Rehearsal canceled/rescheduled, optional Open House for music pickup tonight

I wish I had better news. Although Scarsdale opened this morning, they just closed for the day. Jessica Slotwinski really went the extra mile for us on this one, but we have no option other than to cancel rehearsal tonight. Please read this entire post (remember to click on the link) and respond by completing the form at the bottom.

Here is our action plan:

• I will host an Open House at my place tonight, 7:30-9:45 pm, for anyone who wants to drop by and pick up their music (and have a glass of wine). Having the music before our reading rehearsal will really be an advantage! Email me for the address and directions.
• TMH is available next Monday. Because of the cancellation tonight, we will rehearse next Monday, February 16 (President’s Day evening). We recognize that some of you may already have plans and may not be available, but under these circumstances, please make every effort to attend. Please complete the form at the bottom of this post asap to confirm your availability for rehearsal on February 16.

Schedule updates

• If you didn’t already see it, look at my last post, where I examined breadth of the programs in May, June, & July. We have 19 pieces to prepare for these 3 concerts, which occur in the span of 8 weeks, and I will have to overlap their preparation. We simply can’t wait until after the Chicago trip to start rehearsing for Carmoor.
• Note these changes to rehearsals in March:
  • March 16: We will have sectional rehearsals this evening.
  • March 23: I am going to reinstate rehearsal on Monday, March 23. Tom McCauley will conduct a workshop rehearsal on the Maslanka and Bernstein that evening.
  • March 30: As scheduled, there will be no rehearsal (because of Westchester County Schools Spring Break).
• Please note that the “grid schedule” on my blog is now a document that immediately reflects any changes Rachel makes with TMH. On this site, go to Schedules > 2014-2015 Rehearsal Schedule Grid. This will eliminate any lag between negotiated changes with TMH and the time it takes to update that document on this site.

Are you a form and analysis geek?

I have scanned and uploaded my Profanation analysis. Although it looks scary at first, you will notice patterns in the meter changes, which – in the long run – will undoubtedly help us understand this complex work better.

Downers Grove HS Band Concert at Carnegie Hall – Monday, March 2

On Monday, March 2, the Downers Grove (Illinois) High School Bands will perform at Carnegie Hall. We have rehearsal that night (which, unfortunately, I cannot cancel), but the director, Brayer Teague (an NU alum) is offering free tickets to Westchester County students. The program includes the original instrumentation of Rhapsody in Blue, along with Angels in the Architecture. If you are a music educator (or even if you’re not), please share this link to request free tickets. Downers Grove is a Northshore community in the Chicago area with many Northshore Concert Band members, and it has an excellent band program. So it’s in our best interest to try to send as many students and parents as possible to this concert. We’ll be publicizing our June 14 concert to Northshore communities, including Downers Grove. If we scratch their backs, they will scratch ours!

Please consider coming by my place tonight to pick up your music. Remember to email me for address/directions; you can also call the “official” WSW phone number — 914.281.1976. And complete the form below concerning rehearsal next week.

Stay warm, and drive safely!

We are watching the weather for Monday. Obviously, if Scarsdale closes, we will have to cancel rehearsal. I want to try to move forward with Monday if at all possible because of the reading, because we have several auditions to hear beforehand, and because there is no rehearsal next Monday (President’s Day).

So my thinking for starting this concert was: Cary Grant made the trip from New York’s Grand Central Terminal to Chicago in the classic thriller, North by Northwest. And we are following the same basic path in June. And we’re playing at Northwestern. The piece practically begged to be played. The Overture is frantic, pulsating, and filled with driving hemiolas. Like Profanation, it is a scherzo (minus a B section). It accompanies the credits perfectly. Here’s the opening sequence, with the Overture. Look for Alfred Hitchcock himself trying to board a NYC bus near the end.

Hopefully we won’t have a weather situation, and I’ll see you Monday. Don’t forget to download, print, and bring your NxNW parts!!!

Lastly, I’m adding this comparison table to give you all an idea of all the repertoire is laid out over the next three concerts, and how some pieces repeat. Understanding the overlap among the 19 works we will be rehearsing is quite important. (These are not cited in program order.)

First, it’s hard to focus on any personal matters in the wake of Tuesday’s tragedy on Metro North. I pray that no one’s family or friends were affected. It was a frightening event.

Congratulations on a wonderful program on January 25! There are many things to celebrate, and as we’ve done before, I’d like to invite everyone to share reactions, thoughts, and impressions when we gather for our first rehearsal next Monday, which will be held at our alternate rehearsal site, Scarsdale MS. Directions are posted on the Rehearsal This Week page.

We have one new piece that I must ask you to download, print, and bring next Monday. We purchased the parts for the Overture to North by Northwest, which were delivered by PDF. Please click here to go to the Dropbox I created for these parts. This is the same system we used to distribute the Carmoor vocal pieces last summer. Find your part by file name, and print only the pages needed for your particular part. (Trumpets, horns, and percussion: your section leaders will send you your part assignments so you know what part to print.) These parts are ready to download, you can start to do so anytime. Just remember that we will not have printed parts for NxNW at rehearsal. All other music will be distributed at that time.

This next cycle of rehearsals will include preparation for our May 16 concert at TMH, our June 14 concert in Chicago, and our July 4 concert at Caramoor. I will be planning rehearsals carefully so the Chicago pieces are always grouped together on the same evenings. I will also be planning to include two rehearsals with 30 minutes of clinic time, for music educators in our group who’d like to have a chance to conduct our ensemble in a workshop setting. More details about this will be posted soon.

Lastly, I have a made a decision to make a change in the program for Chicago. Although we will keep the O Magnum Mysterium on the May program, we will substitute Marbled Midnight Mile for it on the Chicago program. I think this is a better choice because the percussion section is more involved in this piece, and we have many more exposed wind solos throughout, giving more players an opportunity to be heard. So the Chicago program will now be Maslanka – Bryant – Bernstein, plus the two Sousa marches combined with NCB. I’ll talk more about this on Monday.

We will be monitoring the weather and I will be in touch again over the weekend prior to Monday’s rehearsal.

Just to confirm – we canceled this rehearsal a couple weeks ago. I also announced, “Next rehearsal on February 9 at Scarsdale MS,” when finishing the sound check on concert day.

Stay warm, drive safe — see you next week. Next post has lots of information for next week, including links for downloading North by Northwest, which I ask you to print and bring with you. Trumpet, horn, and percussion section leaders are working on assignments and will email you later this week.