This is it. Rehearsal Monday night focuses on the second half of the concert. We get one more working rehearsal on these three big pieces, plus the encore. And then we have the full dress on Wednesday.

Sell tickets. Invite someone new. And their wife, or nephew, or daughter, or boyfriend, or dog walker — whoever has a pair of ears and can applaud. Don’t assume that the hall will fill itself. Please do your part.

See you Monday night.

Dr. Emily Threinen will be here to work with us on Monday on the two Ives compositions. Please make sure you have the errata pages I handed out last time handy. She’ll be working the first half of rehearsal through the break. Our goal is to give her the best rehearsal possible, and hopefully eliminate the trip from Philadelphia for her on May 11. Regardless, she’ll be back for the dress rehearsal on Wednesday, May 13.

All of the transportation and housing data has been sent off to our Northshore hosts for June, and now it’s their turn to match homestay hosts with our homestay members. We also have the breakdown for our two group flights from Newark, and I’ll share those two lists on Monday. The formal invitation to Northshore to complete the exchange here in June 2016 has been written, and now we just wait for their official acceptance before formalizing the groundwork for that concert with us here next year.

Please read and refer to the Exchange Bulletin, which has the most current information, including our trip itinerary. As news develops, the Bulletin automatically updates, so bookmark it for easy reference. The Bulletin is also available from the Resources tab on the home page of this site (click on Resources > Resources by concert > Exchange Concert June 2015).

Lastly, our friend Bob Sherman, who narrated Lincoln Portrait with us several years ago and will be the concert host at Caramoor again this July, has invited me to be his guest on his radio show, “Speaking of Music,” on WVOX 1460 AM, this coming Tuesday, 2:00-3:00 pm. It’s a call in show — so don’t be shy. The  call-in line is 914-636-0110 (on air only). Bob has asked me to bring WSW CD’s with me to play on air, and we’ll be talking about the May, June, and July concerts. This is great PR for us — spread the word!

Remaining for May: two working rehearsals and a dress. Lock and load. See you Monday.

Tomorrow evening at TMH we’re rehearsing the June program (which includes the Bernstein & complete Maslanka for May), plus reading Matt Podd’s three new vocal arrangements and (hopefully) having another shot at the Gould before July. Click here for the rehearsal plan for this week. The break will be very quick tomorrow night, otherwise I can’t fit all this in.

Caramoor has good news and bad news in regard to ticket discounts for July 4. The good news is that sales are brisk already, and there is heightened demand for tickets (and hopefully this is due to the good press from last year). The bad news is that these increased sales, plus the fact that it’s a Saturday night this year, prevents them from offering the same deep discount offered last year. So, this year the promotion code is worth a 20% discount (not 50% like 2014). I don’t want to post it here, viewable to all the world, so I’ll give it to you tomorrow night, and we’ll follow up on it with an direct email.

I promised the article that Eric Milkie found in the 1991 The Instrumentalist, with notes and the errata for Ives’s Variations on “America.” Here is that Ives article. Some of you may find it interesting.

I also attended Tom McCauley’s band concert at Montclair University Friday night. This recording, of Tom’s interpretation of the Maslanka Give Us This Day, “fell off the truck.” Enjoy, and I’ll see you tomorrow evening in Tarrytown.

[grandmp3 id=2445 autoplay=false]

We’re starting to come down to the wire here. The next weeks are critical to our success in May, June, and July. This week we’re rehearsing Maslanka (mvmnt II only), Bernstein, Lauridsen, and both Ives pieces. See the complete rehearsal schedule, through July, here.

Please focus on the May concert and our ticket sales. Promote and invite at least 6 people who’ve never attended before. If we could all do this, TMH will be packed to the rafters!

Download May concert flyers here: Click here for the hi-res print version, click here for the low-res web version for emails, Facebook, blogs, and websites.

Also, the contact for the tuxedo offer is Cory Fontana, Fontana Couture, 51 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich CT 06830, 203-204-8600.

Lastly, here’s a little gift. When I visited Sydney last month, I learned about Vivid Sydney, an annual outdoor lighting festival with immersive light installations, including massive projections on the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House. Since returning, I looked this up and found several videos, including this YouTube of the 2014 performance. It is a transcendental experience. If you are looking for 15 minutes to relax and be transformed by music and light, I really recommend this. Try to remember it’s live — not an animation (you’ll be reminded by the occasional boat floating by in the harbor).