Monday will be our last rehearsal of the calendar year. As promised, I’ll make sure we work through the remaining 4 works on the program, and revisit the Nelson. Daniella will be with us again to sing both her pieces. She and I had a great rehearsal together with Barbara Ciannella this past week and I’m looking forward to her joining us. Between the last two rehearsals, we’ll round out the year having worked on everything on the January program.

Here’s a reminder about the recital at Bennett Conservatory tomorrow at 2:00 pm, featuring Nate Brewster, percussion, and special guest Mark Dodge. If you live in the Croton area, please consider swinging by.

As the holidays approach and Auld Lang Syne will soon be heard, I’m grateful for many things. I’m grateful that my website stopped crashing. I’m grateful that Barton never gave consideration to arrange Le Sacre du Printemps for Caramoor (although there’s always next year). And I’m grateful to each and every one of you — for the musicianship, energy, and dedication you bring to our music making each and every week. I am fortunate to know you, and to have the chance to make strides forward with you. I wish you the best for the upcoming holidays, and peace in the New Year.

See you Monday!

Upcoming rehearsal reminders & updates

We’re back to our regular timeframe this week. I’m not sure what happened last week that the children’s theater was canceled, but no one informed us.

Over the next two rehearsals, before the break, we’ll rehearse every work on the program one more time (except the Nelson, which will be rehearsed twice). Please note two changes in the upcoming rehearsal schedule, plus one reminder, which are all posted on our rehearsal calendar:

• Canceled: Monday, March 6 (Monday immediately after NYSBDA performance in Syracuse)
• Added: Monday, February 6 (because of the NYSBDA performance on March 4)
• Reminders: We have rehearsal scheduled for MLK Day, Monday, January 16. We also have reserved Wednesday, January 18 as a Snow Date, in case we have a rehearsal cancellation for weather, and truly need to make up the rehearsal.

NYSBDA program

At this point, I’ve finalized our NYSBDA program on March 4 as a combination of repeated works from Winter and new works from Spring:

• Boerma – Friedmann Fanfare (Spring)
• Maslanka – On This Bright Morning (Winter)
• Galante – Resplendent Glory (Winter)
• Hazo – Solas Ane (Spring)
• Holmquist – Play! (Winter)
• Nelson – Aspen Jubilee (Winter)
• Sousa/Fennell – Manhattan Beach March (Spring)

This will give us a chance to improve and reprise the ‘meaty’ works from Winter, and get a headstart on some of the repertoire for Spring. Note that I still intend to distribute music for Spring by the end of January, and read the full Spring program on February 6 (this includes the Bolcom concerto and Yagisawa Machu Picchu).

Caramoor

Paul Rosenblum has approved my program choices for July 1. We are still batting around ideas for the Ryan Silverman solos, but the choices include some great charts that I think you will really enjoy. (By the way, Matt Podd surprised everyone and got married over Thanksgiving weekend, with no announcement!) And I have a prominent service band soloist “penciled in” as our featured instrumentalist. When I have that firmed up, I’ll announce the soloist.

CD Sale successful!!

Thank you to everyone who remembered to bring their payments and pick up their recordings last week. We did so well, Marge had to order more copies of the CD!

See you Monday!

I hope everyone had a spectacular Thanksgiving, and that you all have recovered from the food coma and Black Friday shopping mobs. It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is already officially underway.

We have one more late start on Monday. It seems that the hall was available to us earlier than the promised 7:30 pm access time the past two weeks, and the setup happened quickly and efficiently. If we can make that happen one more time, we’re in good shape. We’ll begin as soon after 7:30 as possible with the posted rehearsal plan.

If you didn’t pick up your CD’s, thumbdrives, or SD cards from Marge, please bring payment on Monday so Marge can clear off her dining room table. Thanks.

Charlie Gray

You may remember Charlie Gray, who subbed in with us on bari sax last spring. I met Charlie originally last January when his son played in my DCMEA Wind Ensemble. He is an amazing musician and skilled woodwind repairman. Charlie had a massive stroke in September, one day before his 44th birthday. His friends have mounted a crowdfunding campaign to help the family with the massive financial strain. Please consider visiting this page or clicking on Charlies’s photo to learn more, and consider making a donation.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, see you Monday.

Headlines this week

Errata in the Nelson, start time on Monday, “Third Friday,” Syracuse University, and NYSBDA

Errata – Nelson

The Nelson parts are, in a word, a mess. The piece is infamous for all the errors. Please take the necessary time before Monday to check your parts for relevant corrections from this errata document. There are lots of errors, and we need to deal with these immediately before going any further with rehearsals. I pulled the errata from three sources, and organized the errata by instrument in score order, so you only have to look in one place to find all your corrections.

Another late start on Monday

Again, please meet at 7:30 pm outside the front door of TMH, just like last week. And please be prepared to work until 10:00 pm. (There’s just one more week of this!)

Third Friday in Tarrytown

Many thanks to Chris Larsen for spearheading our first appearance at the Tarrytown “Third Friday” community celebration last evening, and to Marge Hone for helping to help at the table. We passed out brochures and Winter Concert flyers, played “The Best of WSW” on portable speakers, and even received a donation! We hope to continue this promotion in the spring when better weather returns; please consider volunteering when we get to that point. It’s a great way to promote the group, it’s fun, and there’s great food to be had within spittin’ distance!

Syracuse University Wind Ensemble

Thank you again for your wonderful, focused work with Jeff last Monday while I was in Syracuse. Brad Ethington was a wonderful host. I spoke in his undergrad conducting classes and conducted the wind ensemble on the last three works on the Tuesday evening concert, including the Bach chorale, Latham chorale prelude, and Biedenbender Luminescence. The students were simply magnificent. I sent David the recording of his piece and he replied with “Outstanding performance!” so I was very pleased. This whole exchange with Brad here and me traveling there has been a truly engaging and collaborative experience.

NYSBDA update

Brad also took me to the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Liverpool where we’ll be playing on March 4, and I got a tour of the facility. It’s your basic Bb carpeted ballroom, with folding doors to break it up into separate spaces. We’ll have 3 of the 4 rooms as the performance space. (The fourth room will be reserved for us for cases/belongings and warmup.) A parquet dance floor will be put down under the woodwinds to help with resonance and there will be a sound shell behind the percussion. NYSBDA will supply piano, 4 timpani, bass drum, chimes, marimba, vibes, and xylo (no bells, no gong; we’ll have to transport or arrange to rent). I’m waiting for conference prices on rooms at the convention center, but there is also a Quality Inn and a Hampton Inn only 5 minutes away.

As you can see from the third photo, there are 8 Tesla charging stations in the convention center parking lot, so all of you driving your Teslas up to Syracuse need not fear for a charging point.

Although not confirmed in ink yet, this is my best impression of the program for March 4. It will be a merge of conference-appropriate repertoire pulled from the January and May concerts:

• Boerma – Friedman Fanfare (May)
• Maslanka – On this Bright Morning (January)
• Galante – Resplendent Glory (January)
• Hazo – Solas Ane (May)
• Holmquist – Play! (January)
• Nelson – Aspen Jubilee (January)
• March TBA – (Sousa, Black Horse Troop or Bagley, National Emblem)

Daniella Ashbahian has already committed her availability to travel with us. And I’ve had a round of emails with Ron Nelson himself concerning the soprano part. I’ll share that conversation with you in rehearsal.

Have a great weekend — see you on Monday!