This week:

• IMPORTANT: Rehearsal on Monday will be held at KoC in Port Chester – see details below!
• Positive feedback for last week’s opening rehearsal
• Chris Peña’s exquisite performance with the West Point Clarinet Quartet
• Personnel remindersMonday’s rehearsal relocated to Port Chester

Comedian Pete Davidson booked the Music Hall for a stand up show on Monday, and so we have been bumped. We only learned about this on Wednesday evening. At that time, our insurance documents with White Plains HS were still in process, so our only option was to move the rehearsal this coming Monday, September 18 to the Knights of Columbus, 327 Westchester Avenue, Port Chester, New York. This is a site we’ve used before, and the acoustics are remarkably good. The KoC is able to provide chairs, but everyone must bring their own music stand. There is no parking lot per se, but there is plenty of on-street parking in the area. If you have not rehearsed with us previously at KoC, just leave a little extra time to find the venue and park. Thanks go out to Marianne Lepre-Nolan, who has been the band’s liaison with the KoC, for securing the venue for us.

The rehearsal plan is posted. Eric is contacting all percussionists with the equipment plan.

Principals – I suggest contacting members who may not read their email to ‘check in’ to make sure they do not go to TMH. Delegate calls/texts as needed so no one is left out.

Last week’s rehearsal

I want to thank everyone for the opening rehearsal last week — it was outstanding work! I especially appreciate that everyone successfully brought their own parts (a milestone in itself!) and that you all worked so hard to play through all of the Fall Concert rep plus the Hindemith Symphony in Bb. This was no small task, and there were hiccups of course, but as I said last week, there are few groups that could have read it as effectively as you did! If you would like to listen, I recorded our Hindemith read-through. I think this recording is a good marker of our starting point with this masterpiece — and a reminder that we all need to be thoroughly prepared with notes, rhythms, and (in particular) counting of rests when we start rehearsing this in earnest in March. It will be here before you know it!

Congratulations to WSW principal clarinet, Chris Peña!

L to R: Chris Peña, SSG Julian Jenkins, SFC Cory Thompson, and SSG Kristina Teuschler.

As part of my role as a volunteer at the Percy Grainger House, I made the arrangements to bring the Clarinet Quartet from the West Point Band to perform a special porch concert at the Percy Grainger House this past Thursday. West Point Principal Clarinet Kristen Mather de Andrade was not able to lead the quartet due to a last minute medical leave, and so our own Chris Peña was called to sub in. The quartet’s performances of Molly on the Shore, Children’s March, The Brisk Young Sailor, Irish Tune from County Derry, and Shepherd’s Hey were outstanding and exciting, and drew lavish kudos and praise from Grainger Society President, Paul Jackson, who traveled from the UK especially for the event. Thanks also go out to Dan, Marge, Nancy, Dave, and Rebecca (a member of the PGH staff) for attending the event.

Personnel reminders

• Please fill out this Google Form to log expected absences (up to 24 hours before rehearsal begins). This form is also on the home page of this site.
• Please contact Katherine directly if you have an emergency within 24 hours of the start of rehearsal. We’ll remind everyone of Katherine’s email and phone on Monday evening at Port Chester.
• Sub players should click here for the Google Drive link to the Fall Concert parts. This link is also on the home page.

First rehearsal!

We’re opening our 36th season on Monday night! Please check my home page for the rehearsal plan. VERY IMPORTANT: Be sure to download and print (or download and save to a tablet/iPad) all the parts listed for Monday’s rehearsal, including the Hindemith Symphony. Click here for all the parts in the Fall cycle (the Hindemith folder is included), and then go from folder to folder to gather and download each piece.

IMPORTANT: Please double check to make sure you have all parts included in the rehearsal plan. We will not have spare parts available on Monday night!

Part assignments

Trumpets – Stan  communicated part assignments with you directly.
Clarinets – Click here to confirm the part distribution plan.
Everyone else – You should be downloading the same part you played last season, or as directed in an individual communication from your principal or me.

In regard to library, I recognize that this is a big shift from the past, but we successfully downloaded parts during the shutdown — we know you can do this and it can work effectively! And this method guarantees that subs can access music as needed without coordinating transfers of folders.

Folders

Empty black concert folders will be distributed to all who are using paper parts on Monday night. A folder sign-out sheet will be passed around during the rehearsal. Please sign for your folder, indicate your part, and the folder number.

That’s it — I look forward to seeing you on Monday night! If you have issues or questions, hit reply.

This robust post contains a great deal of important information about the new season, including:

• Repertoire for the new season, including anchor works and guest/featured artists
• Special announcements — including our move to fully-digital library distribution. Plan now to download/print your parts to prepare for the first rehearsal on on September 11.
• Our spring collaboration with . . . (drum roll, please) . . .
• The reboot of the Wind Conducting Symposium, co-sponsored with Music Educators of Bergen County

Announcing the 36th season, Legends, Monuments, & Titans

You can see the full list of rep for 2023-2024 here. (Be sure to read the important library announcement below!) These amazing compositions will anchor our three TMH concerts:

• Fall – Symphony No. 3, “Slavyanskaya” – Boris Kozhevnikov, arranged by John R. Bourgeois
• Winter – Symphonic Dances from West Side Story – Leonard Bernstein, arranged by Paul Lavender
• Spring – Symphony in Bb, by Paul Hindemith

And I’m thrilled to announce these amazing guest and featured artists for this season:

• Fall – Dr. Brian K. Doyle, Crane School of Music, guest conductor; Pedro R. Díaz, English horn, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, guest soloist; Andrew Hill, apprentice conductor
• Winter – Michelle Rofrano, guest conductor; John Anthony Lopez, tenor, guest soloist; Aaron Staluppi, apprentice conductor
• Spring – Dr. Tim Robblee, Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, guest conductor; SSG Christopher Leslie, euphonium, West Point Band, guest soloist

Because of the huge success of the Invitational saxophone ensemble at the 2022 Fall Concert, we are planning to repeat the idea with an invitational Double Reed Ensemble (oboes, oboe d’amores, English horns, bassoons, and contrabassoons) to honor our guest English horn soloist, Pedro Díaz, on November 5. I have a list of 70 double reed players ready to go, and invitations will go out next week. In addition, A.Laubin LLC, American manufacturer of oboes and English horns, will be on site on the day of our dress rehearsal to bring instruments and bocals for test drives. We are grateful to Jim Phelan, Ruthie Garcia, and the entire A.Laubin family for their support of the Fall Concert. Lastly, we will be hiring the professional videographer again for the Fall Concert on November 5, and releasing the video for viewing on November 8.

Twists & turns of note for rehearsals in September

• Library – As announced in the spring, we are moving to a fully digital platform for our library. Please click here to download your Fall Concert parts and print them as needed. This link includes all the Fall parts plus the Hindemith Symphony that we will be performing in the spring. You will need the Hindemith, as we are reading this on September 11, as an incentive for practice until we start actual rehearsals in March. If you do not have access to a printer, please connect with a buddy in the band who can print them for you. We will not have any hard copies to distribute! I am still waiting for some music to arrive, but several works are already posted and marked READY. I will continue to add works as they arrive, and I expect everything to be uploaded by August 31.
• Scan downloads – The link to the download folder cited above is posted on this blog’s home page, along with weekly rehearsal plans and other important resource links, including the full season’s schedule of rehearsals.
• First rehearsal – Monday, September 11 at TMH. This fall, Rosh Hashanah falls on Monday, September 25. We will have no rehearsal that Monday, BUT we will rehearse on Wednesday, September 27 at TMH instead. Please mark your calendars accordingly.
• Fall Concert weekend – To facilitate the schedules of our guest conductor and guest soloist, the dress rehearsal for the Fall Concert will be on Saturday, November 4, 9:00-11:00 am. The concert is Sunday, November 5 at 3:00 pm, with the sound check at 1:00 pm.
• Auditions for new members/subs – We have made plans for our annual auditions on Tuesday evening, September 5. Katherine has registered a large pool of auditionees, but we are still looking for additional clarinet candidates. If you know of someone who might be interested, please contact Katherine.

Joint performance with the West Point Band in Eisenhower Hall!

Back in December 2021, I pitched an idea to Lt. Col. Daniel Toven, Commander of the West Point Band. My proposal was to plan a joint concert for WSW and West Point, much like our Northshore Exchange, and I am extremely happy to say we are moving forward! The date planned is Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 2:00 pm (snow date Sunday, March 10 at 2:00 pm) in Eisenhower Hall at West Point. We recognize that this is the WCSMA All-County weekend, and it’s our hope that our players involved with that festival will be able to plan around that obligation if at all possible this far ahead of time to be able to perform with us.

Commander Toven liked my idea so much that he has proposed that we repeat this joint performance on a second date in a venue closer to Tarrytown. We are discussing several venue options and will share details when they are finalized.

The West Point Band is playing a concert tonight, August 19, in the Visitors Center at West Point. They are also playing a Labor Day concert on September 3 on The Plain at West Point. For more information, please visit https://westpointband.com/summer-concert-series.html

Rebooting the Wind Conducting Symposium

After an nine year hiatus, we have planned to officially join forces with the Music Educators of Bergen County and reboot the Wind Conducting Symposium, which I ran in New Jersey for over twenty years between 1987-2015. The symposium will run from Friday evening, May 31 through Sunday afternoon, June 2, 2024. The tentative site is Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, in Bergen County. Dr. Robert Ambrose (Georgia State University), who was our guest conductor in 2018, and I will be the clinicians, and Teddi Sotiropoulos will serve as coordinator. There will be registration opportunities for wind ensemble lab performers, auditors, and conductors. With the combined personnel pools of MEBCI and WSW, we feel three wind ensemble sessions will be possible, and hope that everyone in WSW will register to play for at least one session. Complete details will be published in the coming months.

The last fleeting weeks of summer

Enjoy these last moments of summer. If you’re returning to academics, all the best for your school’s opening events. I look forward to seeing everyone on September 11!

Thank you all for your individual and combined contributions which made Sunday’s concert at Caramoor so memorable for the audience, for the Caramoor administration, and for each other. You played beautifully and musically with a high level of excitement — notwithstanding that it was on an uncomfortably hot and humid stage. If you have photos to share, Eric has created this Google Drive photo folder for sharing photos specifically from Caramoor 2023.

This week I received the audio recording from World Projects from our Carnegie Hall performance. It’s very important that everyone realize that this recording may be used for review/archival purposes only (this includes applications for grants and competitions) and cannot be shared on social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. So listen and enjoy, but please do not post or share! You can find the recording in this folder.

Much like last November’s saxophone ensemble, we’re putting together an invitational double reed ensemble for this coming November. If you have WSW-level players to recommend for the invitation list (oboes, English horns, bassoons, contrabassoons), please send me their names, instrument(s), and email addresses.

This was truly a watershed season. I’ll be announcing the rep for the 2023-2024 season in August. Enjoy the summer!