Author Archives: Curt Ebersole

Now hiring: Front of House Manager for Diller Hall concerts

Posted on by
Reply

This midsummer post includes very important information about the upcoming season:

Rehearsal/performance schedule

We have successfully negotiated with Hackley to ensure that all WSW events this coming season will take place on the Hackley campus. This includes our performances (Diller Hall), rehearsals (APR in the Lower School), and also auditions and sectional rehearsals. After years of being musical nomads, we have truly found our new home.

Please read the season schedule carefully and add the dates to your personal calendars. The success of an ensemble operating at this high level depends on the attendance of its members. Short of emergencies, please be proactive to schedule personal commitments and events around our Monday night rehearsals and performances. Note that April 26 is a high priority rehearsal with our percussion soloist, She-e Wu. It’s critical that we aim for no absences that evening.

Reminder: Our attendance policy requires attendance at the dress rehearsal in order to play the concert. Contact Curt directly if you have any questions.

ThunderTix

Our contract with Hackley specifically notes that we must supply our own ticketing platform and Front of House Manager. After much research and discussion, we are excited to announce that we have chosen ThunderTix as our ticketing platform for our inaugural season of performances in Diller Hall. This platform allows us to sell tiered memberships, season tickets, and individual tickets, along with patron donations and customer relations management. We will be able to sell Friends & Family tickets directly to our members, manage comps and student group tickets, and integrate new patrons into our email database. It’s truly a one-stop experience for our needs, and extremely affordable as well. We’ll roll out details as the season begins.

Front of House Manager search

David Church will chair the search committee to interview candidates for our new position of Front of House Manager. (The hire will technically be an independent contractor, not an employee.) Please share this job description with anyone you feel would be qualified and interested. We are looking for someone with a performing arts background, who will manage the audience experience at our three Diller Hall concerts during the upcoming season (Caramoor is not included). This includes supervising on-site box office sales the day of the concert, general admission audience seating, usher management, program distribution, coordination with Hackley Security in case of an emergency, and more as detailed in the job description.

Interested candidates should submit a resume and brief cover letter detailing their venue or front-of-house management experience on or before August 15 to David Church, Chair, FOH Manager Committee at dc3winds @ gmail.com.

Please share as soon as possible — thank you!

Caramoor follow-up

Posted on by
Reply

Lots of gratitude!

Congratulations — everyone — for such an electric and exciting performance this past Saturday! The blackout, the rain, the flipped order of the fireworks and concert: somehow all of these came together to inspire you to perform at such a high & engaging level! I heard it in the first downbeat of the Star-Spangled Banner, and it continued throughout the entire concert. Let’s all celebrate the contributions to our success from Russ & Donny (American flags donation); Chris Larsen (cherry bomb ornament gifts for our friends at Caramoor); Eric (percussion rental and equipment moves coordination); Gina, Nate, Jake, David, Stan, Dave, Chris, Marianne, Eric, Ava (Mike’s daughter) and Mike (June moving crew); Barton (WSW American Overture); the entire percussion section (White Rose feature); Jessica (Ticheli and more/see below); Stan (Ticheli trumpet solo); MaryKay (vocal soloist); 90+ Westchester County handbell ringers, greeted and organized by David (1812); and Mark, Chris Larsen, Chris Carbone, Rachel, Deb, Janice, Marge, & Marianne (Stars & Stripes solo features)! And I must thank our Board as well for all the time devoted to our cause. If I still missed anyone, please forgive me!

I was truly embarrassed to realize that I did not include Jessica in my extended thanks after the sound check and at the end of the performance. She not only brought her amazing musicianship to conducting An American Elegy on July 4, but I am also so grateful to her for helping to conduct the Fall, Winter, and Spring sectionals, as well as stepping up to take on additional conducting responsibilities for the Dunton and Nelhybel on the winter concert, in addition to the Ticheli last week. Please join me in offering her thanks and congratulations!

The season in review

Since September, we scaled many summits:

  • RevFest Concert in September with 1812 and REAL cannons!
  • Pines of Rome in November
  • Trittico and Bamboo Shoots and City Streets in February
  • Maslanka Symphony No. 4 in May
  • We increased our social media presence and donor relations projects
  • The Board updated our Bylaws
  • More BandCamp albums were produced and uploaded to share our live performances
  • Assessed and considered a total of 24 alternate rehearsal/performance sites, and visited 12 of those sites for further consideration
  • Moved our main rehearsal operations and percussion to UUFNW in Mount Kisco, while rotating rehearsals with New Rochelle and White Plains to vary the drive for members coming from afar
  • Spent scores of hours discussing, negotiating, visiting, and finalizing our contract with Hackley, starting with performances only in Diller and expanding to include equipment storage and rehearsals in the APR. All this led to our new designation as an Ensemble-in-Residence at Hackley School!
  • First rehearsals in Diller and the APR — it appears that these are amazing spaces in which we can do our best work!

You all contributed to these amazing accomplishments, and I am so proud to be associated with you all!

Slack

We now have 52 members on Slack in the WSW Members workspace. It’s the best vehicle for connecting with other members, especially when messages need to be sent quickly! If you haven’t joined, please consider doing so!

Looking ahead

Next year’s dates are posted on the right side of my home page (for you) and on our public-facing site as well (thanks Rebecca & Eric!). I have most of the Fall rep scanned, but I will alert you when it’s all completely ready to go. Our opening rehearsal is Monday, September 14 in the APR. Auditions are Tuesday, September 8 in the APR. (If you know someone interested in auditioning, contact Katherine.)

I’m putting weekly posts on hold for now. I’ll post interesting and non-critical items to Slack, and will write my next formal post here in August, as we move closer to the start of the new season.

Thank you again to everyone for this massively successful season of 2025-2026. I look forward to the future with you!

First rehearsal in the APR on Monday

Posted on by

Personnel commitments for 2026-2027

We have 35 responses. But that leaves about 30 responses to go. They are due this coming Monday, June 29. If you have not already, please complete this form so Katherine has no need for follow up reminders!

Rehearsal on Monday, June 29

  • This is our first rehearsal in the APR. We will set up facing the outside wall. Please allow the percussionists some extra elbow room as they learn to navigate the equipment moves in the elevator.
  • Check the homepage for directions to the Lower School building and the rehearsal plans for this rehearsal.
  • We will use our Wenger black chairs for APR rehearsals. They are stored in the area outside right of the APR proper, above the building entrance. Please set up your own chair, and please return that chair to these stacks after rehearsal (no higher than 8 chairs in each stack, please).
  • Bring a music stand (WSW or personal, either is fine). We’ll discuss long-term music stand storage during this rehearsal. Some final decisions regarding this storage are still taking shape.

Dress rehearsal on Wednesday. July 1

  • Check the homepage for the rehearsal plan. There is no intermission on Saturday night, so we will not take a break, but I have padded the times for each selection a little bit to give you a little rest between selections. The plan is to run each selection without stopping, if possible.
  • MaryKay Messenger will be on site to review and run her vocal numbers.

Performance on Saturday, July 4

  • 3:45 pm – Arrival/attendance on stage. Park in Lot E. If you need to leave the grounds after the performance before the fireworks begin, you must inform the parking lot attendant on arrival, and park in Lot Z, as close as possible to the exit. Leave cases/change of clothes in the mens’ and women’s dressing rooms backstage.
  • 4:00 pm – Sound check in the Venetian theater
  • 5:45 pm – Handbell ringers rehearsal in the Venetian theater
  • 6:00 pm – Dinner provided for performers/crew only, backstage picnic table area
  • 8:00 pm – Performance. Following the performance, you are welcome to sit, relax, and debrief with band members, family, and friends at the tables/chairs along Pavilion Plaza, the area between the Venetian Theater and Lot E.

Will we sell out again?

Lookin’ real good we will!

Screenshot

Monday in DILLER HALL!

Posted on by

This week:

  • Gratitude to the moving crew!
  • Personnel commitments – please complete the form!
  • Finding Hackley and Diller Hall for Monday’s rehearsal

Gratitude to the moving crew!

The move is complete! We have officially moved to The Hackley School! Many thanks to the crew who volunteered yesterday, and especially to Eric, who organized everything and led the brigade. A big thank you to everyone who lifted and  lugged and stacked and drove around the county to make this happen! Pictured above (left to right): Gina, Nate, Jake, David, me, Stan, Dave, Chris, Marianne, Eric, Ava (Mike’s daughter), and Mike. 

We are grateful to Björn Olsson & Karina Ringeissen for 21 years of rehearsals and performances at TMH, and to Patricia Compton at UUFNW for their kindnesses and assistance during this transition year.

It’s truly time for “A New Dawn” in 2026-2027!

Personnel commitment form

So far we have only 17 responses to the form for next season. Please fill out this form by next Monday, June 29 so we can plan for our inaugural season at Hackley!

First rehearsal at Hackley

Check out the rehearsal plan for Monday. It includes time at the beginning of rehearsal to walk around to explore the space. 

On Monday we are rehearsing in Diller Hall, our new performance space, at Hackley School. See photos below to help with directions. The June 22 rehearsal is scheduled in Diller Hall, and the next two rehearsals on June 29 and July 1 are scheduled in our new rehearsal space, the All-Purpose Room (APR) in the Lower School at Hackley. Directions and further info for that site will be sent next week.

IMPORTANT:

  • Bring a music stand to rehearsal Monday. It can be the TMH stand or a folding stand — whatever is most convenient. That stand will go home again with you after rehearsal.
  • Use the first 15 minutes of our June 22 rehearsal to look around and explore. Feel free to take photos with friends and your section in different areas of the hall. Eric set up a Google Drive dropbox folder set up to collect photos. Diller Hall is beautiful and we want you to get to know it right away. Go ahead and use the lobby stairs to go up to the 2nd and 3rd rings and check out the view from there. When you’re ready, access the stage from the side hallways or the short stairway directly from the orchestra seating area to the stage. And yes – go ahead and post photos to social media; we checked with Hackley and they approve whole-heartedly!

Finding Hackley

The Hackley School is located about a mile from TMH. Set your GPS for 293 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown. The entrance is directly across Benedict from The Castle Hotel & Spa.

Take the first left into the parking lot.

Once you’ve parked take the stairs up the hill. The Allen Center for the Performing Arts & Technology is right there at the top of the hill.

If you have a large instrument or equipment, drive up the hill to the fork, and go left. You can pull up into the circle under the overhang, unload and then park.

Or drive past the Center to use the loading dock entrance:

On concert days there is overflow parking in the lot up the hill, above the PAC.

Use the doors at the far right to come into the lobby. 

The entrance to the hall is immediately on the left. Or take the stairs up to see the view from the 2nd and 3rd rings.

Please leave cases/coats backstage, not in the seats of the orchestra section of the hall. There is overflow space available in Black Box Theater on level 2, stage right.

If you’re curious, here are the website for the school and a very cool virtual tour:
Hackley website – https://www.hackleyschool.org/
Hackley virtual tour – https://hackleyschool.sprxvr.com/

See you all on Monday evening!