Fancy Band concert: One, two, tree
We had our second cycle concert this past Thursday. Given that I was off, I was able to shower in the afternoon and properly do my hair; no scrambling to get off work early to attempt to freshen up and get over there in a timely fashion. I do get really restless on days like that, though, and couldn't really focus on anything once I got within a couple hours of needing to leave. I helped dad with dinner, which had to get made early so I could eat before I left at 4:30, and that at least expended some of my nervous energy.
I got there before 5:15, which was the early end of when Dr. K requested we arrive, which was kind of weird because we weren't needed onstage until 6. We had two high school guest bands this time around, a first. I had no idea what to expect from them, particularly because the one high school hadn't submitted any information before last weekend. They did at least submit their program by Tuesday, but they didn't provide their roster (or at least not by publication time, which was Sunday), so I had no idea how big they were. The other high school, which performed first, seemed small.
(Quick note about the one school--I discovered they'd submitted their program on Tuesday when I was at the Apple store and had to call my credit card company to confirm I was the one making the $2K purchase; I had a couple texts from Dr. K letting me know their stuff was up. Great, something to look forward to when I get home.)
The bigger school, which I'll call H, ended up in the main band room. The smaller school, which I'll call P, ended up downstairs with us. This ended up being kind of awkward. There was signage saying, P School uses *this* room, but the main makeup room downstairs, which is very long and has two doorways, did not have signage on the door closest to the stairs and appeared unlabeled. The only sign put on there was at the far door, labeled for Fancy Band members, but by the time I got down there it was already taken over the by the high school kids. Hmm. I'm not entirely sure why we had two high school groups with us that night, but I hope it doesn't happen again. It worked out all right but it had the potential to be a late night--the original plan had us going onstage around 9 PM. Like, that's my bedtime, dude.
I ended up in the green room, next to the big makeup room; I'd never been that far down the hallway. It was a good-sized room with a lot of comfy chairs, which was nice; I was able to snag one since I was so early. J the trumpet player was there; he's the one in Regular Band with me, and we spent the majority of time talking about that, though he did notice my folder and asked, where'd you get the fancy folder? Crap, I should've reminded Dr. K to pass out the folders; oh well. That was what reminded me that this was J's first concert with us. Regarding the green room itself, if I had two things I could change about that room, one would be better lighting as it was relatively dark in there, and the other would be to add tables or something. There were some open spaces by the doors that could have used a flat surface for people to put cases and other belongings on. It was just a really awkward room to have our stuff in. Heck, shove the small high school in there; they would've fit just fine. I don't think they had 20 kids in their group.
The dress rehearsal went okay, though there were a few random people in the audience. I have no idea who they were, if they were band members' family or friends or what, but ideally they would not have been there, especially because I kept hearing sounds coming from behind me. I think it was a door opening and closing but it was pretty distracting. We hadn't run the ritualistic piece in a few weeks (off last week due to Thanksgiving, and we didn't record it the week before that) so we made sure to work on that. Something weird happened at one point, after the flutes come in with their murmuring; I'm not entirely sure what but we did stop and start that section over. I don't know if maybe Dr. K dropped a beat or what, but I made sure to watch him closely afterward and didn't notice another issue. When we got to the Peruvian piece, we noticed the bird whistlers weren't up in the balcony. C ended up asking Dr. K about them and he went, they died, then revised it to a couple things including, they got sent to a farm. Holy crap, dude. (They just weren't at the rehearsal, and when I went down to put more lip balm on before the concert, the girl was by her locker downstairs and confirming she'd put water into her whistle.)
(Fun fact, I also discovered there's a single bathroom off that main hallway downstairs. Thank you to the clarinet player who came out of there just as I was passing by--I'd had to go and this way didn't need to make my way to the big bathroom upstairs.)
Part of the band got dismissed early so that the small group could work on their piece, which gave me an opportunity. I had a Christmas card for Dr. K, and things can get chaotic after the concert, so I'd hoped to get it to him before if possible. His office was open so I took the opportunity to put it on his desk. What, this is what happens when he leaves part of his band and his office unsupervised--people break in and leave things. Another place unsupervised was a table of pizza down by the lounge area. This likely was the high schools' dinner, and P the trombone player went over and helped himself to a slice.
P: Don't judge me! I haven't eaten since breakfast!
Me: I'm not judging you for that [taking the pizza], but dude, that's not good.
Me: Do I need to "mom" you?
P: I'd rather you not.
Me: Okay, fine. At least rinse your mouth out before you play.
P: I will. (He was planning on it anyway.)
P has told me in the past that he has a very busy Thursday and doesn't often get a chance to eat. I kind of want to buy him a box of granola bars or something, you know? Just something to help him get through the day.
As I started to walk away, he joked about putting a slice of pizza in his bell to save for later, so I joked about a pizza mute. I actually meant a mute made out of pizza, but he took it to mean a mute decorated like a slice of pizza and got very excited about that, saying he'd use it all the time. I told him, I come up with million dollar ideas; you're welcome to turn it into a product.
There ended up being a chair outside the green room and I sat in it for a bit. M the flute player came along and we talked for a bit. We ended up sitting together for the high school groups, though by the time we went to sit down, most of our band was already in the audience and we had to awkwardly climb over a bunch of people. This is what I hate about this concert hall; the rows are super long. I also had my flute and my music with me and it was fun getting to my seat while trying to maneuver my way past everyone already sitting. This is why, when I'm the first one out there for one of these concerts, I just go sit in the middle. Nobody has to climb over me when that happens. (And when I'm by myself, I choose the tiny rows in the back of the house.)
Concert: The high school portion was definitely a tale of two schools.
P School: This was the smaller of the schools by far. Having seen the roster over the weekend, I sort of wondered if this was the top band at the school made up of the elite players. After hearing them, though, I wondered if this was the *only* band. When things are rough just during tuning, that does not bode well. The one flute who ended up playing piccolo does not appear to have a sense of pitch. Either that, or she needs to check the head corks in both instruments. It was *bad*, like almost a quarter-step off in places. And it wasn't like the songs with piccolo required the piccolo to be there; there weren't any solos or anything; it was just another color. On the whole, the band wasn't terrible, but they weren't really great, either. The group could stand more polishing. I just know the penchant for people to stand up after the high school groups perform, and this group definitely did not deserve a standing ovation, and when they finished I was thinking, band, do *not* stand up for them! I felt bad about that, but no, this was definitely not an ovation-worthy band. This ended up being the point where I was relieved there was a second high school band, because our group would normally stand up at that point so we could go get ready for our part of the performance, and the rest of the audience might think we're giving an ovation when that's not the case.
(I would also realize later that the P School's band director is one of our band members. He's back in the tuba section. That was something I learned today, really. Now I'm glad I didn't talk crap about the band to anyone, but boy, do they need more work compared to other high school bands.)
H School: And here is the yang to the P School's yin. Dr. K introduced this school by saying he'd been a judge at a band contest last year and this school was there, and he was blown away by them and knew he wanted to have them open for us. I will admit to having a bias about this director prior to hearing this group, because this was the school that hadn't gotten their stuff in by the weekend, and when their stuff came in, there was this big ass bio for the director, but no roster for the players. (And, as I told Dr. K when I sent him possible revisions for the updated program, her bio is a mess. It, in and of itself, needed more corrections than the entire previous version of the program. I told him I wouldn't judge him if he left it alone, which he did. But he should probably forward them onto that director as an FYI. She would come across much better if she did.) Honestly, I found that to be self-serving. You might be the face of the group, but the kids are doing all the work. It's not about you but them. I don't think we've ever had one of the guest high school conductors include their own bio to put in our program.
The good news is, she can put her money where her mouth is. Her band is GOOD. Like, really impressive. This was the other reason I was bummed not to have their roster, because they had some really good players. Two of the clarinets, who were in the front row (only 5 of them; the flutes were in the second row behind them), had solos; they gave each other fist bumps of congratulations when the other finished playing. It was amusing and cute. M and I were also impressed that this group had a string bass player; that's not super common in a high school band setting. There's also this: This had to have been the most diverse band I've ever seen. I come from a very white background; there weren't many people of color in the bands I've played in, honestly prior to joining Fancy Band. This is the kind of band I want people to see, because a lot of different people were represented in it, and they play at a very high level. It was night and day to see the H band compared to the P band, and I'm really thankful that the H band went second. Their director is older and polished and appears to know what she wants and how to get it out of her students. The P band director is younger and kind of dorky and possibly neurotic, just based on how he acted. Like, it's not a bad thing, but how you present yourself comes across in how your band presents itself, too. I also liked that the H band was able to have a bit of self-expression, as anyone wearing a suit-style outfit was allowed to wear any tie they wanted so long as it was red. There were red bow ties and red neckties and even some that had red and black stripes. It was kind of interesting; I don't recall seeing that before. The one thing I would say is to tell the ones wearing skirts to make sure they go below the knee. It is really uncomfortable to be an audience member, old enough to be the players' parent, and have short skirts in your sightline. This is another reason I prefer to not be in the front rows; you don't have this problem in the back or up in the balcony. Those girls at least were sitting demurely, but not everyone does (*has flashbacks to teaching in Catholic school*). It just...there's a reason I was always taught that if I wear a skirt to a performance, it better be long.
Next came our turn. I cannot tell you how relieved I was that the P School finished around 8:15. Hoo boy, everyone was dreading the high school portion going until 9, so to finish 45 minutes earlier than that was pretty sweet. I think I went to the bathroom and then waited by the doors to the stage; we were told that once we heard the small-group piece finish, the rest of us could enter. I stationed myself there to keep an ear out, so I was there when Dr. K was about to go onstage. I waved to him--I had my mask on at that point--and he sort of excitedly greeted me, which led to an unusual exchange.
Dr. K: I'm talking to you like I'd talk to my cat.
Dr. K: Hey, [cat]! How's it going? Would you like a scratch?
Dr. K: *pretends to scratch me behind the ear*
Me: *shakes leg, the way animals do when they get scratched*
Dr. K: Did you just shake your leg?
Me: Yes.
(I'd seen a puppy do that in an online video earlier in the day, so it was top of mind.)
I think he then apologized for talking to me like he would his cat. I think I told him how I wasn't surprised.
Me: You do meow a lot.
Dr. K: I'm so weird.
Me: You really are.
At that point he went onstage, and C and I were pressed up against the doors trying to hear what we could. As I completely expected, we could barely hear anything. This hall is meant to be as acoustically perfect as possible, meaning the architects would have wanted to not have any sound bleeding coming from backstage. About all we could hear was percussion, plus occasional high/loud passages. Eventually we did hear applause, so I let the people nearby know it was about time for us to go on, and then C was sort of like, when should we go? She kind of stood back a bit at the inner set of doors. When the applause started to die down I finally got her to go in. We sat down and immediately realized that D did not have a stand, which was odd; he'd had one earlier. E offered to share her stand with him, but Dr. K ended up going to grab one so it was fine. Because there was a minor commotion in my row, my parents noticed--and at the same time noticed D's outfit. He wore a dress. He's talked about it before but never went for it before Thursday, though he regularly wears pearls. I saw that he had on a sort of dress-like object but didn't get the full effect until after the concert. My mom realized it when she wondered who the big girl was that needed a stand, then went, OMG it's D. (We would have a long discussion about the two Ds when I got home, since D the trombone player is nonbinary. It took me a few minutes to explain that D the flute player, as far as I'm aware, identifies as male but likes to express his feminine side at times. And while D the trombone player identifies as nonbinary, they may have some piercings and wear nail polish but clothing-wise they tend to wear masculine outfits.)
Our portion of the concert: We started off with the ritualistic piece. I'm kind of glad this one is done. I think I learned my part okay, and honestly it was relatively easy compared with what other people had to do in it, and since I didn't have the solo part I didn't have to deal too much with super funky counting. I mentioned that something weird happened during the rehearsal; a different something weird happened during the concert itself. Yeah, this piece definitely is not making it onto our next recording! I want to say one of the tubas miscounted, because I was watching Dr. K very carefully and it wasn't him from what I saw. This piece is broken into 4-measure chunks, at least at the beginning, and the weird thing happened around the second tuba chunk. Dr. K then began conducting very forcefully, being as clear as he could with his beats, and that must've cued the trumpets to come in in the correct place, and once they were in things were okay. This is definitely a piece with a strong aural component, where instruments have to come in in their particular place in order for the others to know where they are. If someone misses their entrance, it throws everything off, which is what happened during the rehearsal. Unlike standard Western music, this did not have your typical cadences and things that mark the end of sections, which is part of what made it so awkward to play aside from the funky time signatures and rhythms. Again, it's over, we can burn it and move on.
The other pieces were fine. The dance piece seemed to go well and my parents really enjoyed the clarinet soloist; she's always done a fine job. My mother said I did really well on the piccolo solo. Uh, mom, I didn't play piccolo on this concert; that was M. She was taken aback by that and asked me why my flute seemed so short then. ...Because I sit at an angle? I don't know. After that was the Peruvian piece with the birds, and yes indeed the college students were up in the balcony for their bit, and it just so happened that my parents were near one of them and were kind of confused, like, what is going on here? Heh. And the march was fine. Dad recorded it and went, it was the shortest song, only a minute and a half long!
(Dad would show me some of the recordings once we got home. It made me realize I could come out more during the little three-part interlude the flutes have in the Peruvian piece; you can only hear the first flute part from what I could tell. We're going to keep working on that and the march as they're going to be our audition pieces to try to get into the major band clinic held every year. Anyway, one of the videos ended up being a mistake, like dad accidentally hit record as he was putting his phone into his pocket, because all you can see are his hands clapping while Dr. K is trying to talk in the background. Tell me you're 70 without telling me you're 70, dad.)
Immediately following the concert, the flutes decided they wanted a group picture. Okay, sure; we got the Eb clarinet player to take it on B's phone. (She would send that picture along, and you can see the oboes photobombing us in the background, heh. Well, we are part of the same section leader grouping once those leaders get announced.) We then decided to get a group picture in front of the pretty tree in the lobby, though not everyone was there at first. I don't know where C went, but she didn't make it into most of them. (My parents had made it downstairs from the balcony by the time we were marching to the lobby, so I gestured for them to come out there and dad took a number of pictures.) The new L the elder gave her phone and maybe B's to her adolescent daughter, who didn't let us know if she'd taken any pictures or what; she just stood there awkwardly holding the phones. Once we finished with her, then somebody else came along; and W came along, saying the clarinets had grabbed her to take *their* picture; and then eventually C showed up again and had her husband take a few pictures; then L the younger's mom came upon us; then D decided he wanted to take a selfie with us (I was sticking out my tongue but ultimately he didn't catch that, and after he finished W admitted that she was sticking out *her* tongue). It just kept going for a good 10 minutes. I found myself saying, is that it? Anybody else? Are we done? And M was like, no, don't ask if we're done! Somebody else will come along! So I went, okay, we're done. We didn't disperse immediately, though, and a few other family members started taking their own pictures in front of the tree, and then the H School showed up to try and take their picture in front of it, which necessitated somebody going up to the second floor to capture them from above since their group is so large. By the time I made it downstairs to the green room the place was cleared out. It wasn't even all that late, either.
Dr. K did send out an email yesterday to let us know what to expect to work on when we reconvene; in addition to the four new songs for the next cycle, he wants to continue to work on our two audition pieces plus he's looking to get started on our big piece for the fourth cycle. This was the one song he hasn't yet put up for us to print out. I emailed him about a few things and asked about that; it's hard for us to work on music we don't have and isn't yet assigned. I did at least wait to email him until after today's football game. Cards won! They go on to the semifinals next week, though their opponent is who beat them last year in the Stagg Bowl, Mary Hardin-Baylor. I'm really hoping the Cards get their revenge; that was a tough loss. Fingers crossed.
I got there before 5:15, which was the early end of when Dr. K requested we arrive, which was kind of weird because we weren't needed onstage until 6. We had two high school guest bands this time around, a first. I had no idea what to expect from them, particularly because the one high school hadn't submitted any information before last weekend. They did at least submit their program by Tuesday, but they didn't provide their roster (or at least not by publication time, which was Sunday), so I had no idea how big they were. The other high school, which performed first, seemed small.
(Quick note about the one school--I discovered they'd submitted their program on Tuesday when I was at the Apple store and had to call my credit card company to confirm I was the one making the $2K purchase; I had a couple texts from Dr. K letting me know their stuff was up. Great, something to look forward to when I get home.)
The bigger school, which I'll call H, ended up in the main band room. The smaller school, which I'll call P, ended up downstairs with us. This ended up being kind of awkward. There was signage saying, P School uses *this* room, but the main makeup room downstairs, which is very long and has two doorways, did not have signage on the door closest to the stairs and appeared unlabeled. The only sign put on there was at the far door, labeled for Fancy Band members, but by the time I got down there it was already taken over the by the high school kids. Hmm. I'm not entirely sure why we had two high school groups with us that night, but I hope it doesn't happen again. It worked out all right but it had the potential to be a late night--the original plan had us going onstage around 9 PM. Like, that's my bedtime, dude.
I ended up in the green room, next to the big makeup room; I'd never been that far down the hallway. It was a good-sized room with a lot of comfy chairs, which was nice; I was able to snag one since I was so early. J the trumpet player was there; he's the one in Regular Band with me, and we spent the majority of time talking about that, though he did notice my folder and asked, where'd you get the fancy folder? Crap, I should've reminded Dr. K to pass out the folders; oh well. That was what reminded me that this was J's first concert with us. Regarding the green room itself, if I had two things I could change about that room, one would be better lighting as it was relatively dark in there, and the other would be to add tables or something. There were some open spaces by the doors that could have used a flat surface for people to put cases and other belongings on. It was just a really awkward room to have our stuff in. Heck, shove the small high school in there; they would've fit just fine. I don't think they had 20 kids in their group.
The dress rehearsal went okay, though there were a few random people in the audience. I have no idea who they were, if they were band members' family or friends or what, but ideally they would not have been there, especially because I kept hearing sounds coming from behind me. I think it was a door opening and closing but it was pretty distracting. We hadn't run the ritualistic piece in a few weeks (off last week due to Thanksgiving, and we didn't record it the week before that) so we made sure to work on that. Something weird happened at one point, after the flutes come in with their murmuring; I'm not entirely sure what but we did stop and start that section over. I don't know if maybe Dr. K dropped a beat or what, but I made sure to watch him closely afterward and didn't notice another issue. When we got to the Peruvian piece, we noticed the bird whistlers weren't up in the balcony. C ended up asking Dr. K about them and he went, they died, then revised it to a couple things including, they got sent to a farm. Holy crap, dude. (They just weren't at the rehearsal, and when I went down to put more lip balm on before the concert, the girl was by her locker downstairs and confirming she'd put water into her whistle.)
(Fun fact, I also discovered there's a single bathroom off that main hallway downstairs. Thank you to the clarinet player who came out of there just as I was passing by--I'd had to go and this way didn't need to make my way to the big bathroom upstairs.)
Part of the band got dismissed early so that the small group could work on their piece, which gave me an opportunity. I had a Christmas card for Dr. K, and things can get chaotic after the concert, so I'd hoped to get it to him before if possible. His office was open so I took the opportunity to put it on his desk. What, this is what happens when he leaves part of his band and his office unsupervised--people break in and leave things. Another place unsupervised was a table of pizza down by the lounge area. This likely was the high schools' dinner, and P the trombone player went over and helped himself to a slice.
P: Don't judge me! I haven't eaten since breakfast!
Me: I'm not judging you for that [taking the pizza], but dude, that's not good.
Me: Do I need to "mom" you?
P: I'd rather you not.
Me: Okay, fine. At least rinse your mouth out before you play.
P: I will. (He was planning on it anyway.)
P has told me in the past that he has a very busy Thursday and doesn't often get a chance to eat. I kind of want to buy him a box of granola bars or something, you know? Just something to help him get through the day.
As I started to walk away, he joked about putting a slice of pizza in his bell to save for later, so I joked about a pizza mute. I actually meant a mute made out of pizza, but he took it to mean a mute decorated like a slice of pizza and got very excited about that, saying he'd use it all the time. I told him, I come up with million dollar ideas; you're welcome to turn it into a product.
There ended up being a chair outside the green room and I sat in it for a bit. M the flute player came along and we talked for a bit. We ended up sitting together for the high school groups, though by the time we went to sit down, most of our band was already in the audience and we had to awkwardly climb over a bunch of people. This is what I hate about this concert hall; the rows are super long. I also had my flute and my music with me and it was fun getting to my seat while trying to maneuver my way past everyone already sitting. This is why, when I'm the first one out there for one of these concerts, I just go sit in the middle. Nobody has to climb over me when that happens. (And when I'm by myself, I choose the tiny rows in the back of the house.)
Concert: The high school portion was definitely a tale of two schools.
P School: This was the smaller of the schools by far. Having seen the roster over the weekend, I sort of wondered if this was the top band at the school made up of the elite players. After hearing them, though, I wondered if this was the *only* band. When things are rough just during tuning, that does not bode well. The one flute who ended up playing piccolo does not appear to have a sense of pitch. Either that, or she needs to check the head corks in both instruments. It was *bad*, like almost a quarter-step off in places. And it wasn't like the songs with piccolo required the piccolo to be there; there weren't any solos or anything; it was just another color. On the whole, the band wasn't terrible, but they weren't really great, either. The group could stand more polishing. I just know the penchant for people to stand up after the high school groups perform, and this group definitely did not deserve a standing ovation, and when they finished I was thinking, band, do *not* stand up for them! I felt bad about that, but no, this was definitely not an ovation-worthy band. This ended up being the point where I was relieved there was a second high school band, because our group would normally stand up at that point so we could go get ready for our part of the performance, and the rest of the audience might think we're giving an ovation when that's not the case.
(I would also realize later that the P School's band director is one of our band members. He's back in the tuba section. That was something I learned today, really. Now I'm glad I didn't talk crap about the band to anyone, but boy, do they need more work compared to other high school bands.)
H School: And here is the yang to the P School's yin. Dr. K introduced this school by saying he'd been a judge at a band contest last year and this school was there, and he was blown away by them and knew he wanted to have them open for us. I will admit to having a bias about this director prior to hearing this group, because this was the school that hadn't gotten their stuff in by the weekend, and when their stuff came in, there was this big ass bio for the director, but no roster for the players. (And, as I told Dr. K when I sent him possible revisions for the updated program, her bio is a mess. It, in and of itself, needed more corrections than the entire previous version of the program. I told him I wouldn't judge him if he left it alone, which he did. But he should probably forward them onto that director as an FYI. She would come across much better if she did.) Honestly, I found that to be self-serving. You might be the face of the group, but the kids are doing all the work. It's not about you but them. I don't think we've ever had one of the guest high school conductors include their own bio to put in our program.
The good news is, she can put her money where her mouth is. Her band is GOOD. Like, really impressive. This was the other reason I was bummed not to have their roster, because they had some really good players. Two of the clarinets, who were in the front row (only 5 of them; the flutes were in the second row behind them), had solos; they gave each other fist bumps of congratulations when the other finished playing. It was amusing and cute. M and I were also impressed that this group had a string bass player; that's not super common in a high school band setting. There's also this: This had to have been the most diverse band I've ever seen. I come from a very white background; there weren't many people of color in the bands I've played in, honestly prior to joining Fancy Band. This is the kind of band I want people to see, because a lot of different people were represented in it, and they play at a very high level. It was night and day to see the H band compared to the P band, and I'm really thankful that the H band went second. Their director is older and polished and appears to know what she wants and how to get it out of her students. The P band director is younger and kind of dorky and possibly neurotic, just based on how he acted. Like, it's not a bad thing, but how you present yourself comes across in how your band presents itself, too. I also liked that the H band was able to have a bit of self-expression, as anyone wearing a suit-style outfit was allowed to wear any tie they wanted so long as it was red. There were red bow ties and red neckties and even some that had red and black stripes. It was kind of interesting; I don't recall seeing that before. The one thing I would say is to tell the ones wearing skirts to make sure they go below the knee. It is really uncomfortable to be an audience member, old enough to be the players' parent, and have short skirts in your sightline. This is another reason I prefer to not be in the front rows; you don't have this problem in the back or up in the balcony. Those girls at least were sitting demurely, but not everyone does (*has flashbacks to teaching in Catholic school*). It just...there's a reason I was always taught that if I wear a skirt to a performance, it better be long.
Next came our turn. I cannot tell you how relieved I was that the P School finished around 8:15. Hoo boy, everyone was dreading the high school portion going until 9, so to finish 45 minutes earlier than that was pretty sweet. I think I went to the bathroom and then waited by the doors to the stage; we were told that once we heard the small-group piece finish, the rest of us could enter. I stationed myself there to keep an ear out, so I was there when Dr. K was about to go onstage. I waved to him--I had my mask on at that point--and he sort of excitedly greeted me, which led to an unusual exchange.
Dr. K: I'm talking to you like I'd talk to my cat.
Dr. K: Hey, [cat]! How's it going? Would you like a scratch?
Dr. K: *pretends to scratch me behind the ear*
Me: *shakes leg, the way animals do when they get scratched*
Dr. K: Did you just shake your leg?
Me: Yes.
(I'd seen a puppy do that in an online video earlier in the day, so it was top of mind.)
I think he then apologized for talking to me like he would his cat. I think I told him how I wasn't surprised.
Me: You do meow a lot.
Dr. K: I'm so weird.
Me: You really are.
At that point he went onstage, and C and I were pressed up against the doors trying to hear what we could. As I completely expected, we could barely hear anything. This hall is meant to be as acoustically perfect as possible, meaning the architects would have wanted to not have any sound bleeding coming from backstage. About all we could hear was percussion, plus occasional high/loud passages. Eventually we did hear applause, so I let the people nearby know it was about time for us to go on, and then C was sort of like, when should we go? She kind of stood back a bit at the inner set of doors. When the applause started to die down I finally got her to go in. We sat down and immediately realized that D did not have a stand, which was odd; he'd had one earlier. E offered to share her stand with him, but Dr. K ended up going to grab one so it was fine. Because there was a minor commotion in my row, my parents noticed--and at the same time noticed D's outfit. He wore a dress. He's talked about it before but never went for it before Thursday, though he regularly wears pearls. I saw that he had on a sort of dress-like object but didn't get the full effect until after the concert. My mom realized it when she wondered who the big girl was that needed a stand, then went, OMG it's D. (We would have a long discussion about the two Ds when I got home, since D the trombone player is nonbinary. It took me a few minutes to explain that D the flute player, as far as I'm aware, identifies as male but likes to express his feminine side at times. And while D the trombone player identifies as nonbinary, they may have some piercings and wear nail polish but clothing-wise they tend to wear masculine outfits.)
Our portion of the concert: We started off with the ritualistic piece. I'm kind of glad this one is done. I think I learned my part okay, and honestly it was relatively easy compared with what other people had to do in it, and since I didn't have the solo part I didn't have to deal too much with super funky counting. I mentioned that something weird happened during the rehearsal; a different something weird happened during the concert itself. Yeah, this piece definitely is not making it onto our next recording! I want to say one of the tubas miscounted, because I was watching Dr. K very carefully and it wasn't him from what I saw. This piece is broken into 4-measure chunks, at least at the beginning, and the weird thing happened around the second tuba chunk. Dr. K then began conducting very forcefully, being as clear as he could with his beats, and that must've cued the trumpets to come in in the correct place, and once they were in things were okay. This is definitely a piece with a strong aural component, where instruments have to come in in their particular place in order for the others to know where they are. If someone misses their entrance, it throws everything off, which is what happened during the rehearsal. Unlike standard Western music, this did not have your typical cadences and things that mark the end of sections, which is part of what made it so awkward to play aside from the funky time signatures and rhythms. Again, it's over, we can burn it and move on.
The other pieces were fine. The dance piece seemed to go well and my parents really enjoyed the clarinet soloist; she's always done a fine job. My mother said I did really well on the piccolo solo. Uh, mom, I didn't play piccolo on this concert; that was M. She was taken aback by that and asked me why my flute seemed so short then. ...Because I sit at an angle? I don't know. After that was the Peruvian piece with the birds, and yes indeed the college students were up in the balcony for their bit, and it just so happened that my parents were near one of them and were kind of confused, like, what is going on here? Heh. And the march was fine. Dad recorded it and went, it was the shortest song, only a minute and a half long!
(Dad would show me some of the recordings once we got home. It made me realize I could come out more during the little three-part interlude the flutes have in the Peruvian piece; you can only hear the first flute part from what I could tell. We're going to keep working on that and the march as they're going to be our audition pieces to try to get into the major band clinic held every year. Anyway, one of the videos ended up being a mistake, like dad accidentally hit record as he was putting his phone into his pocket, because all you can see are his hands clapping while Dr. K is trying to talk in the background. Tell me you're 70 without telling me you're 70, dad.)
Immediately following the concert, the flutes decided they wanted a group picture. Okay, sure; we got the Eb clarinet player to take it on B's phone. (She would send that picture along, and you can see the oboes photobombing us in the background, heh. Well, we are part of the same section leader grouping once those leaders get announced.) We then decided to get a group picture in front of the pretty tree in the lobby, though not everyone was there at first. I don't know where C went, but she didn't make it into most of them. (My parents had made it downstairs from the balcony by the time we were marching to the lobby, so I gestured for them to come out there and dad took a number of pictures.) The new L the elder gave her phone and maybe B's to her adolescent daughter, who didn't let us know if she'd taken any pictures or what; she just stood there awkwardly holding the phones. Once we finished with her, then somebody else came along; and W came along, saying the clarinets had grabbed her to take *their* picture; and then eventually C showed up again and had her husband take a few pictures; then L the younger's mom came upon us; then D decided he wanted to take a selfie with us (I was sticking out my tongue but ultimately he didn't catch that, and after he finished W admitted that she was sticking out *her* tongue). It just kept going for a good 10 minutes. I found myself saying, is that it? Anybody else? Are we done? And M was like, no, don't ask if we're done! Somebody else will come along! So I went, okay, we're done. We didn't disperse immediately, though, and a few other family members started taking their own pictures in front of the tree, and then the H School showed up to try and take their picture in front of it, which necessitated somebody going up to the second floor to capture them from above since their group is so large. By the time I made it downstairs to the green room the place was cleared out. It wasn't even all that late, either.
Dr. K did send out an email yesterday to let us know what to expect to work on when we reconvene; in addition to the four new songs for the next cycle, he wants to continue to work on our two audition pieces plus he's looking to get started on our big piece for the fourth cycle. This was the one song he hasn't yet put up for us to print out. I emailed him about a few things and asked about that; it's hard for us to work on music we don't have and isn't yet assigned. I did at least wait to email him until after today's football game. Cards won! They go on to the semifinals next week, though their opponent is who beat them last year in the Stagg Bowl, Mary Hardin-Baylor. I'm really hoping the Cards get their revenge; that was a tough loss. Fingers crossed.