Beverly Everett was conducting the concert. She is an active conductor, composer and performer as well as the Music Director of the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra. She was a smooth conductor and easy to follow, and it was a lot of fun to play under her.
The Bott family, a local family involved with the orchestra, hosted us. They were very kind and accommodating, and they had a very nice home. They even went so far as to play legos with my five year old brother, Morgan, who drove to North Dakota with us. The orchestra, as well as being so kind as to ask me to play the Mozart with them, also asked me to play the clarinet part in Peter and the Wolf, which was really cool! The clarinet plays the cat in Peter in the Wolf, and it is an enjoyable piece to perform. Terry Dullum, a journalist with WDAZ News, narrated Peter and the Wolf and did a wonderful job.
To add to all their generosity, Beverly Everett, the guest conductor, invited me back to North Dakota in March to play the whole Mozart clarinet concerto with the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra, which she conducts! I am really excited to play an entire concerto for the first time with an orchestra.
The whole experience was both fun and instructive. I learned a lot, and I'm really glad and grateful to all the people who spent the time and effort to organize this wonderful weekend.
