I’m sorry to do this, but I have not regained my 100% capacity since last week. Truthfully, after last Monday’s rehearsal, my condition went downhill, and I coughed my way through the last seven days. I fully intended to push my way through this evening, but aside from the fact of placing myself in a room full of otherwise healthy people, I am simply concerned that it would not be a fully productive use of our mutual time. (Actually, I have Donna Rossi to thank for the self-realization. We spoke about a separate issue last night, and she said — with love — “You sound awful!”)

I spoke with Matt about it all this morning. His concentration has been on the van der Roost, and agreed that it would not be a good use of time to transfer the entire rehearsal to him. On top of all this, the rehearsals at Pelham are rather inconvenient for many. At this point, it’s better to be proactive, and decide now to cancel the rehearsal.

Claudia knows the communication patterns of many who do not check this site/email accounts regularly, and will reach out individually to those at risk of not learning about this immediately. Upon reading this, please reconfirm the cancellation with friends and neighbors with whom you are close.

Instead of driving to Pelham, please find time this week for at least 1 hour of solid individual practice. If you are willing and able to organize a sectional, please do so. Even just practicing for an additional hour with one other player from your section will be a productive use of time! Especially concentrate on the Bernstein, which is where we need the most work.

Thank you for your understanding. I’ll do what I need to do to be back next week at 100%. See you then, Monday, March 19, at 7:30 pm at Pelham.

First, I’ve updated the Rehearsal This Week page for our rehearsal order tomorrow night. I’m sorry I didn’t get to everything last week, but I do intend on covering this list Monday night.

One thing I’d like to discuss with the group tomorrow evening is the personnel listing for the ACB Convention program. Over the years, I’ve noticed convention programs for ensembles similar to WSW listing more than just names for each member in the instrument personnel list. Specifically, I have seen lists like these:

Trumpet
John Smith, psychologist (14)
Laura Jones, music educator (6)
Pat Klein, homemaker (20)

where the number in parentheses indicates the number of years of membership. The idea was to give identity to the fabric of the group’s members.

Think about this and let’s talk about it tomorrow night. I’m interested in your input, and whether you’d like to see this included for this particular program.

Due to the scheduling changes at TMH, our rehearsals on Monday, March 12 & Monday, March 19 will be held at our primary alternate site, Pelham High School. Please adjust your calendars accordingly.

I will post the rehearsal agenda later this week.

We learned late in the week that TMH has booked another event in the early evening on Monday, March 5. Marge & Rachel stepped in on our behalf and negotiated our position with the TMH administrative staff, and we were able to save the rehearsal. However, we will meet with these variations:

• Please arrive at the front doors at 7:45 pm.
• We will gain access to the stage at 8:00 pm.
• The TMH staff will have chairs & stands ready for us at the back of the stage (upstage). With any luck, they will have brought large percussion up as well.
• We will set up quickly at 8:00 pm and begin to rehearse.
• In order to make the evening significant, we will rehearse until 10:00 pm.
• At 10:00 pm, the TMH staff will move our chairs, stands, and percussion to the annex. (I am guessing that we could show a positive effort by simply stacking chairs on the stage and organizing stands to the rack.)

We also learned that we cannot have TMH on March 12 and 19. We will find and announce an alternate site asap. We will return to TMH on March 26. We are hoping to gain support from TMH to have our equipment moved back for us upon our return; stay tuned for updates.

Monday’s rehearsal order is posted here. See you then!