Music folder pickup

There’s no rehearsal this week, but you can pick up your music folder at the Music Hall on Tuesday, September 8 between 7:30-8:00 pm. Many thanks to Nancy Mattson for preparing all the folders for the Fall season.

Jim Savage and I will greet you at the front of TMH and give you your Fall cycle folder if you stop by. We hope to see you! Some of the music is challenging, so you may want to review it before we read through the program at the first rehearsal on Tuesday, September 15.

Members’ news

Mislav asked me to share the job opening for music director/organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in South Salem. Read the job description at the end of this post.

Do you have great news to share from your summer experiences? Buy a new instrument? Get a new job? Attend a great workshop? Play in a great performance? Ride a new roller coaster? If so, please email me, and I’ll include some time at the first rehearsal to allow some time for you to share your news.

Library move

Since 1988, our library holdings have been kept in a secret location (OK, it was Rachel’s office in Port Chester). Last month, at long last, we finalized arrangements to rent a storage space in White Plains. On August 25, with the help of Marge Hone, Mislav Forrester, Ullyses Torres, Rachel Eckhaus, Rachel’s sons (Benjamin & Daniel), and myself, and with a donation of 4 additional filing cabinets from the Mackie Family in Irvington, the entire library was moved to White Plains. The new location will allow for better access, and once completely catalogued, will provide efficient and safe storage of our growing library holdings. Many thanks to the Board for making this possible. We’re looking for the donation of a 6-foot folding table and two folding chairs to make the new library complete.

Job Description for Music Director/Organist – St. John’s Episcopal Church

St. John’s Episcopal Parish in South Salem, New York is seeking candidates to succeed our beloved Music Director/Organist who is retiring after 20 years.   Joy-filled liturgy and worship are important to us.

Our preference would be for a musician familiar with the Anglican liturgy, who can work with and grow our choir and coordinate the music program. The ideal candidate will be an energetic, creative individual who is willing to:

• Become familiar with Anglican worship if he or she is not already
• Work with our parish priest, taking the lead in planning Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies
• Plan rehearsal times with the choir
• Be open to coordinating music for our family and children’s services
• Enjoy playing our magnificent Peragallo & Sons two-manual pipe organ, Opus 645 at St. John’s Church on Sundays. This was dedicated in a joyful service in 2003 and has been well-maintained since.
• Encourage and support our thriving guitar-based music program at St. Paul’s Chapel services on Saturdays.
• Have the “right of first refusal” to play at all unscheduled services, such as weddings and funerals, with the terms of compensation to be determined by the organist.
• Have use of the church facilities, with the permission of the Vestry, for private lessons for students

Salary commensurate with experience for an average of 10-15 hours per week.

Responses should be sent to stjohnsch@cloud9.net attention Music Director Search Committee.

The summer is almost over, and it’s just about time to get our season started!

We have a significant number of players who cannot attend one or both of the opening Tuesday rehearsals. It doesn’t make sense to have two rehearsals with compromised attendance. So, I made this recommendation to the Board, which has been approved:

• We will eliminate the rehearsal on September 8. Instead, members are invited to stop by TMH that evening, 7:30-8:00 pm, to pick up music folders. Jim Savage and I will be on hand to hand them out to anyone who’d like to stop by to pick them up.
• We will have our first rehearsal on Tuesday, September 15, starting at 7:30 pm. This will be our usual read-through of the entire program.

We still have several members who have not responded to the Concert Commitment Form. If you have not done so, please follow the link and reply immediately. We need this information in order to make final preparations for the season.

Last call for anyone interested in the Apprentice Conductor program! If you are interested, contact me directly as soon as possible. I want to make these adjustments to the season schedule before the first rehearsal.

Enjoy these last days of the summer!

November 8 performance will begin at 5:00 pm

Tarrytown Music Hall has confirmed 5:00 pm for our performance time on November 8. The Hall will be available to us to set up chairs/stands at 2:30 pm, and our sound check will begin at 3:00 pm. (We’d hoped to move the concert closer to our usual 3:00 pm performance time, but at least this is earlier than the original 6:30 pm starting time.)

Have you completed the Concert Commitment form?

Many of you were waiting for the concert time announcement for the Fall concert. If you have not completed the form from the previous post, scroll down the blog or click on this link. Please complete the form as soon as possible. If we don’t receive a submission from you by next week, we’ll be contacting you to urge you along!

First rehearsal – Tuesday, September 8 at 7:30 pm at TMH

Yes! The rehearsal plan is already posted! I’m looking forward to seeing you then!

Schedule information & member form

We’ve gotten the confirmation needed from TMH to finalize the concert and dress rehearsals for the coming season. Please complete the form at the bottom of this post by August 20. Although we submitted our rehearsal dates in early July, we don’t have confirmation of every Monday rehearsal at TMH through June at this point. However, we do have TMH confirmation to start the season with two consecutive Tuesdays, September 8 & 15, to avoid the late Labor Day and mid-month Rosh Hashanah holidays. The rest of the Fall cycle rehearsals will be on Monday evenings, as usual. We’ll publish the familiar “grid schedule” when TMH gives us final confirmation.

Please also note that the Fall Concert is scheduled for 6:30 pm on November 8 (because of another program at TMH earlier that day), but it is likely and possible that the time may move earlier, perhaps up to 4:00 pm. We hope to have this resolved by August 15, and will update you then.

Thanks to Matt Kowalski

Matt has notified the Board that he is stepping down from the position of Assistant Conductor, but will continue to perform in the clarinet section. Please join me in thanking Matt for his contributions in that position over the past 4 years. We are glad that we’ll continue to see Matt every week.

Instead of naming a new Assistant Conductor, I will be tapping notable local conductors who have worked with us in case I have an emergency and cannot attend rehearsal. In addition, I’ve proposed to the Board that we develop an Apprentice Conductor program. This will allow music educators within the ensemble the opportunity to volunteer to conduct one work on one concert during the season. I will offer conducting coachings as I did with Matt. This will give a wider scope of players in the group a chance to “drive the Cadillac” on one concert. If you are interested, please email me directly. 

Season Repertoire

The plan for the season’s rep was approved by the Board in July, and I’m very excited about the music we’ll be performing this year. I’m in the process of updating the lists here on this site. You can find the lists, concert by concert, under the Repertoire tab.

Northshore Exchange in June

We’re very excited to host the Northshore Concert Band next June, and play with them at the Palace Theater in Stamford. Please reserve Saturday, June 18 for social activities with our guests, and Sunday, June 19 for the concert. We will have our dress rehearsal/sound check on the morning of the concert (to avoid a separate day’s rental), followed by Northshore’s sound check and our combined rehearsal of the same two marches we performed at Pick-Staiger. We will have plenty of time to ourselves in the hall starting at 10 am, and you will also have plenty of time to rest between the dress rehearsal/soundcheck and performance. And our preliminary plans include having the post-concert reception in the Palace Theater, to make it as easy as possible for everyone to attend. More news about hosting the Exchange will be forthcoming from Rachel Eckhaus, who is chairing the Exchange Committee. If you’d like to volunteer to help, please contact Rachel.

Dress Rehearsal/Concert Form

Please complete this form by August 20, so we can plan our personnel needs for the season.