I forgot to remind everyone – please bring your own folding music stand to the sectionals at the Irvington Presbyterian Church. Very important!

We are meeting this Monday at the Irvington Presbyterian Church, 25 North Broadway, Irvington. Click here for their website and directions. We’ll be working in sectionals with woodwinds and brass only. I’ve created a sectional rehearsal schedule on the Rehearsal This Week page that focuses our time in each group, and allows time with me, Amy, and Matt. Please take a look.

I also want to promote two upcoming concerts:

• Monday, January 27, 1:00 pm at Irvington Presbyterian Church – Hudson Valley Music Club presents the WSW Chamber Ensemble. I know many of you have played at these Music Club performances in the past at the Dobbs Ferry Women’s Club (ironically, across the street from the Masters School). Now it’s my turn, along with Marge, Ruth, Ericka, Dan, Claudia, Elizabeth, Tim T., Tim A., Allyson, Marc, Eric, and a couple guest players. The program includes two wonderful works for chamber winds: Petite Symphonie by Charles Gounod and Serenade, opus 44 by Antonin Dvořák. Tickets are $15.00. Click here for the ArtsWestchester promotion page.
• Sunday, April 6, 12:15 pm at Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church – Recital: Rich Williams, trombone. Rich will play a diverse program of varied works. Click here for a flyer.

First, I want to thank the anonymous member who left my fabulous furry friend on my music stand last week. It truly made my night.

Amy Wilcox will be coming again this week to rehearse the Hackett. There are many notes in that piece, so please do your part to prepare your part for the best rehearsal possible. I’m waiting to hear back from Bill Owens regarding the next rehearsal he’ll attend. With or without him, we will dig back into the Concerto this week. And we will work on the Theme and first four Variations of the Elgar as well. The rehearsal order is posted here.

Something I have not yet been able to attend to is the editing of rehearsals in March. Since we are not performing at ACB, there is no need to stick to the original array of rehearsals. I’ll trim the schedule to create the best rehearsal flow for the May concert, and announce the changes as soon as possible. I’m glad we can do this to balance adding the January 20 rehearsal back into the schedule.

Lastly, several members of WSW will be performing with me at the Hudson Valley Music Club meeting on Monday, January 27 at 1:00 pm, at the Irvington Presbyterian Church. Program includes the Petite Symphonie by Charles Gounod and the Serenade, opus 44 by Antonin Dvořák. If you happen to be free on this workday afternoon, please stop by. It’s going to be a wonderful performance!

Practice! See you Monday!

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I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. If you missed my personal story about New Year’s Eve on Facebook, make sure you read the recap at the bottom of this post. How do these things happen to me?

Our rehearsals resume this coming Monday, January 6 at TMH at 7:30 pm. I have posted the rehearsal plan on the Rehearsal This Week page, and have also included a run-down of the remaining rehearsals for our Winter Concert on February 9. The concert is coming up quickly! Amy Wilcox will be coming this Monday to rehearse the Hackett, and Bill Owens will be returning again for 2 rehearsals on the Arutiunian before the concert. (By the way, wasn’t Bill incredible on December 16?!?!)

Because of the truncated schedule and distrust of the weather, the Board has approved my request to reinstate rehearsal on the evening of Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 20. TMH has been booked since last year, and no schools are available because of the holiday. Marge Hone kindly (and quickly) coordinated two rooms for us at Irvington Presbyterian Church. So we will have sectionals that evening, with Matt and I working with woodwinds and brass, swapping halfway through the rehearsal. Percussion will be excused that evening.

So, for those of you who missed my New Year’s Eve horror story from Facebook, here it is. See you Monday.

This is not the actual NYE black squirrel, this is only an actor.

So this was my New Year’s Eve from HELL. You just can’t make up this stuff.

Six friends were invited for dinner. We ordered a prime rib from Fairway, and put the box (which had cutout handles) on the deck to keep it all chilled. At 5:30 I brought it in, and I when I picked it up, it felt like something shifted inside, like something moved. Before I could think, I set it down on the living room floor, and as I did I felt something furry touch my hand, inside the lift hole. As I put it on the floor a black squirrel jumped out through that tiny hole, and started running around through the condo!!!

The cats, Darren and Jezebel, started chasing it. It crawled up/down the curtains, jumped off, ran under the sofa, crossed to the den, ran under the media center, and back out again. It was scared and completely crazed. I grabbed the cats and locked them in the bedroom, fearing they might be bitten. After about 5 minutes, there was no more scurrying sound, and it seemed like it might have run back out the open deck door without me seeing it. I listened and looked and poked around, but no squirrel. I resumed prepping dinner, but soon heard scratch-scratch-scratch, and located the squirrel inside the den sleeper loveseat. It seemed to be inside, but when I opened the bed, nothing ran out. The scratching continued from inside the back of the loveseat, then slowed and stopped. It really seemed like it might have suffocated or impaled itself on a spring. I lifted and banged the loveseat, but got no reaction. I resigned myself to pulling the loveseat outside to remove the dead squirrel the next day. I finished prepping the meal and my guests enjoyed dinner; what else was I gonna do? (All the food inside the box was completely sealed — just to let you know.)

At 11:00 pm we sat down in the living room to enjoy drinks and await the ball drop — when suddenly, my friend Paul yelled, “There’s the squirrel, behind the couch!” What ensued were 5 minutes of complete mayhem — the ladies pulling back and keeping their distance, one of them yelling “What would we do if this were a bat?!?!” while Paul and I used a bathtowel, mop handle, and doormat to try to corral the squirrel and push it toward the open deck door. Finally, the little guy ran out the door, and we slammed it shut. Somehow through the entire trauma I managed to avoid screaming like a little girl.

Moral of the story: Never store food outside without completely sealing all openings completely shut!!!! And with that, Happy 2014 to all!