Here I am in the alumni band - holy cow! It's been far too long according to my sore body - but lots of fun. Seems so long ago now, a whole week past! Finally done with Millie - I notice my last post I had just finished with Full Monty. It has been a while!
I played Faust with CDA Opera, truly a wonderful musical experience, played with top notch musicians. Glorious oboe bits all through, but especially at the end when Margaurete ascends to heaven and the oboe resolves the huge chords over the entire ensemble. Chills!
Then I played with the local college on the Ravel Piano Concerto - HUGE English horn solo in the fancy theater! It was fun but I felt so insanely busy at the time, wish I could have enjoyed it more. My favorite part was the next day I went to coffee with my neighbors who happened to go to the concert, and they said - why did you stand up at the end? (!) I guess they didn't notice the nearly 3 minutes of EH solo in there - perhaps they dozed off? hehehe
Our little orchestra had the season opener - Beethoven 7 (which starts with a fabulous oboe solo of course), Fingal's Cave and Mozart Double Piano. The Mozart was really lovely, and the new 2nd oboe really did an amazing job! She plays so in tune with me, and we had all those neat Mozarty harmonies together - it was just a great experience. I think the whole concert was some of the best playing this orchestra has ever done. Unfortunatly only 350 people came to the concert. It is really a shame.
All through this was Thoroughly Modern Millie - I split the show with the 2nd oboist (SS) who plays all the saxes and flute extremely well, I think her clarinet playing is about on par with mine though! Millie had oboe/clarinet/tenor/bari (SS played flute as well) and just carting all that to the theater is a workout! The music was really fun, sort of 20s jazzy stuff but way hard for my limited saxophone chops. About 5 minutes into the first rehearsal I realized my ancient Conn Bari was just not going to be able to move around that fast - also it didn't have a low A which is called for quite a bit in newer shows. So I went out and bought my midlife crisis item - a BRAND NEW bari sax. It is beautiful, plays great - the action is so smooth I can actually play faster on it than the tenor! And it is super fun to play the low A, which shakes the ground.
Yesterday was the closing matinee for Millie, and we started rehearsal for Jane Eyre! REALLY poor timing, but it is a benefit and will only run this week. And I'm only playing oboe/English horn, which will be a nice change. The music is great, lots of nice oboe bits, and the singers are really fantastic. Lots of fun belting about how hard life is...could you fit more angst into a story? So that wraps up Saturday night and then D will have his birthday party on Sunday! And Saturday afternoon we start rehearsing for Beauty and the Beast. I'm so wiped out I can't think straight. Oh well, gotta take the gigs when they come right?
