My site finally seems to be running normally now. What a process to finally get rid of the malware! (Bluehost cancelling my malware protection didn’t help.)
Last week
133 members of the Nevada All-State Orchestra (and my forehead).
That was a great rehearsal last week! I’m grateful to Jeff Ball for coming in to work with you. Thank you for digging in and responding to Jeff’s ideas and suggestions. Jeff will be joining us next year as one of our guest conductors (Winter), along with Brad Ethington from Syracuse University (Fall), and Patrick Burns, from New Jersey City University (Spring).
In regard to Moth, I liked Jeff’s idea of a slightly relaxed tempo for the A sections (it helped to focus the motives and themes), and slightly (emphasis: slightly) faster for the B section. I have written to Viet for his opinion on the 5|4 at m.311. And thank you to Chris Carbone — he located the Don Marquis poem, The Lesson of the Moth, to share with you. Please have a read — the music really taps into Marquis’s poetry.
GoFundMe
Thanks again to Jim Savage for spearheading our GoFundMe campaign. At $2435, we are almost 25% of the way to our $10K goal. The idea here is not to press you, the players, for donations, but to encourage you to share the link with family and friends, and encourage first-time donors to this project via email and social media. (That said, thank you to the members who did make contributions!) I’m making a push with my personal blog and Facebook page to encourage my contacts to just donate $25, with the hope that many donors at $25 will make an impact. Jim’s email (sent by Claudia on April 12) contained great talking points to support the campaign. Please use them!
This week
We’re running through the Caramoor program on Monday. Please be sure to come in plenty of time to set up and warm up, because the rehearsal time is stacked in order to get through it all. I’ll distribute the Promises, Promises medley on Monday evening. Of particular interest are the new arrangements by Barton Green and Matt Podd. Joining us on Monday evening will be Frank Mastrone, baritone, who will stand in for Ryan Silverman for our reading. (We’ll run through each chart first without the voice to isolate any musical issues.)
When we return to the May program next week, it will be May already! We have two working rehearsals, on May 2 & 9, and BOOM! we’re at the dress rehearsal on May 11. So please keep up your practice on the May program as we make this one-week shift to prepare for our third performance at Caramoor.
Spring Concert
The flyers for the May and June programs are posted on the Resources page. Please print, distribute, post them liberally via email, social media, and hard copies at your local coffee shop, library, and other bulletin boards! And Band Directors: Take a look at the seating chart generator on that page — it’s great!
Nevada All-State Orchestra
I didn’t want to take the time to talk about this last Monday, but I had the greatest time last weekend in Las Vegas with the students of the 2016 All-State Orchestra. It was an amazing opportunity. The kids work ethic was amazing, especially during the 12-hour day on Friday. Colas Breugnon felt like the SST on take-off. Their performance of The Final Covenant was especially emotional and inspiring. And the Kalinnikov — whoa. 
My idea to rewrite Mr. Bainum’s antiphonal parts and transpose them back to the original key of G major (yes, I know — ideal for brass intonation) was a risk, but the antiphonal players were truly exceptional, made up of Nevada music educators and UNLV faculty and students. The result was spectacular. And, as a bonus, Tony Maiello was the All-State Band conductor; we had a great time together. I have to work on bringing him up from George Mason University to work with you!
PS
Is anyone else binge-watching VEEP? Out of control!!!
Enjoy the weekend — see you Monday at TMH!