A Weekend in "Music City"

Hello friends!

Well, I'm BACK in Philly after an awesome trip to Nashville, TN, "Music City," for a jam-packed weekend!  The purpose of the trip was three-fold:  to visit with family, to run in the Country Music Marathon/Half Marathon with my two uncles, and to explore Music City! 

The Race!
The race was fabulous and inspirational!  First and foremost, I beat my personal goal of running this, my third half marathon, in under 2 hours!  Also, my Uncle Chris ran in the half with me--it was his first half and he did great!  AND my Uncle Michael ran the full marathon and finished in excellent time, making us all proud!  After finishing the half, it was truly touching watching the full marathon runners finish.  Watching runners of every age, race, physique, and unique stride finish a full marathon, 26.2 miles, in under 3.5 hours only reinforced my belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to.  This applies to music, too!!  All you need is the drive, the passion, and the dedication to meeting your goal, and anything is possible!  Now I am all too tempted to indeed complete a full marathon by the end of 2010...

Uncle C, Me, Uncle Michael Pre-Race

The Music!
While in "Music City," I did of course also get to experience some of the excellent live music that Nashville has to offer.  On Broadway, I had the privilege of enjoying some traditional country, "honky-tonk" style music, which was taking place in every bar along the strip.  One place of particular note, "Robert's Western World" http://robertswesternworld.com/, is a great spot--part boot-shop, part bar--I highly recommend you check out if you're ever in Nashville.  Somewhat off the beatin' path, at The Basement, we got to see some world class musicians (Michael Rhodes, Josh Leo, George Marinelli, Reese Wynans, and Pete Abbott) play together in a group called "The Purifiers."  Some of the most rockin' original tunes I have heard in my lifetime!

A look down Broadway

Robert's

Inside Robert's

The Purifiers playing at The Basement

More pictures from the weekend can be found via my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2183944&id=6103848&l=61a9ac6cf4 or official pictures from the race, as well as a video of me crossing the finish line, can be found here: http://nashville.competitor.com/results/ (my bib # was 8449)

And a big "thanks!"
Huge thanks to my Uncle Chris and Melody for hosting us and for helping to pull such a nice weekend together!  And thanks to all my friends and family who helped support me in my training for the race!  If you get the chance, get to Nashville!

And with that, night y'all!
~Tina

Neumann University Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble: Musical Styles

Hi Friends!

Wanted to let you all know that I will be performing this Thursday night with the Neumann University (not just a college anymore, haha!) Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble in their spring concert.  The concert will take place in the Meagher Theatre located in the Thomas A. Bruder, Jr. Life Center on the Neumann University campus.  The concert begins at 8:00 p.m. and will be conducted by Dr. Rick Sayers, a.k.a. the coolest director I know!
I pulled the following description from the University's website:  "The Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble join forces to present a variety of musical styles and instrumental combinations at this annual event."  Sounds really formal, but really it's a bunch of students and some volunteer community members getting together to play music and having a fun time doing it!  So if you happen to be free this Thursday, come out and support the music program at Neumann!  

Since I mentioned it, the "volunteer community members" as Rick so lovingly refers to us as are as follows:

Tina DiCroce (that's ME!) on alto sax
Andy Hutton and Bob Tokonitz on trombone
Jim Hoeffer on french horn (big shout-out to Jim!)

A funny sidenote (or at least I find it funny):
A while back, when I used to work in the administrative offices of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, I actually had both Andy and Bob call me, at work, and when asking to speak with me, introduce themselves as "Andy, the trombone player" and "Bob, the trombone player."  Completely separate incidents, in the same week.  Needless to say, my co-workers started to wonder about me after that... haha!  No idea why they both called me in the same week, or better, at work, but hey it resulted in a couple jokes at the time... and a really uninteresting blog post four years after the fact!  So sorry!

Anyway, some additional details about Thursday night's concert at Neumann:
Admission: General $8; Seniors/Students $5, Neumann Students with ID and children under 12 FREE

Hope to see you there!!
~Tina