration. They were accepted to play, and their performance was set for Friday morning at 10:30. Since I teach lessons on Thursdays after school, I decided to fly over to San Antonio on Southwest Friday morning. It turned out that my adopted sister, SuEllen, was also flying over, so I had a traveling companion and somebody to share the taxi fare to get to the convention center. We arrived in plenty of time to get a front row seat for the UH "Bassougar" (bassoon-cougar)Bassoon Ensemble. Yeah, I know, that's a pretty odd name, but they had to call themselves something other than just "Bassoon Ensemble." They played several arrangements including some Beatles tunes and a circus march. It was fun watching them and hearing them enjoying playing their instruments.

I took this picture when they were getting set up; it looks like they're going to march around in a line!



After they finished, we had some time to peruse the exhibits, where we spent some $$ on reedmaking supplies and quite a bit of music. When it was time to head home, Robyn handed me the car keys and promptly checked out for the duration. Lucky for me, we had another passenger in the car. LiHua is the Asian girl in the studio. She just started her MM this spring, having had to wait until she could pass the English proficiency exam. She and I talked about lots of things on the way home, including cultural differences, growing up in China, religion, musical training, politics (as limited as my interest is in that subject), and financial planning. Robyn just snored in the back seat. We got home around 10:30 p.m., and I was glad to have the chance to sleep in on Saturday morning!