I hope everyone had a warm and wonderful holiday. Back to work on Monday!

Monday at TMH

Our rehearsals continue at TMH on Monday. The rehearsal plan is posted. Our work on the Bernstein this week continues with the Dance Trilogy section, including Cool. It’s another challenging section of the work.

West Point performances

I will have more information to share on Monday evening about our March 9 performance at Eisenhower Hall and March 16 performance at White Plains High School, both shared with Commander Toven and the West Point Band.

Marist College concert

You may remember that Malcolm Jones, director of bands at Marist College, visited our rehearsal in September. His first concert of the season with the bands at Marist will be next Friday, December 1 at 8:00 pm in the Nelly Goletti Theater (Murray Student Center) on the Marist campus. Please consider attending, and remember that Malcolm is looking to schedule local school visits with bands in Westchester to promote his program.

This post is short and sweet. I’m tied up all weekend with the Zone 10 Area All-State Band.

We’re back on the TMH stage on Monday evening. The rehearsal plan is posted. As promised, the Bernstein part of rehearsal includes the “Dance at the Gym” section, including Mambo.

If you haven’t done so yet, please read through the NU Errata and USMB Errata, and mark your parts accordingly. Although the errata lists are long, there are relatively few errors per instrument. I will assume starting on Monday that everyone has marked all parts with corrections.

Thank you all again for a spirit-lifting performance on Sunday. I’m saving some time at the beginning of rehearsal on Monday to invite you to share your thoughts regarding the concert.

Rehearsal Monday at White Plains HS

TMH is not available on Monday. Please plan your travel for our rehearsal at White Plains. Be sure to download/print your new parts from the Winter Concert Google Drive folder, and bring these Winter parts to rehearsal.  I’ve updated the rehearsal plan on the homepage to reflect the rehearsal plan for Monday at White Plains.

West Point concerts

We will soon be putting out a commitment form for our collaborative concert(s) with the West Point Band. Please note these dates:

• Saturday, March 9 at 2:00 pm – Concert at Eisenhower Hall (snow date March 10 at 2:00 pm). This concert is confirmed.
• Saturday, March 16 at 2:00 pm – White Plains High School (snow date March 17 at 2:00 pm). This reprise performance is still tentative until we agree on our shared financial commitment.

Commander Toven suggested the reprise concert as a vehicle for bringing the West Point Band for a performance here in Westchester County, something they have not done in several years. I’m hoping to talk again with the Commander soon so I can share complete details with you. In the meantime, please assess these dates in your personal calendar.

Pedro’s new recording

Pedro Díaz has a released a new solo album on Spotify, featuring members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and including the Donizetti. He asked that I share the album link, and encourage you to have a listen. Just following the link will help promote his album – please consider doing so.

I’m so very, very proud of all of you! Sunday’s concert was a truly amazing success all around, from the quality of your performance to the size of our audience. Many thanks to Andrew Hill, Brian Doyle, and Pedro Díaz for their artistry; to Ruthie Garcia for the coordination with A.Laubin; to Oscar Portillo and the TMH crews; to Andrew Merelis for the video production; to Richard Price for the recording engineering and production; and to Eric Milkie and Rebecca Weissman for their assistance in getting the video launched.

Please visit our website to see the concert — /www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org. The video is available as of 8:00 pm tonight, and we’ll keep it up on the site through the weekend. After that, you can send friends and family to our YouTube channel to watch this and all our other performance videos.

Enjoy the concert!