This is our final week of rehearsals leading up to next Sunday’s concert. The rehearsal order for Monday was posted last week and I amended it slightly tonight. Then we have our dress rehearsal on Saturday morning at 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. This will be our only rehearsal with our guest conductor, Peter Martin. The sound check on Sunday is, as usual, at 1:00 pm, and the concert is at 3:00 pm.

I had a lot of positive feedback on last Monday’s clinic with Michael Markowski. He certainly is both talented and kind, and it really was wonderful to have him work with us. He is planning on attending the concert, so you’ll have another chance to greet him on November 9.

The Board is meeting on Monday night and it is my hope to send you Chicago information and commitment forms midweek.

Looking ahead, we start rehearsals for the Winter concert on November 17. This is a tight rehearsal period for this concert on January 25. New music will be handed out at the first rehearsal, but one piece – the Tschaikovsky 4th Symphony Finale – will be distributed via PDF’s before November 17. There’s a lot of notes in that piece, and I recommend you take a look before the first rehearsal.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. See you Monday.

Michael Markowski has confirmed that he’ll be attending our rehearsal on Monday. We will devote a solid amount of time to his piece, as well as the solo numbers with Jeff Goodwin and the Gulino Skyline Drive with our guest players from the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra. Check the rehearsal schedule for details. I’ve posted the rehearsal order for both Monday, October 27 and Monday, November 3.

Click here to download the program notes from Jack Stamp’s score for Pastime. Dr. Stamp’s description is very interesting and sheds even more light on some of the quirky compositional choices involved in the piece.

See you Monday!

I’m writing a quick post to let you know that it looks like Michael Markowski will be attending this Monday’s rehearsal, to hear his City Trees. If that isn’t a practice incentive, I don’t know what is! (Follow the link above to his site, then click Performances to see our concert listed!)

Also on Monday: Jeff Goodwin will be coming for our first outing on his three vocal solos. And the guest players from the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra will also be joining us for their first shot at the Frank Gulino’s piece as well.

I’ll update the Rehearsal This Week page from Queensbury, NY this weekend, where I’m conducting the Saratoga-Warren County Music Educators All-County Band. I’ll send a quick reminder when that is posted.

Reminder: If you’re ever searching for anything in particular here on my blog, use the Search field in the upper right hand corner. For example, if you are looking to re-download this concert’s newly updated flyer, type “flyer” in that search field, and it will lead you to the October 16 posting with the updated flyer and press release.

Have a great week. I’ll be in touch this weekend.

I have updated the rehearsal plan for Monday night. Please check that page. I have planned a vigorous rehearsal.

We have updated parts ready for Some Enchanted Evening. I’m grateful to Zach Kampler for his help on this project. Please download, print, and bring the new Version 4 parts to rehearsal on Monday. Click here to download the most recent parts.

Our new chairs are on their way from Wenger! They will arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have a group who is accepting and transporting our old chairs, and we need to load them out of the Music Hall Monday night after rehearsal to make room for the new chairs. Please plan to help us for an extra 15 minutes after rehearsal to help us load out the chairs into the truck. If everyone helps it will only take 10 minutes. Thank you in advance!

Finally, the Board acted on Tuesday night to release the travel agent with whom we were working from further actions on our behalf. On Wednesday I contacted another agent with whom I worked for over 10 years at NVOT, and am confident that he will be successful in helping us put a more competitive package together. We’ll share that information as soon as we have it.

Don’t forget: Ad forms are due this Monday. See you then!