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Orchestra Weekend

Can you tell I'm a big fan of ICanHasCheezburger?

My orchestra conductor looks nothing like this little guy, but he did ask for more volume from the string section from time to time this past weekend. We performed Mendelssohn's Elijah with a community chorus and a handful of soloists, and even though the audience was not as full as I would have liked, they seemed to really appreciate the concert.

As always, it was a treat to perform with the orchestra even though the horn section wasn't the focus. We did what we could to make ourselves known. I've mentioned this before, but when I first started playing with the group back when I was a complete novice, I would judge my personal performance with percentages. At the end of a concert, I would evaluate my playing and say, "well, at least I played 68% of the thing correctly." Sometimes I would be able to give myself an 80% rating or even a 90%. I'm not sure how I would judge my playing this time around—I could have been more accurate when aiming for random pitches, and once or twice I got lost in counting long stretches of rests with half a dozen tempo variations in the middle of them, but I didn't fall on my face. So, you know.

During one of the rehearsals, we noticed the chorus members were all wearing name tags. One of them said that was because they didn't all know each other and just wanted to be friendly. We in the brass section noted the clear distinction between the two groups—in the orchestra, we said, we don't care who the other people are. If we want to know someone's name, we'll look it up in the program.

Next up in April is a Wagner piece and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2. Come see.

Comments

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said…
I always think name tags are silly Robyn. If we want to know someone's name, we can ask them. What happened to old fashioned introductions? We don't need playground labels, surely.
9:29 AM
Shan said…
That sounds about right though. I always had more of the choral personality. Chitty chatty chitty chat. In band I remember it was always much more serious. I did get in trouble one time for using my music stand to hold my mirror while putting on my mascara. Probably wouldn't do that now.

I like the Can has cheezburger stuff too. Silly kitties.
9:37 AM
Sassy Sundry said…
Personally, I'd have worn the name tag, but written something like, "Smitten with the Conductor," or some other such thing.
11:24 AM
dive said…
What an excellent concert, Robyn. I so wish I could go see you play. You'll have to persuade someone to video the concerts and put them on your blog. That would be cool!
3:49 PM
Anonymous said…
Oh, I love the picture of the "conductor". hahaha!!! Name tags...it was Mel's idea I think because we see each other concert after concert and don't know everyone's names. Also, there were lots of new folks this time. Cool!
8:20 AM
Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
I agree with Dive, Robyn. How nice that would be to see and hear.
12:32 PM
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