I’m back on my feet (after 2 weeks of a cold/flu that just wouldn’t let go), and excited for our next rehearsal, tomorrow night at Pelham High School.

The rehearsal order posted on Rehearsal This Week is correct. Plan to spend a good deal of “working rehearsal” time on the Bernstein, which is our biggest challenge right now. Matt will continue to rehearse the van der Roost. We will also continue to dig out the details of the Ryan George, as well as reviewing the other works on the list.

See you tomorrow night!

I’m sorry to do this, but I have not regained my 100% capacity since last week. Truthfully, after last Monday’s rehearsal, my condition went downhill, and I coughed my way through the last seven days. I fully intended to push my way through this evening, but aside from the fact of placing myself in a room full of otherwise healthy people, I am simply concerned that it would not be a fully productive use of our mutual time. (Actually, I have Donna Rossi to thank for the self-realization. We spoke about a separate issue last night, and she said — with love — “You sound awful!”)

I spoke with Matt about it all this morning. His concentration has been on the van der Roost, and agreed that it would not be a good use of time to transfer the entire rehearsal to him. On top of all this, the rehearsals at Pelham are rather inconvenient for many. At this point, it’s better to be proactive, and decide now to cancel the rehearsal.

Claudia knows the communication patterns of many who do not check this site/email accounts regularly, and will reach out individually to those at risk of not learning about this immediately. Upon reading this, please reconfirm the cancellation with friends and neighbors with whom you are close.

Instead of driving to Pelham, please find time this week for at least 1 hour of solid individual practice. If you are willing and able to organize a sectional, please do so. Even just practicing for an additional hour with one other player from your section will be a productive use of time! Especially concentrate on the Bernstein, which is where we need the most work.

Thank you for your understanding. I’ll do what I need to do to be back next week at 100%. See you then, Monday, March 19, at 7:30 pm at Pelham.

First, I’ve updated the Rehearsal This Week page for our rehearsal order tomorrow night. I’m sorry I didn’t get to everything last week, but I do intend on covering this list Monday night.

One thing I’d like to discuss with the group tomorrow evening is the personnel listing for the ACB Convention program. Over the years, I’ve noticed convention programs for ensembles similar to WSW listing more than just names for each member in the instrument personnel list. Specifically, I have seen lists like these:

Trumpet
John Smith, psychologist (14)
Laura Jones, music educator (6)
Pat Klein, homemaker (20)

where the number in parentheses indicates the number of years of membership. The idea was to give identity to the fabric of the group’s members.

Think about this and let’s talk about it tomorrow night. I’m interested in your input, and whether you’d like to see this included for this particular program.