A flood of music
It's spring concert time! Our April ended with a deluge of water and music. It sounded like someone took a power washer to the house last night. I'd had a long day yesterday and started falling asleep around 9 PM, but the sound of the wind and the rain would get strong enough at times to rouse me a bit. I ended up staying in bed until almost 8 this morning--not good when we still had to go grocery shopping. I woke up to a house plastered with leaves. Then, at the store, I was so groggy I miswrote my check, but considering I'd also forgotten to use the coupons in my hand before I'd started writing it, that wasn't entirely a bad thing. Oh, this bodes well.
Construction starts tomorrow on Route 38, and when I'd gone out yesterday (I'd had to work all day) I took one route as a potential detour, then realized, while it'll work, perhaps there was something better; I took that instead and I think it'll be fine. I'm trying to make the detour as easy as possible but the way the street I'd originally taken met the cross street where I'd have to turn, it was just sort of awkward (the road is offset from its continuation going south, and cross traffic doesn't stop), so if I take the road just before it, it's better. I'm still not sure what I'll do on my way home. I'm trying to avoid the southern route around Fermilab, but that might just be the better option. Not sure yet. Anyway.
It had been raining when I left the house, but it was only a little sprinkly when I got to the concert venue. It's a pretty live house, so we definitely needed the sound check with the soprano. We also got surprising news after the dress rehearsal; the piccolo player's husband, who plays trumpet, had a mild stroke last week. Oh, wow. He's doing well enough that he's out of the hospital and in rehab already, with his main problem being walking (and it was a problem before, too), so we're glad to hear he's in good spirits and giving the therapists a hard time. We then had a break, and I was nervous enough about the opera songs that I kind of avoided people. To wit, both the piccolo player and our section leader, who's been on her own medical leave, were talking near the doorway of our warm-up room and I blew right past them without saying hi; I think the section leader's husband said something about my being in the zone, because in most cases I'd have at least said hello, since the section leader hasn't been around much. I was nervous enough that I went to the bathroom twice during our break between the dress and the concert, in addition to going as soon as I got there.
The concert went okay. Parts went really well, I'll say. People were saying that our Lone Ranger overture was the best we'd done it. The flute and English horn nailed it, and the flute soloist said she felt it was the best she'd ever played it. We'd talked before the concert, soon after I'd gotten there, and we discovered four members of our section were going to be gone, two firsts and two seconds. We knew about both firsts, but one of the seconds (10th chair or so) had to up and go out of town for work this morning. The other, 12th chair, had her own medical situation a few weeks ago and we haven't seen her recently. When the soloist texted the director to let him know 10th chair wasn't coming, he replied along the lines of, so long as we have you, 6th chair, and 13th chair, we're good--we're responsible and good players. Oh, wow. We're the three doing the opera pieces. She ended up finding the text on her phone and showing it to me, saying, looks like you've made it! I guess so!
Speaking of the opera pieces, they seemed to go well. It's funny; we've been calling the soprano a particular name, but we were told she'd have her professional name on the program. This is all fine and dandy, but it's like we've been calling her Suzy all along, and clearly Suzy could be a nickname, but her professional first name is more like Melissa. Say what? So that was funny. This was the first chance for the majority of the band to hear her, and they seemed suitably impressed--and they got to experience her sense of humor as well, as in one song during the dress she apparently got part of it wrong (and unless you spoke Italian and/or knew the song, you'd have had no idea) and the lyrics she ended up singing (in English) spelled that out, something like, "I think I messed that up," but she stayed in tempo and on pitch, so kudos to her. It was really amusing and cracked up the band near her. If she messed up during the concert, I didn't notice. I know I messed up, in a few places, but nothing too egregious. As for my long and high pitches on piccolo, I hit the first one, though to me it didn't entirely seem in tune, but the second one, I hit it but didn't sustain it. Yikes. Oh well. Good enough. Kindly, the bari sax player came up after the concert and said I'd done well. Thank you. And, the Eb clarinet player had given me a suggestion that I hadn't thought of in terms of warming up my piccolo before that piece. Part of it's because we never ran through the concert in exact concert order--the opera song on piccolo was always the last song we played, and both prior songs were the opera songs on which I had to play flute. During the concert, however, two songs prior to the picc song was a march where it would be completely appropriate for me to pull out the picc to at least warm it up. Aha. So I did end up playing the trio down an octave to try and blow some air into it, then stuck with the general warming up of the picc I'd been doing--there were a couple of breaks in the prior opera song, so I'd hold my picc in my hands and blow in it a bit when I didn't have to play flute. That did help. There's no way I'm just going to play the thing cold.
I was really glad to get all that over with to concentrate on the rest of the concert, even with just a few more songs after that. I can say that the double reed song went well. I wondered how our emcee would intro it; she said that the band was like a family, and the bassoon player in question had been part of the band for 26 years, and illness was keeping her from this concert, but her double reed section was going to play something in her honor. The four of them donned White Sox caps care of the oboe player, and their section leader had knitted them roses to keep on their stands, and they enlisted us to call out "White Sox! White Sox! Go, Go, White Sox!" in the appropriate place. It was pretty cute and well-received. Since I know she'd wanted to hear the Lone Ranger overture, and they were already planning to Face Time her for the baseball song arrangement, I wonder if they'd done that during the overture as well. I say that because I'd heard talking during the overture, our second song, which was unusual, but it would make sense if she was on the phone and giving instructions to her husband or something. As far as I know, she is still doing okay, and as long as she's still around, her name will appear in the program.
I had to go to the bathroom AGAIN before I left, so I was one of the last ones to grab my gear out of the warm-up room. I saw a percussion stick bag on the floor near my stuff. Because of the nature of the venue, it was possible the bag belonged to someone else; I couldn't imagine any of our guys leaving their bag. It was still sort of odd. I decided to go back to the stage to see if anyone was still there, and I passed the assistant director on the way; he said there was still a percussionist there. When I talked to that guy, though, it definitely wasn't his bag, as he was holding it; and when I showed it to him, he said it didn't look like anyone else's. Okay, guess we'll leave it there. But I'd rather ask and make sure, you know? My ride home was okay; it started off dry, but it was raining by the time I got home. Also, the DuPage River is really high. I'm not surprised, given all the rain, but I ended up going over three bridges in Warrenville to check its status and it's overflowing its banks everywhere. And the rain isn't done; it's been raining since I got home. It's not as heavy as it was last night, but it's not good. April, you can knock it off with the showers now.
Construction starts tomorrow on Route 38, and when I'd gone out yesterday (I'd had to work all day) I took one route as a potential detour, then realized, while it'll work, perhaps there was something better; I took that instead and I think it'll be fine. I'm trying to make the detour as easy as possible but the way the street I'd originally taken met the cross street where I'd have to turn, it was just sort of awkward (the road is offset from its continuation going south, and cross traffic doesn't stop), so if I take the road just before it, it's better. I'm still not sure what I'll do on my way home. I'm trying to avoid the southern route around Fermilab, but that might just be the better option. Not sure yet. Anyway.
It had been raining when I left the house, but it was only a little sprinkly when I got to the concert venue. It's a pretty live house, so we definitely needed the sound check with the soprano. We also got surprising news after the dress rehearsal; the piccolo player's husband, who plays trumpet, had a mild stroke last week. Oh, wow. He's doing well enough that he's out of the hospital and in rehab already, with his main problem being walking (and it was a problem before, too), so we're glad to hear he's in good spirits and giving the therapists a hard time. We then had a break, and I was nervous enough about the opera songs that I kind of avoided people. To wit, both the piccolo player and our section leader, who's been on her own medical leave, were talking near the doorway of our warm-up room and I blew right past them without saying hi; I think the section leader's husband said something about my being in the zone, because in most cases I'd have at least said hello, since the section leader hasn't been around much. I was nervous enough that I went to the bathroom twice during our break between the dress and the concert, in addition to going as soon as I got there.
The concert went okay. Parts went really well, I'll say. People were saying that our Lone Ranger overture was the best we'd done it. The flute and English horn nailed it, and the flute soloist said she felt it was the best she'd ever played it. We'd talked before the concert, soon after I'd gotten there, and we discovered four members of our section were going to be gone, two firsts and two seconds. We knew about both firsts, but one of the seconds (10th chair or so) had to up and go out of town for work this morning. The other, 12th chair, had her own medical situation a few weeks ago and we haven't seen her recently. When the soloist texted the director to let him know 10th chair wasn't coming, he replied along the lines of, so long as we have you, 6th chair, and 13th chair, we're good--we're responsible and good players. Oh, wow. We're the three doing the opera pieces. She ended up finding the text on her phone and showing it to me, saying, looks like you've made it! I guess so!
Speaking of the opera pieces, they seemed to go well. It's funny; we've been calling the soprano a particular name, but we were told she'd have her professional name on the program. This is all fine and dandy, but it's like we've been calling her Suzy all along, and clearly Suzy could be a nickname, but her professional first name is more like Melissa. Say what? So that was funny. This was the first chance for the majority of the band to hear her, and they seemed suitably impressed--and they got to experience her sense of humor as well, as in one song during the dress she apparently got part of it wrong (and unless you spoke Italian and/or knew the song, you'd have had no idea) and the lyrics she ended up singing (in English) spelled that out, something like, "I think I messed that up," but she stayed in tempo and on pitch, so kudos to her. It was really amusing and cracked up the band near her. If she messed up during the concert, I didn't notice. I know I messed up, in a few places, but nothing too egregious. As for my long and high pitches on piccolo, I hit the first one, though to me it didn't entirely seem in tune, but the second one, I hit it but didn't sustain it. Yikes. Oh well. Good enough. Kindly, the bari sax player came up after the concert and said I'd done well. Thank you. And, the Eb clarinet player had given me a suggestion that I hadn't thought of in terms of warming up my piccolo before that piece. Part of it's because we never ran through the concert in exact concert order--the opera song on piccolo was always the last song we played, and both prior songs were the opera songs on which I had to play flute. During the concert, however, two songs prior to the picc song was a march where it would be completely appropriate for me to pull out the picc to at least warm it up. Aha. So I did end up playing the trio down an octave to try and blow some air into it, then stuck with the general warming up of the picc I'd been doing--there were a couple of breaks in the prior opera song, so I'd hold my picc in my hands and blow in it a bit when I didn't have to play flute. That did help. There's no way I'm just going to play the thing cold.
I was really glad to get all that over with to concentrate on the rest of the concert, even with just a few more songs after that. I can say that the double reed song went well. I wondered how our emcee would intro it; she said that the band was like a family, and the bassoon player in question had been part of the band for 26 years, and illness was keeping her from this concert, but her double reed section was going to play something in her honor. The four of them donned White Sox caps care of the oboe player, and their section leader had knitted them roses to keep on their stands, and they enlisted us to call out "White Sox! White Sox! Go, Go, White Sox!" in the appropriate place. It was pretty cute and well-received. Since I know she'd wanted to hear the Lone Ranger overture, and they were already planning to Face Time her for the baseball song arrangement, I wonder if they'd done that during the overture as well. I say that because I'd heard talking during the overture, our second song, which was unusual, but it would make sense if she was on the phone and giving instructions to her husband or something. As far as I know, she is still doing okay, and as long as she's still around, her name will appear in the program.
I had to go to the bathroom AGAIN before I left, so I was one of the last ones to grab my gear out of the warm-up room. I saw a percussion stick bag on the floor near my stuff. Because of the nature of the venue, it was possible the bag belonged to someone else; I couldn't imagine any of our guys leaving their bag. It was still sort of odd. I decided to go back to the stage to see if anyone was still there, and I passed the assistant director on the way; he said there was still a percussionist there. When I talked to that guy, though, it definitely wasn't his bag, as he was holding it; and when I showed it to him, he said it didn't look like anyone else's. Okay, guess we'll leave it there. But I'd rather ask and make sure, you know? My ride home was okay; it started off dry, but it was raining by the time I got home. Also, the DuPage River is really high. I'm not surprised, given all the rain, but I ended up going over three bridges in Warrenville to check its status and it's overflowing its banks everywhere. And the rain isn't done; it's been raining since I got home. It's not as heavy as it was last night, but it's not good. April, you can knock it off with the showers now.