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I gave up on trying to fit everything into a carry-on bag since the collapsable music stand took up a ton of space. Repacked into the big hard-sided bag with its bright red-orange ribbon (provided by Maxine years ago) and even fit my knee pillow and finely ground Starbucks instant coffee, packets of oatmeal and lots of snacks ... just in case.

And I made sure my backpack included Flat Tish and Flat May, card stock photos of my two "wind sisters". Tish had attended the Galicia Clarinet Fest in Spain just a few weeks earlier and May was spending time in London until Thursday so neither joined me in real life on this part of my journey. May had mailed me my flat sisters to make sure they could be with me in Dublin.

The pre-scheduled Uber picked me up at 3:30pm for my 7pm flight. I originally booked Premium Economy but 2 month before flying out, they offered me an upgrade to Business for $1200. Hmmm, that's too much. Then a month later, they offered again. This time it was $800 and only 2 seats left, so I looked up what Business Class offered. A fully reclining seat made into a bed with cushy pillow and blanket ... sold! So I upgraded, and what a sweet deal. I got Bang and Olufson headphones and a free glass of champagne. All kinds of beverages were 'free' (pre-paid!) but I laid off more alcohol or coffee to avoid dehydration. I had a great meal and slept through most of the flight on the fully reclined bed.

The flight from DFW to Dublin was completely uneventful and on-time at 9:45am Dublin time (3:45am my time). They served a light meal just before landing so I was ready to go. I freshened up in the 2nd restroom (travel site pro tip), went through immigration ("Business or pleasure?" "How long are you here?)", picked up my checked bag (seems Priority marking means leave it till last), went through Customs (no questions, just go through a certain line under watchful eyes and out the door. That took less than half an hour.

After studying the layout of the bus stops and taxi control, I grabbed a taxi at the "rank" where a helper got me a small cab (one passenger, one bag plus backpack). The driver was very friendly, talked gardening, birds and biking. Half an hour later, he dropped me across the very busy street in front of Trinity College. Train tracks, buses, cars and bikes whizzed all around. There were several traffic lights in the smallknotted twist of streets but it was easy to cross once given the Walk sign and the college entrance was in sight.

So I arrived at front arched stone gate of Trinity College, a beautiful campus full of 18th century buildings, large swaths of green areas and several sculptures. The iconic Bell Tower is under renovation and was completely shrouded in scaffolding. Hoping to get into my room, I found the Accommodations building to the left of the entrance. It had only taken an hour to get out of the airport and arrive on campus and I couldn't check in until 3pm so they directed me to the luggage storage area downstairs in the Perch Cafe. Before I left, I chatted a bit with a very tall Black man named Marc, who carried a large rectangular backpack which I assumed was a bass clarinet case. He confirmed that it was and he was on his way to ClarinetFest too. Score! A kindred spirit within minutes of arrival.

At the Perch Cafe luggage store, a woman at a counter took my large suitcase and directed me to leave it at a spot in a room full of shelving. The suitcase was locked and I had even brought multiple combination locks for my backpack to protect the clarinet and iPad, but I decided to hold on to the backpack since I kept pulling things out of it (earphones, locks, snacks, etc). And voila, I discovered that downstairs in the Perch is where a bathroom is available.

I had a tour scheduled at 1pm, "Hidden Gems of Dublin", so I squatted outdoors on a picnic table at the Perch. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 60's. People watching was great from there and lots of languages whirled around me as they went in and out of the Perch and queued at the Old Library directly across the green, where the Book of Kells is exhibited.

Around 12:30pm I headed to the meeting location for the Dublin tour, just a few blocks away. I arrived early so I sat in a nearby square by the Cool Hand Coffee Roasters and chatted with some neighborly locals nearby. I then texted Eunice Chan who is also a member of the Clarinet Transformation Community and planned to attend the tour. After double checking, I found I needed to be at the Old Storehouse so I headed down the block to meet up with the tour.

Near 1pm, Eunice arrived with son Nick and husband Michael. They live in Vancouver close to Michelle Anderson and Eunice & Nick had taken private lessons from Michelle until she (Michelle) got too busy to continue. Helena, our tour guide, arrived at 1pm, gathered us around her umbrella and prepped us on the tour. We were standing in a cobblestone alley reminiscent of Barron's Books and Baubles in the Fae Fever series.

Interesting coincidence: while touring Dublin with Eunice, she mentioned she had taught at the University of British Columbia. I asked her field and she said "Food Science". Hmmmm, do you happen to know David Fraser? Yes! He worked with Temple Grandin on animal welfare. We were colleagues in the same department. Me: "He's my nephew's father-in-law!"

From the Old Storehouse, we walked to Dublin Castle (also under reconstruction), viewed the government buildings, the Christ Church Cathedral, learned a bit of Irish (mainly Slante aka "Cheers") and then walked to Temple Bar. The street in front of it was under serious construction so we heard about it from a distance (mainly how cheap beer and whisky are elsewhere), then walked back to campus. It was about a 2 hour tour and I had scheduled a Trinity College tour at 3pm so I cut out a bit early and walked back to Trinity on my own.

The Trinity Campus tour met at the scaffolded Bell Tower and we heard about the nearby statue of a previous provost of the college who succeeded a provost who had been ready to invite women to attend. This one said "Over My Dead Body" but once he was out, they were admitted. The day he died and was buried beneath the campus, women marched the entrance of the college celebrating their inclusion so in a sense, they were admitted over his dead body.

The tour paused between the Graduates Memorial Building, where many of my Clarinet Transformation colleagues were staying, and the Rubrics Building, where I was staying. It turns out the clubs of the college (Lit Club, Psych Club, etc) have meeting rooms in that building so much of the change of Trinity College policy comes from the activism originating in the Graduates building. The Rubrics building is the oldest on campus, dating from 1699 but was recently renovated and even got hot water!

My ticket included the Book of Kells tour so the guide dropped us at the Old Library with an audio tour to do on our own. The library was extremely long, with dark wood and an illuminated globe hanging upstairs in the Long Room. Many old artifacts were displayed including Ireland's Declaration of Independence and the original Harp used as the national emblem of Ireland and recognizable on every bottle of Guinness.

As I left the Old Library, I was directed to a new bright red building between the library and the Rubrics Building. Seeing it labelled "Gift Shop" I opted to avoid the lines and check it out another day since it was literally steps from my dorm room. Unfortunately I failed to enter the side labelled "Book of Kells Experience" which I found out later was an illuminated immersive telling of the Book of Kells history similar to the Van Gogh exhibit Stewart and I had seen at Globe Life park (the "old" Texas Rangers ballpark). My ticket had included the immersive experience but once I figured it out and tried to enter the next day, I was denied. It is full every day.

Once I exited the tour, I went back to Accomodations, got my key and the QR code to get the Campus Guests' Guidebook on my phone. I picked up my bag from the luggage store and entered my dorm for the week, #26 aka XXVI. There are two doors on entry, one unlocked with the Bluetooth key they had given me plus a heavy wood fire door on the inside of that door that was unlocked. To the right was the door to a hallway that included access to one bedroom (not mine) plus the shared kitchen. So although my room was on the "first" floor, it was two flights up. I dragged my heavy bag up the stairs only to find a locked hall door behind another unlocked fire door, and a hall to my room with yet another locked door. Luckily my key worked and I made it into the room.

Nice place! It had a double bed, desk, tall bookcase, tall armoire and en-suite bathroom. Not much shelving so most toiletries when into the glass cabinets over the pedestal sink and shampoo went on the floor of the circular shower stall. The armoire had pull out drawers on the bottom half so I opened the large suitcase on top of the drawers and used it from that location all week. The trickiest issue was charging. The one available wall plug was near the floor so I plugged in my mult-pronged adaptor and laid things on the floor to charge. It worked fine.

All settled in, I cleaned up for dinner and met the Clarinet Transformation members who were arriving in dribs and drabs near the scaffolded bell tower to walk to dinner at JR Mason's pub. Greeting me were Martina Morlock from the Netherlands but now living in Germany, Marianne Steinen also from the Netherlands, Anke Rinck from Germany, Kathy Clark from England, Hilary Wheeler from Australia, Karen Raybould from Ontario, and Louise Lancaster from England. Such a wonderful array of accents!

We walked from Trinity to JR Mahon's, not far. The streets are busy but not too packed and navigating the rail lines, bike lanes and traffic signals is becoming easier already. We ended up with two tables upstairs in Mahon's. Michelle and Eunice with her family joined us as well as Jonathon Arbelle from Israel, Kathy's and Karen's very British husbands (Alistair and John), Cindy Bartz (US) and Birgit Debrabandere from Belgium. It was dark, heavy wood everywhere. Most enjoyed a pint of Guinness and some had the very Irish potatoes and brisket. I opted for a healthy kale, chickpeas and beet salad with chicken. It was humongous but delicious. Despite expecting wilt, I took half home to my room.

The walk back in the near dark was more traffic navigation and getting used to walking on the left. I managed the 4 doors into my room, moved one set of towels with shampoo and conditioner from the bed to the desk, and collapsed on the bed. What a day! I was able to sleep pretty quickly despite it being 6 hours earlier in Dallas due to all the walking (16,000 steps!) and having my security knee pillow.

No one made breakfast plans but luckily I had packed several packets of oatmeal and a canister of finely powdered instant Starbucks. I made my way through the 6 doors to get into the shared kitchen and found a water boiler, some sugar, tea and instant coffee packets (Nescafe). Glad I brought my Starbucks. The water boiler worked well but my 2 minute oatmeal blew up in the microwave. I scraped it up, had plenty for breakfast and pretty good coffee, gazed on the view of the red Book of Kells Experience building from my window, checked the 1,000 WhatsApp messages for plans on getting together and checked in with Stewart and the kitties.

Conference registration wasn't until noon so I took a walk to St. Stephen's Green, a lovely park just 10 minutes from campus. It had beautiful gardens of vibrant flowers, statues staged around the walking path and a large pond full of Mallards and a few Mute Swans. There were also Hooded Crows and several other birds I could hear but couldn't see. Merlin ID'd them for me as mostly "Eurasian" varieties I had never seen or heard before.

After a few hours wandering the park (including staging photos with Flat Tish and Flat May), I went back to my room and ate the leftover salad for lunch. It was actually pretty good! Then I walked on my own to the Convention Center after lunch and got checked into the convention. Check-in involved being found on a list and handed a swag bag with just a pencil and one ad in it. No mention was made of picking up the t-shirt I had pre-ordered and I forgot. Whoops.

Soon I started finding Clarinet Transformation Community (CTC) members and we commiserated on who was going where. Liffey rooms (named for the river) are on the 1st floor (US 2nd) and Wicklow rooms (named for the mountains) are on the 2nd floor (US 3rd). The Auditorium where noon, 5pm and 8pm headliners perform daily is on the 3rd, 4th & 5th floors. It's huge!

I attended Trio Joya and Kip Franklin concerts at 1pm, Duo Electra and MAD4clarinets at 2:15pm. The duo was a fun back and forth between the flute and clarinet, including a tune called Frenemies where the audience had to pick who was better (guess who won?). But around some Irish-ish tunes and Weber, there is a lot of contemporary music this year. Also lots of bass clarinet. Speaking of which, I had to leave the 2:15pm session to get to Stephanie Gardner's master class. It was packed! I found out later, a line formed down the hall and many couldn't get in, a common and unfortunate situation this year.

Stephanie Gardner's master class was fantastic. The performer was composed and responded well to the suggestions which were tactfully delivered and proved immediately useful. One tip was to point your index finger on your upper teeth and then engage the upper lip. Turns out it not only exercises the upper lip but automatically forced the bottom lip and chin into proper flat embouchure.

4pm was Irish Postcards which included songs inspired by Ireland including one called "Winds in the Wilderness" that traversed woods, plains and water implementing air-only down the instrument similar to Kristen Denny-Chambers 2nd movement in Friendship, the piece being premiered at this ClarinetFest.

5:30pm Bass Clarinet Choir playing Marriage of Figaro, Pirates of the Caribbean and Samba … alla Turca! So all quite recognizable pieces.

At 6pm, a long awaited Master Class with Mike Lowenstern was met by a long line snaking down the hall. We had gotten there early to be sure to get a seat but the organizers got involved and decided too many would be left out so they moved the session to the open foyer in front of the two now closed food counters on the 3rd floor. So everyone hurried to the escalators and those last got closest while we trailed at the back. Luckily some of the CTC members grabbed one of the standing tables so we were able to lean but many had to sit on the floor.

The first participant did an amazing technical job on a very contemporary piece, lots of slap tonguing, slides, mid-tones and strange noises with odd mouth contortions. But rather than congratulating anything she did, Lowenstern said "90% of your audience didn't get what that was about. You need to find a connection, some humor, a slideshow, something to get them invested in what you're doing." Wow, I felt bad for her. I feel like he wanted to give that advice to the audience so much it may have been a pre-planned speech. The advice was vague and there was no positive reinforcement. He was more positive with the 2nd participant and by the 3rd, he couldn't even think of any improvements to make. She had done one of his pieces, adjusted it a bit which he wholeheartedly approved ("You're the performer, do whatever you want!"). So it was a mixed bag all around.

The Master Class ran late with all the moving around so we opted to skip the 8pm concert and find dinner on the way back to Trinity. We found a wonderful Italian restaurant, Ristorante di Napoli, that looked tiny from the outside but had a deep basement and they were able to seat 6 of us immediately (me, Martina, Marianne, Hilary, Karen and Louise). We split a bottle of Merlot, had some delicious pasta, and toasted the first day of ClarinetFest.

In the middle of the night I was woken by a loud clunking noise near my bed. I had heard the Rubrics Building was haunted!!! It happened again but somehow I convinced myself it was the Buffet pencil that came in the convention swag bag. How one pencil dropping could make 2 loud noises, I didn't ponder. But in the morning I discovered it was actually the 2nd set of shampoo and conditioner I had left on the bed for the nonexistent 2nd guest in this double room. Whew!

After another oatmeal and instant Starbucks breakfast, several of us met at the Bell Tower at 7:15am to get to the Convention Center in time for warm-ups with Michelle. Martina said her bum knee would slow her down but she walked with Marianne and they kept up a strong steady pace. Another beautiful day, cool but we quickly warmed up with a light jacket and carrying our instruments and music stands.

Michelle led us through her breathing and long tones exercises, odd G sharp fingering and other air support exercises, then worked our fingers from slow to faster with accuracy.

Enthusiasts Choir rehearsal followed immediately at 9am. Our director, Calvin Falwell from the University of South Florida, led us through Shenandoah, a beautiful lyrical piece, then Habanera, mostly lovely with a few measures of tricky rhythms, Pulse with time signature changes every few bars along with many many rests, and finally touched on the Evil Spooky Robot piece, totally maniacal. We took it slowly and got the sense of it but wow! Michelle had told us the Enthusiasts Committee was not consulted on the selection of the director or his music choices. He is a very personable guy and clearly enjoys the Jonathan Russell very contemporary pieces a lot, but honestly I don't even like listening to them much less playing them. But it was a blast playing with the CT members regardless.

I tried to hurry to put away my clarinet and music stand to get to the 10am Nicolas Baldeyrou Master Class but by the time I got there, the line was forming in the hall already. Even those packed in the corner at the exit of the room could only hear, not see anything. I told the door volunteer to convey to the organizers that we paid a lot to be there and this was unacceptable and she basically said "Tell them yourself." So we just sat in the hall and tried to chill before the next event. Finally people were coming out to get to their next event so I got to attend a few minutes of his Master Class. Apparently, he was not given clear direction on the time because he had 4 participants signed up but only 2 had played when time ended. Hopefully they found another room to finish up.

We had all been waiting for the 11am poorly named "Enthusiasts Committee". It was the world premiere of Kristen Denny-Chambers piece, Friendship, in 3 parts. The 1st, "Meet and Greet", was played by Katherine Cooke (Michael Lowenstern's wife). Michelle Anderson followed with "The Sea Between Us" which featured wind sounds exemplified by blowing air through the bore of the clarinet with no note played, both at the beginning and end of the song. Part 3, "Reunion", was expertly played by Josh Goo. It is an upbeat lively, catchy tune that immediately grabs you and instills a sense of fun and playfulness. Such a great performance, it was a shame Kristen couldn't be there but she had some family or health issues. Then her attempts to Zoom in didn't work so Michelle played a recording of her introducing the piece. The room didn't have a screen so Michelle had to hold up her iPad.

Following the Friendship premiere, Hilary and Karen reunited in real life. They have played many duets half a world apart via performance merging technology but have only played together IRL at last year's ClarinetFest in Denver and now this one. Such a joy hearing them play again, followed by tips from Michelle, Josh and Mary. The premiere and master class are on zoom so a replay should be available.

Several of us met afterward in the catered food area on the 3rd floor. There were various sandwiches and coffees. I grabbed a sandwich that proved to be much too large and thought about taking half home for breakfast but it wasn't that good so I tossed half. It was enough.

Following lunch, we headed to the vendor area. I gravitated toward the Backun booth and was treated to tryouts of the Q clarinet in both grenadilla and cocobolo. It was incredibly easy blowing and sounded great but my left pinkie couldn't reach the Eb key which I've come to use a lot on my Buffet RC clarinet. Plus my RC is just two years old so I really don't need another clarinet.

2pm was the University of South Florida Ensemble, directed by our Enthusiasts Choir director, Calvin Falwell. It was virtually all contemporary music from the 2000's. Stephen Sondheim's Night Waltz from A Little Night Music was a nod to the past. So it's clear the choices for the Enthusiasts Choir were driven by his passion for keeping things new.

3pm was the Master Class with Lara Diaz. We had been anticipating this because our classmate, Jane Carson-Rowland, is a performer but had been besieged by travel issues and barely arrived in time to warm up. Sadly, Lara cut off the first performer in the middle of her piece which seemed to stun her. Lara's voice was extremely quiet and she is not fluent in English so her tips were confusing and the woman got more and more agitated until she literally broke down in tears. She tried to compose herself but couldn't play and finally sat down. Soon it was time for our CTC classmate, Jane. Luckily, Jane has a bouncy positive attitude and seemed completely at ease with her bass clarinet. She performed well and responded eagerly to Lara's suggestions. And after class, we all got to welcome Jane and hear her exploits with her lovely British accent.

4pm was an orchestral Master Class with Mark O'Brien. The participants chose various selections from the assigned lists of excerpts. Direction here was clear and well received.

Toward the end of the Master Class, May made her appearance. She had arrived in London with her family, husband Reilly, daughter Zadie, and two cousins. They toured there a bit before coming to Dublin. But the trip from Heathrow had been stressful. May gave hugs all around and left to decompress a bit.

ClarinetFest at 5 in the Auditorium featured Irish performers, Macdara O Seireadain and Nadia Sofokleous. The music wasn't Irish though, more contemporary. Where is the Irish music?

Dinner was at the nearby Spencer Hotel's East Restaurant, an Asian Fusion place with Ivan and his wife, Georgia, Jonathan, and other CTC members. Paying was odd. They wouldn't split the bill but we could pay individually by just telling them what we owed, not what we ate. So trusting!

8pm in the Auditorium: Jerusafunk (klezmer heavy metal) followed by Andy Lamy, finally "trad" (traditional) Irish music! Airs, songs, slip jigs, you name it.

First up Friday was warm-ups with Josh. He gave tips on finding the sweet spots on the clarinet by using more mouthpiece, tilting the clarinet angle, etc.

Enthusiasts Choir Rehearsal was next with more deep dive into the Evil Robot and Pulse and the tricky bits of Habanera. A ringer had been recruited to play the Alto Clarinet part but we still had no Eb clarinet for the Evil piece.

I came in late to the Aspen Quintet after packing up when rehearsal ended but was able to come in between pieces. This is Michelle Anderson playing with Jeremy Reynolds and others from their Colorado days. Michelle said they just had a few hours to play together the night before and the music was really complicated!

11:30am was Mary Alice Druhan playing a piece that captured the experience of PTSD with the help of expressive narration. The struggle with the inner chatter and trying to appear normal were very well captured and conveyed to the extent that you felt you were in her head. So well done.

Birgit from Belgium joined us for lunch. She had been busy with her Claribel concert-mates, even going on a bicycle tour, and also had to volunteer moving equipment around on stage but she finally found time to break away. She recommended a wonderful Fresh Market just around the corner from the Convention Center and it was great! Fresh sandwiches which could be heated, a large salad bar and plenty of drinks and snacks. We even had celebrity sightings such as Peter Cigleris.

After lunch, we took more time checking out the vendor area. Some played around with the carbon fiber ($14K clarinet) while others tried out various artist approved mouthpieces. I had my eye on a new barrel and headed to the Backun booth. With Michelle's help, I tried the Lumiere barrel, both grenadilla and cocobolo, a FatBoy (huge sound but surprisingly easy to blow), and MoBa (good but not great for me). I settled on the warm resonant tone I got from the Cocobola Lumiere.

In addition to Michelle, several other celebrities were sighted in the vendor area including Morrie and Mary Backun, Richard Hawkins, Michael Lowenstern (who helped Jane try out various equipment) and Jay Hassler (the Clarinet Ninja). And, although he wasn't there, May's fave Anothony McGill's new mouthpiece was in the Backun booth so May tried it out and a picture of her glowing with the mouthpiece was posted on McGill's Instragram page. She's in heaven, but turned around and bought the Hawkins mouthpiece once he helped her try that one out. So few degrees of separation at this festival.

Speaking of which: As we were leaving the convention center for dinner one night, Michelle Anderson saw Richard Hawkins leaving about the same time. She called him over and we all got a photo with him which I posted to Facebook. Responding to that post, my niece Emily's mother-in-law (Sharon Atwood, who lives in Houston) commented "Richard Hawkins grew up in Klein schools, near here. My dear friend, Susan Housen, was his beginning clarinet teacher and band director." Wow! I've met Susan a few times at family gatherings. I wish I'd known this connection so I could have had a chat with Richard Hawkins about it.

At 4pm, the Master Class with Andy Lamy was again moved to the upper floor foyer. He described the tradition of Irish music being played on a tin whistle and then he handed out several whistles to audience members. Next, sprawled all around the floor, they mimicked his playing and ornamentation (very different from classical music's turns and trills). He explained that trad music is passed down from generation to generation by visually watching and hearing it as it is played and then copying it. So sometimes the hand that is on top of the tin whistle alternates generations if they learn by mirror image. Once the basics were learned on the tin whistle, the audience took out their clarinets and played the piece, Julia Delany's Reel, by mimicry alone (no sheet music).

Since Andy Lamy's session went long (he does have a gift for gab), I skipped the 5pm show in the Auditorium (Claire Annette Fest), and headed to Wicklow 3 for the CTC "rogue choir" Rehearsal. First I had to grab my stand out of Wicklow 4 where I'd been stashing it after Enthusiasts rehearsal rather than haul it around all day. We pulled chairs apart from their rows and made a rough circle, pulling out music Michelle and Karen had provided. We decided to just sight read many pieces rather than working on any one particular piece, everything from Irish Song to Blues in the Night to Auld Lang Syne. It was magical getting to play with everyone even though my rickety travel stand made my iPad want to leap from it. Michelle and Josh graciously directed us.

For dinner we headed back to the Fresh Market in order to minimize the time and be able to make it back to the Michael Lowenstern concert. The salad hit the spot with so many other restaurants featuring brisket and mashed potatoes (Irish food) or fish and chips.

The Michael Lowenstern concert was fantastic. He was personable and told stories of each piece. Many were wrapped around his Ten Children album, based on his daughter Ariel and the many neighborhood children that went in and out of his house in the early 2000's. He revisited the album during Covid, capturing the children 20 years later mostly based on finding them on Instagram except of course his daughter who had become quite a bit more complicated based on the piece written for her.

Some of us opted to skip the 2nd half of the concert (Arun Ghosh) to get back to Trinity early enough to get some sleep. I've been getting only 5-6 hours a night where I normally get a full 8 so I was exhausted.

Michelle led us through another round of warm-ups, this time focused on finger dexterity, speeding up short scales slowly and deliberately. She then helped us work on the timing in Pulse and Evil Robot.

The Enthusiast Choir Rehearsal immediately followed the warm-ups. This time we had an Eb player so we got to hear the insanely high popping sound of the evilest robot. Wow. We didn't play a lot of that song so it was lucky Michelle had helped us with it. Our conductor conveyed the order we would play which did not coincide with the GuideBook app write-up so more drama.

At 10am, I went to Meghan Taylor's presentation on hearing health. She had some good videos showing the sound traveling through the ear canal and photos of the little hairs before and after hearing damage. Bonus: foam and plastic earplugs for free! Some tips to avoid hearing loss:

• Have an annual audiogram
• Sound exposure is cumulative so rest your ears before and after playing
• Vary dynamics throughout practice
• Wear earplugs but not necessarily musicians earplugs. Some studies are starting to show damage in lower registers with those earplugs.

10:45am was Peter Cigleris' concert. I really liked this one, so lyrical and listenable. There was a lot of contemporary music this year, particularly among the bass clarinet players, so this was a welcome change. Peter likes to find the forgotten music, written some time ago but lost in the stacks of music libraries. The Lounge Suite though was an international premiere and I particularly enjoyed the last movement, "Loose Mints". I may try to find this one for a CTC Master Class.

11:30am, "Mouthpieces Revealed" was well populated but unfortunately, the presenter failed to show.

Lunch was again at the Fresh Market. May and I got to chat about the vice presidential options for the upcoming election now that Biden had stepped aside and Kamala Harris was the democratic nominee.

2pm was the Claribel Choir, Birgit's ensemble from Belgium. They were really very good and had two excellent clarinetists soloing on a tango-like piece. Birgit played Alto Clarinet with them.

The Festival Choir was at 3:15 and while we wanted to listen to them since some of the CTC were performing, the Enthusiasts Choir was on directly following them and we had to be in place to go on stage. Michelle suggested we meet backstage and watch the Festival Choir from there. She had to go somewhere and others drifted off so Jonathan and I started snaking through the backstage dressing room and rehearsal room hallways, finding ourselves backstage and able to see and hear them quite well. Josh Goo joined us for a bit back there.

The Enthusiasts Choir was due to go on at 3:45pm so we didn't stay long as we had to drop our backpacks and put together our instruments. Finally we made our way on stage, just following whoever happened to be there, trying to be in the row that roughly corresponded to the part you planned to play. I went for the 2nd row to play the 2nd clarinet part near Kathy Clark and Martina Morlock.

At this point we discovered we weren't allowed to deviate from the GuideBook's playlist. So we started with Pulse and lived through it, then did a lovely rendition of Shenandoah followed by Habanera which went well, and finally did the Evil Robot Spooky Space Jam. We played as many of the notes as we could and post concert reviews were actually positive on that piece, although I thought it would run 8 minutes, someone said it took 13!

After the concert, we made our way back to the hallway where our backpacks were stashed. May Ryan, Jane Carlson-Rowland, Kathy Clark and I were somehow the last to get packed up and suddenly I heard the most fantastic piano playing with a bright and lively clarinet lick on top. I turned on my video recorder and went up and down the hall until I found the room: It was Istvan Kohan and Lance Coburn, his pianist, rehearsing "Rhapsody in Blue"!! What a delightful surprise! They were scheduled to play in the auditorium at 5pm and I was stoked to hear them.

But wait! Poor Jane had lost her mobile phone! She was so distressed. May, Kathy and I consoled and tried to suggest steps to take. Jane went downstairs to security to report it, then came back with their tips on retracing her steps. She had been unwilling to leave her valuables in the hallway as most were doing so they had found her a practice room that, although it didn't lock, had just one person in it. We looked there with no luck, went through all of her belongings, including her giant orange bass clarinet backpack, and headed out to the foyer to try to get to the Kohan concert in time. It was 5 minutes till but Jane was so distraught we couldn't leave her. Luckily, for whatever reason, the concert was delayed 15 minutes.

At this point, I remembered that although I usually put my phone in my side pants pocket, at one point I moved it to my back pocket and couldn't find it later (doh!). So I asked Jane if she had checked her back pocket. I meant pants but she took it to mean bass clarinet case and hastily dug into it. Voila!! The phone magically appeared. Whew!!!

On to the Istvan Kohan concert and he did not disappoint! Such an expert at all things clarinet, technical, yes but also expression, tone, conveying the inner meanings of all the pieces. He played the Schumann Fantasiestucke which Stewart and I had done for one of Michelle's master classes and it reverberated inside me. But when he got to the long awaited Rhapsody in Blue, he paused to thank Morrie Backun for supporting him and helping him get to the festival. He wondered if he might impinge on Morrie's generosity just a little more… could he maybe spare a carbon fiber clarinet??? Sure enough, here comes Morrie down the aisle and hands Istvan a carbon fiber clarinet!! He proceeded to wail on and throttle that thing with the most expert fingering, wide ranging dynamics, runs and glissandos out of this world. His pianist, Lance Coburn, was fantastic as well. This goes down in my books as the best concert I saw while I was at ClarinetFest!

This being the last night that most would be in town, the Clarinet Transformation Community gathered at Harbour Master for our farewell dinner. I was seated next to Reilly and May's family, across from Karen and next to Jerry, Linda Ryall's husband. The chatter was exuberant although my nearby seat mates didn't attend much of the festival, Jerry was hilarious as he worked through his Guinness and everyone was in such great spirits it was a nice send-off.

On the walk back to Trinity, the normal slight thrum of the Dublin nightlife had ratcheted up for the weekend. A group of 12 or so teenaged boys were walking ahead of us and one dropped back to ask Karen what were her thoughts on "big energy". Then another of them popped out of the group and ran to the side of the road and pulled something on a bus that was about to pull away. The bus was stopped and immediately a garda (policeman) jumped out of the crowd on a bicycle and nabbed the culprit. We walked on as he was given a talking to and some of his cohorts cowered on the side. Not sure if an arrest was imminent.

Back at the room, I spent the next few hours shoving everything back into my suitcase. I had made plans with Michelle and Hilary to share a taxi to the airport in the morning and didn't want to delay them.

I didn't actually attend ClarinetFest this day. It was all low winds, bass and bassett clarinets which I had heard a lot of this week anyway.

Karen texted at 9 to say she and Hilary were outside my door. We had agreed to meet at 9:20 but I was close to packed anyway so I joined them a few minutes later. I was surprised to find it was raining lightly. We had lucked out with beautiful non-rainy weather all week. We went to the Bell Tower to wait for Michelle, then said our goodbyes to Karen and crossed the street to the taxi rank. The cab was already there so Michelle and Hilary climbed in back and I went around the other side to get in the left side on the front. So weird.

The trip to the airport was uneventful. Michelle was in another terminal so we said goodbye to her, then Hilary and I entered Terminal 2. We said our goodbyes not long afterward and I got through baggage check, security and then CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) where despite a long line, I was able to get pre-cleared through customs. That ate up 2 of the 3 hours I had allotted for the international flight but now I wouldn't have to do that at the other end.

The flight home was luxurious in business class, eating good food, writing up this log, getting a short nap and watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Once landed at DFW, I picked up my bag fairly quickly and got an Uber back home where Stewart greeted me in the driveway and the kittens were as excited to see me as I was to be home.