Saturday’s concert

Here are a few notes for tomorrow:

• We have access to the Hall at 4:30 pm. TMH crew is bringing up percussion, chairs, and stands, and pulling out the piano. As discussed, we are not using the shell this time, to be able to conserve space upstage and give the soloists more room at the apron.
• Please arrive and be seated by 5:30 pm, ready in concert dress. Note that this is earlier than usual; see below for my plan. I’m asking that you arrived dressed so we can try to take a photo with the ensemble, soloists, and chorus before we break at 7:00 pm, so there won’t be time to change during the sound check. This is our only opportunity to do this — thanks for planning in advance.
• Please know that we are not going to play continuously from 5:30-7:00 pm. Far from it! At 5:30 pm, we will play (or in some cases, sing) critical starts/endings to establish tempi and review bows. We are not going to hammer through any of the pieces as a run-through, with the possible exception of the Biedenbender. I would rather keep you “hungry” to play everything else and give Joe some latitude with this one number, since we did not touch it on Wednesday.
• At 6:30 pm, we’ll make sure the soloists and chorus are set and ready, and run from Part 2 m.134 to the end (as we did on Wednesday) to check the chorus’s memory and insure that they are ready. That will be the only section of the medley I will ask you to play through.
• Just before 7:00 pm, we are going to try to get a group photo of the entire assemblage. So as noted above, please arrived dressed so we can be efficient with our time, and still give you a full hour to rest and reset before the performance.
• Please prep envelopes with any tickets to be held at Will Call, with your name as the return address and your guest’s name clearly written mid-span. Give to Marge at sound check. Thanks, Marge, for handling the tickets!
• Bring cash — tomorrow’s audience should be bigger than usual, and so the 50/50 is apt to be huge! Thanks, Rachel, for handling the raffle!

Library for Caramoor

Please finish your swap out with Nancy after the concert, so all you have leaving the Hall is the Caramoor rep. I am bringing the Matt Podd medley with me tomorrow night, so make sure you pick that up.

After tomorrow, the next time I see you as a group is Monday, June 3 at 7:30 pm at TMH, for the Caramoor read-through. Make sure you look at the new parts before that rehearsal.

Other concerts of note

• Reminder: New Jersey Wind Symphony performs tonight at 8:00 pm at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ. Amy Wilcox conducts the NVOT Wind Symphony as the prelude concert.
• Connecticut Symphonic Winds performs next Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 pm in Fairfield, CT. The program is packed with finales: Tchaik IV, Kalinnikov, Berlioz, Scriabin, and Barnes — a huge program! (So you can’t ever complain I program too much!)

Rest up and we’ll see you tomorrow at 5:30 pm. It’s going to be an amazing night!

Spring Concert – Liberty! Equality!

This is the week we put all this together!

• Monday – Geoff is contacting clarinets about a sectional at 6:45 pm, on stage. When we set up, please set up in front of and behind them. We need to pull the piano to stage left again for this rehearsal. Vocalists join us for Les Miz at 7:30 pm. We will also review the Milhaud and Taylor this evening. Barbara will be coming to play the harp part in Les Miz. Marge will have Friends & Family tickets available. We will also have hard copies of color flyers available for distribution.
• Wednesday – Vocalists PLUS sound engineer PLUS flash mob chorus from Masters join us to put the final touches on Les Miz. Joe Higgins will not be coming this evening. Together we felt the Biedenbender is in great shape, and having Joe make an additional trip from south Jersey was not needed. He will touch the piece in the sound check on Saturday. We will also review the Nelson (second ending only) and Holsinger, plus the Milhaud and Taylor. In other words, it’s a dress rehearsal without the Biedenbender, out of concert order.
• Saturday – We have access to TMH at 4:30 pm for setup. We will begin our sound check at 5:30 pm — note the early time.The chorus/soloists are coming for a 6:30 pm sound check. We will end by 7:00 pm to allow you to rest before the 8:00 pm downbeat.

Video for concert

I am looking for someone who would be willing to man my DSLR to video the concert. I supply the equipment, but I need someone to re-direct the camera during Les Miz, change the battery at intermission, etc. If you have a technically competent spouse, friend, or child, please let me know.

Library

At the end of the May 11 concert, you will receive your parts for the Caramoor concert. Nancy will hand out music via inter-office envelopes. There are a couple pieces that have to move forward with us from your current folder to Caramoor, so be sure to listen to instructions carefully so you turn in all old music and have all the parts you need to start to prepare for our first Caramoor rehearsal on June 3. We have no rehearsals on May 13, 20, or 27, but I don’t want everyone sight-reading on June 3.

The Thrilling 32

We’ve had 24 responses to the Thrilling 32. Please follow this link and vote by midnight this coming Monday. On Tuesday, I’ll set up the Sweet Sixteen and create a new voting form. Will your favorite pieces advance?

Rich Williams recital

As announced, Rich is presented a trombone recital this coming Sunday, May 5 at noon in Larchmont. Click on the flyer for details. The performance is in the Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church in Larchmont. Good luck to Rich!

Tootsie

I’ve never known a Broadway show backer in my life — but we have one in the band! Sue WInthrop is one of the executive producers of Tootsie, and it’s gotten great reviews. See below for the YouTube montage.

We hope to put together a field trip to see the show. We took a hand count last week. We’ll make more formal decisions in the weeks ahead.

The American Prize update

We’ve made it to Finalist status among Bands/Wind Ensembles in the Community Division (although it appears that the semi-finalist and finalist list is exactly the same). Read the release here.

Enjoy the weekend — see you eager and ready on Monday!

Prior to our 7:30 rehearsal tomorrow night, I’m rehearsing the Les Miz vocal soloists with piano from 5:30-7:00 pm on the stage. (We couldn’t get the use of the Studio.) I’ll pull the piano all the way stage left, where it will be set for the May 11 concert, and rehearse on the left side of the stage. If you would, please give us the room until 7:00 pm, and wait to bring chairs/stands/percussion until we finish at that time.

If there is no one on stage at 7:00 pm, that means we found the Studio unused and rehearsed there. In that case, just set up normally. The piano is not needed for the full band rehearsal at 7:30 pm, so don’t pull it out if we move to the Studio.

I posted the rehearsal plan. Joe Higgins will start with the Biedenbender. After a quick discussion to recap Saturday’s performance, the rest of the evening will focus on Les Miz (both parts), the Taylor (which we haven’t looked at in quite a while), and review as much of the Milhaud as possible.

I hope you had a chance to rest today! See you tomorrow.

I don’t have adequate words to describe the gratitude I have for all of you for the performance today. But here are a couple notes in m attempt to come close:

• I’m glad that we had the muddy Amphitheater first. It really put everyone on their toes (including me) and helped us prepare for the positive resonance of the Ballroom.
• Thank you for playing so well for Todd. Metroplex sounded amazing. I don’t often (never, really) get to sit in the front row of a performance and actually hear you play!
• There were some moments of absolute beauty in every piece, but they were concentrated heavily in the Gjeilo. I was overwhelmed at the end, not only by your performance, but because you delivered the strength and beauty of the piece exactly as I had envisioned it when I programmed the piece for this concert. Thank you for allowing me to go a little slower at the beginning to help increase the agility for the bowed mallets, and for following me so well so I could stretch the music at key places (umm, like all over the place!). Any band can play loud and fast. This band can certainly do that, but can also play heart-breaking sustained melodic material, stress the dissonances, and pull the heartstrings of the listeners to new levels. For this I am especially grateful.
• The ensemble displayed extremely high levels of cohesion throughout the performance. Critical listeners who spoke to me afterward (including one member of the NJWS audition committee) remarked specifically about the stand-out quality of the group’s intonation. That was pure gold to my ears.

So, rest up tomorrow, and we’ll see you on Monday evening at TMH. We’ll focus on Joe’s work with the Biedenbender (please be ready for m.86), Milhaud, and Les Miz, parts 1 & 2.

Congratulations to you all!