This week: Late start on Monday at TMH, chamber music concert on Sunday in Katonah, Amazon Smile, our Glockenspiel Fund, and a special promotion at Music & Arts.

Monday’s rehearsal

We have another late start again on Monday at TMH because of another Random Farms children’s theater performance. Please gather at the marquee doors at 7:30 pm (but please don’t block the doors, as parents/students will be exiting). When the crew gives the all clear, then we’ll take the stage to set up and warm up.

Nancy will have our new music to distribute, to add to your folders. Trumpet and percussion parts will be given directly to Stan and Mark/Eric.

We’ll be reading the Winter Concert rep. I’m planning to still finish at 9:45 pm, even though we have the late start. Please be on time and ready to roll quickly when we get the all clear signal.

Chamber Music concert – Sunday at 3:00 pm

As Rich Dashnaw has announced, there is a chamber music concert this Sunday at 3:00 pm at the First Presbyterian Church of Katonah, 31 Bedford Road in Katonah. Several of our WSW members will be featured, including Chris Peña, as he (finally!) performs Rich’s Rhapsody for Clarinet, accompanied by Janice Vuoso. I attended last year, and this is a wonderful opportunity to hear some of our members in a completely different musical milieu.

Amazon Smile benefits WSW!

With the holidays approaching, it’s likely that many of us are shopping on Amazon. Their Smile program allows you to make a 0.5% contribution of your purchase to your favorite charity (ahem, that would be WSW) every time you shop, at no extra cost to you. Although this is a small percentage, it’s incredibly easy, and small benefits add up in the long run.

To register, go to http://smile.amazon.com, sign into your Amazon account, and then follow the prompts to select Westchester Symphonic Winds as your charity. Then just initiate your Amazon search to shop at http://smile.amazon.com every time you shop. That’s it! So far, our organization has received over $200.00 from Amazon. and it’s free money!

Glockenspiel Fund

With the end of the tax year approaching, please consider this particular WSW fundraising project as you assess charitable donation. In October, Chris Larsen announced this memorial fund project on Facebook, in memory of his father, Gaylord Larsen:

We are celebrating my father’s life by launching the Gaylord Larsen Memorial Glockenspiel Fund for the Westchester Symphonic Winds. I hope you will consider donating to this cause, which will allow the band to purchase a glockenspiel, case, mallets and an engraved plaque for the instrument.

Concert debrief

First, thank you all so very, very much for the fabulous performance this past Sunday. I am indebted to all the individuals who contributed in small and large ways to make another concert so successful. It was a great start for our 32nd season. We’ll talk more about this on Monday.

Monday – Maslanka at New Rochelle High School Band Room, 7:15-9:30 pm

This rehearsal is for all personnel playing the Spring Concert on May 16. If you have indicated that you can’t play on February 9 but intend to play on May 16, please attend this rehearsal.

Remember that we’re rehearsing on Monday at New Rochelle. As in the past (and especially for subs/new players), you must follow these directions to the Band Room. The campus is huge. If you ask Siri or Alexa or your robot of choice to get directions to New Rochelle HS, she’ll take you to the other side of campus, more than 1/4 mile away, and you’ll never find the Band Room!

As noted on the rehearsal plan, the clarinets are meeting 45 minutes early to have a sectional clinic with Manny Ramos, from the West Point Band, on the “babies” section of the Maslanka at m.712-732.

We’ll all gather to begin rehearsal at 7:15 pm (per our mutual discussion/agreement, because we have to stop at 7:30 pm to reset the room and clear out by 9:45 pm).

I’ll be sharing insights and research on the symphony, including a lot of information about the form and inspiration of the piece, and we’ll be playing sections of the symphony, one at a time. This will not be a “play it down” sort of rehearsal. We just can’t approach it that way.

Enjoy the weekend — see you Monday!

1. Remember that we have a power-packed 3 hour rehearsal on Saturday morning. TMH opens at 9:00 am, rehearsal starts promptly at 10:00 am. See the full rehearsal plan here.
   IMPORTANT: Remember that we are prohibited from parking in the rear lot at TMH and also prohibited from using the back door. Please enter and leave on Saturday from the front doors under the marquee. Percussion may load in through the side double doors on Kaldenberg Place.
2. Parking – Eddie Herko shared this information regarding the mobile parking app in Tarrytown:
   WSW members may wish to download the “Pay By Phone” mobile app before arriving on Saturday, if they want to add money to their parking meter from the comfort of their chair on stage.
   A few tips:
   – if you already have the app, stop reading — I’ll surely bore you / them! 🙂
   – Parking Meter police will 1st look to see if meter is paid with coins, then if meter reads “not paid” then look at their mobile device to see if the meter # has been paid up.
   – There is like a $1 price hike for the convenience of the mobile app, but the benefit is you can still see the countdown of minutes left on your meter from your phone, and reload since you already have your meter # from initially paying from your phone.
   – the company is a UK based company,
   So I did have an instance where the meter charge would be U$2.50 and when the charge came up, it showed in British Pounds (GBP), but indeed I was charged only US $2.50
   Or bring a bunch of quarters!! Hope that helps.
3. Dave Marchiony reminded me that Michael Markowski gave an interview on the Everything Band podcast:
   http://www.markjconnor.com/eb-podcast/everything-band-episode-54-michael-markowski
   The discussion of Joyride is near the 50 minute mark.

It’s performance weekend – here we go! See you all Saturday morning!

Here’s everything you need to know for the coming week:

Monday

David still has had no luck with any kind of response from New Rochelle. Therefore, we have to go with rehearsing at TMH, following the Random Farms performance. They told us “Start at 8:00 pm,” but sometimes they’re able to clear and allow us to get started much sooner. It depends on the complexity and length of the children’s theater production.

Gather outside marquee entrance at 7:30 pm (but be careful not to block the exit doors, please). We’ll enter once we get the all clear from the TMH crew after striking the Random Farms performance set. Please be prepared to stay til 10:00 pm, as announced. Parking won’t be available behind TMH because of the Random Farms show which precedes our rehearsal. Rehearsal plan posted here. 

I shared last Monday’s recording with MIchael Markowski and his response was full of praise. He sent me these notes; please mark your parts accordingly.

This piece is really just a collection of textural swells < f >, so I think it might be helpful to try to delay the crescendos a bit… maybe make them a bit more parabolic? I think it sounds a bit like we’re getting to the peaks a little early which might be making other voices and textures have to work even harder to be heard. Thus, everyone is fighting for dominance.

I know you only have one more rehearsal, but if you have a few minutes to rehearse on Monday, maybe see what you can in terms of making the starts of phrases even softer (especially for the polyrhythmic motor stuff).

I also like to try taking the dynamics down a notch at m. 12. Instead of ‘mf’, try an energized ‘piano.’ Let the accents in the Bernsteinian clarinets pop to ‘mf’ but keep everything else as soft as possible (without slowing down!). That might kind of give us a reference for the quiet ‘floor’ of the piece.

Of course, it’s always a balancing act between dynamics and energy with this piece.

Michael is planning on attending the concert on Sunday.

Wednesday

No rehearsal, as announced. Enjoy the evening with your family.

Saturday

NO PARKING BEHIND TMH. They have a load-in immediately after we finish, and so we are prohibited from using the back lot. Percussion can load in needed equipment through the side doors on Kaldenberg. Double park, unload, then move your car. Remember that we need to pay the meters today. Rehearsal plan posted here. 

Sunday

Parking behind TMH is permitted today. 
12:00 pm – TMH open for set up
1:00 pm sharp – Sound check. We must include a full run of Holmquist to integrate Pete Friedmann, narrator, and prioritize the two Dashnaw pieces because of the soloist and composer being on site.
2:00 pm – Sound check ends, break until concert begins
3:00 pm – Downbeat

The American Prize Awards

Our prize package finally arrived today. It included our First Place cash prize of $150, three award certificates for our Win, Place, and Show awards, and comments from the judges. I’ve scanned the cover letter and three pages of comments; you can view them all here. Click on the PDF icon, and the PDF will download to your computer. You can then open the PDF to read the letter and comments.

See you Monday for our final working rehearsal!