Salmonberry explorations
March 10, 2008
With the recent scouring of the Salmonberry River canyon, the river is not much of a secret these days in Oregon. Though it was low and clear on Sunday the 9th, I went down to see if I could find any of the river’s famed steelhead (I’ll land one on this amazing river eventually) and check out the damage.
Picasa Web Album - http://picasaweb.google.com/sbisenberg/200803SalmonberryRMarch2008?authkey=QQsecpZi13M
Amber, Patti, Lonnie and I had a big powder day on Mt. Bachelor on Saturday the 1st. The kids did really well in their lesson and Beryl got off the racer chaser this time.
Picasa Album - http://picasaweb.google.com/sbisenberg/200803MtBachelorAndSmithRocksMarch2008?authkey=TkBJSPp-ib0
On Sunday, the kids played at The Mariposa with M&J and Amber and I got a nice hike in the sun at Smith Rocks.
- S.
“The kid can play” and other interesting facts on Hailey
March 1, 2008
Hi gang. My blogging has diminished over the last month as my bandwidth has been absorbed by a few other work-related mission-critical items. I have a few things that I’ve seen recently that I wanted to post about. One of these is related to Amber’s cousin, Hailey Niswanger. I’ve known Hailey and her sister Kaitlin (also in the performing arts and studying theater at Syracuse University) since she was 6 years old. She started out as a little whiz on the piano and quickly graduated to expert status on a number of instruments including accordian, flute (I believe), clarinet and her main squeeze now, the alto saxophone.
By the way, here is a link to some interesting research findings on professional saxophone players versus us mere mortals:
Anyone can play the sax; a pro hits the high notes
http://www.oregonlive.com/science/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/science/1202862312123480.xml&coll=7
To hear Hailey’s playing, click here (for a player link at The Oregonian):
She’s been receiving a lot of press coverage lately and she just turned 18. I thought I’d include some of the links here.
From The Oregonian newspaper – “The Kid Can Play”
From the West Linn Tidings newspaper – “Young West Linn musician hits national scene” about the Grammy Band that Hailey played in in 2007 and also again in 2008
http://www.westlinntidings.com/features/story.php?story_id=117389992721326600
Her folks, Lonnie (with the calmness of a Zen monk) and Patti (frenetic, supportive Momager – that’s Mom/manager for those of you not in the know) are pretty proud of their kids and it can’t hurt that Hailey, as a high school senior, has now received word that the Berklee College of Music in Boston has offered her a full-tuition merit scholarship for all four years of her undergraduate education. Berklee’s alumni include Quincy Jones and Branford Marsalis and they also offer a music management degree and co-enrollment in several other widely-respected Boston universities. While Hailey hasn’t let the cat out of the bag that Berklee is where she wants to go, it is a pretty safe bet. She likes it there, seems to love the faculty and the other students, and she spent the last two summers there in their advanced collegiate summer program for gifted high school students.
Hailey’s not with us this weekend to go skiing at Mt. Bachelor (something she loves) as she’s in Indianapolis with yet another band she is playing with nationally. But like the article in The Oregonian, she doesn’t let it go to her head and she’s a real sweet kid (well I guess I have to say young woman now that she is 18, eh?).
- The Editor (S.)
