I want to congratulate everyone on a fabulous concert on Sunday. Thank you for your dedication, endurance, professionalism, and positivity which contributed to yet another successful program. 

My thanks go out to many people, in no particular order (and please forgive any omissions!):

• Thank you to Joe Bergamini for his outstanding rehearsals and performance of the Jager!
• Thank you to Gina Serafin for her beautiful and artistic oboe playing!
• Thank you to Robert Ambrose for his beautiful crafting of the Whitacre!
• Thank you to Tom for organizing the ad submissions and researching the WWI song lyrics!
• Thank you to Ed & Michelle Herko for hosting Robert Ambrose!
• Thank you to David Church for his thorough weekly accounting of our personnel, and especially for leveraging our use of the NRHS Band Room once again, on super-short notice!
• Thank you to Dan Daly for his wonderful introduction of the WWI medley.
• Thank you to Marianne Lepre-Nolan for her outreach research, which brought us Dan Daly and more Westchester County band students in our audience.
• Thank you to Chris Larsen and Jim Savage for their introductions of our honorees, Rob LaPorta and Capt. Ken Force.
• Thank you to Marge Hone for managing our Friends & Family tickets, Will Call, and CD sales. 
• Thank you to Bethany Larsen, Jean Sweeney, Rachel Eckhaus, and all the volunteers who helped with the 50-50 raffle, one of our biggest jackpots ever!
• Thank you to Dan Harrison for the opportunity to hear the NY Phil with Robert on Thursday night.
• Thank you to Emily Harrison for saving my butt on Sunday!
• Thank you to everyone who indulged my whim to program and perform the Schelle. Contemporary work for 2018-2019 . . . CHECK! 
• Thank you to everyone to invited concert patrons, promoted our concert season, sold ads, practiced diligently, and contributed to the positive team spirit of our ensemble!

Our next rehearsal is next Monday, November 19 at Tarrytown Music Hall. We cannot enter until 7:45 pm because of a 6:15 pm children’s theater performance, so please gather under the marquee by 7:30 pm so we can enter as soon as they are done and set up quickly.

Also note that we are holding a second round of auditions/call-backs at 5:30-7:00 pm in the 2nd floor Studio at the Music Hall, prior to our rehearsal on November 19. We are still in the process of casting singers in several roles. If you have someone to recommend, contact me as soon as possible!

I’m writing this from Atlanta, where I’m having a great time this week with Robert Ambrose and his wonderful Symphonic Wind Ensemble and graduate conducting students. Last evening I taught the undergrad Instrumental Methods class. Today, I joined Robert to teach three grad conducting lessons and conducted a rehearsal of the Cichy with his Symphonic Wind Ensemble. The kids were great, and very responsive. I’m teaching the grad Conducting Seminar on Thursday morning, our concert is Thursday evening, and I return Friday morning. See you Monday evening!

I have reason to believe that the message has not gotten out completely. We are not rehearsing at TMH tonight, we are rehearsing in the New Rochelle Band Room. Make sure you follow these directions.  

In addition, David has warned me that the custodians will be pushing to have us out of the building by 9:45. We need to end in time to clear/reset the room and clear the building by 9:45 pm to accommodate them, especially as this was a late/emergency request to use the space. Because of this, take extra precautions to arrive earlier than usual to set up/warm up, so I can start on time at 7:30. In order to expedite things further, there will be no break tonight. Please anticipate your personal needs. If you find you must leave mid-rehearsal, please plan your exit and return to coordinate with the updated rehearsal plan, and expedite your exit and return quickly and carefully.

Thanks for your diligence and flexibility. We are a well-oiled machine when we have to be! See you tonight in New Rochelle!

Rehearsal moved to New Rochelle HS Band Room

You may have noticed that I was purposefully vague with my post yesterday about the site for Wednesday. We learned two days ago that the booking we thought was confirmed for Wednesday was, in fact, not confirmed. We scrambled, David Church acted quickly and decisively, and we received confirmation from New Rochelle just a little while ago. I didn’t dare put out the change until we had that confirmation.

IMPORTANT: Please contact your principal to confirm you received the message about the change. Principals – please contact anyone who you don’t hear from by Tuesday evening. To paraphrase the obvious: No musician left behind!

Please leave enough time for travel and parking. We need to start on time, as the maintenance people will want us completely cleared out of the building by 10:00 pm. That means a fast packup, reset of the room (which we know is very important), and getaway.

And, remember to follow these directions — don’t follow your GPS — to the Band Room at NRHS.

Confirmation of Schelle notes

I had a request to repeat the notes that I gave quickly during the last rehearsal of the Schelle Extraction. Double check to make sure you caught all of this, that I went through quickly:

• The “blur” of fast notes is ok; the listener is not expected to hear individual notes after m.23.
• The “big events” after each “chaotic event” are the most important. They serve as temporary relief before the drilling starts again. The “big events” are:
  • m.9 – Dies Irae
    
  • m.43-44 – Brass cluster/screams
  • m.68-83 – “This Old Man,” children’s “Na-na-na-na-naaa-naa,” and Dies Irae
  • m.90-91 – Power tools, tenor sax solo
  • m.105 – Phantom of the Opera motive
  • m.106-end – Coda/Recovery
• Longer value notes should always be heard over shorter values.
• Improvisation reductions, for those who benefit from a smaller pitch palette (all pitches noted are concert pitches):
  • For F# minor – focus on F# – A (m. 48, 55, 62, 97)
  • For F major – focus on F – A (m.60, 95)
  • For F7 – focus on F – Eb (m.61, 96)
  • For D7 – focus on D – C (m.64, 99)

Thank you for your flexibility. See you Wednesday promptly at 7:30 pm in New Rochelle.

This is a quick reminder that there is no rehearsal tomorrow night. This week we rehearse:

• Wednesday, November 7 – 7:30-9:45 pm
• Saturday, November 10 – 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
• Sunday, November 11 – 1:00 pm call, 3:00 pm downbeat

Watch your email tomorrow for important information about Wednesday’s rehearsal.