The Hudson Valley Music Club will present a concert this coming Monday, February 26 at 1:00 pm at the Dobbs Ferry Women’s Club (across the street from The Masters School). Marge Hone, our principal flute, and Joy Plaisted, who has joined us as harpist on several occasions, will be featured. Click the flyer at left for details.

The West Point Band has a concert this coming Saturday, February 24 at 2:00 pm in Eisenhower Hall. Billed as “Rhapsody in Blue,” the program is slated to include great works for military band. Visit http://westpointband.army.mil/calendar.html to reserve free tickets.

The Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants has a concert coming up on Tuesday, April 3 at 7:30 pm at the Stamford Palace Theatre (performance site from our 2016 Exchange). Tickets are free, but you must RSVP to reserve. Visit The Palace Theatre for information and tickets.

And I’m the guest conductor tomorrow night, Thursday, February 22 at 7:00 pm for WindFest, at John Jay High School (2012 NY-52, Hopewell Junction, NY), which features the individual and combined concert bands of John Jay High School and Roy C. Ketcham High School. Holst, Hazo, Bryant, Arnold, Sheldon, and Sousa are on the program.

And don’t forget — we have the first rehearsal of our Spring cycle this coming Monday, February 26 at 7:30 pm at TMH. We’ll be reading through the entire program. Patrick Burns has kindly gifted a new fanfare to us, as promised last spring, in honor of our 30th anniversary. It is titled “Sennet,” which refers to the trumpet calls played to signal the ceremonial entrance or exit of an Elizabethan era actor, such as a play by Shakespeare. So we’ll be starting with a new fanfare and ending with a time-tested finale. I’m looking forward to seeing you all Monday evening!

It’s taken me a week to process everything that happened last Sunday. To say that I am proud of you is an understatement of immense proportions. The focus, energy, drive, and grit you brought to the presentation of Husa’s milestone work was amazing.

The Facebook webcast was tremendously successful, and we reached over 400 viewers beyond the Music Hall. Thank you so much to Jim Savage for manning both my phone for  the webcast, and my DSLR for the video of the concert. I would never recommend a livestream of a concert that might reduce paid patronage, but in this case it made a huge difference with our exposure to the broader wind band community. The video will remain on the WSW Facebook page, where you can find it if you’re interested. I’m working on publishing the video shot with my DSLR, for which I’m adding titles and captions for the movements. That will be found on our YouTube channel when completed and uploaded.

Was the Husa perfect? Of course not. But it was deeply emotional, extremely musical and so effective. Your response to the excerpts during the introduction made it much more accessible to the listeners. It was transformational in many ways. I truly believe that you are better players for the experience, but also better people. The empathy involved in preparing this piece could not result in anything less. In many ways, it’s clear to see the development of this ensemble influenced greatly by the Bolcom last season, the Daugherty in November, and now the Husa. What we do next to develop our mutual musicianship and engage our audiences will be heavily influenced by our experiences with this rehearsal cycle and performance. This is not to say that I will be programming a steady diet of this strata of works, but it will serve us so well for our continuing growth.

I”m very proud of Kelly Oram’s work with the Jacob. The band really responded to him with a very musical performance. I’m also grateful to Don Batchelder for performing these two classic solos with us, and for his amazing master class in January. Your response to Keith Hodgson was tremendous; I was especially moved by your applause reception for him when he came to the podium on Sunday at the sound check. He sent a letter of thanks which I will share at our next rehearsal.

The Fillmore march got us off to a great start, and Travis Cross’s Tribute was the perfect introduction to Prague. I was energized by the audience reaction to a la Machaut! Not only was the applause warm and sustained, but so many audience members who spoke to me afterward specifically mentioned how much they enjoyed the piece.

Enjoy one more week off until I see you all again on Monday, February 26. The rehearsal plan is already posted! I have allowed for some time to reflect and debrief the concert at the beginning of rehearsal. And then, as usual, we will read through the entire Spring program.

Thank you to each and every one of you. I am so proud to be associated with you all.

PS – If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, catch my scene-stealing performance in Season Four of Mozart in the Jungle. (This photo is from episode 9. I was also an extra for an additional episode — featuring a performance for the Pope — but I haven’t found it yet!)

Where in the world am I now?

I’m in Ithaca this weekend for the NY Area All-State Band (Zone 3). I was very excited to be invited, especially so to be in Ithaca where Mr. Husa lived and worked for so many years as a professor at Cornell and visiting professor at Ithaca College. I was looking forward to visiting the Husa Archives (housed at Ithaca College), only to learn that they were recently moved to Rochester, to the Eastman School of Music. No one here seems to know why. It’s very disappointing — so close to Mr. Husa and yet so far.

Winter 2018 Concert resources

• Flyer – JPG (Facebook, Twitter, emails)
• Flyer Winter 2018 final lo-res PDF
• Flyer Winter 2018 final hi-res PDF
• Winter Concert Press Release

Have you emailed a copy for the concert flyer and press release to everyone on your mailing list? Download today to print or send out to encourage attendance!

Rehearsal at TMH on Monday confirmed

We received confirmation from the Music Hall that Monday’s rehearsal will be at the Music Hall. The schedule is posted. Don & Keith will be back for their second rehearsal each. Kelly will review the endings of his movements, to make sure everyone is aligned with the intended interpretation. And we get one more pass at the four movements of Prague before Saturday’s dress rehearsal. All of a sudden — here we are!

After the concert: please note that there are no rehearsals on February 12 nor 19. We reconvene to start the Spring cycle on February 26.

Keep the faith — we’re almost there — keep practicing! See you Monday!