Music is Opportunity

Last year during my spring semester i had the honor of performing for the new assistant professor of percussion at University of Oregon, none other than Pius Cheung. As musicians, networking is something that we are all told will help us in the long run. Most of the time we find it a hassle constantly meeting and introducing ourselves to people hoping they will remember out name, but this my friends, is living proof that the impression you leave on people can really affect your future and their involvement in it. Sitting at the desk of a Dorm on campus (my on campus job at the time) i got a call from a girl named Kristin, a very talented upperclassmen percussionist at the time. Today was the day of the Pius Cheung Masterclass, and she was asked by Dave Smith our resident percussion teacher if she could drive to the train station to pick him up. Nervous, she asked me if i could go with her. Of course my response was yes. I got someone to cover for me and jetted out of Newbury hall as fast as i could. I was about to go pick up someone i had long admired, someone i considered a Marimba GOD up at the train station to come do a Masterclass that i was performing at. It was a very cool feeling. I had only seen videos of Pius on the internet. He is often Featured on Vic Firths video podcast which you can find here. From what i could tell, he looked like he may not speak english very well, he sat on an organ bench while he played so he must be very tall, and he was definitely VERY asian. As i waited at the terminal, many people got off the train and finally i saw him. Trying to be the least awkward i could be,  i stopped him and introduced myself. To my surprise, he was much shorter than me (I'm 6'1), he had little to no accent, but he was in fact VERY asian. I feel like in my mind i look at my percussion idols as celebrities, but on the exterior Pius was just....a normal guy. He performed an outstanding Convocation recital for the entire Music Department with a great energy and even took requests for his last tune. Lunch passed, then the masterclass began. Of course Mr. Smith picked me to perform first. I had just finished learning Eric Sammut's Rotation 1 and i was looking forward to playing it for him. He had so many great things to say, and he conveyed it in such a positive way. Many of the comments he made pertain to his new book, "Colors."After the masterclass in a professional fashion, we took a picture and i told him how grateful i was for his input. We became facebook friends the next day and that was it. Or so i thought. A few weeks later, in passing, Mr. Smith called me into his office and the first thing he asked me was, "How big is your car?" At this point in time i was driving my fathers old car, which is an infiniti sedan. He asked me if i could fit a 4.3 octave marimba in it. Puzzled all i could think of was that scene in 40 year old Virgin. Ya know..."I hope you got a big trunk 'cause im puttin my bike in it. Anywho i told him i had fit it in before and he told me that Pius needed to borrow one for a gig in westport. He said if i did it he would pay me a hundred bucks and he would really appreciate it. The next day i got a facebook message from Pius, he told me he was ecstatic that i was able to help him out and that i should bring a drum so we could play together. This was such a great opportunity for me! One gig with Pius eventually turned into Two and it was a great experience. He played Bach solo and i sat in on Djembe for a few other tunes, but the one i remember the most was Ghanaia by Matthias Schmitt. An african sounding marimba Piece, Ghanaia has a great theme to jam over, and thats exactly what we did. This was one of the funnest pieces ive ever played and the fact that it was with someone whom i greatly admired made it special. As full time musicians its not often that we get that special feeling after every piece, but i sure did feel that way after this performance. Pius and i still keep in touch via facebook, and having his name as something concrete on my Resume' is a great thing. So for anyone thats thinking about introducing themselves to someone in the world of Music, or whatever it is you're trying to succeed in, know that most of the time there is only good to come of it.  Ghanaia