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.

Last bell gig

What a crazy night - Christmas eve that is. Now that it is over I can reflect calmly on the situation. First of all, we are experiencing an insane amount of snow for this area - over 3 feet at once, and more was falling every day. A huge storm was predicted for Christmas eve into Christmas. So I was concerned about us getting to church (and back!) as well as the ringers. I had 4 subs coming in, 2 of whom hadn't rung in 6 years (college aged) and one who had never rung a bell before - but she was an exceptional musician. And my options were limited. I got there early so I could mark parts for these people since they'd be sightreading - it is way easier to follow your two notes in the score when you highlight left hand in one color and right in another. I was up for anything to make this go easier.

Somehow my early arrival slipped away and we were rushing around setting up tables etc (which the praise band had shoved to the far side of the stage in a clump instead of our usual line - exactly why I had wanted to be in the balcony!) The pastor came in and said I had a phone call (odd). It was B - my only 4in hand ringer (which means it takes 2 people to cover his part) and he couldn't get in due to weather. His wife is the choir director, she was playing violin in the praise band, and he was in charge of all the readings. SO! That was kind of terrifying news.

I went back out to the bell choir and tried rearranging people again to cover Bs parts (which were on top - so big melody notes). Amazingly the 2 who had rung at camp 6 years ago were really fine, the music major had no problems and everyone really stepped up to cover holes in the middle. Maybe not our most memorable performance, but husband J said you couldn't tell anything was wrong! Good enough for me.

My super people will be the worst part to miss about quitting this job. I am sad but so excited about getting more time. Someone from the bell choir found the readings and they distributed them for people to read - another ringer/vocal choir member directed the vocal choir in their two pieces (which I sang in) - fortunately they had just done these pieces in church and the accompanist just pulled us along. But still these wonderful people just rose to the occasion.

B's wife S was supposed to play violin in the praise band, which was this motley assortment of musicians our new DOM did not-well-thought-out arrangements for. I was playing oboe because I felt sorry for her, not realizing I would just be filler - most of the oboe parts doubled the trumpet parts an octave down (so you couldn't even tell I was playing). This annoyed me. But since S couldn't get in, I offered to play the violin parts (also crap, but better than the oboe parts). DOM was amazed to figure out the oboe was in the same key as the violin (Finale, what have you done to us?!!) but I assured her I could play it just fine. The girl playing the 2nd violin part was REALLY out of tune, and she didn't know how to tune her instrument. I had the cellist (who was the music major playing bells for the first time) sneakily tune it for her between services. Lines of sight were another huge problem, even with the bell tables awkwardly shoved out of the way. It was kind of a dreadful experience, at least musically. I am sad for what I consider the death of sacred music (praise bands in general); although I am a huge advocate of well arranged live music with more than 2 chords. I think it is good I'm taking a break now!

one more gig

Still snowing endlessly! I guess I wasn't clear in my last blog that our neighbor's son who helped us clear the driveway came with a shovel (not a plow!). Our driveway is about 1/8 mile, so this was kind of a big chore. I am still very sore, and now it has added at least 8 more inches to what was there!. *sigh*

White Christmas was good - excellent turnout for all 3 shows. I felt that I wasn't too bad on all the sax/clar stuff, and it was fun to play. I think I will try to play in the old people orchestra (it meets in the daytime) just to get my clarinet chops up. M brought her "outdoor" plastic King clarinet to try and it was SOOOO much better than mine - I'm sure I can get something better for a reasonable price. The sax I'm not as sure if I need something better, or if I can just "pimp my ride" with new mouthpiece and some keywork. Also practicing makes it sound amazingly better.

Church is the last thing I have to do before Christmas, I was going to shop today and tomorrow but J has the 4wd and so I'm here. We ordered many things online which probably won't make it through the mail. Supposed to be another big "system" coming though on Christmas eve so who knows if I'll have a whole bell choir. As it is, I'm missing tons of people and have 4 ringers coming in to help (one of whom has never rung a bell but she's a performance major at a good school - should be no problem for what we are playing). More and more I am feeling the lack of support for the bell program, just got an email about people rehearsing Wed before the services and they didn't schedule us in! We are the only performing group playing that hasn't played all our stuff in church service already - and I have 4 subs! Obviously an evil ploy to make me quit - oh wait...

Snow Snow Snow

So White Christmas opened last night - complete with 2.5-3 feet of snow! Holy cow. I spent the morning frantically digging out our truck - our driveway is about 1/8 mile long, which doesn't seem too long unless you have 2.5 feet of snow on it. It was exhausting and J was awesome, but about 10am we realized there was no way we could possibly finish before 12, when I needed to leave for dress rehearsal. Our one other rehearsal was cancelled Thursday night due to...Snow! Ironically, this show is all about how this resort in Vermont has no snow (til the very end) and the annoying stuck-in-my-head song is Snow Snow Snow.

Anyway, called the neighbor's son and paid him handsomely to bail us out, and even with the three of us killing ourselves it was a near thing. I am extremely sore, and could barely lift the cases of my instruments (with lovely HEAVY stands). This doubling thing s@cks. But kinda fun too, in a masocistic kind of way.

Got out driveway, some wonderful neighbor had plowed our main road (one tiny lane, you just hope you don't meet anyone coming up!) but we only go on that about 1/2 mile before the "big" road. This had been plowed about a foot of snow ago. Glad we had the 4wd, but only one vehicle so J dropped me off with M who brought her Suburban - she plays bari/bass clar for this show. Fun to carpool too - although J had to wake up D and come get me at the freeway at 11pm.

Finally we made it to the show - with 10 minutes to spare. Which is great if you're a trumpet player, but I (and M) had 3 horns to get out, get reeds wet, and harness up. Oh, wait. No harness. Crap. This is the harness I got when I nearly killed my back playing tenor 2 weeks ago - and after the 5 hour workout I was really worried about playing tenor anyway. There is NO WAY I could play without some sort of strap, so I asked the conductor (who teaches there at the college where the show was, as do I) if he had access to any of the student horns that might have a strap. No. None of the other saxes had an extra...except M!!!! What a goddess - she had her bass clar strap which I tied knots in until it was short enough. Thank goodness.

Rehearsal went ok; M also loaned me her spare $300 clar mouthpiece which made quite a difference over my $10 stock mouthpiece! If you read a previous blog L (who is Reed 1) had loaned me his $300 tenor mouthpiece - I'm so lucky to know these fabulous players. I actually played a solo on tenor (2 measures) credibly, although it went better in rehearsal. But just wait until tonight. We only have 2 more shows, but hopefully the others will be easier to get to at least! Although our forcast if for another storm tonight....