The rehearsal plan is ready to go for Monday. We have the soloists and Tom McCauley coming in tomorrow evening. I will also play “catch up” with the Bernstein movements I couldn’t get to last week.

Rachel will have tickets to distribute tomorrow night. Please remember to push selling tickets beyond your two comps — this concert is always a tough sell. Let’s pack TMH!

Last week Ben Acrish shared this article from School Band & Orchestra magazine, which features 50 music educators from the 50 states. Our guest conductor from Fall 2013, Rich Guillen, is the featured director from New York! Thanks to Ben for noticing and sharing this. Click the photo to see a PDF of the entire article.

I am very happy to announce that Mislav Forrester, trumpet, who auditioned for us last week, is joining us as a permanent member. He’ll be playing the January 25 concert and also traveling with us to Chicago. Please help us welcome him. We are working on filling in our ranks with subs for those who have conflicts with the Chicago trip and these plans are falling together nicely. We’ll announce the final trip roster when the last subs submit their written confirmations.

Be careful driving in the morning. Fortunately, the bad weather should be contained to the morning and we should be good for tomorrow evening.

I just opened up Facebook and saw this notification:

When I opened the post, I couldn’t believe my eyes:

Caramoor mentioned us in the their first promotion of the 2015 season! Only two artists are mentioned — the St. Luke’s Orchestra and us! This is amazing!!!

If you have a Facebook account, visit the Caramoor page and like this post as soon as you can!

Congratulations on this milestone!

As promised, the flyers for the upcoming concert are ready. Click here to go to the resources page. The lo-res and hi-res versions are right at the top. Print, distribute, email, post! This is always a tough concert to sell because it’s winter, and fewer people venture out. Don’t be satisfied with your 2 comps. Get out there and sell tickets — let’s pack the house!

Thanks for a real workout rehearsal last night. Remember that our soloists and guest conductor will be coming next Monday.

Now put down the laptop or tablet and go practice!

I’ve had some requests to nail down the Tchaikovsky tempi, so here we go:

m.1 – Allegro con fuoco, Tempo 1 ♩= 152
m.60 – Meno mosso, ♩= 108
m.84 – Subito piu mosso, ♩= 132
m.92 – Subito meno mosso, ♩= 108
m.100 – Accel
m.103 – Tempo 2, ♩= 132
m.115 – Accel
m.119 – Tempo 1, ♩= 152
m.149 – Meno mosso, ♩= 108
m.173 – Accel
m.177 – Tempo 2, ♩= 132
m.197 – Rallentando
m.199 – Andante, ♩= approx 80, slowing in m.204
m.223 – Tempo 1, ♩= 152
m.274 – Rallentando molto
m.275 – Tempo 1, ♩= 152
m.287 – Accel
m.291 – Rallentando molto

For the visual learners among us: