Podcast appearances and mentions of austin lyric opera

Mike Howard is the band director at Vandegrift High School in Austin, Texas. Under his direction, the Vandegrift Band has won numerous awards and honors and most recently was the 2019 BOA Grand National Champion. Topics: Mike’s background in Texas and his early career, including the story of how he opened Vandegrift High School. Advice from Eddie Green as a young band director. Teaching jazz. Advice for those who are looking to build their programs. Links: Mike Howard & the Vandegrift Band Green: On Teaching Band Floyd: The Artistry of Teaching and Making Music Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy Biography: Mr. Howard is currently in his 11th year at Vandegrift High School and in his 17th year of teaching h igh school band. He was one of the founding directors of the band when VHS opened in 2009 and became Head Band Director in the Fall of 2014. While at Vandegrift, Mr. Howard’s bands have been consistent UIL Concert Competition Sweepstakes Award Winners. He has also been instrumental in several marching band high honors such as BOA Regional Champion, BOA Super Regional Finalist, BOA Super Regional Class Champion, multiple invitational marching contest championships, UIL State Marching Contest Finalist, 6A UIL State Marching Contest Bronze Medalist, 5A UIL State Marching Contest Silver Medalist and 4A UIL State Marching Contest Champion. At Vandegrift, Mr. Howard is the director of the Viper Marching Band, Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band.   Aside from being the Director of Bands at VHS, Mr. Howard is an active Leadership Consultant and Workshop Presenter. He has been a facilitator for SASI for the last 11 years. In this time, Mr. Howard has had the opportunity to work with thousands of students and directors from around the United States. As a lead facilitator for SASI, he is heavily involved with the operations of all Drum Major camps as well as teaching several site-based workshops throughout the summer.   Before coming to Vandegrift, Mr. Howard taught at James E. Taylor High School in Katy, Texas. As Associate Director of the JE Taylor HS Band his responsibilities included directing the Jazz Program, assisting with the marching band, conducting the Concert Band, and coordinating and teaching the drumline. Mr. Howard, a native of Hondo, TX, started his teaching career at Morton Ranch High School, where he was a band director and helped open the school in 2004. At Morton Ranch, he taught the Concert Band, Jazz Band, assisted with the marching band. Before teaching at Morton Ranch, Mr. Howard was an instructor for the Cedar Park High School Band in Cedar Park, Texas and an instructor for the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps from Madison, Wisconsin. As a performer, Mr. Howard has performed with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera and several bands around the Austin/San Antonio area. Mr. Howard graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, Suma Cum Laude, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He lives in Leander with his wife Amber, his daughter, Madison and his son, Justin.

This week, I'm speaking with fabulous double bass player, Lauren Pierce! Known for her hugely popular YouTube channel, which features her virtuosic performances and has more than 13 thousand followers and 1.3 million views, Lauren is a highly regarded soloist, musical innovator, and educator. As you'll hear in our conversation, Lauren is an amazingly thoughtful musician, who has put a great amount of effort in refining the process of practicing and expanding her skills and artistry.  Among many things, we discuss her highly intentional and effective approach practicing and learning new repertoire, how our habits and our rituals create the life we have, and the importance of having clarity in building a career. Lauren also talks about How her musical path unfolded How the repertoire for the double bass is evolving these days How her deep love of the instrument, her passion for music, and her profound interest for the process fuel her enthusiasm for practicing Her amazing program - The Virtuosity Blueprint     Join my FREE 3-Day TRAINING: The Performance Makeover Masterclass Monday 4/20 through Wednesday 4/22 11 am CT / 12pm ET I can't wait to discuss optimal performance with you! Sign up here: https://mailchi.mp/f2552e4cb885/performancemakeover     MORE ABOUT LAUREN PIERCE: YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXd5tle97L70_79yl72c32g Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaurenPierceBass/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bassicallyfabulous/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/bassicallyfab?lang=en Lauren's amazing Virtuosity Blueprint program: https://laurenpierce.lpages.co/the-virtuosity-blueprint/   Lauren Pierce is one of those generational instrumentalists with not only the technique necessary to excel on her instrument, but with a flair and presentation that amazes everyone who watches her musically navigate on the double bass. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lauren began her musical studies at the age of seven on piano and voice. Later, she was introduced to the Double Bass and soon began lessons with the late Douglas Sommer, section bassist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She continued her studies at the University of South Carolina under the tutelage of Dr. Craig Butterfield. During her studies at USC, Lauren was given the Presser Scholar Award, named a Magellan Scholar, and in 2010, performed a concerto with the University of South Carolina Symphony as the winner of that years USC Concerto Competition. After graduating from USC, Lauren moved to Denton, Texas to study with Jeffrey Bradetich and work as his Teaching Fellow. As a Teaching Fellow, she was in charge of maintaining a studio of college-aged double bassists and often running master classes for the full double bass studio at UNT. During this period, Lauren competed in the American String Teachers Association Competition and the International Society of Bassists Competition. In 2016, she was named a Pirastro Strings Artist, sponsored by the largest bowed string company in the world, Pirastro Strings. Her popularity through performance videos on YouTube is unparalleled in the classical music world. Lauren is regarded as a musical innovator through her performing and teaching, and is famous for playing works for instruments other than the double bass with ease and virtuosity. Lauren has worked in many different genres and artistic mediums. She has worked as a section member for many orchestras, including the South Carolina Philharmonic, the Austin Symphony, the Austin Lyric Opera, and the Laredo Philharmonic. Lauren appeared as a soloist in the 2011 film "Luz," by Los Angeles filmmaker Ellie Ann Fenton. She has recorded as a soloist on multiple albums, including singer-songwriter Collin Hauser's debut album Collin Hauser, Fall River Footman's Mullen Road, and R&B artist Mikaela Kahn's Milk And Honey. Lauren brings an impressive performance repertoire to the table, exceptional for the double bass, where she takes many a risk playing works designed for more versatile and manageable smaller instruments. Most critics find her flair and presentation almost magical. Her music has been featured many times on sites such as Classic FM, MusicOff, The Entreprenurial Musician Podcast, Discover Double Bass, Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog, Patternroot, and more. Lauren is a frequent clinician at several workshops, including the Bradetich Summer Bass Camps, the Austin Bass Workshop, and Bassmania at Columbus State University. She resides in Austin, Texas, where she enjoys teaching, performing, and working on her zombie romance novel, The Loving Dead. Lauren plays on a small Italian instrument, built by an unknown maker, ca. 1850s.     Visit www.mindoverfinger.com and sign up for my newsletter to get your free guide to a super productive practice using the metronome!  This guide is the perfect entry point to help you bring more mindfulness and efficiency into your practice and it's filled with tips and tricks on how to use that wonderful tool to take your practicing and your playing to new heights! Don't forget to visit the Mind Over Finger Resources' page to check out amazing books recommended by my podcast guests, as well as my favorite websites, cds, the podcasts I like to listen to, and the practice and podcasting tools I use everyday!  Find it here: www.mindoverfinger.com/resources!   And don't forget to join the Mind Over Finger Tribe for additional resources on practice and performing! If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support!     THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson who graciously provided the show's musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a HUGE thank you to my fantastic producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/ https://www.instagram.com/mindoverfinger/    

Mike Howard is currently in his 11th year at Vandegrift High School and in his 17th year of teaching high school band. He was one of the founding directors of the band when VHS opened in 2009 and became Head Band Director in the Fall of 2014. While at Vandegrift, Mr. Howard’s bands have been consistent UIL Concert Competition Sweepstakes Award Winners. He has also been instrumental in several marching band high honors such as BOA Regional Champion, BOA Super Regional Finalist, BOA Super Regional Class Champion, multiple invitational marching contest championships, UIL State Marching Contest Finalist, 6A UIL State Marching Contest Bronze Medalist, 5A UIL State Marching Contest Silver Medalist, and 4A UIL State Marching Contest Champion. At Vandegrift, Mr. Howard is the director of the Viper Marching Band, Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band. Aside from being the Director of Bands at VHS, Mr. Howard is an active Leadership Consultant and Workshop Presenter. He has been a facilitator for SASI for the last 11 years. In this time, Mr. Howard has had the opportunity to work with thousands of students and directors from around the United States. As a lead facilitator for SASI, he is heavily involved with the operations of all Drum Major camps as well as teaching several site-based workshops throughout the summer. Before coming to Vandegrift, Mr. Howard taught at James E. Taylor High School in Katy, Texas. As Associate Director of the JE Taylor HS Band, his responsibilities included directing the Jazz Program, assisting with the marching band, conducting the Concert Band, and coordinating and teaching the drumline. Mr. Howard, a native of Hondo, TX, started his teaching career at Morton Ranch High School, where he was a band director and helped open the school in 2004. At Morton Ranch, he taught the Concert Band, Jazz Band, assisted with the marching band. Before teaching at Morton Ranch, Mr. Howard was an instructor for the Cedar Park High School Band in Cedar Park, Texas and an instructor for the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps from Madison, Wisconsin. As a performer, Mr. Howard has performed with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera and several bands around the Austin/San Antonio area. Mr. Howard graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, Suma Cum Laude, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He lives in Leander with his wife Amber, his daughter, Madison and his son, Justin. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sketchbookpodcast/message

In 2016, Paul Pape completed his 6th year as the Percussion Director at Vandegrift High School in Austin, TX. During his tenure at VHS, the percussion section has been highly successful in many areas of percussion performance including solo, percussion ensemble, and marching percussion. The VHS Drumline, under the direction of Mr. Pape, has received numerous awards and honors across the state, including first-place finishes at several drumline contests, numerous band festival caption awards, and three finalist appearances at the prestigious Lone Star Drumline Contest. In 2015, the VHS Drumline also won 1st Place and was awarded the “Caldwell Cup” at the Lone Star Drumline Contest. In addition to his percussive responsibilities, Mr. Pape has been an integral part of the success of the VHS Concert and Marching Bands helping the group earn several accolades including numerous TMEA Honor Band State finalists placements, BOA Regional Class Championships, San Antonio BOA Super Regional Finalist placements, BOA Super Regional Class Championships, the Silver Medal at the 2015 5A Texas State Marching Band Championship, and were named the 4A Texas State Marching Band Champions in 2013. Before coming to VHS Mr. Pape served as the Percussion Director for Cedar Park HS from 2008-2010 where his students earned numerous individual and group awards including the 2008 PASIC Championship and the 2009 Lone Star Drumline Contest Championship where they were also awarded the prestigious “Caldwell Cup”. Prior to his time at Cedar Park High School, Mr. Pape began his career as an Assistant Band Director and Percussion Director at Georgetown High School from 2002-2008 where his bands received superior ratings and his percussion sections were consistently successful. Under the direction of Mr. Pape, the GHS Drumline was awarded 1st place at the Central Texas Drumline Invitational in 2003, 2004 and 2006, 1st Place at the 2007 Plano Drumline Contest, the 2006 PASIC Championship & Fred Sanford Award, as well as the 2006 Lone Star Drumline Contest Championship. Outside of his primary teaching position, Mr. Pape founded, organized, and conducted the Region 26 Percussion Ensemble, was on staff for the 2004 High Percussion Teal Sound Drum and Bugle Corps, and has served as a clinician/consultant to programs throughout Texas. Paul is a 2001 graduate of Southwest Texas State University, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. As a performer, Paul has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera and several bands around the Austin/San Antonio area. Paul currently lives in Austin, TX with his wife Jennifer and two dogs, Abby and Parker. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sketchbookpodcast/message

Mary is a CSEP certified Special Events Professional…there are only 3 in all of England (and less than 400 worldwide) that hold this highly sought after international certification. In short, she knows her stuff. Her event planning career started in commercial radio, with over 14+ years experience in creating and executing community events, concerts and on-site live broadcasts. She’s worked at a handful of radio stations all over Texas in the promotions/events department, sales & marketing and even on-the-air as a radio DJ. She has extensive experience in concert promotions thru her work at Direct Events, handling the local marketing plans for nationally touring shows such as Seal, Los Lonely Boys, Ani DiFranco, Joss Stone, and Lucinda Williams for The Backyard (5000 capacity venue), Austin Music Hall (3500 capacity), La Zona Rosa (1300 capacity) and Antone’s (550 capacity). Plus, she worked in non-profit marketing for the Austin Lyric Opera. http://www.thesimplifiers.com/about/mary-baird-wilcock/ Seth Greene is a 6 Time Best Selling Author, Nationally Recognized Direct Response Marketing Expert, and the only back to back to back GKIC Dan Kennedy Marketer of the Year Nominee. To Get a FREE Copy of Seth’s new book Podcast Marketing Magic, and access to a Live Podcast Marketing Training Session go to http://www.UltimateMarketingMagician.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the very first MusicForaWedding podcast from Will Taylor and Strings Attached.  I am Will Taylor and I am here with my wonderful assistant Amanda Cevallos.  Hey Amanda!Amanda: Hello.Will Taylor: And this is the first podcast to help you figure out the music for your wedding and all the ins and outs you want to make this fun and if you have any questions for us, send an email to Will@WillTaylor.com and put in the subject field ‘Wedding music podcast’ to anything you want to know.  We’d love to help you out, love to hear from you.  Just send us an email toWill@WillTaylor.com, any question you have about wedding music.Today’s main topic, this is our first podcast and we are just going to talk about the role of music in a wedding.  Why should we have music anyway in a wedding?  What makes it important in a wedding?  But before we get to that I want to tell you a little bit about myself and about Amanda.Since 1989 I have helped couples realize their wedding music dreams and I have played the violin, viola and guitar professionally in the Austin area for over 24 years, including 20 years with the Austin Lyric Opera orchestra.  With my group Strings Attached I have worked with artists like Bob Schneider, Shawn Colvin, P Diddy, _______[1:55], Tish Hinojosa, Carolyn Wonderland, Gary Clark Jr. - we bring a lot of experience to the table in helping the couples figure out what they want for their wedding.Amanda Cevallos went to college at the University of Montana where she studied dance choreography and performance as well as entertainment management at the U of M School of Business.  In 2009 she came back to Texas where she was raised and in March 2010 she joined the team at Will Taylor and Strings Attached.Your musical event planning needs are her first priority.  She knows the ins and out of the Strings Attached repertoire built over our 20-year history in the business.  But she also has her finger on the pulse of what’s current and popular culture, which makes her an ideal booking agent and a facilitator.  So welcome Amanda.  I am so glad to have her here.  She has been with us for over an year now.  I think we have a really great thing going on and she has a lot to turn in on and I am just going to invite her to interrupt me when appropriate.  Let me talk about music and let me share a few quotes:“Music is the shorthand of emotion” – Leo Tolstoy.“Music is what feelings sound like.  Music is the universal language of mankind” – Longfellow.So what is the role of music at a wedding?  When you think of a wedding ________[3:22] that is kind of like planning a major life event, in a way it’s like a movie production or producing a play.  It’s not unlike that.  This is an event that’s going to happen one time in your life and what would it be like if you went to see a play or a movie and there is no music accompanying it?  It’s just people talking to each other.From my standpoint it might not have as much emotional impact and for me the role of music at a wedding is to help the emotional impact.  A wedding is very emotional experience.  So music can help the emotion be experienced more deeply by not just the couple but all the people that are attending, and that’s one thing to remember is that as you are planning your wedding, this is for your family and your friends as much for them as it is for you and you want them to have this memorable emotional experience.Now for most people it’s also a religious experience and music is a big part of the emotional impact of spirituality.  So it’s like setting the scene.  It’s a soundtrack for a grand production that you are planning.  So I’d like to ask you to think in your mind and visualize the scene, like a scene in a movie.  What is your soundtrack going to sound like?At this point it might be nice just to talk about one of the parts of the other wedding where there can be music, the different scenes, like in a movie you have a scene.  So you start from the top of the movie, of your wedding.  Usually the first point of contact is when the guests are walking into the ceremony location.  In some cases it will be a church; in other cases it might be an outdoor wedding.  So you set that scene with maybe a string quartet.  If that’s not your particular style, maybe you have somebody singing middle-eastern music or folk music or you have a solo singer – something to give the guests maybe a little entertainment while they are sitting down and getting adjusted to the ceremony.Amanda: Something to set the tone so when they walk into something, they walk into something special.  As soon as the door is open there’s this beautiful sound coming from wherever the setting is and it really sets the tone.Will Taylor: Yeah, so think about what is the first impression musically you want to get your guests.  Again, I’d like to focus on getting away from traditional should be’s if you have that luxury.  Now you may be doing a wedding where the church gives you a specific list of pieces then you want to follow that and share that with your music organizer, whoever is playing to your music.  At Strings Attached we can handle the music from the beginning to the end and we are very experienced in handling these kinds of things.  We have done music for up to 20 years.  So you want to lean on your provider, lean on your wedding coordinator.  We have done anywhere from 100s to over a thousand of these and so we are going to know things about putting together the music and we are going to be able to save you time and effort, so lean on your professionals.And if you are the asked scenario [7:02] check out stringsattached.org.  We love to help organize and make your wedding dreams come true.  Amanda will answer the call.  You can call her directly at (512) 944…Amanda: 8407 or you can email me at bookstringsattached@gmail.com and just very quickly before we go I just want to be sure to mention our wedding reception band because I think that’s we get calls for above.  We get calls to play strings but we also have a wedding reception band that is fantastic.And we have another thing called ‘TheClassicRockSeries.com’ and it’s a series of tribute shows and we use a lot of the songs from these tribute shows for the wedding band but we also have other tunes on that website.Will Taylor: We’d also like to mention, like I said in the beginning of the podcast, Strings Attached can handle the music from the beginning to the end of the reception, the very last note.  We are sort of a one-stop shopping source for your live music or live wedding music needs here in the Austin central Texas area.So we talked a lot about the ceremony music and the cocktail music and we also have a really versatile, exciting, dynamic wedding music variety band and it’s about a six piece ensemble.  We can do anything from 60s Motown to 80s pop tunes to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, a bit of country music, a bit of folk music…Amanda: Swing, Jazz…Will Taylor: Pretty much everything that you can imagine we can do at really exhaustive song list online and you can check and see that variety right now.  We provide really beautiful lighting systems.  We also have a sound system that is high quality and bring our own sound man.  We come early and setup and make sure everything is ready to go way ahead of time.  We will also MC your event if you have special announcements that you like us to make.  We are able to do all that.  Amanda: We’ll create the scripts based on your schedule.Will Taylor: We’ll create a script based on your schedule and everything will be taken care of – the high quality, it will be dynamic, and if you have any creative ideas we can customize it to your event.I had a wedding in 2008 where I had a 9-piece band and the client picked every single piece of music.  Now we did have to charge for that but we made it happen for them and they had four sets of music and they picked every single piece of music and we worked with them and made it work.  So we can go from the extreme, working out every little detail or we can also help you and design with suggestions.Amanda: We have a client right now that loves us and hired us because they came to our tribute shows and they know what we are capable of.  They also have their own ideas too so they are allowing us to be creative and then they are adding a list of songs that they just can’t live without and so we have added eight tunes through our set list for them for a fee of course, but that’s an option.  So don’t rule anything out with your wedding band.Will Taylor: Exactly, and if you want to hear us live we have a monthly residency at the Nutty Brown Café here in Austin, Texas.  If you just look up ClassicRockSeries.com you will see a schedule of shows.  Our next show is coming up on July 30.  Again, that’s ClassicRockSeries.com and also I want to mention that a lot of this information we have talked about, our Frequently Asked Questions, our worksheet – all that is available at celebratewithstringsattached.com or you can email us and we will send you any of this.  If you have any questions, again, just email Will@WillTaylor.com and we will mention these on the podcast in the next episode.  If you’d like to record yourself saying the question we will have you on the podcast.Amanda: If you have a booking inquiry just email Amanda@bookstringsattached.com or you can call me or text me at            (512) 944-8407      .  I am available after 5:00.  I have a lot of clients who work all day and can’t really plan their wedding until after they get off work and I make myself available for those clients.  So just keep in mind from about 5:00 to 8:00 I am open to texting, calling or emailing.Will Taylor: Well that’s it.  We are going to sign off for now from MusicForaWeddingPodcast with Will Taylor and Strings Attached.  Subscribe to this podcast by clicking one of the buttons over there on iTunes.  There will be more episodes coming up when we talk more about choosing the music for your wedding and what we do.  So we will talk to you and we will see you in the future on the podcast.Free music for this podcast is available on iTunes.  Search for ‘A Bridezilla’s Guide to Classical Wedding Music’.  That’s on iTunes at ‘A Bridezilla’s Guide to Classical Wedding Music’.Need live music for a wedding or event?Celebrate with Strings Attached Austin Cover Bands Tx Wedding Soloist