Rehearsal Plan – August 9, 2017

Wow!!! What an excellent first performance we had this week! I’m so proud of all of you! There were a couple of hiccups, but they were not of the “we were unprepared for this” variety, but more under the heading of “momentary lapses.” (Those can happen anytime – it was a hot room, and I know that can play a role in losing focus! We were set up a little differently, so you were likely hearing some new sounds, etc). The point is, we were able to recover from them smoothly, and that’s really what the rehearsing should prepare us to do.

There was so much just good playing happening! Each and every one of you had a moment to be a superstar.

One thing we’ll have to pay better attention to is the cut-offs. We had some ragged endings – several of them, in fact. I’ll be contemplating this over the break, and I hope to have some ideas to test out next rehearsal to help us.

A couple of highlights:

I was really pleased with The 80s – that is not an easy piece with its lightening-fast changes and general weirdness (but, that’s kind of how the 80s were). You handled it with aplomb and it came off really well! This is a bit of a showstopper of an arrangement. I think it’s going to play very well at Victoria Beach!

Windjammer got off to a rocky start – sort of. I guess it goes to show that the trumpets don’t need me anymore. (They played it perfectly with each other – but not with me). This is a blow to my ego, but I’ll survive. All in all, it came off really, really well. Trumpets – you nailed the inner echoey bits (where your parts are different from the opening). I was also really pleased to hear all three of the lines happening in the busy-ness at the end – the A theme, the B theme and the water all were there, your sound was full, but not spready/shrieky/blatty, and it didn’t feel like the wheels were going to fall off. I got chills in the bar where there’s the dovetailing sixteenth note descending line that gets passed around and ends with the pick up into the main theme – every note of every part was just perfectly placed and the effect was of a little eddy in the calm water before the main theme returned – it’s a short moment, but a really lovely one.

You made me cry in “Hallelujah.” It was just unbearable, heart-breakingly beautiful. Your control and restraint were bang-on. We didn’t rush (although I know we were fighting the urge!) and we really did well to hold our course and make the climax the actual dynamic climax (but even that didn’t get away from us – we had a strong, beautiful forte – not a spready, blatty, shrieky mess). So, please keep doing THAT. While I can’t be certain (because I was in the midst of my own emotional moment), I do feel that this had a strong impact on our audience – I think I heard a few sighs from behind me.

All in all, it was a really strong outing and it bodes well for the rest of the summer! See! I told you that we were ready!

I was approached by a couple of ladies after the concert who wanted to make sure that I passed on their appreciation to the band. One wanted to know the exact date we’re coming back, so I’d say that’s a pretty ringing endorsement! The other says that she’s starting to recognise people and that she really enjoys our concerts and she would like to see us back as well.

You know, we pulled a tricky programme together in 7 rehearsals. That’s pretty spectacular. Please, do take a little time and give yourselves a solid pat on the back – you have worked really hard and it shows.

So now we have a bit of a break.

Our next rehearsal, on August 9, is another dress rehearsal!

The plan will be similar to our previous dress rehearsal: we’ll do a shorter warm up, a sight-reading piece, then we’ll run the tentative program (below). We will take some time to polish a couple of trouble spots, and I hope we’ll be able to run a couple of pieces that we’ll likely perform at Victoria Beach.

Without further ado, here’s the TENTATIVE programme:

11 – Cartoon Symphony
59 – Super Mario
2 – Michelle/Eleanor Rigby/Yesterday
17 – Eine Kleine Rockmusik
64 – Bolero
58 – Les Miserables
40 – Windjammer
63 – Hallelujah
36 – Space and Beyond

Run – will be on Victoria Beach programme:
25 – Blue Orchid
4 – Standard of St George
9 – Arabian Dances
1 – The 80s
22 – The Stripper

To those of you who are off to Band Camp: have a wonderful time!

To those of you who will be playing in Folklorama: break a leg!

To everyone: I’ll be thinking of you!

Happy playing!

Elizabeth.

EDITED TO ADD: Special shout-out to Christina who gave the seating chart a valiant effort. Thanks for looking after who should sit where and ensuring that no one’s turf was invaded! You did a fantastic job – I know how hard it is!