Movie concert

I sort of forgot to blog about the concert (obviously a huge thing in my life!) But it went very well, although I still think it was a bit long. Could have bagged Band of Brothers. But a lot of us were really distainful of the "Fifth of Beethoven" that disco version so popular in the 80s, and that was the favorite of many people I talked to! Who would have thought? I still liked our version of Pirates, and Harry Potter was not too bad (so hard! in places) My poor bassoon friend was all morning sick-y throughout the concert. Hopefully she will feel better soon.

Tonight is our only rehearsal for the Black & White Ball - that could be interesting. But I think it is mostly the principals, and we have done all this stuff before. EXCEPT...M is insisting that I need to play tenor sax! On just one piece. I keep telling her it is just not that big of a deal but it is a big band chart (String of Pearls) and she keeps thinking of the actual big band arrangement instead of the orchestral one. So she is bringing her tenor tonight. Which is super generous of her to let me borrow it, just what a pain for one chart. And the bassoon player (with the sickys) could play...M and the flute will play altos. Stupid. Get over it Jill!

Anyway, very exciting because I have coerced our neighbors to go and be "dates" for J. Such a drag for him to just be alone, but hopefully it will be fun. It seemed like a great time last year, although as always the advertising was ABYSSMAL. I don't think they even mentioned that there was dinner (snazzy 3 courses from a 5 star restaurant). Hopefully J will be infected by the fun-ness of all the people dancing, I'd love to take dance lessons (socially acceptable public groping - how can he not like it??!).

Not a graceful loser

I just realized the bell choir never gave me a Christmas present, or even a going away card. Not to keep score, but we gave the choir director a nice thing, and even the organist who had only been there a month got this lovely gift. When H left (granted she had been there 9 years and I only 3) we got her a beautiful handmade wooden music stand. I guess it is more proof that the bells were too much trouble for anyone to deal with.

But tonight it dress rehearsal! I love that we are playing 2 songs with the youth orchestra, and a bunch of them thought you wore your concert dress for dress rehearsal. I remember my first dress rehearsal was for a piano recital, and I agonized over what to wear (cuz I assumed we had to dress up, but I couldn't wear the actual dress because I didn't have it yet). I showed up in a dressy pantsuit (it was the 70s) and everyone else was wearing cutoffs and jeans.

The music sounded better last night - we weren't in the hall as that apparently saves us $800. Which is a large part of our budget for this concert, so good for them. Tonight will be in the hall and I'm sure it will be fine. I kind of love that the stage crew is charging overtime if we are in the hall later than 10 on rehearsals - DD always dragged out the time to 11 or 11:30! NOT professional. This sort of forces him to organize his time better (not his best thing). We have a new orchestra manager - my good friend K! S is still around but busy with work/school for her new career, and I think this change will be good for updating some things in the orchestra.

No bells!

No bells tonight, or ever again - kind of a relief. Although I am a little sad too. Oh well.

This week is our Family concert - so Thurs/Fri/Sat all taken up with rehearsals and concert. But no stress at least, all easy stuff. EXCEPT Harry Potter - OMG hardest stuff ever and I do include everything. Only the 4th mvt of Chamber of Secrets - it is just insanely fast and with no pattern at all. But not exposed really, I decided to not spend the time to get closer (loser) and just noodle around the notes - that is what it sounds like anyway. I wish I was super dedicated and really worked this up, but I just can't get that excited about it.

update on everything

What an insane time. We have had over 70 inches of snow! Crazy. Now much of it is melted, at least on the roads - almost like driving in summer; but for a couple weeks it was really horrible trying to get around. I mostly stayed home going insane. We were supposed to go visit my folks and Jim's right after Christmas, but couldn't get there. Trying to go now, but there is a lot of flooding where they are and the interstate is closed. We have a plan though, so hopefully we can pick our way through the flooded areas and see most of our reletives!

It is so weird to not be worried about the bells. I still have my keys, the weather has been to awful to merit a trip to town for that. Orchestra had our first rehearsal for the Movie concert last night - some really terrible arrangements. Some that are ok. Horrible: Close Encounters, Band of Brothers, Robin Hood (good music, bad arrangements) and ok: Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek through the Years, What's Up at the Symphony (cartoons) and Harry Potter (but the 2nd movie so no one knows these themes). There is some other stuff, but the only thing where you can hear the oboe is in "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (from some movie medley). That's ok. We are supposed to dress up as a character from one of the themes we are playing - thought I should go as Kate (from Titanic) since we look so much alike (hahaha!) Probably we will all just be pirates or wimp out and wear white/black. Oh well.