Welcome to my blog!

Hello to those out there in the wide world of the internet, and welcome to my blog! Let's start from the beginning: who the heck am I and why am I blogging?

My name is Jon Mendle, and I'm a 24 year old musician at the beginning stages of an intimidating and difficult, but also beautiful and rewarding career path - that of the classical musician in American society. I graduated this past May (2010) with a Master's Degree in Classical Guitar Performance, from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I've been playing guitar since I was 12, and I picked up classical guitar when I was 15. When I discovered classical guitar, I knew I wanted to devote my life to it, and with the exception of the occasional existential crisis, I haven't really looked back since. If you are interested in more details, you can find them at: http://www.jonmendleguitar.com

About a month before graduation, I woke up one morning to read an email from my teacher at the Conservatory, Sergio Assad. When I read it, I was sure I was still dreaming. He told me that Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble were looking for a guitarist for their upcoming August, 2010 tour of East Coast music festivals, that he had recommended me for this gig and that I should get in touch with them immediately.

After some days of excitedly emailing the people who work with the ensemble and anxious waiting, the details were confirmed. I can't tell you how excited this has made me, nor can I express my gratitude to have been given this remarkable opportunity. I want to give a shout out to all of the incredibly talented guitar students at the San Francisco Conservatory, there is no way that I deserve this opportunity any more than many of you, so I just count myself lucky.

I want to use this blog to chronicle my experience with The Silk Road Ensemble on this tour. I hope to post updates, photos, thoughts, etc. from the road as the tour progresses, and I invite you to join me on this journey.

Briefly, here are the details: I fly from San Francisco (SFO) (at 6:30 am, no less!) to New York (JFK) on August 5th. From there I will be driven to Tanglewood, home of a very prestigious music festival, and the start of the tour. August 6th and 7th are rehearsal days, and the first concert will take place on August 8th at Tanglewood. From there, we play nine more concerts, and I will fly back to San Francisco on August 23rd from Madison, Wisconsin. You can find the full tour schedule at http://www.silkroadproject.org/

I'm playing in two pieces, entitled "Ambush From Ten Sides" and "Wine Madness." I will post more about these pieces later.