I’m home from concert #1. I think it went well. But it’s possible that as the memory “ages” I’ll nit pick and start to think I didn’t do well after all. I can be silly that way. Then again, maybe I’ll just be happy and enjoy the fact that I believe I played musically and didn’t make any awful blunders.
Of course now I do it two more times. So it ain’t over yet.
I must say, though, that both Roman Carnival Overture and New World Symphony really have such wonderful EH solos and I do love them. 🙂
I’m looking at the second oboe/English horn part to Scheherazade. Does anyone every “cheat” and play those last low Cs and Bs on EH rather than oboe? They are marked pp. That would be so much easier a fifth higher on EH. (Dear composers — don’t you get that?!)
(We are doing this next year. In my effort to waste and entire day I’ve been looking up some of our works for next year. I know the book is sometimes split and I can hope for that, but who knows? If it’s not, it sure would be easier to shoot those notes out with EH.)
I just read about this and thought I’d better check it out. So here are just a few of the more educational videos I found early on:
UCLA and some interesting sports clothing:
University of Kansas shows great talent here:
UNNC is hip on posters:
Carnegie Mellon gets serious:
Okay … just goofing off here …
I just happened upon a “BART TV news” video that includes Louisa Spier, Public Relations Associate of the San Francisco Symphony.
Sorry I can’t embed the video here. You’ll have to click on this link.
Too bad, too, that BART doesn’t come to San Jose. 🙁
It’s like classical music meets hip-hop. It’s a climate change symphony.
-Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid
I read it here.
Today is our first concert (of three) for the set with the English horn solos. And yes, I’m nervous. I’m at the point where I accept it, even though I don’t like it. I laugh at myself, even while I’m annoyed because I can’t control it. It’s just the way it is.
So some might wonder, “What does she do on a day like today?”
Much of the time I have other work which is good to distract me. Today two of my three students canceled, so I only have one 45 minute teaching job which doesn’t take up much time. In a bit I’ll fiddle with new EH reeds to see if I can get anything else up and running. I probably will toot once or twice on the Reed Of Choice (ROC™) and make sure nothing horrendous has happened to it. I’ll toot more on other reeds for fear of doing something to the ROC™ while practicing. I’ll probably veg out on TV shows I’ve recorded just to take my mind off of the evening’s job. Oh wait! I already did that. (Yes, this early in the morning. Watching TV before the 6:00 news is sort of like drinking in the early morning. Sigh. I’m embarrassed, but there you go.) I might clean the house a bit. And right now I’ll put on some music as I browse the internet because otherwise tonight’s EH solos will continually play in my head and that gets really annoying.
… pause here for iTunes moment …
Ah, there we go! I just put on Respighi’s Trittico Botticelliano since we are doing that next season. (There’s only one oboe so I’m not sure if I’ll be playing or not; that’s the same set our principal will be soloing on Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto No. 5 in D minor. Will she play the Respighi as well? Hmmm.)
One thing I never do on concert days (although I would only rarely do this anyway) is yard work. My hands hurt too much after, and I don’t want to take the chance of getting bad allergies. Nice, eh? A legitimate excuse to skip yard work! 🙂
What would you prefer to be forced to do? Shoot Paul O’Grady in the kneecaps or learn to play the oboe?
(Psst. Who’s Paul O’Grady?)
