Rehearsal Monday at White Plains High School

The plan for Monday’s dress rehearsal is posted. We rehearse moments of concern in each work, then run the program. Our pianist and harpist will be on hand on Monday.

Van update

Schedule for Tuesday

Everyone performing on Tuesday should plan to arrive at Carnegie Hall by 5:30 pm. Please allow time for parking and traffic. Use the stage door, located on 56th Street, near the Seventh Avenue end of the block. Plan to arrive dressed in concert attire. We will not have dressing rooms for personnel to change on site. When you check in at the stage door, you’ll be directed to our warm up room. Our sound check begins at 6:30 pm, and the performance begins at 8:00 pm.

Please plan to greet family and friends after the concert at the stage door, or along Seventh Avenue. I attended another World Projects concert this past Tuesday, and the Carnegie staff was very determined to clear everyone out of the hall and lobby as quickly as possible when the performance ended. So plan to sign autographs for your adoring admirers outside.

Folder collection at the end of the performance on Tuesday

If you are playing Carnegie Hall but not playing Caramoor, please be sure to hand in your folder to Nancy following the performance.

In addition, we are looking for someone who is driving in to the city on Tuesday who would be willing to help transport these 15 collected folders after the concert. (It will be difficult for Nancy to do this, as she is taking the train on Tuesday.) Please speak to me on Monday night if you can help.

Photos from Tuesday

We will have a formal group photo taken during the sound check on Tuesday. We’ll make sure that photo is made available to everyone.

We’ve set up a Google Drive folder for uploading and sharing personal photos from the Carnegie Hall performance. Please use this link. You can upload photos to this folder than you are willing to share with everyone, and download photos you’d like to save at will. Once I get the group photo, I’ll add it to this folder as well.

Caramoor

Our final performance of the season is still ahead! We have rehearsals back at TMH on Monday, June 19, Monday, June 26, and Wednesday June 28, before the sound check and performance on Sunday, July 2. Parts for  Celebrating the Fourth have been obtained, scanned, and posted to this folder. Use that link to preview parts; we will hand out hard copies on June 19.

Prep for this coming Monday evening

Click here for the details about every rehearsal and performance between now and July 2. Please review that page very carefully, because the personnel pool changes from week to week, and in some cases, halfway through the evening. Please read and bookmark that page (it’s the home page of this blog) and refer to it as needed in the coming weeks.

We’re starting with the combined personnel pool for Carnegie Hall and Caramoor this coming Monday. Enjoy the weekend. I look forward to our work together on Monday night!

WCS performance on Sunday

Several WSW members are performing with the Westchester Chamber Soloists this coming Sunday. Here are the details if you can attend:

Westchester Chamber Soloists presents their Spring Concert at Sarah Lawrence College this Sunday, June 4 at 3:00 pm, featuring guest conductor, composer, and international ‘cellist Ovidiu Marinescu, in a program that also features three other distinguished WCS members as soloists. Buy tickets here.

Program:

Congratulations on an exciting and well-received concert last Saturday evening! The response from the audience, both during the concert and in conversations afterward, was very positive. Thank you to each and every one of you for your positive commitment to and performance of this complex concert program.

Now we have two exciting programs coming up, and limited rehearsals for each. The rehearsal this Monday is for the combined personnel pool for both Carnegie Hall and Caramoor. The rehearsal on June 5 is at TMH; the rehearsal on June 12 is at White Plains HS. Check out the detailed rehearsal plan for Monday. Everyone should plan to arrive early on Monday to pick up new parts from Nancy to add to your folder. We will not be collecting old parts; this is a change from what we announced on Saturday because of the addition of the Carnegie Hall concert.

All details for the Carnegie Hall performance were emailed directly to those participants; you should have received that email right before this post. Let me know if you are playing Carnegie but did not receive that email.

We have been handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, June 13 at 8:00 pm. This offer is at no cost to the ensemble or individual players.. Please read the info below (I’ll try to keep it brief), and then please respond on this form to indicate your availability. Everyone should respond, whether or not your are playing Caramoor. I have no delusions that everyone is available, so it’s very important to assess whether or not we have a musical quorum to do this. But I believe this Golden Calf will not be offered again! Our acceptance to this offer is not a foregone conclusion. I need your input and commitment in order to say yes!

Curt conducting at Carnegie Hall in 2018.

World Projects is producing its Sounds of Summer Festival at Carnegie Hall in June. Like several other companies, they book the hall and recruit outstanding high school programs fro across the country to come to New York for sight-seeing, clinics, and an adjudicated performance (similar to our Avery Fisher performance in 2010). One of these performing ensembles has dropped out, and World Projects has offered us the stage time at no cost to the ensemble or individual players. The performance fee is normally $15,000. There is no requirement to buy tickets, although tickets are available at $49 each (including fees). And large percussion rental is included.

I received this invitation at 4:30 pm yesterday, and took this to our board last night. They voted to poll the personnel for availability. The deadline to reply is tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:00 pm. I must reply to my contact by Friday morning to decide whether or not we will accept the offer. So please respond on this form to indicate your availability. I’m asking EVERYONE to respond — whether or not you are playing Caramoor. We need everyone’s response so — if we accept — we can manage to plug open seats as needed.

If you read this far, here are more details:

• The primary personnel pool is the Caramoor roster, since we’ll be in the middle of the Caramoor rehearsal cycle. For players who are not available, we’ll fill seats first with full-time members not playing Caramoor but available for the three rehearsals (May 22, June 5, June 12), and then go to the sub list.
• Rep will be drawn primarily from the Caramoor program, but I may also pull one or two pieces from the Spring Concert to create a balanced program that we can prepare in three rehearsals.  I’ll make those rep decisions by Monday night, so we know what to collect/what to keep.
• We have 40 minutes from the time we step onto the stage until our exit. We would be the finale ensemble, and the only adult ensemble.
• We have a 30 minute sound check at some point right before the performance. I asked for the latest time slot possible, but do not know yet when our slot might be. If you are in a situation where you might miss the soundcheck but can arrive in order to play the performance, answer YES to performing. I am willing to be flexible with the soundcheck roster, since it’s a workday, travel to Manhattan, etc.
• The only rehearsals for this are May 22, June 5, and June 12. June 12 is an especially critical rehearsal, as it will essentially be our dress rehearsal. Please assess that carefully.

Lastly, these people could have contacted the Manhattan Wind Ensemble, the New Jersey Wind Symphony, the Brooklyn Wind Symphony, the Greater New York Wind Symphony, or any other adult ensemble in the area. But they contacted us. I think this is truly is an “aligning of the planets” situation, and one to consider very, very carefully.

Please respond on this form by tomorrow at 6:00 pm! Contact me as needed with individual questions.