Thanks, everyone, for a great first rehearsal. I appreciate the fact that we pushed a great deal of music at everyone, and we got through it all — and no one got hurt!

As promised, I’ve uploaded the errata for the Avshalomov. Please follow that link, and transfer the appropriate notes into your part so you have them for next week.

I’m updating the rehearsal plan for next Monday. As I discussed, my Curriculum Night was rescheduled from Thursday to Monday, but I should be able to get to rehearsal by 8:45 pm. Matt will take the first part of the rehearsal; plan on playing Funny Girl and Pineapple Poll with him.

Here are some general rehearsal notes:

• Styne/Funny Girl – We need to put on our “orchestra pit” hats for this. In general the piece needs to sound more full and warm, and we need to get the swing section at m.129 to swing better.
• Mackey –  Lush sounds! We will want to work on listening skills to involve everyone in every line as we work on this piece.
• Avshalomov – The best strategy at this point is to prepare the notes and rhythms as best you can, until we are more familiar with the piece.
• Marquez – I suggest you watch this YouTube video of Dudamel conducting the piece at The Proms. Pay special attention to the dialogue of melody/accompaniment, and the general energy of the piece.
• Gulino – Balance will be the main issue here. We’re overplaying a bit.
• Whitacre – Concentrate on the technique of your own part for now. This is going to take work to pull this together. Just like with stage comedy, this kind of musical illustration is very specific, and requires just the right tweaking to carry it off.
• Sullivan – Get cracking on the notes, especially woodwinds! Be prepared for Matt to “woodshed” this considerably on Monday.

I’ve updated the Rehearsal This Week page to reflect Matt’s rehearsal plan, and will update it further by the weekend.