Tuesday, September 23

School is in its third week and you may feel like one of those on the boat in the picture. Things can get pretty hectic. Being a music major can be pretty tough at times.

As you know, I was gone a few days last week to attend the funeral of my nephew. He was 27 and had the unique experience of living all of his life knowing that he could die suddenly at any time. He had an extremely rare condition known as Loes/Dietz (I'm sure the spelling is incorrect) Syndrome. It's a condition where the walls of your blood vessels and arteries deteriorate creating aneurisms and tears. In his lifetime, he had four open heart surgeries and numerous other surgeries. As you can imagine, he was a courageous person. Even up to the time he died, he kept his sense of humor, cracking up the family, doctors and nurses. He had the good fortune to be married to a wonderful girl for five years who stood by his side during all of his health crises. It's a great lesson to me to live life more fully and appreciate all of the blessings I have.

Natalie Morgan

Natalie is in my Music 195 class. She is a piano major from Tulsa, Oklahoma and comes from a family of six. She is a humanities major with a music emphasis. Her dad supervises the Tulsa MetLife offices. She likes to read, chat with friends, sleep, and watch an occasional movie. Her favorites movies include School of Rock and Better of Dead. Her favorite books are Harry Potter and The Princess Bride. (Prepare to Die!) she loves anything that is deep-fried and she loves Nutella. He hopes to attend graduate school and major in art history. She has the unique feature of her big toes being different in size. She went on study abroad to Italy during the spring.

Dan Johnson

Dan is one of my private students majoring in piano performance. He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah and is from a family of six. His father is a retired chiropractor and current does web design. His mother is a booking agent and music teacher. Dan served a mission in the Texas Houston East mission. He loves to exercise. His favorite movie is A Little Princess. His favorite book is Think and Grow Rich so you might want to be a good friend! His favorite food is tostadas. After he graduates, he hopes to compose, arrange accompany, perform teach and record. He enjoys playing and composing music in all styles.

Sarah Inouye

Sarah is a piano performance major. She is also teaching group piano classes this year on campus. She is from Gunnison, Utah, and is one of 8 children. Sarah served a mission in the Cincinnati Ohio Spanish Speaking Mission. Her dad is a family physician. She likes outdoor activities and any kind of a project. Two of Sarah's favorite movies are Emma and Shawshank Redemption. Her favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov. She loves Thai and Japanese food. After she graduates, she wants to start her own piano studio and teach introductory music classes for children 3 to 7 years olds using the ORFF approach. She's says that one thing that is unique about her is that she was run over by a car. Ouch!

Stephanie Messick

Stephanie is in my Music 470/670 class. She is from Bountiful, Utah and is majoring in piano performance. She comes from a family of seven that includes four sisters. Her dad works for the aerospace industry and her mom is a piano teacher. She served a mission in the England Leeds mission. She likes to read, run, hike, listen to music and be with family and friends. She loves jazz piano. One of her favorite movies is August Rush. One of her favorite books is Pride and Prejudice. She's a big fan of Cafe Rio and might go to law school or business school after she graduates. She did a study abroad in London and her sister Christene is also a piano performance major.

Laura Phipps

Laura is in my Music 195 class. She is from California and is majoring in piano performance. She comes from a family of 12. Her dad is a dentist and her mom teaches piano. She loves pot roast and mashed potatoes. Her favorite movie is Empire of the Sun and her favorite books are the Harry Potter series. After graduation, she plans on teaching piano. Laura has the unique skill of being able to roll her stomach.

September 8, '08

I don't know if you've noticed, but the colors are changing at the tops of the mountains so you know what that means. My Arizona blood is already protesting the coming cold. Since I can't ski any more, winter just doesn't seem as much fun! Unless of course I can get down to St. George for a little golf.

I'm so excited about the students I have in my classes. Every year, you just seem to be smarter, quicker and better looking too! And it has nothing to do with my getting older. I hope you're all enjoying the classes as much as I am. Please comment about how you feel about the class you are in as we move forward.

I've been working with the GFC Foundation who has provided piano four scholarships in the name of Dr. Reid Nibley who was the artist in residence here for many years with the piano faculty. He was a remarkable person and musician. The foundation is producing a hour long documentary on his life which will be aired on KBYUTV in the future. Today, I was able to watch the rough cut of the film and was so pleased to see how well our students and former students are represented on it. I hope you'll watch for when it comes out. You'll enjoy it as it captures what it means to be an LDS musician and music student.

Aimee Takasaki

Aimee is from Spanish Fork and is majoring in piano performance. She's adopted into a family of five where her dad is a family doctor. We should probably envy her for being able to serve a mission in the Germany Munich/Austria mission. She likes being with her family or reading a good book, and enjoys playing almost any sport. Her favorite movie is the Sandlot and her favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time. She loves any Japanese food. After graduation, she hopes to open her own music school and teach piano.

Trevor Johnson

Trevor is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He's major in voice and French Horn. He comes from a family of seven kids where he's the only boy. And at 6' 5", he's the tallest in his family . His dad is the director of marketing Services with an international insurance company. His mother is a receptionist at St. Luke's Hospital Women's Health Spa. He likes to watch movies and hang out with friends, eat and go on walks. His favorite movies is The Dark Knight and his favorite book is Ender's Game. HIs favorite food hits one of my dominant taste buds, BBQ ribs. He plans to serve a mission, but hasn't decided what his career will be yet, but he hopes to have a family and live in the midwest.

Tara Austin

Tara is in my Music 195 class. She is from San Jose and is majoring in voice. She comes from a family of six. Her dad is an HR manager and her mother is a paralegal. She likes to cook, shop, watch movies with friends, watch plays and go to concerts. Her favorites movies are the Batman movies and her favorite books are The Alchemist and A Great and Terrible Beauty. She loves Italian food, but makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies. Of course there is only one way in which she can prove that to all of us! Right now, I'm a doubter. Her goal is to one day sing in the Metropolitan Opera, get married and have children.

Kim Bohee

Kim is in my Music 195 class. She is from South Korea and is majoring in piano performance. She comes from a family of four and her dad is an engineer. She served a mission in Hawaii. She likes to surf the internet, eat, sleep and shop. The last movie she saw was Wall-e. Her favorite book is the Book of Mormon and she loves any food as long as it's Korean. After she graduates, she hopes to continue her studies and have her own family.

Mandy Nash

Mandy Nash is from Salt Lake City and is majoring in piano performance. She is in my Music 470/670 Supervised Teaching Class. She comes from a family of eight. Her father is a lawyer who practices litigation and corporate law. She likes traveling, water and snow skiing, working out, cooking, reading, scuba diving, talking to people, dancing, singing to the radio and studying in the library. Her favorite movies are You've Got Mail and Anne of Green Gables. She loves chocolate chip cookies, homemade chicken noodle soup, and anything chocolate. After graduation, she wants to further her piano skills so she can teach and run her own studio, and eventually be a mom. And she hates dragonflies because they are super scary!

Taylor Anderson

Taylor Anderson (great name by the way) is in my Music 195 class. She is from Thousand Oaks, California which makes her a neighbor of my uncles. She is a neighbor to, and doesn't know it, my uncle Don Hubbs. Taylor is a music education major with a voice emphasis. She comes from a family of 7. Her dad is a president of a company that markets software for hospitals and healthcare companies. Her mom was a meteorologist for a local weather station. Taylor likes swimming in the ocean, jumping in puddles and anything else that involves water. Her favorite movie is That Thing You Do. Her favorite book is Catch-22. She loves any form of potatoes. After graduation, she hopes to teach choir and Spanish at her former high school, start a family and live abroad for at least one year. Taylor has the distinction of having one less tooth than normal humans.

Christie Sowby

Congratulations to Christie Sowby. Not only did she get married this past year, but she is one of the four recipients of the Reid Nibley Award for Piano. Christie is in her junior year as a piano performance major. Way to go!

School is rapidly approaching and I want to welcome all of you back to campus. If this is your first semester, welcome to the School of Music and please accept my sympathy for all of the hassles you go through getting started. I hope all of you had a wonderful summer and fall semester will be all you hope it to be.

During the summer, we spent a week in St. George with most of our family. We were able to rent a condo at Green Valley Resort and we spent lots of time with the grandkids swimming, golfing, relaxing, playing Wii , and seeing the sites. For me, this was the first summer in a long time where I didn't have a project to finish so I actually had a month or so to do what I wanted to do. And of course, what Susan wanted me to do. That's what husbands are for, right? We were able to get a lot of painting done and putting up new base boards. We de-junked the house and made a big contribution to Deseret Industries. I did get in some good golf and a couple of good movies. One fun thing was doing genealogy. Since I'm the first member of the church in my family, except for an aunt and a cousin, my Anderson line needs lots of work and we've been able to find new sources and distant relatives to help us and have found lots of names and ordinances to do.

Another fun thing was doing some book signings for my book that came out last spring. I wanted to write something to commemorate 40th anniversary in the church this year. One funny thing happened when I was doing signings in the BYU Bookstore. A lady came up and picked up one of my books and said, "Oh, you have a new one. I'm so excited." Then she took a closer look and said with a lot of disappointment, "Oh, Richard Paul Anderson, I thought it said Richard Paul Evans." Needless to say, she put my book back. I felt bad to have let her down. Maybe I need to write something titled "The Music Note Book."

Over all, it was a wonderful summer, but I'm excited to see you and get the semester started.

I hope you will write your comments on what you did this past summer and what you hope for this fall. It will be a way for me and the other students in the class to get to know you a bit better. I'll also be doing some things to highlight each of my students.

I also want you to write your comments, suggestions and requests regarding the class you're in. Don't hesitate to be critical, you can add something using anonymous if you don't want anyone to know who wrote it. Just be nice about my hair or lack of, and my age. Seriously, what you say will generate other thoughts and help us all to have a great semester.

I'm excited for the semester and the opportunity to work with you.