Amanda Kiel shared this with me this weekend. Send inquiries directly to Amanda (email address below).

My soon to be former school is Van Nest Academy, PS/IS 498 in the Bronxdale section of the Bronx. It’s a great job for an early or mid career teacher. The position entails K-8 general music plus 5-8 band, which this year should now have two sections, beginner and intermediate, as some kids will be in their third year of playing their instruments. I switched from doing two concerts per year with the general music classes to doing just one, which made it easier to plan a curriculum around.

There is every imaginable set of classroom instruments: Orff instruments, lots of hand percussion, guitars, bass, and ukuleles. All meticulously labeled and cared for by me! Principal is very generous with materials, and open to community partnerships, such as Carnegie Hall, which I did with second and fifth graders for the past two years. Great kids, great families, great admin, plus a fairly modern building.

I learned a lot from the job, and I think the next person would too! Please send your resume to amandasarahkeil@gmail.comand I will introduce you to the principal.

I have learned that the K-2 music teacher in the Hawthorne public schools has suddenly resigned. If you know anyone looking for a last minute elementary music job, please tell them to email the school’s principal, Anne Stern at Astern@mtplcsd.org.

I’ll be sending all the information and details for the opening of our 37th season next week. Have a good weekend.

My late-July post includes:

• Kudos/gratitude for the season and Caramoor
• 2024-2025 season preview (including a Side-by-Side Concert at White Plains HS)
• Cuong commission update
• Library for next season
• Auditions

Season finale at Caramoor

This was an amazing season, filled with challenging repertoire and unique performance opportunities. The two collaborative concerts with the West Point Band gave us some amazing experiences to engage with these phenomenal players. The reboot of the Wind Conducting Symposium garnered excellent reviews. The audience at our sold out performance on July 4 really appreciated your technical and musical artistry, and the 65 handbells really added the icing to the cake at the end of 1812. I thank all of you for your diligence and dedication, which brought the audience to its feet on several occasions. It finally felt like “we’re back” after the hiatus caused by the pandemic. Special thanks go to Katherine for juggling all the personnel matters, David for stepping in to wrangle the bellringers, Barton for his amazing arrangements, Marge and David for managing our finances, the board for its support, and YOU for making it all happen.

Donna pointed out after Caramoor that many of you on stage could not hear me speaking between numbers. I’ve added a reminder into my notes for 2025 to ask the sound engineer to place a monitor speaker on stage to correct this. In the meantime, if you’d like to read any of my Caramoor 2024 podium notes, click here to see that document.

Caramoor 2025

Next year, July 4 is a Friday night. On the personnel commitment form, I listed Monday, June 30 as our dress rehearsal, but on reflection, it does seem quite far ahead of the performance that week. I will ask the board to consider moving the dress to Wednesday, July 2, and if approved, request this with Karina at TMH. For now, please keep both Monday, June 30 and Wednesday, July 2 penciled in your calendars for now until both the board and Karina have a chance to assess and act.

Commission and 2024-25 season

Viet Cuong just celebrated the successful premiere of John & Jim. He has a symphony commission pending with the US Air Force Band, which will premiere in 2026. And the parts and score for our commission is due for delivery on February 15, 2025; we will premiere it at our May 2025 concert.

The 2024-25 season is filled with exciting new works, celebrating the work of many diverse composers. Our guest artists are coming from near and far, and are truly excited to work with us.  I’ve created this page with audio links to the majority of the works programmed. I encourage you to check out the recordings.

We will dedicate the time for our Monday, January 27 rehearsal to perform a Side-by-Side concert with the instrumental music students of White Plains High School (no additional time will be required of you outside our normal rehearsal schedule). The works we will perform that evening will be pulled from the current Winter rep.

I’ll prepare and distribute a final spreadsheet detailing repertoire and instrumentations by the end of the summer.

Library

Our electronic distribution of music parts was extremely successful last season, and so we will continue to use the same method this season. Nancy will distribute black folders at the first rehearsal. Everyone will download their own parts from the links posted on the home page this site.

Auditions – Tuesday, September 3

Our annual member auditions are scheduled for Tuesday, September 3 at Irvington Presbyterian Church, just south of Tarrytown. Subs who have not yet played a formal audition, in addition to any new players considering membership, should contact Katherine at kathf.music at gmail.com to request detailed audition information and schedule an audition time. If you know of a qualified player who would be interested in WSW, please send them to Katherine.

Enjoy the summer!

I’ll be in touch again at the end of August to update you on our opening rehearsals.

I’m putting a couple reminders in writing to make sure everyone is clear about all things Caramoor for tomorrow:

Attire

As in the past for this performance – white tops (open neck, no ties, no jackets), black bottoms, comfortable black footwear. No perfume/cologne, please.

Call time/parking

Please arrive between 3:00-3:45 pm. The grounds are beautiful! It’s well worth the time to come a little bit early and enjoy the setting.

Regular parking/staying for fireworks – Tell the parking attendants you’re “with the orchestra” and they will send you the long way around to Artist Parking (past the Rosen House, past the picnic grove, all the way to that isolated parking lot off back stage right). Pro tip: In years past, many folks brought a bottle of wine and we broke them open during the fireworks, sitting in the artist/crew outdoor dinner seating area. It’s a nice way to wind down after the performance and celebrate the end of the WSW season, while waiting for the fireworks to end and the path to clear out of Artist Parking.

Alternate parking/leaving BEFORE fireworks begin – Tell the parking attendants you’re “with the orchestra” but that you need to park in the audience parking area close to the exit, so you can duck out the exit before the fireworks begin. Note: I’ve been advised that no traffic will be allowed to move in any way after the fireworks begin, so if you’re exercising this option, ask your stand partner to drop hand your folder, and leave quickly after the final applause ends.

Soundcheck/Performance timeline

4:00 pm – Sound check, in performance order. The only numbers we will run in their entirety are the Puccini and Verdi arias/duos, so the sound engineer can work with the soloists.
5:45 pm – Rehearsal with handbell ringers/1812.
6:00 pm – Dinner break (5 vegetarian and 5 gluten-free meals have been reserved for our group)
7:45 pm – Section tuning circles backstage
7:50 pm – Take seats on stage
8:00 pm – Downbeat!
9:10 pm (estimated) – Performance ends. Fireworks follow as soon as ushers help direct audience members to the viewing area.

Folder collection

After the performance, your first priority is to please take all your music and other materials out of your folder, and place your empty folder in one of the green collection bags backstage. Please don’t take your folder with you! (But please take or recycle all the music parts!)

See you all tomorrow for the grand finale of this amazing 36th season!!!