H. Robert Reynolds, 1934-1926

It is with great sadness that I share the news that Bob Reynolds passed away yesterday at age 91. It’s impossible to assess the impact Bob had on our the musical world as a conductor, teacher, author, arranger, and mentor. I feel so fortunate to have worked with him on two occasions and to have heard several of his performances live. I will definitely include a memorial to him in next season’s programming.

Concert week

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” — Leonard Bernstein

Here we are at the end of a most unusual rehearsal cycle. We have very little time remaining during our rehearsals this week on Monday and Wednesday, and we need to make every minute count. Please plan your travel to both of these rehearsals very carefully to allow extra time for traffic, frustrations caused my packed snow drifts, and the unexpected, and please help us stay on time during the rehearsals.

I have reworked the rehearsal plans for Monday (UUFNW) and Wednesday (TMH). Please review them here. IMPORTANT: Everyone who took home one or more music stands in December must bring it on Wednesday. We’ll confirm by Wednesday if the stands can stay at TMH until Sunday.

Personnel listing in the program

In order to keep everyone focused on the musical tasks at hand, I’m not going to circulate a program personnel list to check on Monday night. Instead, please check the roster here, and contact Katherine or me directly to make edits or corrections. Please do so as soon as possible, but no later than 7:30 pm on Monday.

Tickets for WSW on February 8 at 2:00 pm

Please send colleagues, family, and neighbors to the TMH Box Office site for this program. Click the link or copy/paste this URL in your correspondence and posts:
https://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=3127

Share the coupon code we discussed in rehearsal and posted in the WSW Members Slack workspace (I’ll repeat it again on Monday) to unlock the discounted $21 tickets (cited on the site as “Coupon 1”).

Thank you in advance

Our work together this week will demand your very best in regard to promptness, focus, musicianship, and dedication. Thank you in advance for bringing your best and most authentic selves, so we can make the best of this limited time together, and make 1+1 truly equal 3.

Excelsior Symphony Orchestra at Diller Hall

The Excelsior Symphony Orchestra is presenting a wonderful program next Saturday, February 7 at 3:00 pm at Diller Hall, on the campus of the Hackley School in Tarrytown. The orchestra will pay tribute to Bill Eckfeld, prominent Westchester conductor/composer and the former orchestra director at White Plains High School, who passed a few weeks ago. If you haven’t already considered attending, I urge you to take a look. I’m planning on attending — hope to see many of you there.

Rehearsal cancelled on Monday

White Plains Schools are closed tomorrow, Monday, January 26, and so WSW rehearsal tomorrow night is also cancelled.
Stay tuned for new rehearsal plans for February 2 & 4. Stay safe in the snow!

A smart conductor — he brought 2 batons, in case one blows away!

Rehearsal on Monday

My crystal ball still has not arrived from Amazon, but it doesn’t look good. If White Plains closes their schools on Monday, our rehearsal is toast. And if that happens, it’s likely that it will not be safe for anyone to be on the roads Monday night.

It’s not good to call a rehearsal before the storm even starts, so I’m putting off the official call until tomorrow afternoon. I will ask our board to confer with me to make the decision — which at that point might be a fait accompli — but I think it’s best, just in case this massive storm turns out to be a dud.

Please check your email again tomorrow afternoon. I will also post the news in the #cancellations-delays channel on the WSW Members workspace on Slack.

In the meantime, I will work on a Plan B rehearsal plan for Monday, February 2 and Wednesday, February 4. It is possible and likely that these will both end up being working rehearsals, foregoing a formal dress rehearsal run-through on Wednesday.

Some good news

The sutures came out on Wednesday! My surgeon has cleared me to conduct in two stages: with my right hand only for two weeks, and then both hands thereafter. So expect to see me conducting with reckless abandon on February 4. I want to express my thanks again to Jessica Stein-Natale, Jasmine Britt, Alex Gray, and Devon Toland for their dedication and musicianship during the rehearsals when I could not conduct in January.

Excelsior Symphony concert – Saturday, February 7 at 3:00 pm

The Excelsior Symphony (formerly the St. Thomas Orchestra) is performing the day before our own concert at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, in their beautiful new performing arts center, Diller Hall. As part of the concert, they will be honoring the life and legacy of Bill Eckfeld, former conductor and orchestra director at White Plains High School, who passed on January 17. I recommend attending if you are available.

Weathering the storm

Stay tuned. Stay warm. And please stay safe.

This week:

• Rehearsal Monday at UUFNW / Rehearsal chairs
• Rep underwriting link – please share
• Advance notes for Maslanka #4
• Laubin Oboes, Ruthie Garcia, and Scott Bernitt in the New York Times

Rehearsal Monday

It’s almost impossible to find a space to rent for rehearsal on a national holiday (as we’ve learned over the past years), so our access to UUFNW is very fortunate this year on MLK day. As needed, set your GPS to ​236 South Bedford Road, Bedford, NY 10506.

Remember to bring a music stand. As our departure from TMH continues to unfold, we will have standards and procedures to discuss heading into the February 4 dress and February 8 concert.

I contacted Keith Kile, and he will be joining us on Monday to rehearse movement 3 with Alex Gray on the podium. I am sure this will help advance the piece a great deal.

Regarding the chairs at UUFNW: If you find them a bit uncomfortable, you’re not alone. For now, the best solutions are: 1) Sit at the front of the chair, with your tusch on the highest point so you don’t sink into the lowest point at the back, or 2) Consider bringing your favorite folding chair. The board will be looking at potential long-term solutions for this issue.

Donor Relations Committee has been at work – please share!

Our Donor Relations Committee is repeating the repertoire underwriting project through GiveButter.com. It’s our hope to draw outside donors into our circle with this low-impact entry-level fund-raising campaign. Please share this link with friends & family who have attended our concerts and may want to take a step toward becoming more involved:
https://mailchi.mp/westchestersymphonicwinds/winterrepauction

This linked communication also has a reminder for the Box Office link. The Friends & Family coupon code is posted on Slack, and I will repeat it again at rehearsal on Monday.

A few notes about the Maslanka Symphony for May

We were able to secure the rental of the symphony with the credit we earned from the 2020 rental, because we never performed it due to the pandemic. The parts have arrived and I’ll be able to share the parts soon.

I’m hoping that our clinician from 2020 will revisit the “babies” solos with the clarinets to assist in preparing those parts. I will be asking interested players to prepare the solos and audition to perform these solos at the concert. There are solos for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd clarinet parts. More as that develops. And Matt Maslanka is definitely interested in coming out to work with us in at least one — possibly two — clinic rehearsals.

By the way, the family prefers their name to be pronounced mass-‘lang-kuh, not mass-‘long-kuh. Read more about David, and his son, Matt, at davidmaslanka.com.

Laubin Oboes in the NYT!

This is an amazing article about A.Laubin LLC, posted this week on January 14. Two members of WSW — Ruthie Garcia and Scott Bernitt — work at Laubin. Ruthie works in Operations/Sales and Scott works in production/key making at the new operations facility in Holmes, New York. Both are mentioned in the article, and you can see and hear Ruthie playing in the online article!

You may remember that the owner of Laubin Oboes, Jim Phelan, came to one of our rehearsals at Knights of Columbus to speak about Laubin entry-level oboes for schools. Consider contacting him or Ruthie if are in the market to buy a reliable instrument for your school.

I’ll bring the Arts & Leisure hard copy to rehearsal on Monday. Please join me in congratulating Ruthie & Scott!