On Thursday, on Meascha's recommendation, I headed with my mother straight to Katz's deli for lunch.  Figuring out the system took some adjustment, but the result was astounding.  The best pastrami I have ever tucked into.   Having the chance to see my mother, play with passionate, skilled colleagues, play to a huge packed house, and enjoy superb pastrami - what a week.  Seeing my family at Heathrow the following morning was the big joy I had been looking forward to all week. If only they could have shared some of what I experienced.  Yet in a way they now can, because there were so many videos made - by YouTube, by Gramafilm, and by my colleagues, unlike any other gig, there is so much to show my family.

The adventure didn't end there for me and one other YTSO winner. When I quit the music profession twenty years ago, I left one dream unfulfilled.  It was not to play Carnegie Hall.  My dream was to play, just once with the LSO.   Seeing that the LSO were to play Tan Dun's Eroica on April 21st, several weeks ago I wrote to their general manager asking if it would be fitting to sit in on the piece, as a conclusion to their huge contribution to the YTSO project.  On Sunday morning, Owain Williams, the young YTSO timpanist, and I played our first rehearsal with the LSO for Tuesday's concert at the Barbican, conducted, once again by Tan Dun.  Tan Dun was clearly moved by last week by the way he spoke about the project when he addressed the LSO before starting to rehearse.  Just as he did during our rehearsals, and the concert, Owain really thwacked the timpani in the opening of the piece, just before the trumpet begins its theme.  The startled fourth horn player turned to me and said, "He'll go far." He already has, so have I and so have all those who worked so hard to make a dream happen.

It's finally here.  Up early for a morning jog through the blossom trees and drizzle in Central Park, then it's off to Carnegie Hall for the dress rehearsal.  We are instructed to wear our all black concert dress. Though we were told it is to help get the lighting right, it seems obvious that this rehearsal would be taped in case there were any major stumbles during the evening.  And there is plenty of room for error - worse than a F1 race in a monsoon.  With so many short separate pieces - there are many intervals during which videos are to be inserted.  The A/V team are using the entire space of the hall to project images of winners, composers, harmonyfilm subjects and special lighting effects.  It looks extremely complicated. We didn't leave the hall feeling very confident that aspect had had enough rehearsal.   But we were given one thing that did instil a lot of confidence - a security badge which I will treasure. It reads "Carnegie Hall TALENT, YouTube Symphony Orchestra, April 14 & 15, 2009"   When in doubt, I'll refer to that.

After the rehearsal, our soloist in John Cage's Renga, the superb singer Measha Brueggergosman, overhears my accent in the hotel lobby and detecting a fellow Canadian, asks to interview me.  Not only does she sing like an angel, she writes for Canadian newspapers and magazines, has a radio programme - and promotes jewellery.  So, the afternoon of our concert saw me being interviewed by a delightful diva. 

Off to the burger bar in the lobby of Le Parker Meridien hotel.  Not bad burgers - certainly better than mine.  Then it's off to warm-up with a bunch of jittery musicians in black.  Once on stage, it was wonderful to see the hall full.  You could tell that the age of the attendees dropped the higher you looked, so that by the time your eyes adjusted to the highest balcony, it looked packed with young people.  And the applauses were much more enthusiastic than I have ever encountered at a classical concert.   The standing ovation at the end was an unexpected treat.  The A/V effects went much better than anticipated. The murmur in the crowd before we played our first note, when the first pictures of the winners flew across the ceiling, touched me.  The videos showed the passionate human side of the performers, and added greatly to the mood of the night - one of joy, pride and dreams fulfilled.

Before the day begins, cellist Michal Schein and I were asked to be the token orchestra members and attend a press conference at Julliard for about forty journalists seated in front of a battery of video cameras.  Tan Dan retold the story we had heard at the reception given for us Sunday night, how when he arrived at US Immigration 25 years ago, he said he wanted to study violin at Columbia University and play in Carnegie Hall.  To earn money, he busked in Greenwich Village.  He and another busking fiddler named Paul, competed for the best earning spot, in front of the Chemical Bank. Tan Dun studied composition and five or six years later when one of his compostions was to feature in a performance at Carnegie Hall, he revisited his old haunts, including the Chemical Bank.  There was Paul, still playing, still trying to get better.  "Tan, where have you been?  I haven't seen you in a long time," exclaimed Paul.  "I am playing at Carnegie Hall," replied Tan.   "Front or back?"  asked Paul.  "Inside!" said Tan.

The press event over-ran and I ran to the other end of the school for a rehearsal of the Dvorak Serenade. The day was less demanding than Monday.  The rehearsal on the Carnegie Hall stage that evening showed how far the band had progressed over the past 33 hours

Up early for the 5:15 a.m. cab to ABC's studio in Times Square.  We're rehearsing/sound checking by six in a studio that looks like an enlarged picture window so any passers by (at that hour just the odd street cleaner) can peer in.  Then a long wait before we go down again at 8am.

We catch a glimpse of Marie Osmond, there to plug a book, as she walks by and smiles at the YouTube Brass Ensemble - today's Good Morning America house band.  Off to makeup for something to take the glare off our faces - and my extended forehead.    Ted Atkatz takes off his hat, and pointing to his case of extreme early morning "hat hair" asks for a blow dry - which he gets.  Then he put his hat on again.  Down in the studio, it's chaos.  What looks like a guide dog is a black lab sniffer dog.  A studio audience, a placard bearing rabble of thirty people, is lined up along one side.  The teleprompter has fallen asleep.  We go live nationwide. 

Then, it's a dash back to Julliard to play three rehearsals from 10 till 10.  The longest day I think I have ever had playing.  I catch a second wind and head to the pub after with the lower brass and percussion, proving a sterotype. 

No matter what, if it involved good pay, I always said yes to a gig.  Sometimes small doubts cropped up before I did the gig, wondering if I might have bit off more than I could chew.  Bill Williams, artistic coordinator for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra late last week put out a call for YTSO volunteers to play in a brass quintet + percussion for a breakfast news slot.  The marketing yes man pounced on it.  So tomorrow morning there is a 5:15am departure to Good Morning America to play with Rolf Smedvig (founder of the Empire Brass), Ian Bousfield (solo trombone, Vienna Philharmonic), Ted Atkatz (former Chicago Symphony principal percussionist) and 2 other YTSO colleagues.  No pressure there then.

This morning as I was jogging through Common Wood in Penn, it struck me why I'm flying to NY this afternoon. This Christmas we bought our daughter a very pink digital camera, a Samsung S1070.  She adores it and considers herself the next Truffaut, having discovered its video functions.  It is with her camera that I recorded my audition. And I must have registered the camera with Samsung.

A couple of weeks ago, Samsung announced that they were sponsors of the YouTube Symphony and that each participant would receive as a free gift, their S1 mini external drive.  Putting two and two together is sometimes best done panting through the beech trees.  As proof of my corporate fealty, I could take my daughter's camera with me, but I would be dead meat when I return on Friday.  The budding videographer sleeps with it.

In this month's Gramophone Magazine, YTSO is listed amongst the top ten most inspiring orchestras. It describes the orchestra as "democratising classical music on a global scale, making it truly all-inclusive."  There is a bigger game at play and it involves Google directly and democracy.  Eight of the orchestra's members are from South Korea.  One of the features of YouTube is the ability to post videos and comments anonymously. Granted, one could not remain anonymous in this particular contest, but in general on YouTube,  postings are from people shielding themselves behind an alias name. 

The US Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment of the constitution of the United States.  In the eyes of Americans, anonymity is fundamental to free democracy.  Not so in other countries. In South Korea there is a tussle going on between Google (the parent company of YouTube) and the South Korean government's demand that by the beginning of April, all internet users must use their real names.  It should not be the job of American companies to uphold domestically sacred democratic ideals - that's the job of their government and their diplomats.  Had the South Korean regulation been in place a couple of months ago, perhaps the South Koreans might not have been able to participate from their own country.  Democratising is harder in practice than on paper.

One gets the sense that behind the scenes there is an escalating mad flurry of activity.  All winners are travelling to New York City this weekend.  Like the ground approaching the parachutist, in the first few minutes of a jump, all looks placid, serene, far away. Then in the last few seconds, the ground comes up very fast..  The group's mailing list betrays minor last minute panics and angst.  "What is meant by all black?" That was in reference to what we will wear for the concert, though it still might have something to do with rugby.  With so many languages in play, who knows?  "How will the basses get from the hotel to Julliard to Carnegie Hall?"  "Will they be secure?"  "Help - looking for horn, trumpet and tuba player to make up a quintet for Monday morning's TV news."  As the time when we meet approaches, the level of wire chatter has escalated enormously.   And press activity is gearing up again e.g. a good article in Time magazine, on newstands tomorrow. 

I'm keeping my ear close to the ground.

Your YTSO News foreign correspondent. 

Some trumpet players seem to switch their mouthpieces faster than you or I change our socks; well, faster than I change mine anyway.  Like a lot of horn players, I have played on the same mouthpiece for a very long time.  For the YTSO I am playing second horn, something I have enjoyed in the past when playing next to world class players on first [and by the way, the YTSO will be no exception]. It demands spot on intonation with the first horn and occassionally some pepper in the low register.  Those fortes are not my forte and the Carnegie concert demands a particularly spicey low range.  So I took the bold leap and am trying out a bigger mouthpiece, made, appropriately, in London. Surprisingly all the high notes are still achievable, and I have added about 10 decibels everywhere, something I didn't expect or need. Nearby string players be forewarned.

As I read that a Credit Suisse analyst predicts that YouTube could lose close to a half a billion dollars this year for Google, as a marketer, I can't help but think that YouTube hasn't fully connected advertisers with content.  That is partly because meta data - the data about other data - is hard to extract from video content.  People don't tag their content with advertisers in mind.  That brings up an interesting possibility - what if it were in their interests to do so?  What if they could earn something through advertising?  And what if Google could devise better ways of tagging video content - or at least enlist the support of its viewers?

Take for example the most popular video of a French horn player on the web.  Annamia Eriksson, first horn with the Royal Swedish Opera and a fine musician judging by the way she wakes Fafner. Granted there have been only 388,00 views, which is not a lot relative to television, but aggregate several of those and they become a significant audience.  As a marketer, I see several businesses that would have an interest in sponsoring that video: The Royal Swedish Opera, Alexander, the makers of her horn, the manufacturer of her mouthpiece, a record company, the shopping mall, her jeans manufacturer, even her shoe manufacturer.   I know viewers are interested in at least the make of her horn as I've seen it in the comments. Yet to an outsider there seems to be no process to link popular niche content with prospective advertising dollars.

The other point is this - the YouTube site seems to encourage one to move away from a video's page by making prominent about 50 links to related content.  What if it concentrated on holding the viewer's attention to the page, with advertisers links featured in the upper right?  As someone who is about to enjoy Google's generosity, I would love to have a conversation to help repay the favour.

IBM has an excellent alumni programme and former colleagues can connect either via LinkedIn or via a new secure site, The Greater IBM Connection.  A couple of weeks ago, Larry Phipps, the editor of that site, asked to profile me and the result was the banner above and his article below.  With hundreds of thousands of current and former IBMers out there, it is quite a community of people well versed in technology.  When I first heard that I had been selected for the public vote, I contacted hundreds of former colleagues directly as well as posting my story on the LinkedIn discussion groups for exLoti (former Lotus Development employees) and IBMers.  They gave me a huge amount of support and encouragement for which I am extremely grateful.  And hopefully there will be a few in the Carnegie Hall audience.

An 18 year old student of the horn connected with me via YouTube yesterday saying he had reached the end of the road with his current teacher but lived too far away from anyone who could take him to the next level.  I have been thinking of this issue for several years.  You can tell a lot about someone's playing by watching even a poor quality video.  A pupil could get valuable feedback asynchronously - and that might progress to synchronous lessons via GoogleTalk or Skype - but there doesn't seem to be a lot of that going on.  I suggested the chap post a video - a few minutes of warmups and a few minutes of his favourite concerto.  I'll shop that around to some of the great talent that is available in London. 

I would love to hear from more people who feel that distance is constraining their progress - and from players in the profession who have had experience with remote teaching or would be willing to give it a go.

I had the chance to hear the fine young Polish horn player, Grzegorz Curyla, on Saturday performing the first Strauss horn concerto in Watford.  He produced a fine sound and rattled off the piece without the nerves or usual fluffs one normally associates with student renditions. Chatting to him at rehearsal, I learnt that, as a post grad student at the Royal Academy of Music, he has five world class teachers.  Imagine that.  At most music conservatoires, colleges or universities, a horn student gets to study with one professor, who may or may not be world class and if they are, may not be the best match for the student.  There can be no dispute.  With four top conservatoires, and a plethora of top notch teaching skill, London has to be the Mecca for the serious aspiring horn player. 

Though it is said of contemporary horn players that they can play high or low if they get paid for it, we do settle into a groove.  With the exception of some very entertaining gigs playing second to top players, I have played in the upper register, so getting a chance to play second again, as I will be with the YTSO,  presents a few challenges. The opening of Brahm's first symphony begins with a sustained, full bodied, pedal concert C for second horn.  Few pieces require one to play any lower. Rehearsing that last night, I found there is so much vibration going on in my face, it makes my nose really itch.

It is truly a scratch section.

The German French horn player, Bruno Jaenicke (1887-1946), was, for many years, the principal hornist of the New York Philharmonic and a truly great one. He can be heard on many of Toscanini’s recordings. He rarely missed a note and was held in very high regard by the profession. In November 1931, at a concert with the guest conductor, Erich Kleiber, Jaenicke was booked to play Strauss’ first horn concerto.  Standing in front of the orchestra, he was completely unnerved, fumbled, missed notes and sounded pretty awful. After the first two movements, he walked off stage and didn’t return. It was announced to the audience that Jaenicke was unwell and that the piece would be dropped from the programme. Backstage, Jaenicke was seen smashing his horn by jumping on it.  "When we went up to the musicians' room at intermission," explained the eminent tympanist Saul Goodman, "there was no sign of Jaenicke but we found fragments of his horn all over the place.  Kleiber was so worried about him that he went out to Jaenicke's house and spent several hours trying to calm him down."  It was at least a week before Jaenicke reappeared. He returned to the section with no explanations.  Goodman added, "He was never the same."

Talking to my brother-in-law yesterday, a highly respected CGI artist for film and tv, fine portrait painter and gentleman, he revealed he has worked closely with several well known conductors, including MTT a decade ago in "On the Town" in London. 

I was just settling in for my usual Saturday morning indulgence, a bath with The Times Magazine sloshing around with Slummy Mummy and Giles Coren, who happened to be in Bath rather in than in my bath, after my morning pastoral run, when I spotted yet another article on the symphonic YouTubers, with a mini picture of me, my horn, our tatty piano and my dad's sloppy jumper amongst eight other (much) younger aspirants.  The family crowded around Dad's bath, giggling - at the photo.

Met David Cropper, former BBC Concert Orchestra horn player and, at 70, still playing well and looking 10 years younger.  "The life of an orchestral musician," he said when I commented on his youthful appearance. That flies in the face of a study I heard the conductor Benjmamin Zander citing last night on BBC Radio 4 Front Row on my way to the rehearsal, which puts orchestral musician job satisfaction below that of prison guards.  I did a bit of digging and it seems the source of much of that is with orchestral management and conductors.  There shouldn't be any problems with the YTSO then, since we are years away from becoming the disgruntled lot in front of most audiences.  And it seems that over half of professional musicians under the age of 40 have taken beta blockers to handle performance nerves. I'll stick with bananas, and with spotting any smiling faces in the audience to soothe my adrenal glands.  You stay happy, I stay relaxed.

Home of a famous football club, and fine professional horn players, including the LSO's principal horn, David Pyatt,  Tim Thorpe principal horn of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tony Catterick, and no doubt several more, to play 2nd horn in a Brahms 1 rehearsal with the local orchestra.  The part doesn't just jump around - you need to pole vault..  I expect I'll be making Jerry Lewis faces to leap about..

Everyone in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra last week was asked to post an autobiographical video.  I couldn't resist playing tourist and over-sharing, sentimental dad.  It is on my YouTube channel, balthica

Wrote an article of the adventure so far for the next edition of the British Horn Society Magazine.

Winners were asked this week to produce an introductory video. While making mine yesterday, I bumped into the dean of the RAM, Charlie's godfather,  who was loyally buying a practice mute in his own shop. He recommended that I should practice.  Sage advice, having seen the repertoire.   It's time to prepare "pro" chops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJOrkxaUNyg

I twitter sporadically at jmoffat and throughout the event I'll do my best to keep you posted.

Here's a blog post I made shortly after I submitted my audition videos:
http://elastictime.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/i-found-my-horn-on-youtube/
Hope you enjoy it.