A lot has happened since I last posted anything on this blog. Take a look around - some show dates up for next year - some new video and audio links, and some nice press mentions. Right now, I'm hard at work finding repertoire for the 09-10 season...stay tuned!

Please tune in when our Wordless Music concert of May 2nd gets broadcast. On air, WNYC-FM at 93.9, portions will be broadcast on Monday June 2nd, between 7:30 and 8 PM, EST; and Thursday, June 5th, at 7:15 PM EST. By Wednesday, June 4th, at the latest, the entire May 2nd concert will be posted online at www.wnyc.org/music.

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything here because Special Music School is in the middle of "evaluations" and I sit in on every single one...not leaving me much room to do anything else.

We have however, been continuing to rehearse. Kol Aharon is coming along...sounds much better with Ramin playing upright bass, which gives the piece a nice smooth feel...however, we're trying to work on better string intonation and now I'm really wishing I had actual training as a conductor. Well, we work together, and learn together, right?

Farrah and Brian are continuing to work on "Hallelujah" and I'm pushing them to do a run-through of the whole piece next Monday, the 17th, for an in-school concert. We'll see.

Roulette date got moved to Sunday, April 6th, probably better anyway since Kaufman Center is Jewish-observant.

Wordless Music: one complication, which is that the second piano that we would use for Hallelujah is in pretty banged-up shape. After 1/1, I'll get in touch with the person in charge at Good Shepherd and see what we can work out in terms of some repair work.

Now, off to more Evaluations........

We had a rollicking, rockin' time playing through "In C" last Wednesday. It appears that the players who have been in the group for a couple of years still have the idea of the piece stuck firmly in their crania...which will allow us to "fold in" the new members and play it tonight. (Yikes).

Anyway, it was one of those sessions that reminds me why this group is so exciting - a bunch of teenagers, jamming on Terry Riley, late on the afternoon of the day before Thanksgiving. Cool!

So, we'll rehearse Escape Wisconsin this afternoon, to get it ready for the 11/26 "Winter's Eve" concert at Commerce Bank. I've cut the cello part back still further; when I watched the video from 10/18, everything started to sound scrabbly starting at "Ecstatic," which is where I think we need to cut back on who is playing what...

I've been working with Farrah and Brian individually on "Hallelujah," and I think the first movement is finally starting to come together. Brian is in Hong Kong all this week, but he promised to show up on Sunday at Steinway's to rehearse with Farrah and me this coming Sunday night, post-turkey. We're going to aim to play it at the end of the Winter's Eve program, just to give it a test drive.

Ira Mowitz and I talked on Saturday, and the issue we're most concerned about right now is sound set-up, most of all for the "road shows" we'll be doing at four area public schools, provided that we get the MTC grant (we'll know December 1st). Also, he really wants Ramin to play upright bass, so I need to see if it's feasible...

And finally: I need to get moving on getting Noelle's excellent logo onto some t-shirts...

That's all for now. -j

Today Ira Mowitz came to work with us on "Kol Aharon." Some new notes for horn, trumpet, and viola...and now Ramin needs to play upright bass, not sure how we're going to work that out. The cellos seem more set with bowings, etc., but Ira is concerned that we won't have enough time in Merkin to get all the sound/balance issues worked out.