• 17 Pieces of Advice for Upcoming Music Majors

    Congratulations, you’re going to be a music major!  Being a music major is a simultaneously rewarding and stressful experience. Besides having to endure the puzzled looks from your friends and the well-intentioned questions from your family (“But what do you do with a music degree?”), you have to balance practicing, studying, and performing. Here’s my advice to music majors of all ages to get everything you can out of your program: Hang out with people in other disciplines. It’s really easy to find common ground and make friends in your studio, but be sure to branch out and meet other people. Defy boundaries and introduce yourself to other woodwind, brass,…

  • How to Disinfect Your Clarinet After You’ve Been Sick

    It’s never fun being sick. This is especially true for musicians, who often have to suffer through rehearsals, lectures, and performances. After all, the show must go on! Whatever your ailment, it’s important to take proper precautions to sterilize, disinfect, and germ-proof your instrument when you’ve been sick. With everything that comes into contact with our mouths (reeds, mouthpieces, water bottles), clarinetists must be extra careful to disinfect everything to keep the germs at bay. If you’ve been sick, here are some steps you can take to disinfect your clarinet and other equipment: Sterilize your reeds. Reeds are gross. If you don’t believe, just watch Michael Lowenstern’s video on reed…

  • 19 Lessons About Life and Art I Learned From Stephen King

    My close friends will tell you that I’m a little strange. In addition to my fascination with visiting the graves of famous musicians, I’m always up for exploring macabre sites. Recent excursions include subterranean labyrinths in Paris, Dracula’s chamber under Buda Castle in Budapest, the shrine of St. Valentine in Dublin, and even a real life pet cemetery in Paris (which is where the dogs of Camille Saint-Saëns are buried). I can thank Stephen King for instilling this appreciation for the macabre. I first read Stephen King when I was in middle school (I think my first book was IT). Ever since, I’ve devoured everything he has written and eagerly await his…