In this post:

• Monday’s rehearsal at Port Chester
• Details about Carmina Burana and discount tickets for the Ars Musica performance on November 23 (one of the choirs who are performing with us in May)

Please click the link in this email to visit my blog site and read the entire post!

Our rehearsal this week is another which cannot be accommodated at TMH, and so our rehearsal Monday will once again be held at Port Chester Middle School at our regular time, 7:30-9:45 pm. The link is also included on the Rehearsal This Week page along with the rehearsal order. Please follow the link for directions. We’ll aim to open the same door so you are able to enter straight from the parking lot.

I was so excited to hear the audible GASP in the audience last Sunday when I spoke about Carmina Burana in May. Leslie Mac Pherson, the choir director at Northern Valley-Demarest, announced the project last month at her fall Music Parents meeting, and got a great reaction. She is programming the work with her choir on her April concert, accompanied by our own Barbara Ciannella and Broadway music director, Amy Duran, and then joining us in May. Ars Musica, the adult community choir from Bergen County which is also joining us in May, is performing Carmina Burana on Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 pm at Westside Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ. Dusty Miller, music director, sent the following to me to offer discount tickets to our members for this performance. Follow the directions and use the discount code to purchase $25 tickets for only $16 + $1.55 service fee. I am planning on attending — I hope some of you might also consider attending, especially since these singers are giving their time to perform with us in May!

Dear friends at Westchester Symphonic Winds,

Upon my appointment as Music Director of Ars Musica, I began to investigate the arts scene in the area and was amazed to find such a rich musical community here in our corner of the tristate. One of my biggest hopes for Ars Musica is to form closer bonds and partnerships with the many wonderful ensembles and organizations in the neighborhood. In the hopes of initiating such a relationship, we are excited to offer a 20% discount to your members for our upcoming performance of Carmina Burana on Saturday, November 23, at West Side Presbyterian Church.

To purchase these discounted tickets, Westchester Symphonic Winds members can simply visit our event page at http://carminaburana.brownpapertickets.com, enter the Discount Code 4W35tch3sT3r5ympH0nicWinD5, and click “Show Available Tickets.” Once entered, they will have the option of purchasing specially discounted tickets ($16.00 for pre-sale, $20.00 for the day of the concert). We hope that such a discount will help promote greater interaction and friendship between our organizations.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any problems with the ticketing process or any questions at all. Thank you so much, and we hope to see you on November 23rd!

Dusty Francis / Music Director & Conductor
(551) 226-9305/ info@arsmusica.org

Ars Musica
PO Box 525 Paramus, NJ 07653-0525
http://www.arsmusica.org

Just to be very clear, I am re-confirming the music for the Mahopac concert, as announced in rehearsal: Mahopac Side by Side Concert, 4:00 pm call, 7:30 pm concert on Thursday, November 21. PLEASE CLICK THE LINK TO READ THIS ENTIRE MESSAGE ON THE WSW.EBERNET.BIZ site! Program includes:

Styne/Green – Overture to Funny Girl
Whitacre – Ghost Train
Sullivan/Mackerras – Pineapple Poll (all movements)
Duffy – A+ March

Intermission

WSW/Elementary Band – Sweeney – Gallant March
WSW/Middle School Band – arr. Story – Highlights from “The Wizard of Oz”
WSW/Concert Band (9th grade) – Smith – And the Nations Rejoice
WSW/Symphonic Band (10th-12th grade) – Swearingen – Blue Ridge Saga

We will review the Styne, Whitacre, and Sullivan at the rehearsal at Port Chester on November 18. In addition, we will review/rehearse the Duffy march (and plan the necessary mandated playing errors), and rehearse the two Mahopac high school band pieces (Smith & Swearingen) so there are no surprises on November 21. We will sight read the elementary and middle school pieces at the clinic rehearsal that day; I know there will be no issues with those pieces.

In addition, the instrumentation for all the Winter Concert pieces are posted. Click here or go to https://wsw.ebernet.biz/resources > Rep with instrumentation

Thanks to everyone for a really wonderful performance yesterday! I’m just sending a brief note to remind everyone of these important things:

• No rehearsal tonight, November 11
• Rehearsal next monday, November 18, is at Port Chester Middle School for Mahopac personnel/Side by Side program only
• Mahopac Side by Side concert is Thursday, November 21, call at 4:00 pm, concert at 7:30 pm (we are supplying pizza/beverages at dinner break), at Mahopac High School (directions will be provided)
• First rehearsal for February 9 concert is Monday, November 25, 7:30 pm at TMH

We’ll recap your successes in person! Thank you again for yesterday!

Thank you for helping to make our rehearsal at Port Chester Middle School so successful. As I said on Monday, I really appreciated how everyone got settled and made the stage our own so quickly.

Reflecting on Monday’s rehearsal, I’ve written a few notes — download them here. Please read through the notes and mark your parts accordingly. I’ll use this as a punch list for Saturday.

We expect to get access to TMH about 9:15 am on Saturday. We need to be set up and ready to roll at 10:00 am. I’m planning to run the program in program order.

Our connection with PaveLife has yielded a new promotional video. The video looks great; I only wish the subject of the interview looked as good as the production values! But in any case, it’s great advertising. See you Saturday for a prompt 10:00 am start!