Music Activities etc.

This fall season is shaping up to be active musically for me (Ward). First off, I'll be performing with the NW Mahler Festival at Seattle's Benaroya Hall this weekend. The headliner is a piece called the Turangalila Symphony. Parts of the Turangalila Symphony would make a good accompaniment for a horror movie or perhaps for parts of the Harry Potter movies. The music is scarier, more mysterious and eerie than the works of Williams which accompany the scary scenes in the Harry Potter films. Frankly, I think Turangalila and Potter would go quite well together. It's not all inducing fright though, there are elements of calm and frenzy.

In other news, I auditioned to be a sub in the Everett Symphony. The ESO has a lovely facility in downtown Everett and it just strikes me like a "real" orchestra, well supported by the community and they play lovely music at a high level. I worked quite a lot preparing for this, and was quite relaxed on the audition. My prepared work went fairly well. The reed was working well, the sound good and I think my brain was functioning properly (unlike some other auditions I've done). Then, the "sight" reading. There was a piece by Uhl which I think I nailed and hadn't seen before. Then, there was a Lento piece. On the 2nd note into this, I noticed it was the solo from Pines of Rome. Handy, I performed that before, but 17 years ago. Sadly, I think I miscounted a rest. I also felt it could have been a little more lyrical, but it was smooth and sounded good. Finally, for the fast technique, I first thought the excerpt was from the last movement of Weber's 2nd concerto and I was like --- OH NO! I can't play that (haven't practiced it at all). But alas, it was from the last movement of Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov, one of my faves! On the other hand, I hadn't played that in 10 years, and frankly, have not had time to stay up to date on all the excerpts. I was visibly not happy about this but went for it anyway. And, it was there, not bad, but rusty. They seemed impressed, and probably thought what I did-- it was pretty good. I'm just not sure that's going to be good enough. Surely, there will be others who practiced more, who have music degrees from prestigious institutions and actually have all the excerpts memorized and ready to go (i.e. not rusty), but one never knows. I think I could hold my own in the orchestra, so we'll see if I get a shot. I must say it is extraordinarily demanding work to play music at a high level. It requires tremendous concentration and physical effort. It always seems to me that when I audition, it is never perfect and something is just a little rough.

It appears I will have a chance to play with the Washington Wind Symphony, an outstanding band, and the best in the area. The Northwest Symphony also needs extra players for their October Concert, so I plan to do that. Then, the Bellevue Opera is doing the Magic Flute towards the end of November and the Evergreen City Ballet will again do 7 shows of the Nutcracker and there's a good chance I'll play for that too.

In other news, Kathryn started a new preschool. It's a Christian private school that has a child-care center. They serve kids from 6 weeks old to high school. They have a lovely English-Tudor style campus. We hope Kathryn grows to like the increased structure in her days. The teachers are good and we felt this would be good preparation for Kindergarten, although the change is a little rough for us all.

This weekend is the big concert at Benaroya and next weekend we go camping at scenic Lake Wenatchee. I am looking forward to this, and hope all goes well. Stay tuned for pix!