I hope everyone has a chance to rest and reflect today, to prepare for our program tomorrow. Please do plan to arrive and be in your seat, warmed up, by 1:00 pm. I will restrict our sound check playing to only those pieces/sections that really need to be hit. I’m sure you agree that there are some sections of the George and Copland that will benefit from one last review.

Monday will be here before we know it. I am planning to read everything on the ACB program. Please come prepared with that mindset. This includes:

• Hazo – Ride
• van der Roost – Puszta (I-II-III)
• Whitacre – Sleep
• Bernstein – Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
• George – Firefly
• Mackey – Strange Humors
• Cheetham – ABA Symphonic March

As described earlier, this is an important rehearsal because we will not be rehearsing on February 20 or February 27. Our next rehearsal will be March 5 — only 7 weeks to go until our national stage debut! Please know that I intend to read all the pieces, but not try to rehearse intensely. We will also be using a “test drive” arrangement of part assignments for trumpets, horns, and percussion. These principal players will then have the experience of the rehearsal plus 3 weeks to consider permanent assignments until we meet again on March 5.

Have a great day — see you tomorrow!