IWWF 2012

Me and Wenzel Fuchs!

Last week, I attended the International Woodwind Festival 2012 - IWWF.  Jonathan Cohler was the Artistic and General Director and Cynthia Doggett was the Festival's Coordinator.  This festival was one of the best weeks of my life.  I met so many amazing clarinetists from Austria, China, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Canada and all over the United States.

The festival included masterclasses, private lessons, and many performances.  I performed in masterclasses for Wenzel Fuchs, Jonathan Cohler and Jorge Montilla.  I had lessons with Cynthia Doggett, Jorge Montilla, and Yuan Gao.  They were all amazing clarinetists, and working with them increased the level of my playing enormously in a very short time.  The week had so many events to prepare for that I practiced 4-6 hours every day to be ready for all of those lessons and masterclasses.

The people there were all clarinet nerds.  Most of the conversations at the workshop were about clarinet playing, and it was glorious.  Everyone was incredibly nice, and I made a lot of good friends.  The festival was the largest concentration of clarinetists at a higher level than I have ever had the privilege of working with.  Watching the many masterclasses taught me so many things, and also inspired me to work as hard as I can to be as good as I can possibly be on the clarinet.

I feel that this workshop has inspired me, and taught me more things in a single week than anything else I've experienced in my musical pursuits.  The festival was an astonishing success.