First, let me send a sincere congratulations to David Upham and the Classical Orchestra of the Seattle Youth Symphonies. They gave a great and spirited performance of “Under the Rug” tonight here in Seattle. That piece doesn’t have a lot of “music” in it, and it really needs a conductor who gets it, and David truly did. It was a pleasure hearing them play, and their performance actually made me feel even better about the piece (which I had only heard live once before). A heart-felt thank you to everybody — from the vibe player who nailed that nasty part (and required him to learn how to play with 4 mallets just so he could play this part!) to the French horns and their spirited rips, from the clarinets who easily navigated those terribly awkward low-register glisses, to the trumpets who made those Harmon mutes sound better than they deserved.

Bye for now, Seattle. It’s been a fun week, and I met a lot of great people. (And Jennifer — don’t let me forget to send you a CD of Juba!)

Tomorrow morning, I head home to NYC. I’m mad excited to see AEJ and just take it easy for a few days. There are a few things to do — write the short piece for the Endangered Instruments program here in Seattle, make a few new sets of “Redline Tango” to fill some orders (yes, I mean you, Bowling Green) — but in general, I’m just going to rest a bit. Oh, and play with Loki.

I head to USC a week from Wednesday, where H. Robert Reynolds is doing “Redline Tango” with the wind ensemble. I couldn’t be more excited about that trip. I’ve never been to LA, Reynolds is a legend, and the wind ensemble at USC is out of control, as I mentioned before. I think the best part of that trip, though, is that AEJ is joining me. (Can you tell from the past few entries that I’m more than a little homesick?)