WIND DOWN OF DAY 2

Hello from the hotel!  The time is now 12:04am EST.

My update is going be brief because sleep is quickly descending upon me.  The orchestra had a great time at Busch Gardens!  Lots of photos were taken, lots of different animals were seen, and hopefully lots of fun memories made. 

Logistically, today was phenomenal.  The buses got us to and from the Busch Gardens right on time.  After stopping by the hotel briefly, we got changed in our loveliest attire to attend the Jeremy Kittel concert at 8pm EST. 

This concert was incredible and featured Jeremy on violin and his talented band made up of a cellist, guitarist, mandolin player, and hammer dulcimer player.  These guys rocked!  They played without sheet music and masterfully blended all genres of fiddling (classical, jazz, improvisation, Celtic, pop, bluegrass, and much more!).  I don’t have to explain it, see this video below.  This clip shows their encore number, where they invited audience members and legendary ASTA violinists to come onstage and jam with them:

Tomorrow morning at 9am, Santiago Strings will fulfill the long-awaited and highly anticipated opportunity of taking the stage for the audience members, attendees, and adjudicators of the ASTA conference.  This is the pinnacle moment of this tour, which begins with a 6:30am call time in the hotel lobby, breakfast, and an hour of dress rehearsal time.  It's amazing to think that almost a year ago, this performance was a dream.  In merely hours, it'll be a reality.  Here we go…!

Before signing off, I just wanted to give a shout-out and huge congratulations to the students, parents, and music director of University High School, whose orchestra won FIRST PLACE in ASTA’s competition portion of the National Orchestra Festival.  This is an amazing and well-deserved accomplishment that truly shows the talent of Orange County’s young musicians and celebrates the great school music programs (and even greater teachers) behind them.  Congratulations, Grace Lee and Uni High!

Good night - Bella

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