The Confident Musicianing Podcast
Coaching bands, performing premieres, and finding your sound with Dr. Jason Worzbyt
Today we are speaking with Indiana University of PA professor, Dr. Jason Worzbyt! In this conversation, we are diving into how you can find your unique sound and perform well in concerts and auditions.
In this episode, we dive into:
- Performing bassoon premieres - being in the right place at the right time 🏆
- What younger musicians can do to prepare for auditions -- from a PMEA adjudicator 🎶
- Staying mindful in performance 🧠
- Networking in music 💪
And much more!
So join me as we chat with Dr. Worzbyt!
This episode is available as a blog post! Click here to read.
Click here for the episode show notes!
Click here for Dr. Worzbyt's website.
Click here for Dr. Worzbyt's blog.
Today we are speaking with Indiana University of PA professor, Dr. Jason Worzbyt! In this conversation, we are diving into how you can find your unique sound and perform well in concerts and auditions.
In this episode, we dive into:
- Performing bassoon premieres - being in the right place at the right time 🏆
- What younger musicians can do to prepare for auditions -- from a PMEA adjudicator 🎶
- Staying mindful in performance 🧠
- Networking in music 💪
And much more!
So join me as we chat with Dr. Worzbyt!
This episode is available as a blog post! Click here to read.
Click here for the episode show notes!
Click here for Dr. Worzbyt's website.
Click here for Dr. Worzbyt's blog.
one of the most important things in my preparation is that I try to never play it wrong. I try, I try. Now that's the operative word. Okay, I try to never play it wrong, mm-hmm.
Your host, Eleanor:Hello and welcome back to Confident Musicianing Boy. Do we have a treat today? Because we are talking with Dr . Dr. Worzbyt is the professor of bassoon and director of adult and community bands at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dr Worzbyt has performed and recorded and has been featured as a soloist with wind ensembles and orchestras all across the country. He has premiered many works, including Bruce Yurko's Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble and Bruce Yurko's Concerto no 2 for Bassoon and Wind Orchestra.
Your host, Eleanor:Dr Worzbyt has presented multiple clinics on bassoon at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the American Band College, as well as the state music education associations for Pennsylvania, maryland, new Jersey, iowa, south Dakota, idaho and Colorado. Wow, that is a lot. Has many insightful bassoon conducting and musical articles on his website and has conducted the Indiana Allstate Band, indiana Junior High Allstate Band, new Jersey Allstate Symphonic Band and the PMEA, that is, pennsylvania Allstate Orchestra. He has formerly served as the president and higher education representative of PMEA, district 3 and continues to serve this organization as an adjudicator, guest conductor and clinician. Dr. Worzbyt , welcome to the show.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:You know, when you say all that, I think I'm going to go take a nap now. It's great to be here, eleanor, thank you.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. Let's dive right in. One of the things that really, like I really was excited about when I did some research on you is your premieres with, or your premieres of the pieces by, Bruce Yurko. What makes you so drawn to his pieces and specifically performing their premieres?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So this goes back to kind of like being at the right place at the right time. I was a second year graduate student at the University of North Texas. It would have been, I think, the fall of 1995. And I was doing my, in the middle of my master's and conducting degree, and my dear teacher, gene Corporon's, in conducting degree and my, my, my dear teacher Gene Corporon, came to me and he goes how would you like to conduct a world premiere? And of course you know absolutely so. Um, he gave me this piece called In Memoriam, christina for wind ensemble by Bruce Yerko. I had never heard of Bruce's, I had never met him or really heard of him, and so I began to work on this piece with one of the ensembles at North Texas and I was just immediately drawn to his writing and what he the sounds, that he got out of the band and we did the premiere. And then I later had the opportunity to talk with him on the phone a little bit, and unbeknownst to me that not only were he and Gene Corcoran good friends but also good friends with another one of my conducting teachers, jack Stanham, which also was going to be one of my dear colleagues and dear friends at IUP. So when I got the job at IUP, bruce and I had stayed in touch. And so, when I got the job at IUP, the Keystone Wind Ensemble had been selected to perform at the 2001 College Band Directors Conference and Jack Stamp said to me why don't you commission Bruce and we'll premiere a bassoon concerto? So that's what we did I got the grant and we played, we premiered the concerto down in Denton, texas.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Well, fast forward, I don't know how many years later. No, it was 2014, when Jack was getting ready to retire and we had never done a studio recording of it, of the concerto. And I said, I said to Bruce uh, and by that point Bruce, bruce and I become dear friends, I conducted a lot of his music. I said you know, we're getting ready, jack's getting ready to retire, I'd like to do a studio recording of your concerto. And he thought a little bit, he goes well, let me write you another one. And so he wrote he wrote me this 14 minute concerto. And he thought a little bit, he goes well, let me write you another one. And so he wrote he wrote me this 14 minute concerto for free.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:He didn't charge me a cent and so, um, we ended up premiering it and recording it, uh, the year that jack retired, and so bruce has just been, uh, a dear friend, just a dear friend, and he and I have had the opportunity to hang out quite a bit. I've done quite a bit of his music here. He comes to campus quite frequently to hear performances, and so just one of the complete, just complete musicians that I know.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean you bring up so many good points with that, especially like being in the right place at the right time and also staying in touch with people who you have met, because you never know when, like you know, later opportunities and later possibilities can happen. That is not only like inspiring but also really insightful into just networking you know, just keeping in touch?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Oh, absolutely, you know there's a. You know people think it's who you know and that's actually incorrect. It's not who you know, it's who knows you. That's the way that works. And, and you know, the music world is very small. I think about how I got my first college job at moorhead state university. I applied to this little tiny school good school, really school in this tiny town of moorhead, kentucky, which is in the middle of the daniel boone national forest. Wonderful university, wonderful people, unbeknownst to me. When I applied for the bassoon job that they. I had about five direct connections to that school that I didn't even know about wow, yeah it was I, I didn't you know my first bassoon teacher at north tex, texas.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Knew the trombone teacher. One of the composition professors at North Texas knew the trombone teacher. One of the flute teachers at North Texas. Knew the clarinet teacher, gene Corbran. Knew the director of bands, jack Stanton. Knew the director of bands. The associate director of bands was an IUP alum. I mean I, I had no idea about any of this yeah when I submitted my application yeah, so you just, you never know what happens with these connections 100%.
Your host, Eleanor:I think that that is something especially I, for me as a young musician, also for our listeners as young musicians, to really just remember. The world is small. The music world is so small and just you know, knowing people, having connections, and also how you said you know it's not who, you know it's who knows you. That's something that I haven't actually thought about and when you said that, I mean I feel like I need to put that on my wall or something you know, like that is that is so important.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:It's you never. It's kind of like you know Jack Stample always talked about when we would perform. He would say to all of us you never know who's listening. And it's absolutely true. I mean another. I mean mean here's another case of this. Um, when I was at my last year in graduate school, we got to play at the college band directors conference. It was at 1997 in athens, georgia, university of georgia, and in the audience at this performance was a member of the bassoon search committee at morehead state wow and I got a chance to meet this person.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Her name was sue crescent. She just retired a couple of years ago, fantastic music educator. I got a chance to talk with her the next day after she had heard the performance. So I mean you, just again, you never know how these things are going to work yeah, no, 100, 100.
Your host, Eleanor:I think this um. This ties right into our next um, I guess, question which is talking all about um, like you being an adjudicator for pmea, um, that is, pennsylvania, and um. The question for you is how are high school student auditioners compared to university level musicians when they audition, and can you give us maybe like three tips or pieces of advice for high school students preparing for any auditions that they have coming up?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:okay, let me I'll take the last one first okay so like what?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:so when you're like preparing for an audition, what do you want to do? Okay, you're going to get as many different answers for this as you are people that you would interview. So I'm going to give you I mean so. But on the other hand, I will tell you, as an ensemble director, I have heard probably thousands of auditions over the years for, you know, for ensemble placement.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So for me, if I was going to prioritize things, I really prioritize rhythm just above everything else. Is that because you can have the, you can have the most beautiful sound, you can have impeccable intonation. You can have impeccable intonation you, you can just have. You can have the most critical understanding of what you're playing, but if there's no rhythmic construct to it, it's going to be hard for anyone to fit into a solo or an ensemble situation. It's going to be very, very difficult to do that, you know, because sound will always impact the listener first. There's nothing you can change about that. The type of sound or the sound that comes out of our instrument, voice or whatever, that is always going to impact the listener first and there's not much we can do about that. But soon after that, you know, know, there's this. There's this, this element of um, there is this element of time that really kind of pulls everything together. And so I I listen a lot for um rhythm. Then I would say after that I prioritize sound. Okay, the type of you know. And I think it's important to you know your sound is going to change throughout your career in many respects, I think, because of the different teachers that you're going to study with. If you're a musician, you're changing equipment and stuff like that when you go through different teachers, but you know your sound is going to change over time. Yeah, but I really think it's always important to be cultivating a sound. And if I would cross over maybe to what you would ask me about a high school student, you know, um, I, I I'm reminded of a line that bob matchett once asked him.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Bob matchett teaches in the seneca Valley School District. He's a terrific music educator and I was watching him teach once and he was. He asked this was a middle school band. And he asked the middle school band okay, how many of you have a favorite athlete? And they almost all did. Okay, how many of you have a favorite pop singer? And everyone else all did. And so then he looked at the trumpets, he goes okay, trumpets, who's your favorite trumpet player, who's your favorite, what's your favorite trumpet sound? And they couldn't answer. And so I think you know being able to listen and cultivate the sound that you want is important, but that comes from listening to a lot of sound, a of different people.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:You know, yeah, uh, my, my teacher, one of my teachers, gene corporon, always kind of with all of his conducting students, had this hierarchy of being in time, being in tone, being in tune and being in touch. So in time refers to to rhythm, in tone refers to tone quality. And then the third was the third one was playing in tune, and it's interesting that he would put, um, that he would put playing in tone ahead of playing in tune, but one seat. But, but here's the kicker most intonation problems, and I think we you can almost attach this to anything that you do, I would even say vocal students as well Most intonation issues are really tone production issues. Ah, okay, you know.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So you know, invariably, when we play out of tune, it's usually a tone production issue. Either we're having reed difficulties or the fingering isn't. Maybe there's a better fingering that we can use or maybe there's a. You know, the amateur needs to be whatever, but in most cases cases they're tone production issues, and so that's why cultivating a really good sound is. That's the second tip that I would give, and then I think the third tip is to listen a lot okay if you're working on something, don't listen, and this is if you can find recording.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:But if you can don't listen to one, listen to ten. And if you don't know who to listen, to talk to your teacher, yeah. And if you're working on so like for instance, if you're working on the Mozart oboe concerto, you should listen to as many different recordings of that as you can, but you should also listen to well, what other music was he working on at the time?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Was he doing any piano concerto? Was he working? What symphonies was he doing? Was he working on any of the big operas? You should listen to that. Well, were there any other composers during that time that were also writing music for oboe? Well then you go. Other composers during that time that were also writing music for Bobo? Well then you go ahead and listen to that.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:There's a lot that can be gleaned, I think, from going multiple levels deeper into what we are working on. And now it's easier than ever. Yes, it's easier than ever. Yes, but I mean, eleanor, I come, I came from a generation where if I wanted to listen to something in depth, I I would go up to the music library, I would check out an lp, not a cd. Cds came a little bit later, but and we had some, but it was mostly LPs and then I had to go into the stacks, find the score. And now most, if not all, of the standard repertory is on sources like IMSLP or whatever. It's all out there. And with YouTube I mean it's the amount of information that is at a player's fingertips now is it's, it's mind-boggling yeah, so it's easier than ever now to do that type of in-depth listening.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:You know, I'm trying to think this was, um, I'm gonna, I'm blanking at the. It might have been yasha heifetz, the very famous violin player I think this is what he that said this. Someone once asked him you know when you go, when he goes out on stage, is he 100 prepared and he goes.
Your host, Eleanor:Well, you really need to be about 200 prepared, yeah yeah, uh-huh that type of that type of like bulletproof preparation yeah, 100 you know and those are good and see, all of these are habits that if you start earlier they're kind of easy to incorporate too started recording this, I was listening to Mahler's First Symphony because I'm playing it and you know I think listening is so extremely important with that as well, and also one of the tips you were talking about you know, creating the tone.
Your host, Eleanor:I know you, as a bassoonist, can probably relate to this, but something that I'm really focusing on is, you know, taking a reed and creating the tone I want with the reed, not necessarily just taking what the reed gives me, right, because every oboe reed and I'm sure this is the same with bassoon is different and some of them cooperate more than others. But what I'm really focusing on is kind of just being like you know, I have this reed and I'm going to make the sound that I want and I'm not just going to put up with what it gives me. So I think you know the old three of those tips and the insight in terms of you know what high school level musicians can do is so, so important 100%.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Well, and sometimes you know it's, I think, to a degree you know if you show, as a high school student, college student too. But you know as a high school student, if you show initiative to the teacher, most teachers will do anything for you If you go. No, I'm serious about that. I mean if you show, because I mean that was my experience with my. I mean, I think about the teachers that I had in high school and middle school, I probably had two of the best. I mean I really won the band director lottery. I mean I had two just incredible musicians, yeah, and when they saw that I was really kind of taking a serious interest, they would do anything for me. They gave up Between giving up extra time to help me with things and turning me on to recordings and stuff like that. Showing initiative to a teacher, I think, is just incredibly important. They'll do anything for you.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, I think I mean I've had experience with that, especially applying for university. Yeah, I think I mean I've had experience with that, especially applying for university. I applied to 12 different schools in three different countries and across the board you know when I showed initiative they got very excited to work with me. Yeah, 100%. Actually, talking about like auditioning things like that, I'd love to kind of just chat a bit about how you audition. What are like three things that you always do to prepare for an audition.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Well, that's a good question, Because I really haven't. I haven't done an audition in a while. So let me, let me kind of spin it this way. Okay, how about, if this is maybe how I would prepare for a performance, and if you want to think of as an audition, as a performance, which it really is, you know that. So this is what I do. Um, for me, I think the most important thing in my, one of the most important things in my preparation, is that I try to never play it wrong. I try, I try now, that's the operative word okay I try to never play it wrong because there's there's this you know, the way our, the way our mind works is that you know, if we are playing music and we make a mistake, and we make a digital mistake with our fingers, there's a part of our brain that automatically knows we weren't supposed to do that. But the muscle memory part of our brain thinks that absolutely feels just fabulous and they're going to hang on to it.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So you know if, if I play something correct 19 times out of 20, when I get to the concert, I've probably got a pretty good chance of getting it right. On the other hand, if I'm sloppy or non-attentive in my preparation, then that's going to come back to haunt me. Back to haunt me.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:You know, um irv kaufman, who was a cellist and guitarist with the pittsburgh symphony for years and taught at iup in an office right next door to mine, would often say that you know, and I I don't know whether this is his line or he got it from someone, but you know, we shouldn't practice until we get it right. We should practice until we can't get it wrong. Yes, and so for me, if I'm working on something really tricky and I feel like I just can't, there's no way that I can get it wrong, then I would say then I feel I feel good about that. So that's, I mean, that's one of the things that I do in my preparation is that I try just to be sure that you know, I, I leave no stone unturned with that.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:I try to especially. I sometimes tell my students I wish you could hear how slow I practice. I practice very, very, very slow, sometimes Painfully slow because of the idiosyncrasies of my instrument. So slow preparation, I think that's one thing. Another thing is to practice musically, and what I mean by that is is that I don't separate preparation into technical preparation and then musical preparation. So in other words, I'm not trying to just get my fingers in the right spot and then I add the nuance. You know that should kind of be streamlined into the process.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So when you're practicing, I sometimes liken it to like cross training. For, like you know, so like if you're a triathlete or sorry, if you're like a marathon one, you know you may do swimming and you may do bicycling as part of the training for the marathon. You're not doing those events but they help you. So I kind of think about doing musical cross-training. So when I'm playing, practicing something at a slow tempo, I'm trying to play with my best sound, I'm trying to play with my best pitch If there's musical inflection I try to put that in.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Am I successful with that 100 of the time? No, I I mean, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that, but I try this best my can, as best I can, to make that part of the preparation so that I'm streamlining everything, so I'm not just lining up the digital technique in my fingers, but what I'm trying to do is also impart the musical inflection. So that's another thing that I try to do is I try to make sure that all of the fundamentals of what I'm doing are present at the earliest point in the preparation. And then, thirdly, just to listen. Listening especially, is good for tempi, I find I think about and I'll use as an example. Earlier this year I was playing the Francis Pooling Sinfonietta, which is, if you don't know, that piece. It's absolutely fascinating. It's for chamber orchestra and I listened to several performances and the tempi were all over the map even though blank had written it in.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So it's like and I'm glad I did that, because it did help my preparation in terms of what to expect yeah you. So if you can listen to quite a few performances, you know that's. I think it's important to. I think it's important to keep listening. Listening just is such a it's such a vital part of what we of what we do.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, 100%, I love. I love how we like went back to listening. Everything comes back to listening. I think as well, when you were talking about just practicing, like how you would perform, practicing as best you can. In terms of that, you know, I think that that is a great, great, great way to practice, especially coming up for a performance or an audition. I remember I recently did a competition and literally the whole week before what I would do is I put on a song, I dance to the song to get my heart rate up and then I just perform the pieces and yeah, and what, what that did?
Your host, Eleanor:I realized I was like, you know, I was thinking about, you know, my auditioning before, as a way of like, okay, in the practice room it sounds great, in the audition room it's gonna sound not as great because I'm nervous, and that's fine. But when I did this exercise and I got my nerves up, you know, I got my heart rate up and then I practiced it, I was like, well, this is where it is right, it doesn't really matter. I mean, it does matter, but in terms of this audition, it doesn't really matter where it is. When I'm chill, when I'm calm. You know, when I'm not stressed, this is where it is when my heart rate is up. So how do I get it better when my heart rate is up? And I think that that completely shifted the way I did that audition for the better. So when you were talking about just practicing how you're going to perform and practicing to the best you can, I couldn't help but think about that experience because that's, you know, really important yeah.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Oh yeah, well, and there's a. You know there's a mindfulness component to it as well. In fact, there are several really wonderful books about mindfulness out there and they're kind of worth it. It's that type of just kind of being aware of your surroundings and kind of aware how we process data when we play can also really be great. There are two books that immediately come to mind and you may have already you already may be aware of one or both of them, and one of them is called the Soprano on Her Head by Eloise Riestad.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:And then another one is the Inner Game of Music by Barry Green. And those are wonderful books that talk about kind of like the mental, the mental part of what we, of what we do.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Again, my dear teacher, june Corcoran, would always tell us as performers, that is, that you know you cannot.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:You cannot evaluate and participate at the same time. And so for me, as a performer, then I find that, especially if I have something really difficult that I have to play me, being mindful of something that contributes to the musical process is often very helpful. As an example, as wind players for the most part trombone's kind of the exception to this, but as wind players, you know, we create the rhythm in our instruments and our fingers and we actually have total control over that. So for me, when I'm very mindful of how I am programming rhythms from my fingers to the instrument, am I keeping rhythms at the knuckle and am I doing that? That I found has been an incredible benefit to me In many ways, because it shows that I do have direct control over this process. Sometimes we feel when we perform that we wish we had control over more of the elements, and that is one thing we try to do in our preparation. But just just to have that mindset that we are in direct control of how fast or how slow we play.
Your host, Eleanor:Mmm.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Yeah, you know. Or if I'm concerned about my sound, I will put sometimes all of my awareness into breath support Am I muscularly supporting my sound? But so that I have some type of a focal point that takes me, so that I'm not listening to the noise that's in between my ears.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, interesting between my ears, yeah, Interesting. I think I mean as well, at least for me, what I feel like how I sound, versus how I actually sound there is a bit of a difference.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Um, so yeah, absolutely.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, so so I think you know. Really, honing in to how I play and what you were talking about with that is is so important. I think this kind of segues perfectly into the next thing, which is let's talk a little bit about your website. I had a glance and there are so many like helpful articles about bassoon, about conducting, about just a lot of different elements of music. Do you mind sharing a bit about what made you share these articles and why you started writing them?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Sure. So my father, who passed away at the end of November last year, had been all over me in a good way for years about getting a website set up, because I had started to write when I became the. I had written some articles when I was trying to go up for associate professor, full professor tenure. I had done some publishing but not a lot. And then about six years ago I became the. I ran for this one office with PMEA, the band content area chair, and with that responsibility comes writing quarterly articles.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Well, I'd started writing all these articles and all of a sudden I started having all this this stuff and I had also started doing quite a bit of um conference presentations around the same time and my father said, look, this stuff isn't doing you doing anyone any good if it's just sitting on your laptop yeah you should get a website, and so the website that's my father's, I mean, it was my father's idea.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:I actually had a former student, uh, who became a web designer. Who who did it, and so um it's I. I I try to think of it as service to the profession, because none of us that have done, and I'll let people argue whether I've done anything for the profession.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:That's not me, for me, that's not for me to say, but there are people that invested a lot of time in me an inordinate amount of time in me and served music ed, and so for me they become very powerful models for me to emulate. So for me, I just decided that I was like okay, well, I, I really would like to serve the profession yeah in some small way and if it can help someone, great.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:and so that kind of became the, the impetus behind it and I I have found, much to my surprise, that I and if you had asked me this 15 years ago I probably wouldn't have said it but I really enjoy writing, I really enjoy doing music, education, slash band research. I really, really enjoy it. So it's become another, it's kind of become another avenue of creativity for me.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, I can 100% understand that with podcasting and also every episode that I do on the podcast, I have a blog post that goes with it. I think you know when you were talking about just enjoying writing them, you know I can 100% relate to that, um, and yeah, I think, I think I looked at some of the articles that you had or that you have, um, and they are, they are really, really insightful. So we will have the link, um to your website in the show notes it just in case anyone wants to go check that out. And I love how it's kind of a tribute, almost, or in memory of your father as well. So I think that that is absolutely lovely.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Yeah, it's interesting, you know, because I also need. Since I'm giving a shout out to my father, I feel like I'll seem to give a shout out to my mother as well. Since I'm giving a shout out to my father, I feel like I'll see to give a shout out to my mother as well. My mother is still living. I'm what happens when I'm the product where my father was a college professor and my mother is a kindergarten teacher and reading specialist. So this is what you get when you're raised by two professional educators and I. I really won the parent lottery.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:I tell people that every time that I talk about new parents, I'm so, I'm so thankful. I'm not sure, because my father did a lot of writing. My father, in fact my father finished a book three weeks before he died.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Wow book three weeks before he died. Wow, at 80, at the age of 80 years and three months, he finished a book three weeks before he died. So I mean he was a prolific, uh researcher and writer and conference presenter too. So I mean, I think a lot of the, I think a lot of the stuff, particularly now that I'm doing professionally, those are things my father kind of imparted to me. So I mean I thank my parents every day for what they did for me, because they were just powerful models.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, 100%. I think when we have amazing role models, whether that is our parents or a teacher or whomever, that can be so, so empowering for us as well. So I love that you mentioned your parents.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:We are nearing the end of this episode, but in terms of things that you are doing, um, my, my project is I'm going to be doing a recording of solo bassoon work. So so, literally unaccompanied bassoon.
Your host, Eleanor:So I'm going to be doing a recording of that.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:I think that's in October. That's kind of the big thing. But, um, you know, other than that, I'm just enjoying. So I mean I'm going to enjoy that. But I'm also just going to enjoy, I think, kind of reconnecting with family and friends and reconnecting with my wife and my 14-year-old and kind of being home just a little bit more gotten tougher, especially since the pandemic academia has become a tougher place to, a tougher place to um to be. But, uh, that and um, are you going to the idrs conference? Are you going to go? You're going to go out to flagstaff?
Your host, Eleanor:oh me, I, I, I don't, I don't plan to, but is when is it?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:that is, at the end of july, because actually actually myself and two of my reed colleagues we're going to be doing a half recital of reed trios out at the Double Reed Conference out in Flagstaff at the end of July. So that's another thing I'm really looking forward to.
Your host, Eleanor:Oh, wow, no, that is very exciting. So if we have any listeners who are going, they can definitely check that out. Yeah, um sweet. So where can we find you online?
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:well, I mean there's you had mentioned there was that. There's my website, and then I have a faculty page, um, as part of the iUP Department of Music, and there are some other. I think there are some other YouTube clips of me conducting. There's a couple other interviews that I've done. I did an interview with PMEA for their Take Notes series, and then Doug Conrad, who has a really popular podcast series. He had interviewed me. So I'm like a bad penny, I turn up somewhere.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, well, we will put links to your website and to any other recordings or pages of you in the show notes. So if you the listener, if you want to check that out, definitely go ahead and do that.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Just in closing, one of the things that I tell everyone that I meet if I have a captive audience, I'll consider you a captive audience of one right now is that is that musicians and artists are going to be the people that are going to save the world. In a world that is incredibly divided, is incredibly angry and is incredibly anxious, it's the artists and the musicians that are going to find common ground amongst the people. They are the folks, they are the artisans that are literally going to save the world and that are going to save society.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:So, what you do, what we do as musicians is incredibly important, and it goes way beyond the notes that we play in a concert hall yeah, yeah, I think I think that that is so, so important to say.
Your host, Eleanor:I'm glad that you said that because, at the end of the day, like music speaks to who we are, and I think you know that is so, so, so important. So, all so, all right, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. As always, the um. All of the links will be in the show notes for this episode, from the blog post that goes to this episode to all the links um that Dr Worzbyt and I um talked about. Do yourself a favor and check out those show notes because, let's be honest, there's some really good things in there and if you want to show your love and support for the Confident Musicianing Podcast, make sure you give it a follow. Dr Worzbyt, thank you so much for being on for an episode. I am so grateful, and I'm sure all of our listeners are as well. All right, well, thank you so much for coming on.
Dr. Jason Worzbyt:Oh, this was terrific. I appreciate it.