Priorities

Well I managed to crash Firefox in the middle of a post. Instead of rewriting it, I'll just say that I expect everyone to stop what they're doing at 957pm tomorrow and wish Coach K's home skillets well in their battle with Villanova. May they out-hustle, out-D, and out-shoot them.

In the midst of preparing a ton o' music: Candide (evil Eb parts), Weber (just sachrine), maybe Zwilich concerto, and a bunch of excerpts. I'm sure that my neighbors are ecstatic.

Marketing Genius

Net-Working Out

I've been known to exercise. Well...perhaps that's only literally true, but not exactly honest. I used to exercise. How about that? I'm working on changing that a bit. In a bid to battle my recent decline in health, I've decided to use my available time to get into a little better shape. It's not (exactly) that I eat total junk all the time. It's more than I tend to have obligations that require many hours of sitting and little movement. We'll see how this small change turns out. Yesterday and today went well. Two days does not make a change in lifestyle, though.

With the rest of my free time (which consists of those hours when I can't practice), I'm working on making a few more connections. Since I've moved to NY, I haven't exactly been working the network to let people know that I'm in town and not incompetent at the clarinet. These are the kinds of things that probably don't produce immediate dividends (especially with the economy pulling a Lusitania), but it gets my name out there with some people that count. Later, if they hear me play (assuming I don't vomit through my clarinet), they'll be able to say "Wait, haven't I heard of this guy?" I'm such a savvy guy, huh? I've heard that it's really rough for new people in NY for the first few years. There are always a great many people ahead of you in line who play as good or better.

Decisions, decisions...

So here's the problem: I've got plenty of work to do on ye olde clarinet, but there's an ACC championship game that involves Duke at 1pm. The clarinet work really just needs to be done in a week, but there's plenty of stuff that needs to get done by then. Also, the game is just an ACC championship, not NCAA. Hm...Also, I need to get some proper food at the grocery store.

That means that I have to prioritize. I'll eat oatmeal, then practice WHILE watching the game. Sometimes I'm so smart, I scare myself.

Anyone know the Rochberg or Bolcom Clarinet Concertos? There's a recording of the Rochberg out there somewhere with Gigliotti and a Taiwanese orchestra, but the Bolcolm is harder to find. Amazon says that there may be a recording available as of March 24th. Wha??

Okay, I'd better get my stuff set up for the game.

[PS - How come Grainger writes such tricky stuff?]

Onward...

So, the Sandroff apparently went well. Izzi and I rehearsed well enough that I trust that whatever he did worked well. I, on the other hand, had a hard time hearing the electronics as some other random person turned down the monitors right before the concert. Ick...Audience response was favorable. I recorded it on my laptop, but I haven't listened to it yet. I'm pretty sure it'll have lots of interference though. My laptop seems to add it to my mic plug. I haven't figured that one out yet. A recording engineer was at the gig, so I'll see if it got recorded and whether or not it picked up all the electronic nutiness.

If all turns out, I'll post an audio clip or two so you wacky kids can listen up. Not sure if that'll happen...

Gotta get back on the horse tomorrow and start rehearsing Candide. Where's my Eb? Is there a 7-day waiting period when you want to buy one?

Tomorrow = New Music Madness

So, today will mostly be spent practicing, rehearsing, and working out technical gremlins for tomorrow night's performance of Howard Sandroff's Tephillah for clarinet and all kinds of electronic processing. We've managed to get the necessary equipment provided by the performers down to a clarinet and a laptop. That's pretty slim. Of course, the house will be providing the mic (only 1! I guess we're minimalists?), the mixer, and the 5.1 surround-sound system. My playing will be picked up by the rather close mic (oh, 6 inches or so from my hands) and processed as Izzi sees fit. The audience will be able to hear me AND my sounds processed (cut up, transposed, reverbed, etc.) simultaneously. Occasionally, the technology works so as to repeat many times any mistake I might make. Guess I'll have to not make those mistakes, no?

Had a concert on Monday where the entire orchestra was amplified. I may have previously written on my feelings about amplification and this instance was no different. It's sad that the orchestra wasn't given the opportunity to learn to play properly in a hall with few acoustic niceties.

Oh yeah, about the church gig last week: It was fantastic. Our orchestral contribution was modest, but someone at that church really knows how to put on an effective show. There was literally dancing in the aisles (from performers and audience members) and a huge variety in entertainment to be had. I was quite impressed with the overall effect. That's a show I'd love to play again. To revisit the Obama subject, you don't understand what a big deal he is until you see his picture pop up on the big screen in a predominantly African-American church. Enthusiasm doesn't begin to describe the response.