Clarinetfest 2012: Day Two

Trying out the new Walter Grabner Mouthpiece.  They're fantastic.  I bought one!

On Thursday, the exhibition hall opened up for the first time.  There were clarinets everywhere!  They had every major brand of clarinet that is played in the United States.  There were rows upon rows of Backun barrels and bells, tons of sheet music, Rossi clarinets, Italian clarinets, Backun clarinets, Selmer clarinets, and every Buffet clarinet that is currently being made, mouthpieces, everything!  I was really excited to come back and try the clarinets when I had time, but I had to get to my rehearsal with Dr. Fountain, the pianist who was playing with the high school soloist competitors.

Walter Grabner mouthpieces

Dr. Fountain was really good.  All of his rhythms were perfectly correct (which are very hard in the Martinu) and his tempos were just right.  He was a skinny, red-headed pianist who always has a smile on his face, and he was really good at putting everyone at ease with his friendly manner.  He was a pleasure to work with.

Trying out Rossi clarinets.

However, I ran into a huge problem that morning.  I had brought only one good reed with me to Lincoln!  Don't do that, by the way.  It's a really bad idea.  I had brought other reeds, but none of them would respond for me, and the one I had brought to play had somehow gotten racked.  It SERIOUSLY affected my tone,s moothness and articulation in really very bad ways.  I was now dreading playing for the competition on a cracked reed, and I was almost in a panic!  My mom and I had looked earlier at the clarinet exhibition, but we found no Legere booth there.  They had Rico and VanDoren booths, but no Legere exhibition.  I always use Legere reeds, and now was not the time to make a change.  My mom and I were both surprised at the absence of a Legere booth.  The Legere reeds are gaining in popularity, and I would think that more people would be selling them and that there would be a Legere booth at the ICA clarinet exhibition.

Buffets!

My mom tried calling the Legere dealership in Canada to see where in Nebraska we might be able to get more reeds.  He was incredibly nice and offered to send me as many reeds as I might need overnight.  The problem was, the competition was at 9am the next day, so even Fedex wouldn't be able to get them to us in time.

Trying out Backun barrels.

Luckily, while I was rehearsing with Dr. Fountain, my mom found a booth at the exhibition that did sell Legere reeds.  They must not have been out when we walked through the first time, or more likely, we overlooked them.  So thank you to, Wiener Music for saving me.
 

Backun barrels -- so pretty!