Concert #1: And the second flutes rejoiced
It's that time again.
Given my health concerns this week, I was not terribly thrilled to start the summer concert season, but the good news is that I didn't miss anything. I know on Wednesday I took it easier, and the weather was better, so my time between work and rehearsal was spent on a hill at a park attempting to get sun, as it was on the cool side that day, but I had to move my blanket several times to keep warm. Silly shade. Sun, why do you have to move? (Yes, I know it's the earth that's moving. Just go with me here.) At rehearsal, we discovered that four of the seven second flutes would be gone, and the Eb clarinet player didn't show. Wow, look at all this room! It was lovely, though it sort of felt like Memorial Day all over again, because I had empty chairs on either side of me. Not to fear: The first concert is the one where we have local middle school graduates who've won a scholarship from the band join us, and there were four flutes among the kids. Wow. Most of the displaced front-row people (since the kids were given 1st part, to make us even top-heavier in the section) came and sat in the second row, so we did have need for the empty seats. Glad that worked out. Though, I will say, on Thursday one of the clarinet players attempted to remove at least one of the chairs and I had to stop him--no, really, it'll get used eventually.
I forget at what point I got asked this, but one of the saxes had asked me about a particular song--X is in this week's envelope; do you know why? When I said I didn't know, he was sort of like, but you're supposed to know everything! I told him, one of us is celebrating 50 years with the band this year, and it's *not* me; of the two of us, who should know more? That got a laugh. And, well, the people near us listening in also must not have paid attention to the info on the band website or the music packet we got for some of the earlier summer concerts--yes, we have a 50-year concert this year, and it's got that sax player's name on it. I would not have pegged him for being in the band that long, but good for him. He's a good guy, one of the early birds I've gotten to know strictly because we both get to band before most of the others.
Thursday turned out to be a cruddy day, raining for part of it, though it stayed dry during the concert. It was wet before I got there, so that the park was virtually empty at 6 PM. Hmm. This may not bode well. That was also when I felt so poorly, with the dizzy spell that lasted for several hours that afternoon. I was mostly okay during the concert, up until the last two songs, though as I said previously I did have my water with me and I was glad for it. That's not to say I *played* the concert well, as I know I made at least one glaring error, but I wasn't the only one. It was not our greatest concert, but it certainly wasn't our worst, and in talking to one of the clarinets later he said it went better than he thought. Well, I guess that's good. The crowd was probably half the size as normal, though that worked out when we did the raffle. They'd said anything over 500 would be tossed out, something like that, and somehow only one really high number got picked--among the chosen numbers were 12, 22, and 99. Twelve! The band secretary said she thought that was the lowest picked number she'd ever seen, and she's helped pick numbers the whole time I've been there. So those are my prevailing memories from this week's concert; the next two weeks belong to the assistant directors, so they should be a bit different, at least.
Given my health concerns this week, I was not terribly thrilled to start the summer concert season, but the good news is that I didn't miss anything. I know on Wednesday I took it easier, and the weather was better, so my time between work and rehearsal was spent on a hill at a park attempting to get sun, as it was on the cool side that day, but I had to move my blanket several times to keep warm. Silly shade. Sun, why do you have to move? (Yes, I know it's the earth that's moving. Just go with me here.) At rehearsal, we discovered that four of the seven second flutes would be gone, and the Eb clarinet player didn't show. Wow, look at all this room! It was lovely, though it sort of felt like Memorial Day all over again, because I had empty chairs on either side of me. Not to fear: The first concert is the one where we have local middle school graduates who've won a scholarship from the band join us, and there were four flutes among the kids. Wow. Most of the displaced front-row people (since the kids were given 1st part, to make us even top-heavier in the section) came and sat in the second row, so we did have need for the empty seats. Glad that worked out. Though, I will say, on Thursday one of the clarinet players attempted to remove at least one of the chairs and I had to stop him--no, really, it'll get used eventually.
I forget at what point I got asked this, but one of the saxes had asked me about a particular song--X is in this week's envelope; do you know why? When I said I didn't know, he was sort of like, but you're supposed to know everything! I told him, one of us is celebrating 50 years with the band this year, and it's *not* me; of the two of us, who should know more? That got a laugh. And, well, the people near us listening in also must not have paid attention to the info on the band website or the music packet we got for some of the earlier summer concerts--yes, we have a 50-year concert this year, and it's got that sax player's name on it. I would not have pegged him for being in the band that long, but good for him. He's a good guy, one of the early birds I've gotten to know strictly because we both get to band before most of the others.
Thursday turned out to be a cruddy day, raining for part of it, though it stayed dry during the concert. It was wet before I got there, so that the park was virtually empty at 6 PM. Hmm. This may not bode well. That was also when I felt so poorly, with the dizzy spell that lasted for several hours that afternoon. I was mostly okay during the concert, up until the last two songs, though as I said previously I did have my water with me and I was glad for it. That's not to say I *played* the concert well, as I know I made at least one glaring error, but I wasn't the only one. It was not our greatest concert, but it certainly wasn't our worst, and in talking to one of the clarinets later he said it went better than he thought. Well, I guess that's good. The crowd was probably half the size as normal, though that worked out when we did the raffle. They'd said anything over 500 would be tossed out, something like that, and somehow only one really high number got picked--among the chosen numbers were 12, 22, and 99. Twelve! The band secretary said she thought that was the lowest picked number she'd ever seen, and she's helped pick numbers the whole time I've been there. So those are my prevailing memories from this week's concert; the next two weeks belong to the assistant directors, so they should be a bit different, at least.