Upcoming rehearsals

Remember that we have no rehearsal tomorrow evening. When we regroup next week on April 22, we have two rehearsals, then the ACB performance. Then we have three rehearsals, and the May performance. It’s all going to happen quite quickly. So we all have to stay on top of our game.

Please read the rehearsal schedule carefully, and note that our rehearsal on Wednesday, April 24 is at New Rochelle, starting at 7:15 pm (starting 15 minutes early, as we did the last time). Unfortunately, TMH took another booking on that evening. Thanks in advance for planning ahead.

The Bracket

So far, about 1/3 of the band has voted in the first bracket of our repertoire project. If you haven’t so, I hope you’ll consider voting. The link is on this homepage. If you tried to vote but the form asked you to sign in to Google, please go back and try again; I edited the settings so that is no longer a requirement. It was not my intention to do so. Apologies if this was an obstacle!

I’ll keep this first round of voting open until this Wednesday, April 17.

Have a good week!

Rehearsal this week

The rehearsal plan is posted. Todd Nichols, our guest conductor for ACB, will be here this week to rehearse Metroplex. So, please be ready to rehearse that piece with him. The first half of the rehearsal is ACB, the second half is May. (May-only players, please arrive ready-to-play by 8:45 pm.

It’s ready! Click here for the Repertoire Bracket Challenge!

The Super 64 voting is ready. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about this project, and everything is ready to go. Click on the link above to see the bracket lineup (the link is also posted on my homepage along with the rehearsal plan). You can listen to as much or as little as you like — each title is a link to a recording. Or you can check out Chris Carbone’s Spotify playlist if that’s easier for you. Thanks to Chris for putting this together! However you approach it, once you’re looking at the bracket, click on the link at the top, and that will take you to the Google Form for the Super 64 to vote. You can only submit once, but you can save and return to the voting as often as you would like. Just click Submit, then note the link to Edit Your Response. In addition, if you elect “Send me a copy of my responses” right above the Submit button, you’ll receive an email with your submission, and a link to update/complete the bracket voting. That makes it really easy.

I’m hoping to get at least 40 responses in this first round, so please consider participating. I’ll keep the Super 64 voting open through April 15, so you will have plenty of time to consider the choices before we tally the votes and move on to the Thrilling 32, when you’ll have only 16 choices to make. My hope is to finalize the winner by the concert on May 11, which is very doable, because the next rounds will only have 8, then 4, then 2, and then one final choice to make.

Another band podcast

Many of you have remarked that you’ve enjoyed Mark J. Connor’s podcast, Everything Band. If you haven’t caught them yet, there’s are recent episodes featuring interviews with Robert Sheldon and Viet Cuong.

Ian Vlahoviç asked me to also recommend the podcast broadcast by his former teacher at Mahwah, Tim Rausenberger. Called Getting It Done, Tim has episodes on a number of topics. Please check it out. You can find it through several means:
YouTube
iTunes
Soundcloud

Arrival/soundcheck info for ACB

I’ve received our warm-up schedule for our ACB performance on April 27. Please note and copy into your calendars:

2:00 pm – Arrive on site at Hilton Woodcliff Lake, 200 Tice Boulevard, Woodcliff Lake, NJ. Check in with David Church outside the Amphitheater. Here is a map of the hotel.
2:30 pm – Access to Amphitheater. Warm-up and tuning.
3:45 pm – Assemble outside Grand Ballroom, take places for performance.
4:00 pm – Performance
5:00 pm – Post-performance celebration – room TBA

IMPORTANT: Please plan to bring a folding stand to the warmup. None will be provided. Also, there will be no percussion in the warm-up room.

We’ll discuss all this in person in the upcoming rehearsals.

See you Monday night!

Good news: Our nominations yielded 50 workable nominations. I had to eliminate one because a band arrangement does not currently exist, and another because it is currently programmed for Caramoor 2019. Bad news: 50 doesn’t work in a bracket like this.

So I had to expand the bracket to a total of 64 in order to avoid any 3-way choices.

I don’t want to add 14 of my own favorite pieces; that’s not fair. So, I’ve re-opened the nominations form. The first 14 pieces to be nominated will be added to the bracket, and then it will be permanently closed.

What’s your favorite piece you want us to perform? You have one more chance to submit it!

We are rehearsing May repertoire on Monday. Please see the posted rehearsal plan.

I closed the Repertoire Bracket Project nomination form. Thanks to everyone to submitted one or more works, and especially to those who pitched their favorites last Monday. There were a total of 60 nominations, resulting in 51 unique nominations.

First seed with 3 nods
Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett

Tie for second seed with 2 nods each:
. . . and the mountains rising nowhere by Joseph Schwanter
A Child’s Garden of Dreams, by David Maslanka
Canzona, by Peter Mennin
Sound and Smoke, by Viet Cuong
Symphony in Bb, by Paul Hindemith
Symphony No. 6, by Vincent Persichetti
Variants on a Medieval Tune, by Norman Dello Joio

The remaining works received one nomination each.

I’ll assemble the bracket this week, with links to recordings and notes from the nominations, and then we’ll start to vote!

See you Monday!