Staff Spotlight: Marina Adamany

Name: Marina Adamany Title: Store Operations Manager Instrument of choice: Clarinet

Do you have a favorite memory from your time working with the Naperville Central High School's Marching Band?

Along with the fun of getting to teach at my alma mater (I graduated NCHS in 2014), my first season working with them we played a show called Cloud 9, where we got to play sections of Rhapsody in Blue. I got to teach the soloist how to play the big solo featured at the beginning of the piece. This is a very difficult solo, and it was very rewarding to get to teach this. I also met my now fiancé teaching at NCHS! She taught visuals, and I teach the woodwind section!

What’s your favorite thing about being PM Music Center's Store Operations Manager?

My favorite part about the job is helping students get new instruments!  New instrument day is one of the best things as a growing musician, and to see students when they play a step-up instrument and can actually hear and feel the difference it makes is so fun.  I remember that feeling of finally getting your professional instrument, and it's an absolute game changer.  Getting to see them so excited about playing music is the best, and to see them actually hear the improvement a new instrument gives and how excited they are to keep playing is so exciting for everyone in the room.  

What's your favorite thing about working with music students?

Getting to see them improve! It is my favorite thing when I have worked with the same students for all 4 years of their high school career, and we get to look back and see how much they have grown. I love watching students take on leadership roles, and grow in their playing.

What is your favorite movie soundtrack?

Fantastic Mr. Fox, or Grand Budapest Hotel by Alexandre Desplat! - They're my favorites for studying. I'm in school to get my Masters of Business Administration at NIU.

What is your favorite song to play?

My favorite piece to perform is Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto. It was commissioned by jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman in 1947 and premiered in 1950. I love the jazz elements of the piece, along with it being written for Piano, Harp and String orchestra accompaniment. It has a unique sound due to the instrumentation, especially incorporating jazz with no percussion or other wind instruments. He uses some interesting techniques for string to give you the sense that these instruments are there when they're not. There is also a big contrast between the first half of the piece and the last, with a big cadenza to link the two sections. I've never gotten to perform it with a full orchestra, but maybe someday!

What would be your dream concert?

Right now, Chappell Roan (me and everyone else in the world.) But I wish I could have seen the Beatles!

What is one piece of advice you'd give to music students?

Practice will never make perfect, but it will always make it better. You can't cram practicing. And early is on time, on time is late, and late is fired