Ball

Last night was our symphony fund raiser the Bl@ck and Wh!te Ball. Fun fun fun. I got tix for several friends, and we filled a table (8). I think everyone had a good time...lots of people were up dancing the whole night and apparently the food was good. This is our first time in a new (less expensive) venue - in some ways I think it was a much better place.

Only big crisis was the flute player got there and realized her music was missing! Actually she just missed the sound check, so she didn't get her horn out ahead, and this was when we were tuning. Eek! So she thought it might be in the car so off she goes. DD didn't even notice, I guess cuz we were off to the left instead of front and center. First chart was Blue Danube, which is fine til the very end where there is a flute solo. I figured she'd be back way before that. But I guess she didn't want to walk in front of the stage so I was "playin some stuff" that vaguely resembled the flute solo. DD definately noticed the empty chair then!

I guess the music was in the OTHER car - she had switched with her hubby. Oops! So he was coming with the music (fortunately from not too far away, many of us live an hour from the gig). But til he got there she read off my music, and she did an amazing job remembering flutey stuff. Her lovely guy showed up after about 1/2 way through the first set. That was just crazy.

My honey saved his dessert for me, lovely!

It's a new year

Ahhhh, a lovely break after the pre-Christmas insanity. But now things are starting to pick up in the music world, I have been teaching recorder and going to band (where I play clarinet badly), but have yet to actually practice anything. Bad bad bad! The orchestra does have a benefit next week so I have to get it together at least somewhat before Thursday. It will be all dance music, lots of poppy stuff, but still I would like to sound good!

We did host two young artists who competed to play with our orchestra in March. One (a cellist) actually won the college strings division! The other was a pianist, she got honorable mention in her catagory. There were both originally from Taiwan, which D was totally interested in (partly to tell *them* all the stuff HE knows about Taiwan); and J had been to Taiwan for work 20+ years ago, probably before they were born! Still they were both lovely people and it was fun to get to know them a bit. My little piano has never had such a workout!

I was also a judge for the competition (the HS division - neither of my home stays were in this division). It is fun to hear everyone but stressful to have to judge. We get so many AMAZING competitors from all over the country...and it is very hard to compare Paganini Vln concerto with Greig Piano concerto, or Mozart oboe concerto! The high school division is just everyone together, all vying for one spot. Crazy. But it is always a great concert - 6 winners each playing one mvt (the singers sometimes do two pieces since their stuff is usually short). Looking forward to that, especially since they opted to not use winds on the January concert to save money. I think it was a good call, but disappointing.