KIKI IN COLLEGE

KIKI IN COLLEGE 1974-1981

In the fall of 1974, at age 16, Kiki started her freshman year at the University of Florida as a music major. She and her buddy Charlie Putnam were given the award for University of Florida Outstanding Freshman Musician . "The award was given at a UF Symphony Orchestra concert. My boyfriend at the time was Dave Munns. What a sweet guy ... and a great surfer! He knew I would be winning the award, but was told to keep it a surprise. Dave kept trying to talk me into going to this concert. I was not at all interested. Finally, after considerable persuasion, I agreed to go. I was wearing a pair of old faded blue jeans and sandals. I'm not sure I even brushed my hair. Dave tried to talk me into dressing up, but, true to form, I stubbornly refused. After all, I didn't even want to go to the dumb concert. When the award was announced and my name was called, I was flabbergasted. And there I was standing in front of hundreds of people next to co-recipient Charlie, who was playing that night in the orchestra, and was wearing his tux. Geeze!"	ROFL rofl.gif Freshman year at UF had its moments LOL License this music for commercial use through Pump Audio

With euphonium teacher, Raymond Young From the Ruston Daily Leader 1977 In a piano recital at LTU in 1977	Kiki left UF in 1976, transferring to Louisiana Tech University to study with euphonium virtuoso Ray Young. While in Ruston, Kiki majored on euphonium and minored in piano. "One of my strongest memories of Ruston, other than to drive the three miles to Grambling with my friends to buy 3.2 beer, was a night that John Wilson [no blood relation, but a darned good friend] and I took our euphoniums out to the country. Two hills stood in fairly close proximity to one another, John took one hill, I took the other. We climbed to the top of these neighboring hills and traded euphonium licks across the distance, under a starry sky." Kiki stayed in Ruston for her junior year, playing both a junior recital on euphonium and a piano recital in 1977. At her junior recital, with mentor, Ray Young.
In 1978 during her year off	Kiki starred in several student-produced films, including "Prelude" by friend Bob Williams. Kiki was cast as a music student who gets attacked and murdered. K: "I hope they never unearth that one. I was just awful. But we did have a great time making blood out of Karo corn syrup and red food coloring." Kiki's friend, Bob helped refine her understanding of and appreciation for film. Bob and Kiki would later write a screenplay together, called "The Golden Hammer." In 1978, after taking a year off, Kiki returned to UF to finish out her double major in music performance and education.
Once back at UF Kiki joined the color guard as a way of honoring her scholarship committment to participate in marching band. K: "Flags and rifles were a lot of fun, but try doing a split with bare legs on 140 degree astroturf at Florida Field. During the Star Spangled Banner everyone in the band would have to stand at attention for the duration. After about 30 seconds the heat from the astroturf would work it's way up through your boots and fry the soles of your feet. Soon the whole band would be gently swaying back and forth like treetops in the breeze. Band members were desperately trying to stand still, play the Star Spangled Banner and relieve their blistering soles by picking up them up ever so slightly one at a time, trying not to be noticed. You band members remember what I'm talking about."
This is your butt and you know who you are!	During her college years, Kiki worked as an on-air announcer for a classical music program called Symphony Hall on WRUF-FM. K: "My chair in the studio faced a window through which I could see an adjacent studio, where they aired the news. Just as I opened my mic to start my intro to a classical work, a person, who shall remain nameless, went into the newsroom, dropped his pants and mooned me against the glass. For two solid minutes I had to talk about the antics of the sorcerer's apprentice with Ro...I mean that unnamed person's big flat butt three feet from my face!"
During her senior year, composer and music department chairman, Budd Udell wrote an extended euphonium solo for Kiki in his "Forces, Symphony #1 for Band." The solo was without meter, giving Kiki total freedom of expression. "...which was a good thing," Kiki quips, "because my rhythm wasn't all that great anyway." In 1981 Kiki was selected as a national finalist in the TUBA solo competition for euphonium. She graduated cum laude from the University of Florida in the spring of 1981.
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