Posted by Graham Smith on November 23, 2001 at 19:26:12:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Opinions/anecdotes wanted for UT posted by Rick Denney on November 13, 2001 at 11:24:52:
Like Rick, I was at UT and have a post-Baccalaureate degree in something other than musicl I did a semester in grad school and moved over to the law school, got out of there in '75 with a J.D.
I had the opportunity to play in the UT summer band program when Vincent Denino was directing (his last year, I think) Wonderful musicians, beautiful campus, wodnerful city.
There was a guest director there for one concert, Glenn Richter, a guy who'd graduated a year or two before and was the director at Reagan H.S. in Austin. At rehearsal, we were supposed to do the Holst First Suite in Eb (everyone here has played that about 50 times, at least. I still love it.) The word got passed to everyone who in the low breass to transpose it to E instead of playing in Eb, and - to my amazement - everyone in the tuba/trombone/baritone sections of that rather large concert band managed to pull it off without one "flub." Richter waved us passionately along until the trumptets came in. They were playing in Eb, and the key difference was immediately obvious.
Most of these folks knew Glenn Richter from having been in the band with him for a couple of years before he graduated. (I didn't.)
It was a wonderful practical joke, but what impressed me was the musicianship of those folks in being able to do it on "instant notice" without one of us making a mistake and tipping Richter off.
(It may sound simple, but try it "on the fly" if you haven't done it.)
I loved Austin and the campus, although it's been 20 years since I've visited.
Central Texas is a really terrific place.
However, UT is BIG, and if you're not used to that, the experience can be jarring. When I was in grad school, I'd come from a campus with about 7,500 students with a brief tour in the Navy between finishing there and starting UT. The experience of being one of the 41,000 students who were then on campus was a real jolt. Moving over to the law school was much more manageable, since we only had 1600.
Nonetheless, UT was a good place to be then, and from what I see in the alumni mags I get, it still is.
Graham
(But if you don't like football, get ready to be a little overwhelmed in the fall!)