Category Archives: Rehearsal plans

Two rehearsals remaining

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Thanks for a great rehearsal on Monday night. We have a lot of work to do on the Promises, Promises medley, but it promises (pun intended) to be a great performance on July 2. Great work, Barton! It is so much fun to revisit 1812 now as an “old friend,” instead of a lurching behemoth. And I think the Sinatra numbers will work very, very well. Thank you, Frank Mastrone, for standing in for Ryan Silverman!

We’re back at it on Monday evening at TMH with the first of the final two working rehearsals. I’ll update the rehearsal plan by Saturday, but count on final detailed work on the four main compositions (Tull, Cuong, Mackey, Smith) and our soloists will be coming on Monday as well.

We’ve now raised $2845.00 of our $10K GoFundMe project goal. Have you shared the link with your contacts yet? It costs nothing to do so, and you never know who will be motivated by your invitation. Please send this out to your friends and family via email or Facebook today!

Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 5.42.39 PMThis caught my eye today, for two reasons: Viet Cuong and Marin Alsop. Viet’s music will be performed at this festival in August, and Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Cabrillo Festival, is a Masters alum. Viet plans to attend the concert at the Palace in June. If I can get Roger Zare and John Mackey there as well, it will be a “sweep!” By the way, I heard back from Viet this week. He approves of the A section tempo to be slightly relaxed for clarity, and approved of Jeff’s idea to extend m.311 to five beats. Regarding my idea that the long descending lines at m.191-196, 290-295, and 301-307 were inspired by the “Poachers” movement of Lincolnshire Posy, he said: “I went back and listened to that movement, and it does remind me of the bass line! It totally wasn’t intentional, but there was probably some subconscious stuff at work…I played clarinet in the piece years ago in high school All-State.” (Remember, he taught himself how to play clarinet in 9th grade so he could march in the Macy’s and Rose Bowl parades — and subsequently made All-State on clarinet. If this isn’t inspiring, I’m not sure what is.) He also approved my idea to stretch the penultimate bar slightly to reinforce the ending.

Please remember to bring a check for Marge for the June 18 Circle Line and lunch if you have not already done so. And I hope to see many of you at Ed’s memorial on Saturday.

Enjoy the weekend — see you Monday!

 

Brass warmups demystified

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Before I get to the topic mentioned in the headline, please allow me to remind you that we are back at the Music Hall on Monday night. The rehearsal order for this and all remaining rehearsals is posted on the Rehearsal This Week page. About a dozen NVOT students will be joining us for the Kalinnikov rehearsal this Monday. I think it will be a great experience on both sides of the aisle. Depending on the final count, I may or may not need to reorganize the seating for the first hour of rehearsal. Please be ready to be flexible.

This past Friday, I rehearsed the antiphonal sections of the Finale with students reading the brass parts out in the hall. It was a great eye-opener for the kids, who until this point, had only imagined what the cumulative effect would be. The experience made it a lot clearer. I also got a better opportunity to consider the ending, especially the effect of directional instruments close to audience members, and how we can make the final measure even more substantial in the Music Hall.

Barbara will be coming to work with us again for a second rehearsal as well on Monday. After my students leave, we’ll move the piano into place.

Last week I decided to make a program order change; I sent my suggestions out to the Board and received overwhelming approval for my choices. I have found over the years that my first instincts regarding the placement of the works in order often changes after we’ve lived with the pieces for several weeks. This was indeed the case this time. There were two things I didn’t like: I was concerned about starting this important concert with a 20th century work which many audience members would not find approachable, and I was finding that I didn’t like the idea of following the Kalinnikov with anything at all. So I moved the Sousa to the top of the program, moved the Persichetti to the end of the first half, and moved Mallory’s Galop to the second half. Now we have a great beginning and ending, and we still have one soloist and one guest conductor on each half of the program. You can see this all laid out for you here.

Lastly, Chris Wilhjelm from the Ridgewood Concert Band sent me this video of the Boston Symphony Brass. It details the complexities and rigors of the daily brass warm-up, and also shows what can happen when you allow brass players to use a video camera without adult supervision. See you Monday.

Rehearsal – January 28

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Two weeks ago, I believe I mistakenly announced that the rehearsal was “the last at Pelham.” I stand corrected; we have one more rehearsal at Pelham, this Monday night.

Both Emily Threinen and Bill Owens will be with us on Monday night. The rehearsal plan is posted. Although I hope to end at 9:45 pm, I need to ask everyone to be flexible, expecting the possibility that I may need to continue to work until 10:00 pm. I would rather take 15 minutes extra now than put us ‘up against the wall’ next week. I appreciate your help in making this work.

Have you practiced? Have you done the individual work to bring your best playing to Monday’s rehearsal? We all hope so! Please do your part to be at your best for this important rehearsal.

See you Monday evening at Pelham!