We’re back at it on Monday evening at TMH. I’ve updated the rehearsal plan, and am very excited to see everyone again, refreshed, and ready to roll!

There’s a lot going on right now as we prepare for the Spring, Exchange, and Caramoor concerts, and action is required by you regarding the Exchange weekend:

• Please reply to the form that Claudia sent via email (you can just click here to access the form), so we can plan for the Exchange weekend Circle Line Tour and lunch at John’s Pizza, and post-concert reception. Please complete this form before rehearsal on Monday. Using this form to submit your information helps us to automate the huge process of collecting and processing this data — thank you for following through by Monday. We want to be good hosts, so we hope that everyone will participate in the Circle Line and lunch events, and please consider volunteering to host a homestay player or help with airport transportation.
• Publicity flyers are ready for the Spring and Exchange concert. Find and download them from the Resources page. Print the hi-res flyers and post at your school, workplace, local coffee shop, church, etc. Upload the lo-res flyers to Facebook, Twitter, emails, and other online resources.
• The Palace Theatre has published their ticketing page for the Exchange concert. Share this page with family and friends to purchase tickets:
  http://palacestamford.org/events/events-at-the-palace-stamford/event-details/1377-westchester-symphonic-winds
• We have two new fund-raising projects that Jim has been working on, which are almost ready for launch. We’ll have details on Monday.
• Remember that we have a 20% coupon code for Caramoor tickets. (I’ll remind you of the code on Monday; we don’t want to publish it online.) For the past week or so, their site has not been displaying the seating map, and cannot take American Express payments. I hope they resolve this soon.
• TMH has confirmed these concert dates for next season: Fall on Sunday, November 6 at 3:00 pm (dress on Saturday morning, November 5) and Winter on Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 pm (dress on Wednesday evening, February 8. We are still waiting for TMH to confirm the Spring date. There will be no Exchange Concert next season, but we hope that Caramoor will invite us back again in 2017.
• Have you bought your 2015-16 CD’s yet? If not, Marge will have them at rehearsal on Monday! $30 — a bargain!

Enjoy the weekend, see you Monday!

We’ve been spring cleaning, and I have just discovered that I have some extra copies of the GIA “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band” CD’s. If you’re not familiar with them, this is an excellent resource for Middle & High School repertoire. If you would like to have them for yourself or your school, please let me know, and I can bring them next Monday. These four sets are available:

• Band, Volume 3, Grades 2/3
• Band, Volume 3, Grades 4
• Band, Volume 5, Grades 2/3
• Orchestra, Volume 1, Grades 1-3

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No rehearsal this Monday

As scheduled, there is no rehearsal tomorrow night. I know there is a trumpet sectional that has been scheduled by the trumpets (Yay!). Please feel free to gather your own sectional if you wish!

The questionnaire form regarding Exchange activities will be coming this week. An informational email will be coming from Rachel before we send out the form, to explain the activities and our plans. Please reply to the form by next Monday, so we have answers from 100% of the members before our next rehearsal.

When my site was down . . . .

You may have missed these news items when my site was down in early March. Here are some important items, repeated:

Job posting

Bob Bennett asked me to share this job opportunity:
Camp Seaside in West Harrison (right outside of White Plains) is looking for a music instructor for the upcoming summer season. Pay is flexible, but instructor can expect to make at least $2400 for the summer season. Interested applicants can contact Nick Galasso at ngalasso11@yahoo.com for more info. It really is a wonderful camp with great kids and a nice, easy summer gig.

Thank you from Brian Worsdale

Dear Curt and the Westchester Symphonic Winds,
I want to thank you all for your wonderful music making as well as your amazing reception to my time with you. It is truly a pleasure to play for people as dedicated to fine music making as they are to the idea that music making doesn’t stop because you don’t earn a paycheck from it.
Watching Mark conduct the opening work and hearing the amazing percussion soloists as well as an AMAZING performance of Holst and a KILLER Aurora Awakes were just some small examples of the musical motivation you gave to me.
Thanks again and I wish you all the best!
Most sincerely,

Brian Worsdale

 

WSW YouTube page

I shot videos of the concert again from the audience right balcony. Ben Acrish helped me with starting/stopping the camera this time, and I am indebted to him. We have two unfortunate aspects:

• There was no way to shoot the video head-on, and so only half the percussion section can be seen during the Daughtrey. I’m so sorry. Did any percussionist spouse or family shoot any head-on video?
• The battery ran out 2/3 of the way through the final march. Aaaargh. This kills me! So I won’t be posted that video.

We will, however, have an outstanding audio recording of the entire concert, courtesy of Rob and Richard.

I’ve uploaded all the videos to the new WSW YouTube channel (thank you, Chris Larsen!), and slowly I’m editing/trimming and adding titles. When they’re all uploaded, I’ll create a playlist for this concert. So far, the Daughtrey documentary, and the performances of the Daughtrey, Tull, and Markowski are available for public search and viewing.