(no subject)
Well, that could have gone better.
The orchestra concert I was in last night was... kind of terrible. Let me start by saying that this group is not that bad, playing-wise - definitely not the best group I've played in but whatever. But our director picked a pretty abstract piece (a Duke Ellington arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite which is very cool in its original form but doesn't adapt easily to full orchestra) and we didn't get nearly enough practice time. I think we maybe had 6 rehearsals all together. We probably needed 6 months of rehearsals. And our dress rehearsal earlier this week got canceled due to weather insanity. Not good.
And then, at the concert, I don't know whose bright idea it was to set up the mini-jazz combo in front of the string section. Sure you can see them better, but nobody can hear anybody else and being able to hear one another is more than a little bit essential for a musical performance! The jazz combo couldn't hear the strings, the strings couldn't hear anything but the drum kit and the audience probably couldn't hear anything at all. And, you know, the jazz combo players might have liked to have been able to see the conductor. Ugh. It was awful.
Thankfully, we did the Ellington first and then played the Leroy Anderson Christmas medley, which was much, much better. So we proved that we can, in fact, play as an ensemble. So hopefully everybody doesn't think we're awful. Oy.
The orchestra concert I was in last night was... kind of terrible. Let me start by saying that this group is not that bad, playing-wise - definitely not the best group I've played in but whatever. But our director picked a pretty abstract piece (a Duke Ellington arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite which is very cool in its original form but doesn't adapt easily to full orchestra) and we didn't get nearly enough practice time. I think we maybe had 6 rehearsals all together. We probably needed 6 months of rehearsals. And our dress rehearsal earlier this week got canceled due to weather insanity. Not good.
And then, at the concert, I don't know whose bright idea it was to set up the mini-jazz combo in front of the string section. Sure you can see them better, but nobody can hear anybody else and being able to hear one another is more than a little bit essential for a musical performance! The jazz combo couldn't hear the strings, the strings couldn't hear anything but the drum kit and the audience probably couldn't hear anything at all. And, you know, the jazz combo players might have liked to have been able to see the conductor. Ugh. It was awful.
Thankfully, we did the Ellington first and then played the Leroy Anderson Christmas medley, which was much, much better. So we proved that we can, in fact, play as an ensemble. So hopefully everybody doesn't think we're awful. Oy.