Granite Youth World Tour 1979 (Part 1 of 12)

I had been playing the string bass for about three months when I decided I had progressed far enough that I could try out for the Granite Youth Symphony. This was a group of the very top high school musicians in the Granite School District. I had tried out once before, at the end of my ninth grade year, but of course at that time on the drums, and of course I did not make it, although I had played the drums for six years. Now with three months’ experience on the bass, I was going to try out again, on the bass. I thought it was somewhat of a long shot, but you couldn’t blame me for trying.
But what to try out with? We were supposed to have a few scales to demonstrate our ability to play them and that was no problem, but one also needed a solo piece to try out on. It took me a while but I found one. Then I drove to the try outs at Granite High School. When it was my turn I entered the orchestra room nervously and stood before the review panel. All those men looked at me glumly as if to say, “Go ahead kid, make our day!” They had me play my scales and then they asked me to play the musical selection I had. I put the single sheet of notebook music paper on the music stand in front of me. I began to play but first one of the men asked what it was I was playing. “It’s a song we sing in Concert Choir called Cantante Domino. It is the tenor part transcribed down two octaves for the string bass.”
“Who transcribed it for you?”
“I did.”
That alone probably impressed them that I could transcribe anything. And I sounded okay, too. When I was done another of the men said, “If you make it we’ll let you know in a letter by the seventeenth.”
The time for waiting was on. I waited and waited. I had several friends that had tried out For Granite Youth as well. They were extremely good in playing their instruments. They waited, too. The seventeenth arrived and still no letter. I felt pretty bad. I didn’t make it! My main reason for wanting to be in Granite Youth was the same reason why I did just about anything. I was motivated by girls. I knew the musical group was going on tour and I knew there were lots and lots of girls in the organization. The ones from Cottonwood High School that were already in, I liked. The prospect of seeing them every day for the first third of the summer was exciting to me. And I didn’t get a letter!