Incredibly, we have only FOUR working rehearsals remaining before the concert – October 3, 10, 17, and 24. We will have no rehearsal on Halloween, and then we have the Wednesday, November 2 full rehearsal (the saxes are rehearsing that night as well), and the dress rehearsal. So suddenly this is all happening very fast! The rehearsal plan for this Monday is posted.
Program ads
Click here for the 2022-2023 Ad Form. Please help us by supporting the ad program with an ad from your section, or from a local or family-related business. Ads are due on October 24. Please submit ad forms and payments to Tom Sweezey, who is helping to collect and organize them all. You can submit ad copy by emailing or sharing the file to westsymwinds@gmail.com (type Ad Submission in the subject line).
Shana tova to all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah. As announced, we are rehearsing tomorrow night. If you are celebrating the holiday with family and have not informed David Church, please contact him immediately. The rehearsal plan was posted earlier this week.
Looking ahead, MIchael Markowski will be visiting rehearsals on October 17 & 24 in preparation for the concert. This past week Michael asked if he could make some recordings on those two dates, as he is considering submitting Desert Sage to the NBA Revelli Composition Contest. Please keep this in mind as you prepare your parts. I hope you’ll join me in recognizing how important this could be for both the composer (and for us).
First, I wanted to share: I sent Michael the live recording of our read-through of the commission last week. It was unedited and untouched.
His response was, “Wow, this is probably one of the best first rehearsals I’ve ever heard! I think this is such a good fit for the band!” I think that is something to celebrate!
Michael has already added a Desert Sage page to his website. (I had to grin when I noticed that he’s rated the difficulty as “Hard.”) You can find the MIDI mockup recording, perusal score (August 1 version; extended program notes are not yet included in this version), and more.
Rehearsal plan
Please check the homepage for the rehearsal plan for this week.
State of the Band
I have allotted some time on Monday to talk about our financial situation at this point after losing so much audience revenue through the pandemic. We’ll be talking about our 35th Anniversary Technology Fund project, program ads, and strategies we can all utilize to bring our audience back into the Hall.
We are very excited about our first rehearsal of the new season on Monday. Please use the rear stage door and arrive at TMH by 7:15 pm to greet friends, help set up, find your seat/folder (a seating chart will be posted), and warm up. The plan is to read through the entire program, as is my custom for first rehearsals. I always post rehearsal plans on the homepage of my site for members. On that page you can also find links to the season’s rehearsal schedule, repertoire, instrumentation details for the current cycle, and the Google Drive folder with all parts in PDF form. Note that we will be handing out folders with all music for the fall cycle on Monday, but we are maintaining this folder for players who use iPads, and as a backup source of parts for subs.
Transitions
Resignations – We have received correspondence from three players who will not be returning this season. Please join me in thanking them for their many years service and dedication to our ensemble:
David Moore, clarinet Tommy Muehler, trumpet Dan Salvi, clarinet
Weddings! – Please join me in sending best wishes to two members who were recently married (not to each other!): Emily Harrison & Jonathan Kehoe (left) were married in January in Hawaii; and Ulysses & Kelsey Torres (née Williams) were married on August 26 in Long Beach.
Goals for 2022-2023
I have lots of musical, financial, and leadership goals for the new season, as we slowly make our way through this stage of the pandemic. I’ll share my ideas over the next few weeks. In the meantime, play some long tones, pick out a good reed, grease those slides, and I will see you Monday evening!
